A review by rai_ishardtoplease
A King of Masks and Magic by Lisa Cassidy

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

“‘You came here, and you keep calling yourself a born warrior, a Kingshield, a Callanan, a Wolf. Born to fight and win. Well, that’s not true.’

Her chest heaved. ‘What?’

‘You’re a gods-damned born leader. That’s what you don’t seem to understand. You came here and you won us, and you won him too, heart and soul and everything in between.’”

And here we have another conflicting installment in the ATOSAS series. The highs were thrilling, the lows were heartbreaking, and the monotony perennial in between. You’d think the romance would help things along, especially after how long we waited for it, but it was such an afterthought for so long that somehow it still felt too soon. Or maybe underbaked. Definitely a little taboo, on account of the incest.

(You can’t have them discuss their common ancestry and then start making out in the same scene and NOT expect me to mention the incest, okay? You brought this upon yourself, Cassidy)

This is the downside to publishing books in rapid succession: the opportunities for improvement are sabotaged. The criticisms of reviewers can’t be fully absorbed or implemented if your final manuscript has to be submitted so soon after the previous. Readers may be pleased with the turnover rate, but the trade-off is perpetuating many, if not all, of the same mistakes present in earlier books.

Which, unfortunately, is exactly what happened here.