Because thieves dancing already sounds intriguing.
Song Vibe Check:
"Strike & Rule" By: 2WEI, Kateem
"Possession of a weapon" By: Ashnikko
"House of Cards" By: AViVA
This one had been in my periphery a while ago and it had been pushed to the back of my mind until a close friend of mine asked me if I had read it. Given that in the past, we have given each other good book recommendations, I thought I would give it a try.
So, here we go.
Short Summary: A thief ends up entangled with the newly crowned king who is hiding a person that could lead to war between two kingdoms.
Long Summary: When the patriarch of the Ballenger empire dies, his son, Jase, becomes its new leader. Even nearby kingdoms bow to the strength of this outlaw family, who have always governed by their own rules. But a new era looms on the horizon, set in motion by a young queen, which makes her the target of the dynasty's resentment and anger.
At the same time, Kazi, a legendary former street thief, is sent by the queen to investigate transgressions against the new settlements. When Kazi arrives in the forbidding land of the Ballengers, she learns that there is more to Jase than she thought. As unexpected events spiral out of their control, bringing them intimately together, they continue to play a cat and mouse game of false moves and motives in order to fulfill their own secret missions.
Now, it should have been a thrilling plot, but while reading it, a lot of it felt familiar. Like a plot I had seen before, characters that seemed similar to other characters I have seen before in other books (*coughs at The Tiger at Midnight vibes.)
And let's not forget the slow pacing of the novel itself, but the fast pace of the romance developing that in all honesty, cheapened the value of the relationship to me. Personally, I enjoyed Jase's chapters more than Kazi's and while they both have the usual archetypical personality traits, what made Jase different from all the other fantasy love interests out there is his investment in his family and being fiercely protective of them as well as being extremely proud and informed of his family history which I guess should be a given but still.
It made for an interesting character. The descriptive settings were good, almost being the primary focus of the novel, but a lot of it felt predictable to me and it tried to juggle a bunch of different storylines. On top of that, it threw in betrayal after betrayal that it seemed almost too predictable on what would happen next. The ending still annoyed me enough to want to know how it all ends, so we're not exactly done with this series just yet.
Overall: 3/5 stars
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