Ace of Shades

The book has a lot going on.  Fantasy world.  Magical undercurrents.  Overthrown government.  Street gangs and crime families.  No wonder this book is over 400 pages long!

New Reynes—the City of Sin—is the center of all things corrupt, as Enne Salta soon finds out.  She came to the city to look for her adopted mother, whose last words were “if I’m not back in two months, I’m dead.”  Now Enne is having to rely on Levi Glaisyer, a street lord, for help.  But the longer Enne stays in the city, the more she feels her life (and her pious, follow-the-rules attitude) is crumbling around her.  

First, you need to know this is the first in a series, so if you’re looking for a story that ties up all the loose ends, this is not it.  As all good series start, it leaves you hanging with a teaser epilogue that makes you anticipate when the next book will come out.

But the story stalled at the beginning.  As I said earlier, there is a lot going on and a lot of information the reader needs to know about the city.  We find out about the layout of the city (north side bad, south side good), about the three street gangs and their purposes in the city, about the various crime families that own casinos, and about the seemingly magical abilities that are passed down through bloodlines.  The story does a good job developing in the second half of the book; however, the first half seems a little weighted down because of all the back-story explanations.  

I enjoyed the character developments—the story swaps between Enne and Levi’s perspectives—and their obvious romantic tension.  I did feel like some details were added for no other purpose than to showcase the perverse nature of the city.  When I’m reading, one of my perspectives is as a mom.  Would I be comfortable letting my kids read this?  Maybe if they were in upper high school…maybe.  There’s just a lot of things (like drug usage, masturbation innuendos, and one-night-stands, just to name a few) that bothered me, from a parent’s perspective.  I also feel like there are other fantasy novels that have some of the same elements and storylines that would be better reads—like the Six of Crows duology or The Embassy Row novels or the Red Queen trilogy.

Overall, the story gets better as it goes along.  Will I read the next one in the series?  Probably.  Am I going to mark my calendars to watch for it’s release?  Probably not.

*Thanks, Net Galley, for this prerelease!  This book will be available April 10th.