Book Review: Mask of Shadows (Mask of Shadows #1) by Linsey Miller

I Needed to Win.They Needed to Die.

Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class—and the nobles who destroyed their home.

When Sal steals a flyer for an audition to become a member of The Left Hand—the Queen’s personal assassins, named after the rings she wears—Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge.

But the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. And as Sal succeeds in the competition, and wins the heart of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court, they start to dream of a new life and a different future, but one that Sal can have only if they survive.

I was browsing NetGalley, and I used to well I still do love fantasy, and I am trying to veer away from all the nonfiction that I read last year. I read the thingie about it, and I fell in love with the description, so I requested access and crossed my fingers and sent up some sacred smoke and incense and prayed o the fantasy book Gods that I would get a copy, and I DID!!!

My review is somewhat late because I fell into the worst reading slump of my life last year. I read in one intense spurt then nada for the rest of the year. I finally got my reading Mojo back after the clock struck 2018 and finished off this baby in one day!!

This is a case of not reading reviews until you read the book. I have been on a nonfiction kick, so this was the first fantasy book that I have read in a  looooong while. I liked it. I mean yeah there were some flaws, but it will forever go down as the book to get me out of a six-month reading slump, so of course it is gonna have a high place on the list.

I thought it was a nice story set in a fantasy world that could have used more worldbuilding. Yeah, the worldbuilding was…..lackluster…i have SO MANY QUESTIONS but it is a duology, and I am hoping to the Lady that the authors answer the questions and world builds better in the next book.

Yes. I am gonna read the next book. I know many say they are not but I dunno how you can just abandon a book with that many questions. I mean there is a WAR going on at the end of the book, and I must know WHO WINS…So I am going to keep my eyes peeled on NetGalley, and I fail to get approved for the second book than on my library hold list.

While I thought it was a nice little story overall. It is ….lacking in that SOMETHING that makes a story go BOOM right in yo face ya know so for this one just go to the library.