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A Game of Malice and Greed #1
A Game of Malice and Greed
A twisted heart, a hollow soul.
A broken warrior, lost gods of old.
A thief of shadows, blessed with light,
A single lie which stole their might.
A princess to win, in a brutal game.
A great empire falling to a monster’s claim.
A forbidden love, a curse untold.
The last immortal trapped in a coin of gold.
A broken warrior, lost gods of old.
A thief of shadows, blessed with light,
A single lie which stole their might.
A princess to win, in a brutal game.
A great empire falling to a monster’s claim.
A forbidden love, a curse untold.
The last immortal trapped in a coin of gold.
612 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 3, 2023
2954 people are currently reading
20783 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Peckham
119 books29.3k followersI'm a #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Zodiac Academy series. I write all things dark romance, from fantasy to contemporary, high school bully to mafia, there's bound to be a book for you!
Me and my sister Susanne Valenti now write books together and we've built the most amazing, fun, crazy reader group on Facebook which we would LOVE you to join. Be the first to get teasers of upcoming books, plus interact with us daily, asks us questions, make friends with other book junkies and find your reader home.
Join here >> https://www.facebook.com/groups/19697...
Sign up to our newsletter here >>
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webfor...
For all business inquiries please contact us at>>
mail@kingshollow.co.uk
For more information, special editions, signed books and more, check out my website here >>
www.kingshollow.co.uk
Me and my sister Susanne Valenti now write books together and we've built the most amazing, fun, crazy reader group on Facebook which we would LOVE you to join. Be the first to get teasers of upcoming books, plus interact with us daily, asks us questions, make friends with other book junkies and find your reader home.
Join here >> https://www.facebook.com/groups/19697...
Sign up to our newsletter here >>
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webfor...
For all business inquiries please contact us at>>
mail@kingshollow.co.uk
For more information, special editions, signed books and more, check out my website here >>
www.kingshollow.co.uk
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 592 reviews
June 5, 2023
– 1.25 stars
Crying. I wanted to love this book so much. After hearing that the twisted sisters are planing to start a new MF series in the style of Zodiac Academy (2 FMcs and 2 MMcs) I was over the moon and expected to have a new series to obsessed over. Unfortunately for me there was literally zero things in this book that made me be invested in this story and I ended up hating it with my whole heart.
I inhaled 6 Zodiac Academy books and 3600+ pages in 5 days, but it took me 10 days to finish this one book. God gives the toughest battles to his strongest soldiers. 🙏
Anyway, Orion's bonus POV scene at the Fair at the end of this book is the only great thing about AGoMaG. that was so good. jealous Orion has me by the throat. what did Caroline put into her writing when she wrote his character it's better than crack. Bluelance you will be that ship. 🛐
Let’s talk about ➙ characters first:
If Darius Acrux, Leon Night and Seth Capella had a love child. It would be him. One chapter in and I already couldn’t stand this guy. All he talks about is his cock, how is Affinity is seduction, how he is god’s gift to women and how his face saved him because he is so pretty. Shut the fuck up I get it that you’re vain and women’s panties get flooded at the mere sight of you.. stop shoving that down my throat at every page. Literally don’t care how long the pipe down his pants is, with the way he talks about it and his face it’s just giving small dick energy.
I’m pretty sure I found Caroline’s male character for this series. Cassius used to be a royal guard for the emperor and the princess until he saw the face of the princess before the unveiling of the princess face at her 21st birthday and got thrown into prison. Cassius’ loyalty is so Lance Orion coded when Orion is in his peak royalist era.. I really thought Cassius had so much potential, cause he had that Orion sarcasm I loooove. But the more I read the more boring he got, cause this guy got a stick a mile up his arse damn. Such a little rule follower. If Drake’s whole personality is talking about his face, then Cassius’ whole identity is being loyal to his kingdom. If I see Cassius say the words #Iammadeofsteel one more time I’m going to #shoveasteelpipeuphisarse.
Another princess that is trapped in her golden tower. Sign. It seems like being lonely is a theme of this book. Austyn is surrounded by people, but has no real friend to confine her. Her father used to be her best friend, but since he married Magdor he has changed so much and is a shell of his former self. Austyn wasn’t great, she was pretty boring so far. 99% of her chapters take place in the place where she complains about wanting to be free and not sold to the highest bidder in a competition. That’s all there is to her arc so far. It didn’t help that she was the only main character that had barely any interactions with the other 3 main characters therefore I found it difficult to connect to her.
Kyra has been trapped in a coin for centuries and she is the most interesting character in this book so far. She is weird and quirky, her mind is muddled from being alone for so long that she’s talking to herself for one thing. She also doesn’t know how most things even look like anymore so whenever Drake wishes for something it takes her a try or two to figure it out. Kyra is at least a little bit entertaining. Between Mr. STIs, Mr. Royal Horndog and Miss Depression it’s not hard to be the best character.
Here comes the female Lionel Acrux version. I think she will be the main villain for the first few books maybe before one of the lost gods (that god of vengeance??) will take over as the main villain.
in every series Caroline & Susanne manage to recycle their creepy perverted only for the comic relief (that’s not even funny) character a.k.a. Washer/Plunger/Kipling Brothers. Hagot is that .. this time in the form of a healer who needs to rub his body all over you for his “healing methods” to work. 🤡 luckily he is only a tiny side character so far in this series, but his two scenes had me so traumatized that he deserved a *special shoutout* 🥰
➙ Writing and Plot is next on the agenda:
The writing for this book is a bit more mature than ZA. I think it has a lot to do that the characters are all older. If y’all hated the cringy Faebook posts and hashtags in ZA then you’ll definitely love this more since it’s not as cringy, but then for me I was missing that humor cause at least the first ZA book was ENTERTAINING and ADDICTING. this book is just so fucking bland that I reckon that half of the people will eat this shit up calling it better than ZA, while the other half is going to dnf that beast of a book (955 pages y’all!!) after 30% or earlier because it’s so boring.
I don’t know how to describe the plot of this book other than to say that it felt like so many things happened, but at the same time nothing happens at all. Sure Cassius lands in prison next to Drake, they get out of prison together, go on a treasure hunt, find the treasure and the coin, meet Kyra, enter into the tournament to marry Princess Austyn etc. sure all of that happens, but as a gal who is 100% more invested in characters and relationships the plot didn’t do anything for me. Drake and Cassius meet early on and spend most of the book together, but it takes 55% of the book (that’s over 500 pages!) until they even meet Kyra one of the main female characters and even longer than that until all of them meet and talk Austyn and for all of the main characters to be in on place (pretty much at the end after 90%). The romance aspect in this book is heavily hinted and I’m pretty sure I figured out all the couples, but it’s the slowest of slowburn. None of the couples even kiss. There is one kiss and it’s between Drake and Austyn and they won’t be endgame. 🤡 ZA1 The Awakening had barely plot and romance, but at least the characters interacted with each other. It had Darcy/Tory wholesome sibling bonds or the heirs friendship, but this book has *crickets* I don’t care about Drake and Cassius ‘bromance’ so far .. sure the potential is there that 4000 pages into this series, they will have a great friendship and be besties for life, but I don’t think I’ll be there to see it since my investment level for this series so far is z e r o.
➙ the couples
The Master and his genie.
The ex royal guard and his princess.
All I can say is that I neither invested in Drake/Kyra nor in Cassius/Austyn romance so far. I think it would be more interesting if the pairings would be switched (Drake/Austyn & Cassius/Kyra), because so far none of these couples have any substance and it’s heavily based on insta lust.
Cassius is horny for his kingdom that I doubt it makes a difference if it’s the princess or the emperor. He just wants to suck royal dick. He has been trained for his whole life to protect the kingdom and his emporor. Austyn being equally attracted to Cassius from the beginning doesn’t help either.. there romance is not really that forbidden I mean what else is going to happen to Cassius.. he already was thrown into prison because he saw her face. 💀 I would love to see Cassius & Kyra happening, because he doesn’t trust her and her magic and it would be good for him to fall in love with someone who has nothing to do with the kingdom. Imagine how good the angst would be if he had to decide between his loyality to the king/princess or the genie who slowly wormed her way into his heart. The flavor.
Drake and Kyra’s dynamic so far is equally as meh. Drake is already attracted to Kyra which is not even the problem. My problem lies more in the fact that even tho Kyra tells Drake how his face is hideous all the time, her thoughts about him don’t match that at all. She would do anything for him, because he is her coin master. She’s also pretty much in love with her, because how he is the first person since forever who let her be free and out of the coin and treats her like a human. It’s giving the vibe that Kyra likes Drake because she doesn’t want to be alone anymore and finally has company. It doesn’t even matter who it is as long as the person is halfway decent. Austyn so far at least doesn’t bow at Drake’s feet like every other women. She is so against him marrying her and taking over the kingdom.
It doesn’t have to be enemies to lovers all the time, but so far these (potential) relationships all feel so convenient. Were are the stakes? Where is the grit? Tension? Conflict? Flavor?
➙ SPOILER FOR THE ENDING/CLIFFHANGER
A little bit of background story for a better understanding. Drake and Cassius made a deal with Azurea (a dragon) when they were on the way to find the treasure in the middle of the book. They promised her to give Azurea most of the treasure when they find out. It turned out that the treasure is cursed and everyone who tries to take it will die. In the end Drake and Cassius could only take the coin (where Kyra was trapped) and wished to make it impossible for dragons to find them, cuz they can’t fullfill their bargain and Azurea would come for them. Fast forward to the end of AGOSHIT:
Azurea is attacking the palace and town in search of the oathbreakers. She attacks Austyn, Cassius tries to protect Austyn and for whatever reason Azurea has a baby dragon that ends up protecting Cassius from her. Azurea curses Cassius, because he basically stole her heart’s desire (baby dragon) so in turn he will hunger for the death of his (basically Austyn). He will be pulled to be in her company, but when Austyn is in his she will suffer. The only way to break his curse if Austyn dies at his hands or he will succumb to it and become a monster that will kill innocents. While I’m still not very invested in the couple, I do like this kind of star crossed lovers storyline and will be interested to see how this will turn out. At least the pairing got a bit more flavor and there is more at stake.
Drake and Kyra on the other hand stay flavourless. Not even their cliffhanger ending could make me be interested in them. Drake has tattoos from the past when someone tortured him and these tattoos are kinda special I guess. Things happen and Kyra rescues him from getting more possessed by the gods or whatever entity tried to possess him sorry for not reading this book accurately anymore cause I’M DONE W THIS SHITSHOW. But whatever Kyra goes through a great deal to rescue Drake and what does he do? He sends her back in the coin in a world full of loneliness and the thing he promised her he would never do. Kyra is back in the coin and feels betrayed. The end. Drake doing that at the end just proved to me once again what a piece of shit he is as a hero. There is a bit more tension for this couple now that Kyra is pissed and stopped putting him on a pedestal, but their storyline is so predictable that I’m not interested to see how their conflict will be resolved. At one point Drake will demand Kyra to get out again, she will be hella mad at him, they will have a bit of enemies dynamics but more from her since he will probably say something that he was possessed by something and didn’t mean to send her back bla bla bla stfu loser.
Conclusion
Plot: 1.5 ★
Compelling Characters: 1.5 ★
Spice: 0 🌶️
Romance: 1 ★
Entertainment Factor: 0 ★
900 pages and how many quotes did I put into this review? NONE. There was not one single quote that was worth highlighting.
This book was such a horrible start to a new series. Way way way way way way way too long and drawn out, but I know people who hate bully romances will gobble this up. The sisters tried to take all of Zodiac Academy’s best elements and use it for this series while simultaneously improve all the key points that were heavily criticised in The Awakening. Didn’t work tho. ZODIAC ACADEMY YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS AND BE THE BLUEPRINT.
*ARC provided for an honest review 🥴
Crying. I wanted to love this book so much. After hearing that the twisted sisters are planing to start a new MF series in the style of Zodiac Academy (2 FMcs and 2 MMcs) I was over the moon and expected to have a new series to obsessed over. Unfortunately for me there was literally zero things in this book that made me be invested in this story and I ended up hating it with my whole heart.
I inhaled 6 Zodiac Academy books and 3600+ pages in 5 days, but it took me 10 days to finish this one book. God gives the toughest battles to his strongest soldiers. 🙏
Anyway, Orion's bonus POV scene at the Fair at the end of this book is the only great thing about AGoMaG. that was so good. jealous Orion has me by the throat. what did Caroline put into her writing when she wrote his character it's better than crack. Bluelance you will be that ship. 🛐
Let’s talk about ➙ characters first:
1. Drake – the thief
If Darius Acrux, Leon Night and Seth Capella had a love child. It would be him. One chapter in and I already couldn’t stand this guy. All he talks about is his cock, how is Affinity is seduction, how he is god’s gift to women and how his face saved him because he is so pretty. Shut the fuck up I get it that you’re vain and women’s panties get flooded at the mere sight of you.. stop shoving that down my throat at every page. Literally don’t care how long the pipe down his pants is, with the way he talks about it and his face it’s just giving small dick energy.
2. Cassius – the ex royal guard
I’m pretty sure I found Caroline’s male character for this series. Cassius used to be a royal guard for the emperor and the princess until he saw the face of the princess before the unveiling of the princess face at her 21st birthday and got thrown into prison. Cassius’ loyalty is so Lance Orion coded when Orion is in his peak royalist era.. I really thought Cassius had so much potential, cause he had that Orion sarcasm I loooove. But the more I read the more boring he got, cause this guy got a stick a mile up his arse damn. Such a little rule follower. If Drake’s whole personality is talking about his face, then Cassius’ whole identity is being loyal to his kingdom. If I see Cassius say the words #Iammadeofsteel one more time I’m going to #shoveasteelpipeuphisarse.
3. Austyn – the princess
Another princess that is trapped in her golden tower. Sign. It seems like being lonely is a theme of this book. Austyn is surrounded by people, but has no real friend to confine her. Her father used to be her best friend, but since he married Magdor he has changed so much and is a shell of his former self. Austyn wasn’t great, she was pretty boring so far. 99% of her chapters take place in the place where she complains about wanting to be free and not sold to the highest bidder in a competition. That’s all there is to her arc so far. It didn’t help that she was the only main character that had barely any interactions with the other 3 main characters therefore I found it difficult to connect to her.
4. Kyra – the genie
Kyra has been trapped in a coin for centuries and she is the most interesting character in this book so far. She is weird and quirky, her mind is muddled from being alone for so long that she’s talking to herself for one thing. She also doesn’t know how most things even look like anymore so whenever Drake wishes for something it takes her a try or two to figure it out. Kyra is at least a little bit entertaining. Between Mr. STIs, Mr. Royal Horndog and Miss Depression it’s not hard to be the best character.
5. Magdor – the empress
Here comes the female Lionel Acrux version. I think she will be the main villain for the first few books maybe before one of the lost gods (that god of vengeance??) will take over as the main villain.
6. Hagot – the healer
in every series Caroline & Susanne manage to recycle their creepy perverted only for the comic relief (that’s not even funny) character a.k.a. Washer/Plunger/Kipling Brothers. Hagot is that .. this time in the form of a healer who needs to rub his body all over you for his “healing methods” to work. 🤡 luckily he is only a tiny side character so far in this series, but his two scenes had me so traumatized that he deserved a *special shoutout* 🥰
➙ Writing and Plot is next on the agenda:
The writing for this book is a bit more mature than ZA. I think it has a lot to do that the characters are all older. If y’all hated the cringy Faebook posts and hashtags in ZA then you’ll definitely love this more since it’s not as cringy, but then for me I was missing that humor cause at least the first ZA book was ENTERTAINING and ADDICTING. this book is just so fucking bland that I reckon that half of the people will eat this shit up calling it better than ZA, while the other half is going to dnf that beast of a book (955 pages y’all!!) after 30% or earlier because it’s so boring.
I don’t know how to describe the plot of this book other than to say that it felt like so many things happened, but at the same time nothing happens at all. Sure Cassius lands in prison next to Drake, they get out of prison together, go on a treasure hunt, find the treasure and the coin, meet Kyra, enter into the tournament to marry Princess Austyn etc. sure all of that happens, but as a gal who is 100% more invested in characters and relationships the plot didn’t do anything for me. Drake and Cassius meet early on and spend most of the book together, but it takes 55% of the book (that’s over 500 pages!) until they even meet Kyra one of the main female characters and even longer than that until all of them meet and talk Austyn and for all of the main characters to be in on place (pretty much at the end after 90%). The romance aspect in this book is heavily hinted and I’m pretty sure I figured out all the couples, but it’s the slowest of slowburn. None of the couples even kiss. There is one kiss and it’s between Drake and Austyn and they won’t be endgame. 🤡 ZA1 The Awakening had barely plot and romance, but at least the characters interacted with each other. It had Darcy/Tory wholesome sibling bonds or the heirs friendship, but this book has *crickets* I don’t care about Drake and Cassius ‘bromance’ so far .. sure the potential is there that 4000 pages into this series, they will have a great friendship and be besties for life, but I don’t think I’ll be there to see it since my investment level for this series so far is z e r o.
➙ the couples
1. Drake & Kyra
The Master and his genie.
2. Cassius & Austyn
The ex royal guard and his princess.
All I can say is that I neither invested in Drake/Kyra nor in Cassius/Austyn romance so far. I think it would be more interesting if the pairings would be switched (Drake/Austyn & Cassius/Kyra), because so far none of these couples have any substance and it’s heavily based on insta lust.
Cassius is horny for his kingdom that I doubt it makes a difference if it’s the princess or the emperor. He just wants to suck royal dick. He has been trained for his whole life to protect the kingdom and his emporor. Austyn being equally attracted to Cassius from the beginning doesn’t help either.. there romance is not really that forbidden I mean what else is going to happen to Cassius.. he already was thrown into prison because he saw her face. 💀 I would love to see Cassius & Kyra happening, because he doesn’t trust her and her magic and it would be good for him to fall in love with someone who has nothing to do with the kingdom. Imagine how good the angst would be if he had to decide between his loyality to the king/princess or the genie who slowly wormed her way into his heart. The flavor.
Drake and Kyra’s dynamic so far is equally as meh. Drake is already attracted to Kyra which is not even the problem. My problem lies more in the fact that even tho Kyra tells Drake how his face is hideous all the time, her thoughts about him don’t match that at all. She would do anything for him, because he is her coin master. She’s also pretty much in love with her, because how he is the first person since forever who let her be free and out of the coin and treats her like a human. It’s giving the vibe that Kyra likes Drake because she doesn’t want to be alone anymore and finally has company. It doesn’t even matter who it is as long as the person is halfway decent. Austyn so far at least doesn’t bow at Drake’s feet like every other women. She is so against him marrying her and taking over the kingdom.
It doesn’t have to be enemies to lovers all the time, but so far these (potential) relationships all feel so convenient. Were are the stakes? Where is the grit? Tension? Conflict? Flavor?
➙ SPOILER FOR THE ENDING/CLIFFHANGER
A little bit of background story for a better understanding. Drake and Cassius made a deal with Azurea (a dragon) when they were on the way to find the treasure in the middle of the book. They promised her to give Azurea most of the treasure when they find out. It turned out that the treasure is cursed and everyone who tries to take it will die. In the end Drake and Cassius could only take the coin (where Kyra was trapped) and wished to make it impossible for dragons to find them, cuz they can’t fullfill their bargain and Azurea would come for them. Fast forward to the end of AGOSHIT:
Azurea is attacking the palace and town in search of the oathbreakers. She attacks Austyn, Cassius tries to protect Austyn and for whatever reason Azurea has a baby dragon that ends up protecting Cassius from her. Azurea curses Cassius, because he basically stole her heart’s desire (baby dragon) so in turn he will hunger for the death of his (basically Austyn). He will be pulled to be in her company, but when Austyn is in his she will suffer. The only way to break his curse if Austyn dies at his hands or he will succumb to it and become a monster that will kill innocents. While I’m still not very invested in the couple, I do like this kind of star crossed lovers storyline and will be interested to see how this will turn out. At least the pairing got a bit more flavor and there is more at stake.
Drake and Kyra on the other hand stay flavourless. Not even their cliffhanger ending could make me be interested in them. Drake has tattoos from the past when someone tortured him and these tattoos are kinda special I guess. Things happen and Kyra rescues him from getting more possessed by the gods or whatever entity tried to possess him sorry for not reading this book accurately anymore cause I’M DONE W THIS SHITSHOW. But whatever Kyra goes through a great deal to rescue Drake and what does he do? He sends her back in the coin in a world full of loneliness and the thing he promised her he would never do. Kyra is back in the coin and feels betrayed. The end. Drake doing that at the end just proved to me once again what a piece of shit he is as a hero. There is a bit more tension for this couple now that Kyra is pissed and stopped putting him on a pedestal, but their storyline is so predictable that I’m not interested to see how their conflict will be resolved. At one point Drake will demand Kyra to get out again, she will be hella mad at him, they will have a bit of enemies dynamics but more from her since he will probably say something that he was possessed by something and didn’t mean to send her back bla bla bla stfu loser.
Conclusion
Plot: 1.5 ★
Compelling Characters: 1.5 ★
Spice: 0 🌶️
Romance: 1 ★
Entertainment Factor: 0 ★
900 pages and how many quotes did I put into this review? NONE. There was not one single quote that was worth highlighting.
This book was such a horrible start to a new series. Way way way way way way way too long and drawn out, but I know people who hate bully romances will gobble this up. The sisters tried to take all of Zodiac Academy’s best elements and use it for this series while simultaneously improve all the key points that were heavily criticised in The Awakening. Didn’t work tho. ZODIAC ACADEMY YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS AND BE THE BLUEPRINT.
*ARC provided for an honest review 🥴
March 6, 2023
"I was a boy born to nothing and I grew into a man dressed in sin, little goddess. There's only one thing you can ever rely on from me when words pass my lips. And that's lies."
Interesting 🤔 Even after reading the novella, it turned out to be much different to what I was expecting. I'm definitely surprised, I enjoyed most of it but it was no doubt flawed.
✔️ Multiple POV
✔️ High fantasy
✔️ Fallen fae
✔️ Lost gods
✔️ Aladdin x Rapunzel retelling
✔️ Forbidden romance
✔️ Bromance
Set in Osaria, the world building is rich and cultured. There's a clear division among the high fae and the lower echelon of the fae society. I won't say the world building is complex, it's fairly simple to follow. The plot is as simple as it can get- a princess struggling to find her own freedom and a thief who has no interest to help others but himself, but when you make them fae and bring in more interesting characters, their worlds collide and it's chaos.
I liked the plot, it's unique and holds potential to be a good series. But the execution of it was truly weak. The prequel - Kingdom of gods and ruin was impeccable compared to this. I'll tell you why A Game of Malice and Greed couldn't replicate it, further in the review but first let's go through the characters.
I'll go over the characters in order of who made a bigger impact on the story and was able to grab my attention in a positive way.
Kyra- The "genie". After the events of the prequel, we see her roughly over 1000 years and she still bewitched me. She has such a lively personality to her. Her character is full of depth. While presenting a happy exterior, she has deep rooted pain to deal with. At the end of AGOMAG, what happens to her is just cruel and I can't wait for her to be the boss lady warrior again. She's the key to this series.
Cassius- Man of steel. He's a fierce, loyal royal guard who will stop at nothing to protect his princess. I liked him immediately he was introduced, the man although lacks a bit of humour, is easy to like. His fate is certainly an interesting one and holds a lot of potential.
Magdor- She's evil. NGL I swear she has some serious issues. She's absolutely sadistic in nature and pure evil. Of course, there's no beating Lionel, but Magdor's only getting started. I would like for her to be badder cause I like my characters to suffer 🥲
Drake- Man of sin. He's cheeky, at first I liked him but his humour soon turned old and he started to annoy me. There's no maturity in him. He is absolutely selfish and which is easily why I prefer Cassius over him. Drake's character needs a lot of refining. The path he took, did not feel impactful cause that's exactly what I was expecting him to do by the end. Smh.
Austyn- The princess. She is forgettable. The other characters overpower her presence. Her struggles and fight are very valid and I fully support her but the way it's presented, she comes across like a whiny 12 year old. I need her to be more mature and take a stance.
The characters click together and have good chemistry with each other. The book is not spicy at all, so go in expecting a clean romance build up. I personally loved the chemistry between Kyra and Drake. Cassius and Drake's banter and bromance is so hilarious to read at times.
Moving to the main issue which I have a feeling the majority of the readers will agree to is the length of the book. It was not required here. This book could've easily, very easily been 350-400 pages short. This has been my main concern and complaint with the sisters' writing for ZA last two books as well and it has followed through to AGOMAG as well. They certainly know how to let high potential go to waste. While I like humour in my books, I don't appreciate the same joke being repeated a million times. Kyra and Drake's banter (about his looks) felt repetitive and came across as a filler.
My second issue was with the writing, I know it's not the best but the prequel was written beautifully and with such a mature tone, I couldn't help but raise my expectations for this one. The writing in this is back to being like ZA style, I don't mind it but would've appreciated it if that wasn't the case.
Other than that, I think it's an enjoyable decent read if readers go in with lowered expectations. The book can drag a bit so keep that in mind. Overall, it's certainly very different from what the sisters usually write and is worth giving it a shot. I am willing to overlook the issues I had and give it a four stars rating instead of three, simply due to the fact that I enjoyed it fairly a lot and it is the first book in the series. There's a lot of room for improvement but am still looking forward to the sequel.
~•~•~
The bonus chapters at the end for Lance and Darius were absolutely chef's kiss 🤌 Lance still continues to be the best and there's no beating that.
Interesting 🤔 Even after reading the novella, it turned out to be much different to what I was expecting. I'm definitely surprised, I enjoyed most of it but it was no doubt flawed.
✔️ Multiple POV
✔️ High fantasy
✔️ Fallen fae
✔️ Lost gods
✔️ Aladdin x Rapunzel retelling
✔️ Forbidden romance
✔️ Bromance
Set in Osaria, the world building is rich and cultured. There's a clear division among the high fae and the lower echelon of the fae society. I won't say the world building is complex, it's fairly simple to follow. The plot is as simple as it can get- a princess struggling to find her own freedom and a thief who has no interest to help others but himself, but when you make them fae and bring in more interesting characters, their worlds collide and it's chaos.
I liked the plot, it's unique and holds potential to be a good series. But the execution of it was truly weak. The prequel - Kingdom of gods and ruin was impeccable compared to this. I'll tell you why A Game of Malice and Greed couldn't replicate it, further in the review but first let's go through the characters.
I'll go over the characters in order of who made a bigger impact on the story and was able to grab my attention in a positive way.
Kyra- The "genie". After the events of the prequel, we see her roughly over 1000 years and she still bewitched me. She has such a lively personality to her. Her character is full of depth. While presenting a happy exterior, she has deep rooted pain to deal with. At the end of AGOMAG, what happens to her is just cruel and I can't wait for her to be the boss lady warrior again. She's the key to this series.
Cassius- Man of steel. He's a fierce, loyal royal guard who will stop at nothing to protect his princess. I liked him immediately he was introduced, the man although lacks a bit of humour, is easy to like. His fate is certainly an interesting one and holds a lot of potential.
Magdor- She's evil. NGL I swear she has some serious issues. She's absolutely sadistic in nature and pure evil. Of course, there's no beating Lionel, but Magdor's only getting started. I would like for her to be badder cause I like my characters to suffer 🥲
Drake- Man of sin. He's cheeky, at first I liked him but his humour soon turned old and he started to annoy me. There's no maturity in him. He is absolutely selfish and which is easily why I prefer Cassius over him. Drake's character needs a lot of refining. The path he took, did not feel impactful cause that's exactly what I was expecting him to do by the end. Smh.
Austyn- The princess. She is forgettable. The other characters overpower her presence. Her struggles and fight are very valid and I fully support her but the way it's presented, she comes across like a whiny 12 year old. I need her to be more mature and take a stance.
The characters click together and have good chemistry with each other. The book is not spicy at all, so go in expecting a clean romance build up. I personally loved the chemistry between Kyra and Drake. Cassius and Drake's banter and bromance is so hilarious to read at times.
Moving to the main issue which I have a feeling the majority of the readers will agree to is the length of the book. It was not required here. This book could've easily, very easily been 350-400 pages short. This has been my main concern and complaint with the sisters' writing for ZA last two books as well and it has followed through to AGOMAG as well. They certainly know how to let high potential go to waste. While I like humour in my books, I don't appreciate the same joke being repeated a million times. Kyra and Drake's banter (about his looks) felt repetitive and came across as a filler.
My second issue was with the writing, I know it's not the best but the prequel was written beautifully and with such a mature tone, I couldn't help but raise my expectations for this one. The writing in this is back to being like ZA style, I don't mind it but would've appreciated it if that wasn't the case.
Other than that, I think it's an enjoyable decent read if readers go in with lowered expectations. The book can drag a bit so keep that in mind. Overall, it's certainly very different from what the sisters usually write and is worth giving it a shot. I am willing to overlook the issues I had and give it a four stars rating instead of three, simply due to the fact that I enjoyed it fairly a lot and it is the first book in the series. There's a lot of room for improvement but am still looking forward to the sequel.
~•~•~
The bonus chapters at the end for Lance and Darius were absolutely chef's kiss 🤌 Lance still continues to be the best and there's no beating that.
Want to read
March 20, 2023Update — 20/03/23: ★★★★★
I just read the BLUELANCE bonus chapter- IM CRYING BC I WANNA TATTOO IT TO THE UNDERSIDE OF MY EYELIDS 😭🔫
“𝐈𝐟 𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐈’𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐩𝐢𝐞. 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐦, 𝐈’𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧, 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐮𝐩 𝐚 𝐩𝐢𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐧 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭.”
Lance’s special brand of sarcasm and dramatics breathed life back into my soul pls I’m screaming no one does it like my husband Orion does.
“𝐈𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐮𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞”
LOOK HOW SHARP AND CLEVER AND HOT HE IS-
“𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂,” I said seriously. “𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗙𝗮𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼. 𝗗𝗶𝗱 𝗜 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁?”
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘺 🥰
𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐝, 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐚𝐳𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫. 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫.
“𝗜𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂?”
“𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲.” 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐬, 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐧.
𝐈 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐝, 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰.
IM UNEQUIVOCALLY IRREVOCABLY OBSESSED WITH THEM AMSBKDJDKJSGDJD
MY LIFE IS FINALLY COMPLETE AFTER READING THIS😭💗💃✨🦋🤭💅💘 🫂
(We’re not gonna discuss the fact that I’ve not actually read the book or how this review has nothing to do with it either, bluelance deserve their own book and I consider their bonus it’s own book. thank you byeeee <3 )
***
UPDATE — 4/02/23: omg there’s a prequel to this??!!! AAAAAHHH I’m reading it rtfn.
UPDATE — 12/12/22: A warrior, a Tattooed Thief and a Princess?? And it’s forbidden love?!!
Nourishment for my dark soul 🤠
—————————————————————————
Whatever this is I’m reading it. No question.
I just read the BLUELANCE bonus chapter- IM CRYING BC I WANNA TATTOO IT TO THE UNDERSIDE OF MY EYELIDS 😭🔫
“𝐈𝐟 𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐈’𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐩𝐢𝐞. 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐦, 𝐈’𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧, 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐮𝐩 𝐚 𝐩𝐢𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐧 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭.”
Lance’s special brand of sarcasm and dramatics breathed life back into my soul pls I’m screaming no one does it like my husband Orion does.
“𝐈𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐮𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞”
LOOK HOW SHARP AND CLEVER AND HOT HE IS-
“𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂,” I said seriously. “𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗙𝗮𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼. 𝗗𝗶𝗱 𝗜 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁?”
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘺 🥰
𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐝, 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐚𝐳𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫. 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫.
“𝗜𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂?”
“𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲.” 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐬, 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐧.
𝐈 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐝, 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰.
IM UNEQUIVOCALLY IRREVOCABLY OBSESSED WITH THEM AMSBKDJDKJSGDJD
MY LIFE IS FINALLY COMPLETE AFTER READING THIS😭💗💃✨🦋🤭💅💘 🫂
(We’re not gonna discuss the fact that I’ve not actually read the book or how this review has nothing to do with it either, bluelance deserve their own book and I consider their bonus it’s own book. thank you byeeee <3 )
***
UPDATE — 4/02/23: omg there’s a prequel to this??!!! AAAAAHHH I’m reading it rtfn.
UPDATE — 12/12/22: A warrior, a Tattooed Thief and a Princess?? And it’s forbidden love?!!
Nourishment for my dark soul 🤠
—————————————————————————
Whatever this is I’m reading it. No question.
March 10, 2023
3 Stars and only bc of my Lance freaking Orion bonus chapter that I earned every word of after reading this absolutely unnecessary monster of a book.
Look, no one is more disappointed than I am that I didn't absolutely love this book especially after I loved the prequel novella so much that I gave it 5 stars. I was WILLING myself to like this book the entire way through but in the end I gotta be real it was just meh. Recycled characters, repetitive plot points, really weird characterizations and 856 totally unnecessary pages! WHY?!!
What worked for me-
I loved the setting, the visual aids included with the book were amazing, the magic system although not entirely clear yet is really interesting along with the mythology of the Gods and Dragons.
It's really funny, I did laugh a lot. I can always count on good banter and comedy from the sisters.
Future seed planting of where the story may go did peek my interest, (a little).
What didn't work-
So much of this book felt like a patchwork job from ZA. The whole plot with the emperor being controlled is basically a paste and copy of Hail Vega.
Drake is basically an Heirs hybrid where all four of their personalities are just mushed together into this one overbearing obnoxious Fboy.
So many recycled jokes and characters from other series.
The women are so sidelined in this book! Both women are locked up in some way or another for the majority of the book.
IT'S SO LONG!! The repetitive information and monologues never end!!!! It's so unnecessary.
Characters-
Drake- He was fine. Most of the time annoying but he had his moments and he can be really funny. I liked his developing friendship with Cassius the most, their banter was a highlight. I don't think I buy his whole affection for Kyra yet. They tried to convince me, I just didn't feel the chemistry. His background is really interesting though and I do want to know what's up with his tatoos.
Cassius- I actually really like him for the most part, except for his whole obsession with Austyn! Dude, chill with the creepy stalker vibes! Counting eyelashes from across a room, getting hot thinking about her making you bleed, you barely know her, RELAX! I like how he is so kind to Kyra (I lowkey ship him with her more than the alternative) And he is genuinely a good person and a feminist, bonus!
Austyn - They gave this poor girl no personality whatsoever. She is the prototypical princess locked in her tower, dreaming of being independent.
Kyra - She is the best part of the book for me, and not in any small part bc I was already invested in her from the previous novella. What has happened to her from the point we left her in the last book to now is so heartbreaking. Her fractured mind, while really funny is also so devasting. The book takes way too long to bring her into the fold bc she is the one that really gives the story life.
I do think this story still has potential, but these unnecessarily long books have got to go, If you loved this book I am really so happy for you and genuinely jealous bc I wanted to love this book so bad.😞
Look, no one is more disappointed than I am that I didn't absolutely love this book especially after I loved the prequel novella so much that I gave it 5 stars. I was WILLING myself to like this book the entire way through but in the end I gotta be real it was just meh. Recycled characters, repetitive plot points, really weird characterizations and 856 totally unnecessary pages! WHY?!!
What worked for me-
I loved the setting, the visual aids included with the book were amazing, the magic system although not entirely clear yet is really interesting along with the mythology of the Gods and Dragons.
It's really funny, I did laugh a lot. I can always count on good banter and comedy from the sisters.
Future seed planting of where the story may go did peek my interest, (a little).
What didn't work-
So much of this book felt like a patchwork job from ZA. The whole plot with the emperor being controlled is basically a paste and copy of Hail Vega.
Drake is basically an Heirs hybrid where all four of their personalities are just mushed together into this one overbearing obnoxious Fboy.
So many recycled jokes and characters from other series.
The women are so sidelined in this book! Both women are locked up in some way or another for the majority of the book.
IT'S SO LONG!! The repetitive information and monologues never end!!!! It's so unnecessary.
Characters-
Drake- He was fine. Most of the time annoying but he had his moments and he can be really funny. I liked his developing friendship with Cassius the most, their banter was a highlight. I don't think I buy his whole affection for Kyra yet. They tried to convince me, I just didn't feel the chemistry. His background is really interesting though and I do want to know what's up with his tatoos.
Cassius- I actually really like him for the most part, except for his whole obsession with Austyn! Dude, chill with the creepy stalker vibes! Counting eyelashes from across a room, getting hot thinking about her making you bleed, you barely know her, RELAX! I like how he is so kind to Kyra (I lowkey ship him with her more than the alternative) And he is genuinely a good person and a feminist, bonus!
Austyn - They gave this poor girl no personality whatsoever. She is the prototypical princess locked in her tower, dreaming of being independent.
Kyra - She is the best part of the book for me, and not in any small part bc I was already invested in her from the previous novella. What has happened to her from the point we left her in the last book to now is so heartbreaking. Her fractured mind, while really funny is also so devasting. The book takes way too long to bring her into the fold bc she is the one that really gives the story life.
I do think this story still has potential, but these unnecessarily long books have got to go, If you loved this book I am really so happy for you and genuinely jealous bc I wanted to love this book so bad.😞
March 10, 2023
THE THRONE ROOM SCENE IN DARIUS' POV IS GONNA BE FOREVER INGRAINED IN MY SOUL MY BABIES I LOVE THEM SM YOU DONT UNDERSTAND TORYDARIUS HAVE ME BY THE THROAT THEY CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANNA DO TO ME IM THEIRS
AND THAT CRYSTAL BALL OML I WAS FUCKING SOBBING I JUST WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY AND IN LOVE AND TOGETHER ALWAYS THEY MAKE ME SO FUCKING HAPPY
ALSO LMAOO I FEEL LIKE I READ SMUT AFTER SO LONG BCS ITS NO SURPRISE I DONT EVEN LOOK AT IT WHEN IM NOT VIBING WITH THE CHARACTERS AND IT FEELS LIKE ITS BEEN SO LONG SINCE IVE BEEN ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH A SHIP AND OFC THAT WOULD BE THEM
AND I KNOW I FUCKING KNOW THE BOOK IS ABOUT SOME OTHER CHARACTERS BUT I DONT FUCKING CARE
this book had no business being as long as it was. i had high expectations and they went down the drain the very first chapter. boring, annoying ass characters idfc about how pretty drake is and his sex affinity, idfc about cassius and his weird ass obsession with austyn, idfc about woe is me austyn bitch is so fucking bland i literally forget what happens in her chapters the minute they end, idfc how evil magdor is, i do fucking care about kyra but im sorry baby its not enough for me to continue this series
the only reason i didnt dnf it is bcs i hate to dnf books and i wanted to read my dragon's pov for the scene that fucking reinvented me the first time i read it. ik i couldve read it at the start but i knew i wouldnt finish this book had i done that lmaoo so yea
_________________
i completely forgot about this but you bet your ass im reading it rn even tho im already reading 2 books
AND THAT CRYSTAL BALL OML I WAS FUCKING SOBBING I JUST WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY AND IN LOVE AND TOGETHER ALWAYS THEY MAKE ME SO FUCKING HAPPY
ALSO LMAOO I FEEL LIKE I READ SMUT AFTER SO LONG BCS ITS NO SURPRISE I DONT EVEN LOOK AT IT WHEN IM NOT VIBING WITH THE CHARACTERS AND IT FEELS LIKE ITS BEEN SO LONG SINCE IVE BEEN ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH A SHIP AND OFC THAT WOULD BE THEM
AND I KNOW I FUCKING KNOW THE BOOK IS ABOUT SOME OTHER CHARACTERS BUT I DONT FUCKING CARE
this book had no business being as long as it was. i had high expectations and they went down the drain the very first chapter. boring, annoying ass characters idfc about how pretty drake is and his sex affinity, idfc about cassius and his weird ass obsession with austyn, idfc about woe is me austyn bitch is so fucking bland i literally forget what happens in her chapters the minute they end, idfc how evil magdor is, i do fucking care about kyra but im sorry baby its not enough for me to continue this series
the only reason i didnt dnf it is bcs i hate to dnf books and i wanted to read my dragon's pov for the scene that fucking reinvented me the first time i read it. ik i couldve read it at the start but i knew i wouldnt finish this book had i done that lmaoo so yea
_________________
i completely forgot about this but you bet your ass im reading it rn even tho im already reading 2 books
March 14, 2023
This had the potential to be great, but ended up being a bit of a disappointment imo 😔
So why three stars? Maybe because I still have hope for the series as a whole, maybe because I just loved the Orion bonus chapter or maybe because after 20 mind-bending hours of being trapped in the coin—err, the book, I’m just glad to be free again.
Let me try to explain.
Reading this was like eating chocolate cake—it looked delicious and it seemed like all the ingredients were there, but something just didn’t taste right 🤔
❌ PACING — Others have said (and I wholeheartedly agree) that there was an imbalance of inner monologue to action. I felt like I spent the first 350-400 pages trapped in various characters’ heads with only minimal action to break it up, and by the time I got to the interesting parts, my eyes had already glazed over.
✅ CHARACTERS — I actually found all of the MCs to be quite interesting, especially Kyra, BUT there was an extreme amount of redundancy with respect to each of their character traits. Like we get it—Drake is a man of sin, Cassius is a man of steel, Austyn’s a princess trapped in a castle, but it doesn’t need to be said 50 times over.
❌ ROMANCE — for Zodiac Academy fans who think they’re about to get BlueLance 2.0, think again. There is ZERO SPICE here and MINIMAL ROMANCE. The relationships largely consist of pining over forbidden love without anyone making a move so… 🥱
✅ BANTER — the dialogue was pretty great (especially for Drake and Kyra). If only we got more of it instead of pages of inner monologue…
❌ DEPARTURE FROM PREQUEL — I have to admit, the prequel was much better than this in every aspect, including the tone/style of writing, and it was a little bit of a send off in terms of what to expect from this book.
All in all, I’m really sad I didn’t like this more and am not sure whether I’ll continue the series.
So why three stars? Maybe because I still have hope for the series as a whole, maybe because I just loved the Orion bonus chapter or maybe because after 20 mind-bending hours of being trapped in the coin—err, the book, I’m just glad to be free again.
Let me try to explain.
Reading this was like eating chocolate cake—it looked delicious and it seemed like all the ingredients were there, but something just didn’t taste right 🤔
❌ PACING — Others have said (and I wholeheartedly agree) that there was an imbalance of inner monologue to action. I felt like I spent the first 350-400 pages trapped in various characters’ heads with only minimal action to break it up, and by the time I got to the interesting parts, my eyes had already glazed over.
✅ CHARACTERS — I actually found all of the MCs to be quite interesting, especially Kyra, BUT there was an extreme amount of redundancy with respect to each of their character traits. Like we get it—Drake is a man of sin, Cassius is a man of steel, Austyn’s a princess trapped in a castle, but it doesn’t need to be said 50 times over.
❌ ROMANCE — for Zodiac Academy fans who think they’re about to get BlueLance 2.0, think again. There is ZERO SPICE here and MINIMAL ROMANCE. The relationships largely consist of pining over forbidden love without anyone making a move so… 🥱
✅ BANTER — the dialogue was pretty great (especially for Drake and Kyra). If only we got more of it instead of pages of inner monologue…
❌ DEPARTURE FROM PREQUEL — I have to admit, the prequel was much better than this in every aspect, including the tone/style of writing, and it was a little bit of a send off in terms of what to expect from this book.
All in all, I’m really sad I didn’t like this more and am not sure whether I’ll continue the series.
00-on-pause-coming-back-to-finish
March 6, 2023Pressing Pause (but will absolutely be finishing later)
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Cannot wait to start this!!!
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Cannot wait to start this!!!
April 26, 2023
Yea I started with Darius’ POV whining and throwing tantrums like a pathetic lil scorned bitch 😭 he was so thoughtful to make that present and should’ve just left it in her room ffs.
They chose a perfect scene for lance’s pov so can’t complain there either. The way he thinks about Darcy >>>> need a man like that.
OKAY NOW THIS WILL BE LONG REVIEW WITH FEW SPOILERS.
Right off the bat, the writing style is MUCH better than ZA. So I appreciated it a lot. World building was easy to comprehend too as 3 stories play with each character and I think eventually will be tied into much bigger plot.
Onto our new characters:
Cassius: you won’t ever find me siding with a bodyguard/solider who has crush on princess omfg. Boring, already been done before and him fooling himself as “noble”… just made me roll my eyes. BUT that was till 85% of the book… after that he almost becomes possessed? Or just controlled with evil thing I guess and that makes him finally interesting. I’m looking forward to this twist in character.
Drake: For me, this character is close to perfection. Cocky, thief that’s combination of cassian and Kaz😭he lives to self serve and frankly it’s justifiable in an authoritarian country. The thing was, it was already very apparent that he was something special. He had some kind of power or strength to pick up that coin and free Kyra. Throughout the book I am entertained and connected with him. What he does at at end pissed me off but hopefully it’ll be rectified quickly in the next book.
Astyn?? Whatever, princess: Quite bland character with great potential. So far we know that she’s kept in a palace and doesn’t have much freedom. The authors said it has rupunzel elements so there you go. I say potential bc I always trust in freedom deprived fmcs. Their destiny is always great.
KYRA: I have nothing but positive to say about her. Taken from Aladdin’s concept, she’s a 🧞♀️. She makes her “owner’s” wishes true within limits. Her past life is horrific and incomprehensible bc nobody should endure that. But despite all this… she’s wildly entertaining. Bc she was locked in a coin for over a thousand years, she sadly doesn’t know correct words nor thing. She often mixes them up and it’s hilarious. Calling her own master (not exactly a master but the one who freed her) “Ugly” and drake scowling at it is so entertaining. She’s the funniest woman I tell you.
Relationships:
Drake and Cassius: an unlikely friendship between a low class thief and moralistic noble guard is actually endearing. They complement each other so much.
Drake and Kyra: She keeps calling him ugly so that’s that 😭🤔 but despite having a master and genie relationship in the context.. this relationship is explored throughout the book. Sexual tension, genuine care for each other. They could be my new obsession.
Drake and Astyn?, whatever princess: I’ll keep this brief bc there’s not much to talk about. They have cute banter, they share a kiss which brought out jealousy in Kyra.
Princess and Cassius :Cassius might be boring on his own but paired up with forbidden love situation with Princess… can be Bluelance’s forebodings ngl.
Bc this book is high fantasy, all romances are slowburn but you won’t be bored with everything else in the world building. Kisses to Kyra 😘💋💋
They chose a perfect scene for lance’s pov so can’t complain there either. The way he thinks about Darcy >>>> need a man like that.
OKAY NOW THIS WILL BE LONG REVIEW WITH FEW SPOILERS.
Right off the bat, the writing style is MUCH better than ZA. So I appreciated it a lot. World building was easy to comprehend too as 3 stories play with each character and I think eventually will be tied into much bigger plot.
Onto our new characters:
Cassius: you won’t ever find me siding with a bodyguard/solider who has crush on princess omfg. Boring, already been done before and him fooling himself as “noble”… just made me roll my eyes. BUT that was till 85% of the book… after that he almost becomes possessed? Or just controlled with evil thing I guess and that makes him finally interesting. I’m looking forward to this twist in character.
Drake: For me, this character is close to perfection. Cocky, thief that’s combination of cassian and Kaz😭he lives to self serve and frankly it’s justifiable in an authoritarian country. The thing was, it was already very apparent that he was something special. He had some kind of power or strength to pick up that coin and free Kyra. Throughout the book I am entertained and connected with him. What he does at at end pissed me off but hopefully it’ll be rectified quickly in the next book.
Astyn?? Whatever, princess: Quite bland character with great potential. So far we know that she’s kept in a palace and doesn’t have much freedom. The authors said it has rupunzel elements so there you go. I say potential bc I always trust in freedom deprived fmcs. Their destiny is always great.
KYRA: I have nothing but positive to say about her. Taken from Aladdin’s concept, she’s a 🧞♀️. She makes her “owner’s” wishes true within limits. Her past life is horrific and incomprehensible bc nobody should endure that. But despite all this… she’s wildly entertaining. Bc she was locked in a coin for over a thousand years, she sadly doesn’t know correct words nor thing. She often mixes them up and it’s hilarious. Calling her own master (not exactly a master but the one who freed her) “Ugly” and drake scowling at it is so entertaining. She’s the funniest woman I tell you.
Relationships:
Drake and Cassius: an unlikely friendship between a low class thief and moralistic noble guard is actually endearing. They complement each other so much.
Drake and Kyra: She keeps calling him ugly so that’s that 😭🤔 but despite having a master and genie relationship in the context.. this relationship is explored throughout the book. Sexual tension, genuine care for each other. They could be my new obsession.
Drake and Astyn?, whatever princess: I’ll keep this brief bc there’s not much to talk about. They have cute banter, they share a kiss which brought out jealousy in Kyra.
Princess and Cassius :Cassius might be boring on his own but paired up with forbidden love situation with Princess… can be Bluelance’s forebodings ngl.
Bc this book is high fantasy, all romances are slowburn but you won’t be bored with everything else in the world building. Kisses to Kyra 😘💋💋
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 29, 2023
Are we too greedy after ZA/RB/DP?
While I really liked A Kingdom of Gods and Ruin as an intro to this series, A Game of Malice and Greed left me a bit disappointed.
As said before, the world building is amazing, very rich and imaginative. The pacing at times feels uneven, with certain sections dragging on while others rush by too quickly. Certain plot twists and revelations felt forced leading to a sense of disbelief. Although there is a very wide selection of characters, I loved that Kyra returned and we received a bit more of her. I really liked Drake and Cassius and hope their stories become more interesting in any future books.
I think this book was too long with a lot of unnecessary content. I did like it and will certainly be looking out for Book 2.
While I really liked A Kingdom of Gods and Ruin as an intro to this series, A Game of Malice and Greed left me a bit disappointed.
As said before, the world building is amazing, very rich and imaginative. The pacing at times feels uneven, with certain sections dragging on while others rush by too quickly. Certain plot twists and revelations felt forced leading to a sense of disbelief. Although there is a very wide selection of characters, I loved that Kyra returned and we received a bit more of her. I really liked Drake and Cassius and hope their stories become more interesting in any future books.
I think this book was too long with a lot of unnecessary content. I did like it and will certainly be looking out for Book 2.
March 16, 2023
Since the moment I knew of the existence of this book I've been practically salivating to put my hand on it and my hopes and expectations went even higher when I read the prequel novella so I'm so glad I wasn't disappointed.
The characters were all well devolved and unique, starting with our four main characters to the villain to the few side characters that appeared.
Austyn is a princess that have everything and at the same time nothing. She's to be quiet, docile and the perfect "trophy" for the next emperor while all she wants is to claim her birthright and role by herself. When I say I felt the raw emotions coming from her specially the utter hopeless, I did.
Cassius is the royal guard that because of a small mistake had to flee the palace or get killed. Loyal to a fault this man here is as admirable as infuriating with his old fashioned beliefs and self-righteousness.
Drake is an orphan thief that cares about no one but himself, apologizes for nothing and I'd you think he has an ulterior motive to act, think again. And ofc I can't leave out that he's as vain as one can get. Now, that sounds awful but believe me, it's not. I personally found his character refreshing.
Kyra, our sweet, innocent and sometimes naïve Kyra. She had my heart in AKOGAR but the decision was solidified in her.
Lastly, Magdor aka The Maggot. In my opinion, a well written villain is that who makes you want to torture and kill them slowly then revive them just to do it all over again and Magdor fulfilled that role to perfection.
I've seen people complaining about the lack of spice in the book but I didn't mind it in the slightest. There's too many authors lately that feel this need to put spice every few chapters that takes from the essence of the story or the main character's relationship development. I have to note tho that until the second half ( maybe even further still) there wasn't much romance to be developed but the little bits and pieces that I got, I adored and couldn't find fault in them. Drake and Kyra are the perfect ship( sorry Bluelance but you've been overthrown).
As for Cassius and Austyn there was even less romance, nearly non-existent but the ✨potential✨, my god, I'll wait forever if I have to to see those them together at last.
The highlight of the story goes to Drake and Cassius' friendship tho. These two that have literally nothing in common learn to work together and forge a bond. Sure, in Drake's words they'd rather eat their own feet than admit to it and most of their interaction are exchanged insults but damn it if I didn't enjoy every barb that was thrown.
In true Devil Sisters fashion, the last quarter was heat- griping, earth-shattering, mind-blowingly insane. And ofc, it ends with a cliffhanger. It you hate those, do your a favour and wait for the next... but it's worth it.
The only problem that I had with the book was how long it was. It's heavyly detailed with some of the information repeated over and over again. Drake alone was described at least four times.
Dear Miss Peckham, Miss Valenti, you can do so well with short stories and AKOGAR is a prime example of it so please, for the love of all the magnificent dragons and fairy tales, cut the crap, get to the point and please please please don't drag the story on unnecessary for the sake of more books( ehem, ZA ladies). And while we're at it, could you please write faster? I need the next book asap. Thank you, love you :)
The characters were all well devolved and unique, starting with our four main characters to the villain to the few side characters that appeared.
Austyn is a princess that have everything and at the same time nothing. She's to be quiet, docile and the perfect "trophy" for the next emperor while all she wants is to claim her birthright and role by herself. When I say I felt the raw emotions coming from her specially the utter hopeless, I did.
Cassius is the royal guard that because of a small mistake had to flee the palace or get killed. Loyal to a fault this man here is as admirable as infuriating with his old fashioned beliefs and self-righteousness.
Drake is an orphan thief that cares about no one but himself, apologizes for nothing and I'd you think he has an ulterior motive to act, think again. And ofc I can't leave out that he's as vain as one can get. Now, that sounds awful but believe me, it's not. I personally found his character refreshing.
Kyra, our sweet, innocent and sometimes naïve Kyra. She had my heart in AKOGAR but the decision was solidified in her.
Lastly, Magdor aka The Maggot. In my opinion, a well written villain is that who makes you want to torture and kill them slowly then revive them just to do it all over again and Magdor fulfilled that role to perfection.
I've seen people complaining about the lack of spice in the book but I didn't mind it in the slightest. There's too many authors lately that feel this need to put spice every few chapters that takes from the essence of the story or the main character's relationship development. I have to note tho that until the second half ( maybe even further still) there wasn't much romance to be developed but the little bits and pieces that I got, I adored and couldn't find fault in them. Drake and Kyra are the perfect ship( sorry Bluelance but you've been overthrown).
As for Cassius and Austyn there was even less romance, nearly non-existent but the ✨potential✨, my god, I'll wait forever if I have to to see those them together at last.
The highlight of the story goes to Drake and Cassius' friendship tho. These two that have literally nothing in common learn to work together and forge a bond. Sure, in Drake's words they'd rather eat their own feet than admit to it and most of their interaction are exchanged insults but damn it if I didn't enjoy every barb that was thrown.
In true Devil Sisters fashion, the last quarter was heat- griping, earth-shattering, mind-blowingly insane. And ofc, it ends with a cliffhanger. It you hate those, do your a favour and wait for the next... but it's worth it.
The only problem that I had with the book was how long it was. It's heavyly detailed with some of the information repeated over and over again. Drake alone was described at least four times.
Dear Miss Peckham, Miss Valenti, you can do so well with short stories and AKOGAR is a prime example of it so please, for the love of all the magnificent dragons and fairy tales, cut the crap, get to the point and please please please don't drag the story on unnecessary for the sake of more books( ehem, ZA ladies). And while we're at it, could you please write faster? I need the next book asap. Thank you, love you :)
August 3, 2023
Annnnd I’m out. And I think I’m done with the twisted sisters (gasp!!!). Their endings are just not worth this level of torture. If you’ve been on the fence about reading this because you’ve endured the psychological warfare of some of their other series…then save yourself. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, take the blue pill and remain blissfully unaware of this book.
Where do I even begin? These characters are excruciatingly awful. This is supposed to be a retelling of Aladdin? Let’s break this down, then….
Princess Jasmine // Princess Austyn
Oh no, another princess lamenting about being trapped in a gilded cage. This girl is so boring. Oh did we mention that she’s A VEILED MAIDEN????? Which brings me to….
Aladdin pt. 1 // Cassius
It’s like they split the character of Aladdin into 2 annoying entities. Cassius (or Casteelius Lazaro Da'Neer as I am referring to him) - who also goes by CAS are you even fucking with me right now - is the royal guard who just won’t quit. His blind allegiance to his empire is completely aggravating and downright campy, especially at the end. I did feel bad for him with that ending (no spoilers). So he’s the “good” side of Aladdin.
Aladdin pt. 2 // Drake
The “street rat” part of Aladdin - this guy is the literal fucking worst piece of shit I have ever tortured my eyeballs with. All of his POV chapters center on his overwhelmingly inflated ego - he’s hot, he has a huge cock, he has a “sex affinity”, he’s the best thief, oh, and he only gives a shit about himself. By his 2nd POV chapter, I was over it. I love a cocky alpha-hole but USUALLY there are maybe 1 or 2 positive moral values for us to hold on to? Not Drake. There’s not one single redeeming quality about him. Please, sir, show yourself to the nearest trash can.
Genie // Kyra
The only mildly interesting character, and it’s because she’s an absolute crackpot who’s been locked up alone for so long she’s lost her grip on reality.
Jafar // Magdor
I dunno, some evil empress who is most definitely the priestess of some ancient goddess of death & destruction, and she’s using her creepy Jafar powers to hold sway & influence over the emperor. She’s such a cliche, I thought I might give myself a brain aneurysm from rolling my eyes so hard.
The big enchanted tiger head in the desert // some dragon
She came out of nowhere but spits prophecies and curses out, so, yeah. She’s the big tiger head.
So yeah, there’s our cast. As other reviews mention, the pacing of this is beyond terrible. Sure, we need to understand the characters, their motivations, do some world-building. But not 60% of the book!!! And it was all so repetitive…I almost quit 93485012384 times just from having to read how much Drake wants to suck his own dick. Honestly, this whole book just felt like a word count competition. NO THANKS.
I have done nothing but try to bleach my fucking brain from the memory of reading this.
Where do I even begin? These characters are excruciatingly awful. This is supposed to be a retelling of Aladdin? Let’s break this down, then….
Princess Jasmine // Princess Austyn
Oh no, another princess lamenting about being trapped in a gilded cage. This girl is so boring. Oh did we mention that she’s A VEILED MAIDEN????? Which brings me to….
Aladdin pt. 1 // Cassius
It’s like they split the character of Aladdin into 2 annoying entities. Cassius (or Casteelius Lazaro Da'Neer as I am referring to him) - who also goes by CAS are you even fucking with me right now - is the royal guard who just won’t quit. His blind allegiance to his empire is completely aggravating and downright campy, especially at the end. I did feel bad for him with that ending (no spoilers). So he’s the “good” side of Aladdin.
Aladdin pt. 2 // Drake
The “street rat” part of Aladdin - this guy is the literal fucking worst piece of shit I have ever tortured my eyeballs with. All of his POV chapters center on his overwhelmingly inflated ego - he’s hot, he has a huge cock, he has a “sex affinity”, he’s the best thief, oh, and he only gives a shit about himself. By his 2nd POV chapter, I was over it. I love a cocky alpha-hole but USUALLY there are maybe 1 or 2 positive moral values for us to hold on to? Not Drake. There’s not one single redeeming quality about him. Please, sir, show yourself to the nearest trash can.
Genie // Kyra
The only mildly interesting character, and it’s because she’s an absolute crackpot who’s been locked up alone for so long she’s lost her grip on reality.
Jafar // Magdor
I dunno, some evil empress who is most definitely the priestess of some ancient goddess of death & destruction, and she’s using her creepy Jafar powers to hold sway & influence over the emperor. She’s such a cliche, I thought I might give myself a brain aneurysm from rolling my eyes so hard.
The big enchanted tiger head in the desert // some dragon
She came out of nowhere but spits prophecies and curses out, so, yeah. She’s the big tiger head.
So yeah, there’s our cast. As other reviews mention, the pacing of this is beyond terrible. Sure, we need to understand the characters, their motivations, do some world-building. But not 60% of the book!!! And it was all so repetitive…I almost quit 93485012384 times just from having to read how much Drake wants to suck his own dick. Honestly, this whole book just felt like a word count competition. NO THANKS.
I have done nothing but try to bleach my fucking brain from the memory of reading this.
January 28, 2025
2.5 stars.
This took me over a year to get through and I would have hard dnfed it if I didn't want to complete these author's backlist (I still have some books to go to achieve that). All of the characters felt flat to me and the story was really slow and uninteresting at times. RTC.
The plot and characters
A game of malice and greed is a multi POV fantasy book that is an Aladdin retelling (it's very loosely based on Aladdin). It follows Drake, Cassius, Aystun and Kyra. Drake is an orphaned thief who has never lived an easy life and hates the nobles for getting to live one and for not caring about the poor people. In Drake's world every man is for himself and Drake only cares about doing what he has to to survive. He is also extremely vain and I quickly got sick of him saying how handsome his face was and how he could get any woman into his bed because he has a sex affinity 🙄. The "Not the face" comments during intense action scenes were really annoying. Meanwhile Cassius is a royal guard for the emperor and his daughter Princess Aystun and he is infatuated with her. One day Cassius sees her face and he is sentenced to death by her evil stepmother Magdor. He meets Drake in prison and they dislike each other immediately but they agree to work together to find a mysterious coin and escape prison. They do find the coin and Kyra comes out it and Drake is now her master and she has to do whatever he wants, which she willingly does because she is so happy to be free of the coin. Meanwhile Aystun is forced to do what Magdor wants and compete in an outdated pageant for her hand in marriage and her future husband will become the emperor and rule the empire instead of her, even though she is the emperor's daughter. She really hates Magdor and can see through her picture perfect image to everyone to how she really is.
The romances
They were not good, which is surprising because these authors usually write really good romances.
Kyra and Drake: Kyra was only in love with him because he rescued her from the coin, which I found to be pathetic. She was so spineless and naive, which is strange because she was the complete opposite of that in the novella set before this book. Also I cannot see Drake settle down in a relationship because he literally flirted with every woman that he saw.
Cassius and Aystun: This was total infatuation. They had one cute moment pretty late in the book but he was under a spell to look like Drake so she didn't know who he was. They barely know each other but I know these authors can still do romantic tension early on in a series because they did it so well with Darcy Vega and Lance Orion in books 1 and 2 of the Zodiac academy series.
Conclusion
I will read the next book whenever it comes out (it seems like the authors have given up on this series because it's been almost two years since this one came out) but I don't have high expectations for it after this one.
This took me over a year to get through and I would have hard dnfed it if I didn't want to complete these author's backlist (I still have some books to go to achieve that). All of the characters felt flat to me and the story was really slow and uninteresting at times. RTC.
The plot and characters
A game of malice and greed is a multi POV fantasy book that is an Aladdin retelling (it's very loosely based on Aladdin). It follows Drake, Cassius, Aystun and Kyra. Drake is an orphaned thief who has never lived an easy life and hates the nobles for getting to live one and for not caring about the poor people. In Drake's world every man is for himself and Drake only cares about doing what he has to to survive. He is also extremely vain and I quickly got sick of him saying how handsome his face was and how he could get any woman into his bed because he has a sex affinity 🙄. The "Not the face" comments during intense action scenes were really annoying. Meanwhile Cassius is a royal guard for the emperor and his daughter Princess Aystun and he is infatuated with her. One day Cassius sees her face and he is sentenced to death by her evil stepmother Magdor. He meets Drake in prison and they dislike each other immediately but they agree to work together to find a mysterious coin and escape prison. They do find the coin and Kyra comes out it and Drake is now her master and she has to do whatever he wants, which she willingly does because she is so happy to be free of the coin. Meanwhile Aystun is forced to do what Magdor wants and compete in an outdated pageant for her hand in marriage and her future husband will become the emperor and rule the empire instead of her, even though she is the emperor's daughter. She really hates Magdor and can see through her picture perfect image to everyone to how she really is.
The romances
They were not good, which is surprising because these authors usually write really good romances.
Kyra and Drake: Kyra was only in love with him because he rescued her from the coin, which I found to be pathetic. She was so spineless and naive, which is strange because she was the complete opposite of that in the novella set before this book. Also I cannot see Drake settle down in a relationship because he literally flirted with every woman that he saw.
Cassius and Aystun: This was total infatuation. They had one cute moment pretty late in the book but he was under a spell to look like Drake so she didn't know who he was. They barely know each other but I know these authors can still do romantic tension early on in a series because they did it so well with Darcy Vega and Lance Orion in books 1 and 2 of the Zodiac academy series.
Conclusion
I will read the next book whenever it comes out (it seems like the authors have given up on this series because it's been almost two years since this one came out) but I don't have high expectations for it after this one.
March 5, 2023
Let me be the first to say that I absolutely hated this book.
➤ Drake
Our Aladdin here can’t do anything besides talk about his good looks and his skills in the bedroom, it was annoying and extremely tiresome. I love handsome and cocky men in books but I’m not joking when I say that every 3rd sentence has either to do with his oh so handsome face or his cock. He actually reminded me a bit of Seth but while Seth and his antics were amusing (he was a dog after all so his whole behavior basically made up for it), Drake doesn’t have any other qualities to balance out this "character trait" of his.
➤ Cassius
Such a boring character. Poor Cassius with a stick up his ass that got beaten into him ever since he joined the palace and gave up his life to the kingdom and therefore the royal family. I don’t even know what to say about him besides the aforementioned and that he has a crush on the princess.
➤ Austyn
Another character that I found extremely boring every time I got to her chapter. Maybe it’s the whole premise? Everything was so bleak and depressing from her POV seeing as everybody in the palace was under the oppression of Magdor, the evil empress. But to be fair, she might have been a more interesting character if she had more chapters? Idk.
➤ Kyra
The irony. From hating Kyra in the prologue novella to liking her the most out of all main characters. At least she was entertaining, seeing as she has lost her grip on reality and therefore acted all kinds of crazy trying to navigate the real world again.
It also didn’t hurt that she kept putting down Drake at every turn without even realizing.
➤ The plot
My god. The pacing in this book was atrocious. 800-900 pages for a first installment of a new series is crazy. A first book should introduce you to the characters and their circumstances, yeah, but also keep you entertained enough to want to keep reading. Not make me want to give up at every page-turn.
I always enjoyed the dynamics between the Zodiac Academy characters when they were all in one scene, at least then I knew there was a possibility of something exciting happening so I was holding out on that but nope, nothing of that sort happened or rather by then, I have already completely given up on the plot/characters/dynamics. The authors could have easily cut out 400-500 pages imo.
I mean just look at this:
Drake and Cassius meet pretty early on but it’s not until 40% until they meet Kyra. Then at around 70% all main characters are finally at one place but it’s still boring as hell seeing as they don’t interact, at least not all four of them. It’s not until 85% where the exciting stuff finally happens and the action of the plot starts but keep in mind that by then I have apparently already read like over 700? pages full of nothing. Drake is still vain as ever, Cassius is still a stickler for rules (albeit a tiny bit less than in the beginning I guess), and still no one is listening to the princess. Everything in between is mind-numbingly boring and hella repetitive. I think it was even worse for me who didn’t care for any of these characters really. It was truly tortuous. Suffice to say, I will not be reading the second book.
➤ Drake
Our Aladdin here can’t do anything besides talk about his good looks and his skills in the bedroom, it was annoying and extremely tiresome. I love handsome and cocky men in books but I’m not joking when I say that every 3rd sentence has either to do with his oh so handsome face or his cock. He actually reminded me a bit of Seth but while Seth and his antics were amusing (he was a dog after all so his whole behavior basically made up for it), Drake doesn’t have any other qualities to balance out this "character trait" of his.
➤ Cassius
Such a boring character. Poor Cassius with a stick up his ass that got beaten into him ever since he joined the palace and gave up his life to the kingdom and therefore the royal family. I don’t even know what to say about him besides the aforementioned and that he has a crush on the princess.
➤ Austyn
Another character that I found extremely boring every time I got to her chapter. Maybe it’s the whole premise? Everything was so bleak and depressing from her POV seeing as everybody in the palace was under the oppression of Magdor, the evil empress. But to be fair, she might have been a more interesting character if she had more chapters? Idk.
➤ Kyra
The irony. From hating Kyra in the prologue novella to liking her the most out of all main characters. At least she was entertaining, seeing as she has lost her grip on reality and therefore acted all kinds of crazy trying to navigate the real world again.
It also didn’t hurt that she kept putting down Drake at every turn without even realizing.
➤ The plot
My god. The pacing in this book was atrocious. 800-900 pages for a first installment of a new series is crazy. A first book should introduce you to the characters and their circumstances, yeah, but also keep you entertained enough to want to keep reading. Not make me want to give up at every page-turn.
I always enjoyed the dynamics between the Zodiac Academy characters when they were all in one scene, at least then I knew there was a possibility of something exciting happening so I was holding out on that but nope, nothing of that sort happened or rather by then, I have already completely given up on the plot/characters/dynamics. The authors could have easily cut out 400-500 pages imo.
I mean just look at this:
Drake and Cassius meet pretty early on but it’s not until 40% until they meet Kyra. Then at around 70% all main characters are finally at one place but it’s still boring as hell seeing as they don’t interact, at least not all four of them. It’s not until 85% where the exciting stuff finally happens and the action of the plot starts but keep in mind that by then I have apparently already read like over 700? pages full of nothing. Drake is still vain as ever, Cassius is still a stickler for rules (albeit a tiny bit less than in the beginning I guess), and still no one is listening to the princess. Everything in between is mind-numbingly boring and hella repetitive. I think it was even worse for me who didn’t care for any of these characters really. It was truly tortuous. Suffice to say, I will not be reading the second book.
March 31, 2023
Dnfed at 11%... Will probably pick it up later but I just cannot bring myself to read it right now. I have been on it for over a month and have not gotten any motivation to read this book since the last time I tried to read it, which was at the beginning of march.
Such a shame, I really love their other series's, this was was just really not for me, at least not right now. Wayy too long and descriptive, which slows down the book. And it was just very weird.
Such a shame, I really love their other series's, this was was just really not for me, at least not right now. Wayy too long and descriptive, which slows down the book. And it was just very weird.
March 15, 2023
3.75/5
I really loved the prequel novella, so make sure you read that one first!
What I didn't love: This one was a bit too long for my liking, and I felt like I couldn't really get into it for the first bit of the book. It felt like there was a lot of unnecessary inner monologue and things that were just feeling repetitive.
Cassius was a bit bland, I was hoping for more out of him.
What I did love: Kyra is my favorite character without a doubt. She is what sucked me into this world when I read the prequel novella and is the reason I held on and didn't turn back from reading this one. She truly had a heart of gold and just wanted to avenge her sister. Unfortunately she just kept getting the shit end of the stick which made me really feel for her.
Drake I absolutely loved. He cracked me up, I thought sometimes he was a little overboard, but all in all I really enjoyed his character. He reminded me of Seth and Leon a little bit, but I still love those two a bit more. ;)
I am glad the second half of the book picked up as far as the plot went because it pulled me back in and kept me intrigued.
I actually really liked the cliffhanger on this one, I'm excited to see what they bring us with book 2.
I really loved the prequel novella, so make sure you read that one first!
What I didn't love: This one was a bit too long for my liking, and I felt like I couldn't really get into it for the first bit of the book. It felt like there was a lot of unnecessary inner monologue and things that were just feeling repetitive.
Cassius was a bit bland, I was hoping for more out of him.
What I did love: Kyra is my favorite character without a doubt. She is what sucked me into this world when I read the prequel novella and is the reason I held on and didn't turn back from reading this one. She truly had a heart of gold and just wanted to avenge her sister. Unfortunately she just kept getting the shit end of the stick which made me really feel for her.
Drake I absolutely loved. He cracked me up, I thought sometimes he was a little overboard, but all in all I really enjoyed his character. He reminded me of Seth and Leon a little bit, but I still love those two a bit more. ;)
I am glad the second half of the book picked up as far as the plot went because it pulled me back in and kept me intrigued.
I actually really liked the cliffhanger on this one, I'm excited to see what they bring us with book 2.
March 8, 2023
I miss these characters already.
February 28, 2023
"Master, you have awoken me from my slumber and my power is now yours to wield. I am Kyra, Slave to the Coin, The Blessing, Keeper of Wishes, Maker of Dreams, and anything you command shall come to pass."
4.25 stars!
If you're a fan of the Twisted Sisters, then you know what to expect from their novels--dark humor, a little backstabbing and betrayal, plenty of twists to keep you guessing, and a heaping of sexual tension to keep things interesting. If you were a fan of Caroline and Susanne before the release of ZA, then you can probably appreciate the similarities between this series and their Forbidden Fairytales series (which I loved!) while also eagerly anticipating the twisty surprises the Sisters are known for...and they did not disappoint!
I was the trophy, the glossy little token for whichever suitors greased my father's palm enough to enter the pageant--an ancient, barbaric and entirely sexist tradition.
At the beginning of our tale, we meet Austyn, a princess who longs for her freedom and independence while she is trapped by ancient traditions and an empress who seems to control all. Her desperation for freedom and sense of hopelessness in the face of her predestined future were heart-wrenching to witness, but I loved watching her perform little acts of rebellion while fighting the advances of Kahn and her slight admiration for Count Nazari. Little does she know, there is someone from her past who admires her strength and resilience in the face of oppression and who would do anything to protect her...
I am number two hundred and eighty-seven, and I am made of steel. I am a warrior for Osaria. I cannot be broken.
Cassius, former Royal Guard and protector of the princess, is sentenced to death after he views the princess's face before her Unveiling. It's an act that changes the course of his life forever as he meets Drake the night before his sentence is scheduled to be carried out. Drake is the epitome of everything Cassius isn't--an arrogant thief whose only goal is self-preservation and gratification. Despite how opposite they are from each other, Cassius and Drake form a tentative truce as they are forced to rely on each other in order to achieve their goals--Drake of becoming emperor and Cassius of overthrowing the empress. However, both Cassius and Drake are willing to do whatever they have to in order to accomplish their goals which only serves to complicate their journey the deeper their connection appears to be.
I was a man of sin, a street thief, a liar, and a savage. But I would never be a coward.
Kyra, our innocent, naïve, yet quirky all-powerful being, was once again my favorite character of the story! She's just so unpredictable--having the ability to be completely ruthless yet wholly vulnerable at the same time--and I just love her craziness. I loved how Drake treated her as a sentient being from their first meeting and was so gentle with her, even though he broke his promise in the end. Cassius and Drake have such a great bromance, but I'm excited to see how their dynamic changes after everything that is unleashed on them. This novel was pretty PG-13 smut-wise, so I have to say that I'm ready for more between both couples in the next book!
Tropes: fairytale retelling, anti-hero, naive heroine, protector hero, strong heroine, magical being, forbidden love, hate-to-love-you, unrequited love, hero-on-the-run, hidden powers, royal romance, secret prophecy, bromance, cliffhanger ending (part of a series)
*ARC provided by the authors, and I voluntarily reviewed it*
--BONUS: Fairy Fair scene from Orion's POV--
If you didn't know, the preorder version of this book has two bonus ZA scenes--one of them being the Fairy Fair scene from The Reckoning from Orion's POV which is probably my favorite scene from the entire series. And y'all this bonus scene is so freaking glorious!! I pretty much highlighted the entire chapter, while my heart broke even more for my Orion babe🖤🖤 5++ stars!!
March 29, 2023
you have got to be kidding me?!?!
another book with million pages of nothing ... at least zodiac academy was entertaining and what is this?? someone is taking himself too seriously for such mediocre writing...
I am not wasting time reading this anymore...and I am not interested in the rest of the series!!!
another book with million pages of nothing ... at least zodiac academy was entertaining and what is this?? someone is taking himself too seriously for such mediocre writing...
I am not wasting time reading this anymore...and I am not interested in the rest of the series!!!
March 5, 2023
ALL MY REVIEWS CAN BE FOUND ON MY BLOG: ABSTRACT BOOKS
Star Rating : 4.5 / 5 Stars
POV : Multiple
Cliffhanger : Yes
Pace of the story : Moderate
Angst Rating : 6/10
Heat Rating : 6/10
Overall Opinion :
OMG , the sisters are back with another hit! I have been waiting for this series for a long time lmao , ever since I read the prologue novella and it's so amazing. Although this a new series and this is the first book of a new series so it was more of an introductory read but uff , the ending blew me. Like killed me. I want the next part now!!
The sisters are amazing authors as they invented my absolute favourite series , zodiac academy, and so I knew that I had to read another Fantasy romance by them because they are amazing in that genre. The angst , the humour, the scenes and every freaking word was amazing. There is just something about the way these authors frame their scenes and their books that totally hooks me in and before I know , i have read all of it.
This book as well , I read in a single sitting and it was as good as it was supposed to be. Definitely recommending this one to all the dark fantasy romance loving people out there. If generes like badass girls , jerk heroes , dark Romance , fantasy, paranormal, creatures and enemies to lovers are your cup of tea then don't miss this book. It will hook you in and before you know you will be willing to give everything to read this whole series 😂🫠🥹
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Want to read
February 4, 2023Imma make this my first book by these authors.
April 19, 2023
As always, the twisted sisters exceed expectations. This is one of the most clever and satisfying retellings I’ve ever read.
Read
March 10, 2023all i read was the lance bonus chapter and my will to live has returned tenfold
April 5, 2023
4.5
This Aladdin retelling has potential to be one of my new favorite series!
This book has everything I would have expected in a series debut. The world building is incredibly rich and different than anything I’ve read in a while. Even though Osaria is a desert kingdom, I really appreciate how the sisters didn’t make it seem like a run down, third world country, like a lot of people seem to assume from Arab or Arab-inspired countries. And I REALLY love how they wrote all the characters to be brown or black skinned. The magic system is also something completely unique, Fae being gifted several different Affinities that are connected to certain gods and their powers. And even though it’s a “retelling” only the skeleton of the plot is based off the story, everything else is so different and unique. I’m excited to see where this journey will take us.
The characters are also very well written and I’m excited to see what comes of them. The sisters continue to amaze me with how they’re able to write alllllll these different books with dozens of characters and still have them all be completely different. Oh, and there is almost zero romance in this book, but I appreciated that. Although this book was a thick boi, it was heavily focused on world building and setting up the plot, instead of forcing a romance right away. There is some nice flirting and banter, so you know there will be more romance in the future, but it didn’t make sense in this book and I’m glad it wasn’t the focus.
Let’s start with Kyra. 🧞♀️ She is our “genie” from the prequel book and probably my favorite of the series so far. My heart breaks for her and everything she has endured. She has such a fun personality, and such strength in her even after everything that’s happened to her. I can’t wait to see her regain her old self and become the badass we know she is.
Drake is our man of sin and woooowwwwweee is he HOT. 🥵🔥 This man is the definition of a bad boy you shouldn’t trust and a total asshole but omg. He had me drooling over him and his cocky attitude. (Do I have a problem? 😩) We get glimpses behind his rock hard exterior and I’m really excited to see his growth and journey throughout the rest of the series because I have a feeling this man has a heart of gold hidden somewhere. Probably deep, deep, deep, down, but I have faith it’s there.
Our ex-guard and man of steel Cassius is a nice addition with his unwavering loyalty and dry humor. His banter and bromance with Drake was hysterical and I can’t wait to see their relationship develop more. This man has been through his own trauma and seeing him slowly starting to figure out who he is without the guard is exciting. However, I will say that his obsession with Princess Austyn was very weird to me. It was way too aggressive for a man who has barely spoken more than a sentence to her and I personally found it cringey for how obsessive he was towards her at points. Especially because he mentions a few times how is he “much too old” for her so it’s really hard for me to imagine there ever being a possible romance between them.
Princess Austyn was fine. She doesn’t have that many chapters so I don’t really have an opinion on her but I admire her fierce spirit and now that she is entangled in this whole mess, I’m excited to see where this story will take her and learn more about her. Honestly, I don’t even want to see her romantically involved at this point. I just want to see her become a badass Emperor in her own right!
And finally, Madgor, our “Jafar” on crack. This woman is the embodiment of evil. She also gave hard Mother Gothel vibes whenever she spoke with Austyn and I was totally here for it. We definitely haven’t seen the last of her and I’m scared of what she’ll do next. 😬
All in all, this was a fantastic first book. The ending was wilddddd and I have no idea where this series is going to go (in a good way) and I’m SO excited to find out. If you’re a lover of the sisters book, I definitely recommend this!
Also, did anyone else picture Zym from The Dragon Prince at the end? Just me? 🐉🥰
This Aladdin retelling has potential to be one of my new favorite series!
This book has everything I would have expected in a series debut. The world building is incredibly rich and different than anything I’ve read in a while. Even though Osaria is a desert kingdom, I really appreciate how the sisters didn’t make it seem like a run down, third world country, like a lot of people seem to assume from Arab or Arab-inspired countries. And I REALLY love how they wrote all the characters to be brown or black skinned. The magic system is also something completely unique, Fae being gifted several different Affinities that are connected to certain gods and their powers. And even though it’s a “retelling” only the skeleton of the plot is based off the story, everything else is so different and unique. I’m excited to see where this journey will take us.
The characters are also very well written and I’m excited to see what comes of them. The sisters continue to amaze me with how they’re able to write alllllll these different books with dozens of characters and still have them all be completely different. Oh, and there is almost zero romance in this book, but I appreciated that. Although this book was a thick boi, it was heavily focused on world building and setting up the plot, instead of forcing a romance right away. There is some nice flirting and banter, so you know there will be more romance in the future, but it didn’t make sense in this book and I’m glad it wasn’t the focus.
Let’s start with Kyra. 🧞♀️ She is our “genie” from the prequel book and probably my favorite of the series so far. My heart breaks for her and everything she has endured. She has such a fun personality, and such strength in her even after everything that’s happened to her. I can’t wait to see her regain her old self and become the badass we know she is.
Drake is our man of sin and woooowwwwweee is he HOT. 🥵🔥 This man is the definition of a bad boy you shouldn’t trust and a total asshole but omg. He had me drooling over him and his cocky attitude. (Do I have a problem? 😩) We get glimpses behind his rock hard exterior and I’m really excited to see his growth and journey throughout the rest of the series because I have a feeling this man has a heart of gold hidden somewhere. Probably deep, deep, deep, down, but I have faith it’s there.
Our ex-guard and man of steel Cassius is a nice addition with his unwavering loyalty and dry humor. His banter and bromance with Drake was hysterical and I can’t wait to see their relationship develop more. This man has been through his own trauma and seeing him slowly starting to figure out who he is without the guard is exciting. However, I will say that his obsession with Princess Austyn was very weird to me. It was way too aggressive for a man who has barely spoken more than a sentence to her and I personally found it cringey for how obsessive he was towards her at points. Especially because he mentions a few times how is he “much too old” for her so it’s really hard for me to imagine there ever being a possible romance between them.
Princess Austyn was fine. She doesn’t have that many chapters so I don’t really have an opinion on her but I admire her fierce spirit and now that she is entangled in this whole mess, I’m excited to see where this story will take her and learn more about her. Honestly, I don’t even want to see her romantically involved at this point. I just want to see her become a badass Emperor in her own right!
And finally, Madgor, our “Jafar” on crack. This woman is the embodiment of evil. She also gave hard Mother Gothel vibes whenever she spoke with Austyn and I was totally here for it. We definitely haven’t seen the last of her and I’m scared of what she’ll do next. 😬
All in all, this was a fantastic first book. The ending was wilddddd and I have no idea where this series is going to go (in a good way) and I’m SO excited to find out. If you’re a lover of the sisters book, I definitely recommend this!
Also, did anyone else picture Zym from The Dragon Prince at the end? Just me? 🐉🥰
February 4, 2024
Everything the evil sisters write is literal magic. ✨
You bet I'm going to be reading this book immediately after it drops! ❤️
This review is for the Zodiac Academy Bonus Chapters included with the preorder of AGOMAG
My literal heart is served on a platter for the Peckham & Valenti duo. I've never loved a series and its characters so god damn much. The Fairy Fair from Orio's POV could be summed up to: "DEAR BRAIN, FUCK NO. SINCERELY, COCK. His grumpy ass has so much sass I'm here for it. Seeing into his head is always a pleasure. He and Blue are just it. Darius's POV was more heartwarming than I could have imagined. The little glass sphere was so heartfelt. Max will never not be an asshole.
5 stars ✨
#57 in my book reviewing slump
You bet I'm going to be reading this book immediately after it drops! ❤️
This review is for the Zodiac Academy Bonus Chapters included with the preorder of AGOMAG
My literal heart is served on a platter for the Peckham & Valenti duo. I've never loved a series and its characters so god damn much. The Fairy Fair from Orio's POV could be summed up to: "DEAR BRAIN, FUCK NO. SINCERELY, COCK. His grumpy ass has so much sass I'm here for it. Seeing into his head is always a pleasure. He and Blue are just it. Darius's POV was more heartwarming than I could have imagined. The little glass sphere was so heartfelt. Max will never not be an asshole.
5 stars ✨
#57 in my book reviewing slump
March 4, 2023
The Twisted Sisters seem to have a recent obsession with lengthy books. Even the way they promoted this book, boasting the word length multiple time shows they feel like the length is an asset and something they aimed for. Like many of their longer books I’ve read recently I found the length totally unnecessary and that it actually took away from the story by dragging out every moment and interaction.
I did enjoy the story and will definitely continue with the series but that could be due to a nostalgic enjoyment of the Disney version of Aladdin as this does follow the major plot points of that movie very closely for the most part. The most enjoyable part for me though was towards the end where the story branches off and becomes it’s own.
Admittedly I have not read many of the Twisted Sisters back catalogue mostly sticking to the stories set in the Zodiac Academy universe but I can definitely see repeated character types and an unoriginality to the crude humour they’ve also used in this book. It might be because I’m done with the innuendo filled speech of Washer and Geraldine from Zodiac Academy but as soon as it popped up in this book even in a more isolated way I found myself cringing and was relieved it didn’t continue beyond one short scene.
I did enjoy the story and will definitely continue with the series but that could be due to a nostalgic enjoyment of the Disney version of Aladdin as this does follow the major plot points of that movie very closely for the most part. The most enjoyable part for me though was towards the end where the story branches off and becomes it’s own.
Admittedly I have not read many of the Twisted Sisters back catalogue mostly sticking to the stories set in the Zodiac Academy universe but I can definitely see repeated character types and an unoriginality to the crude humour they’ve also used in this book. It might be because I’m done with the innuendo filled speech of Washer and Geraldine from Zodiac Academy but as soon as it popped up in this book even in a more isolated way I found myself cringing and was relieved it didn’t continue beyond one short scene.
March 2, 2023
I give this book 3.5 stars, which I know makes me a traitor to the sisters, but here we are.
The first half of this book felt like a really long journey through mud and quicksand, and left me wanting to turn back. If I needed to read again how Drake is a thief with no morals, or Cassius is loyal, I might have stopped reading. Much of the first half felt repetitive and unnecessary, and maybe could have been half as long.
Kyra on the other hand is the best! Broken, deranged, loyal, good-hearted, and all around the light in this book, I lived for her chapters, and for her spirit.
Thankfully the second half of the book picked up in storyline, action, deception, and intrigue. At this point, so many lies are being told, I kinda forgot what the truths were anymore!
This book does end on a pretty amazing cliffhanger, so be ready for it, but it won’t break your soul like some of the cliffies they leave us with.
The first half of this book felt like a really long journey through mud and quicksand, and left me wanting to turn back. If I needed to read again how Drake is a thief with no morals, or Cassius is loyal, I might have stopped reading. Much of the first half felt repetitive and unnecessary, and maybe could have been half as long.
Kyra on the other hand is the best! Broken, deranged, loyal, good-hearted, and all around the light in this book, I lived for her chapters, and for her spirit.
Thankfully the second half of the book picked up in storyline, action, deception, and intrigue. At this point, so many lies are being told, I kinda forgot what the truths were anymore!
This book does end on a pretty amazing cliffhanger, so be ready for it, but it won’t break your soul like some of the cliffies they leave us with.
March 5, 2023
Dnf at like 4%. I just can’t with these authors. I tried them with their highly rated zodiac academy series and hated it. The. I couldn’t understand what was wrong with me cause everyone loved it. So I tried with this because everyone was so excited for it. But like… just no. Firstly, my kindle said the book is 18 hours long. Sorry but, that’s insane. Secondly, their writing is just juvenile and not good. I also don’t like books with more than two POVs cause it’s just annoying and I can’t care about that many characters lol
Want to read
February 27, 2023This cover is absolutely gorgeous and I am so excited to see what the twisted sisters have cooked up for us in this one! 🥳
I'm fully prepared for them to both spoil and torture us with this loose fairytale retelling of Aladdin and Rapunzel that will follow multiple MF couples and will contain forbidden love, lost gods, and fallen fae! 😍🖤✨
I'm fully prepared for them to both spoil and torture us with this loose fairytale retelling of Aladdin and Rapunzel that will follow multiple MF couples and will contain forbidden love, lost gods, and fallen fae! 😍🖤✨
March 3, 2023
AGOMAG!! 4.5 ⭐️// .5 🌶️
Honey childdddd this book right here? It was thicc. I’m talking… THICCCC. 🤣 this was also a very slow burn book. Like, not only the romance, but the story itself. I’m not complaining though - I love a good slow burn. There was a lot of character and world building in the first 40% or so of this book. We are learning about each main character, the world, the surrounding empires, the political power struggle and history. There’s SO MUCH information that the Twisted Sisters have magicked up with their creative minds and fingers. Truly, so much to unpack and take in.
I highly suggest reading this book slowly. Yes, I know, as a fellow binge reader, what the actual heck, right?! But no, I’m serious. This book has SO much information going on, you need to savor it and enjoy it slowly to truly appreciate the story and lore.
ALSO!!! If you can, I absolutely highly suggest reading the prequel novella. It’s VERY helpful and gives you some insight and history of our beloved Kyra character.
So far, our mains are Drake, Cassius, Austyn and Kyra.
Drake is a ✨slightly✨ conceded, egotistical, sticky fingered thief in an elite gang of thieves with a pretty messed up past. He’s cocky and confident, but struggles sometimes to not be as selfish as he claims -and because of this, he gets in trouble.
Cassius has a quiet strength about him. A guard to the emperor, he followed in his father’s footsteps to be the best guard he could be. Then he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and his life was turned completely upside down.
Kyra. Baby girl. 😭 her story breaks my heart. She is known as The Blessing, her fragmented mind is hysterical but also so sad when you realize she’s been stuck for hundreds of not thousands of years in a golden prison - waiting for someone to let her out and use her to have wishes granted.
Austyn. A beautiful, feisty princess that has to hide her face from the world and must be married off after men fight to the death for her. All she has ever wanted was freedom and to make her own choices in life.
We get to follow each one of these characters throughout the story. Drake and Cassius’ relationship was one I didn’t know I needed until I got it. Their begrudging bromance was one for the books and it was so funny reading their banter and experiences they had to deal with. 🤣
I don’t wanna spoil anything, but I will say the only reason - and I mean this truly after sitting and stewing on it - the only reason this isn’t a perfect five star read for me was because I do feel like there was a lot of fluff/filler that could have been cut and not effected the story in any way. A lot of times it was hard to focus because I just couldn’t concentrate and the story sort of dragged because of all the filler. But the overall story, characters, world building, lore, and when the action HIT - phenomenal. Truly!! I am very excited about this series the sisters have given us. This is very different from their usual works - and I am here for it!
In natural twisted sister fashion, that cliffy was a DOOZY!! 🤣 but it will absolutely get you FIRED up for this series and the next book.
Thank you a million times over for this arc, I truly treasured it and am giving this review voluntarily because I just love the absolute heck out of these sisters. 😍
Honey childdddd this book right here? It was thicc. I’m talking… THICCCC. 🤣 this was also a very slow burn book. Like, not only the romance, but the story itself. I’m not complaining though - I love a good slow burn. There was a lot of character and world building in the first 40% or so of this book. We are learning about each main character, the world, the surrounding empires, the political power struggle and history. There’s SO MUCH information that the Twisted Sisters have magicked up with their creative minds and fingers. Truly, so much to unpack and take in.
I highly suggest reading this book slowly. Yes, I know, as a fellow binge reader, what the actual heck, right?! But no, I’m serious. This book has SO much information going on, you need to savor it and enjoy it slowly to truly appreciate the story and lore.
ALSO!!! If you can, I absolutely highly suggest reading the prequel novella. It’s VERY helpful and gives you some insight and history of our beloved Kyra character.
So far, our mains are Drake, Cassius, Austyn and Kyra.
Drake is a ✨slightly✨ conceded, egotistical, sticky fingered thief in an elite gang of thieves with a pretty messed up past. He’s cocky and confident, but struggles sometimes to not be as selfish as he claims -and because of this, he gets in trouble.
Cassius has a quiet strength about him. A guard to the emperor, he followed in his father’s footsteps to be the best guard he could be. Then he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and his life was turned completely upside down.
Kyra. Baby girl. 😭 her story breaks my heart. She is known as The Blessing, her fragmented mind is hysterical but also so sad when you realize she’s been stuck for hundreds of not thousands of years in a golden prison - waiting for someone to let her out and use her to have wishes granted.
Austyn. A beautiful, feisty princess that has to hide her face from the world and must be married off after men fight to the death for her. All she has ever wanted was freedom and to make her own choices in life.
We get to follow each one of these characters throughout the story. Drake and Cassius’ relationship was one I didn’t know I needed until I got it. Their begrudging bromance was one for the books and it was so funny reading their banter and experiences they had to deal with. 🤣
I don’t wanna spoil anything, but I will say the only reason - and I mean this truly after sitting and stewing on it - the only reason this isn’t a perfect five star read for me was because I do feel like there was a lot of fluff/filler that could have been cut and not effected the story in any way. A lot of times it was hard to focus because I just couldn’t concentrate and the story sort of dragged because of all the filler. But the overall story, characters, world building, lore, and when the action HIT - phenomenal. Truly!! I am very excited about this series the sisters have given us. This is very different from their usual works - and I am here for it!
In natural twisted sister fashion, that cliffy was a DOOZY!! 🤣 but it will absolutely get you FIRED up for this series and the next book.
Thank you a million times over for this arc, I truly treasured it and am giving this review voluntarily because I just love the absolute heck out of these sisters. 😍
Read
March 3, 2023tots just read the whole thing and didn’t skip to the darius chapter:))) I love you darius acrux
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