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Sign of the Knife
I clutched the knife under my cloak and stared at the flames rising into the night, stunned at what I'd just done. Oh, dear gods.
Mira is a fighter, an assassin for the elite Order. But when she's chosen to kill the crown prince, she kills the wrong person. As she struggles to fix her mistake before it costs her life, Mira begins to question everything she's ever known, including who she really is.
Sign of the Knife is an epic new fantasy about rebellion, redemption, and one young woman's search for her place in the ancient world.
Mira is a fighter, an assassin for the elite Order. But when she's chosen to kill the crown prince, she kills the wrong person. As she struggles to fix her mistake before it costs her life, Mira begins to question everything she's ever known, including who she really is.
Sign of the Knife is an epic new fantasy about rebellion, redemption, and one young woman's search for her place in the ancient world.
472 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 17, 2022
A great YA novel with adventure and romance and assassination. Everything you could ask for!
January 15, 2023
◦ I've received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ◦
⮞ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 ⮜
Mira - In the beginning and for most of the story gave me the impression she's easily gullible, but at the same time, she doubted so many things. It was such a big contrast between her thoughts and her feelings and loved that because her character was so raw, and sensitive but also so strong at the same time.
Roland - I hated him from the very beginning. When Mira started telling us her story about Roland, the first thought about him was "he groomed her" which gave me goosebumps and made me hate him even more. Along the way, you'll find out how disgusting he actually is and how he wasn't the good guy he was pretending to be. A wolf in sheep clothes, I tell you.
Joren - Was definitely portrayed as the bad guy with bad intentions and once you get to know him you see that everything is a lie. I had a bit of conflicted feelings towards him in general, because I felt his nice actions sometimes felt a bit too forced in the book and I didn't feel them genuine - I felt some of them were for the show, to show how good of a guy he is. Perhaps those scenes needed something extra, but not sure exactly what. I just felt some good acts on his part were just, maybe out of place or felt just off.
⮞ 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝-𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 ⮜
The world-building was beautiful made, even tho the majority of people other than the royal family were struggling - you could feel their struggles, you could tell how cruel the world was and their fear from day to day to make the ends meet. The cave scene was beautiful, I really loved the details given in there. Like a hidden world into the world.
⮞ 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝/𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 ⮜
The book kept me on my toes for the majority of it. I couldn't predict what was going to happen next. The only thing that I did predict was the truth about Roland and who he truly is - I kind of just saw right through him and I loved the way his story ended. Loved the ups and downs and the fact it was complicated to know who was the bad guy, who was the good guy, who to trust, and who you should stay away from. I definitely loved the conflicted feelings the book made me go through. The plot twists - some bigger than others were also not easy to see them coming, I just didn't see that ending and it left me speechless, which made me enjoy the book even more. One thing that made me give the book a 4-star review is the fact the difference between present and past reminiscence wasn't very clearly made, I had a hard time to figure it out what was going on - are we remembering stuff from the past, are we in the present? And also the difference between who speaks now vs the MC speaking sometimes was a bit tricky because their voices kind of blended together.
⮞ 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞/TW ⮜
The book in general isn't smutty. The romance is pretty closed doors, like holding hands, kissing - nothing else actually goes on. It's a pretty clean romance. However, I do think the book touched on some harsher subjects, such as the grooming of Roland. Even tho it is not said by the character, the way she's talking about how she met Roland and their whole relationship made me feel he groomed her big time, and also manipulated her. Besides that, there's also self-harm, losing a loved one, and also bloody scenes because they live in a harsh world and people die, and also poverty is part of the story too.
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⮞ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 ⮜
Mira - In the beginning and for most of the story gave me the impression she's easily gullible, but at the same time, she doubted so many things. It was such a big contrast between her thoughts and her feelings and loved that because her character was so raw, and sensitive but also so strong at the same time.
Roland - I hated him from the very beginning. When Mira started telling us her story about Roland, the first thought about him was "he groomed her" which gave me goosebumps and made me hate him even more. Along the way, you'll find out how disgusting he actually is and how he wasn't the good guy he was pretending to be. A wolf in sheep clothes, I tell you.
Joren - Was definitely portrayed as the bad guy with bad intentions and once you get to know him you see that everything is a lie. I had a bit of conflicted feelings towards him in general, because I felt his nice actions sometimes felt a bit too forced in the book and I didn't feel them genuine - I felt some of them were for the show, to show how good of a guy he is. Perhaps those scenes needed something extra, but not sure exactly what. I just felt some good acts on his part were just, maybe out of place or felt just off.
⮞ 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝-𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 ⮜
The world-building was beautiful made, even tho the majority of people other than the royal family were struggling - you could feel their struggles, you could tell how cruel the world was and their fear from day to day to make the ends meet. The cave scene was beautiful, I really loved the details given in there. Like a hidden world into the world.
⮞ 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝/𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 ⮜
The book kept me on my toes for the majority of it. I couldn't predict what was going to happen next. The only thing that I did predict was the truth about Roland and who he truly is - I kind of just saw right through him and I loved the way his story ended. Loved the ups and downs and the fact it was complicated to know who was the bad guy, who was the good guy, who to trust, and who you should stay away from. I definitely loved the conflicted feelings the book made me go through. The plot twists - some bigger than others were also not easy to see them coming, I just didn't see that ending and it left me speechless, which made me enjoy the book even more. One thing that made me give the book a 4-star review is the fact the difference between present and past reminiscence wasn't very clearly made, I had a hard time to figure it out what was going on - are we remembering stuff from the past, are we in the present? And also the difference between who speaks now vs the MC speaking sometimes was a bit tricky because their voices kind of blended together.
⮞ 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞/TW ⮜
The book in general isn't smutty. The romance is pretty closed doors, like holding hands, kissing - nothing else actually goes on. It's a pretty clean romance. However, I do think the book touched on some harsher subjects, such as the grooming of Roland. Even tho it is not said by the character, the way she's talking about how she met Roland and their whole relationship made me feel he groomed her big time, and also manipulated her. Besides that, there's also self-harm, losing a loved one, and also bloody scenes because they live in a harsh world and people die, and also poverty is part of the story too.
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February 5, 2023
I listened to Sign of the Knife start to finish today. This was not your standard YA fantasy romance. The story was has points that followed predictable plot points, but also a lot of it was unexpected. My family was looking at me like I was crazy at several points towards the middle 2/3 of the book because I was yelling "BECAUSE ITS YOU IDIOT".
Mira is the older sister of two, and rheir mother passed away very recently before the story started. Their land is ruled by tyrant Derek (again, listened, so I could have spelling wrong, but is that the least scary name for an evil king ever?!?), and young Mira gets literally groomed into joining this group of rebels planning to assassinate the king and his son, Joren.
Because Mira looks like a silly little farm girl, the group of rebels decide she is perfect to do the assassinating.
Obviously, if things were what they seemed, we wouldn't have a book. The world building is great, Roland is a douche, and Victoria is a spectacular narrator who should narrate all the things because her voices are phenomenal and I'm not just saying that because I know her.
Story was 4 stars. Victoria was 5.
Try if you like solid world building, clean romance, medieval type fantasy, YA, and unexpected endings.
Mira is the older sister of two, and rheir mother passed away very recently before the story started. Their land is ruled by tyrant Derek (again, listened, so I could have spelling wrong, but is that the least scary name for an evil king ever?!?), and young Mira gets literally groomed into joining this group of rebels planning to assassinate the king and his son, Joren.
Because Mira looks like a silly little farm girl, the group of rebels decide she is perfect to do the assassinating.
Obviously, if things were what they seemed, we wouldn't have a book. The world building is great, Roland is a douche, and Victoria is a spectacular narrator who should narrate all the things because her voices are phenomenal and I'm not just saying that because I know her.
Story was 4 stars. Victoria was 5.
Try if you like solid world building, clean romance, medieval type fantasy, YA, and unexpected endings.
July 29, 2023
Note: I received an audible copy in exchange of an honest review.
Its plot is predictable in the fantasy genre. But it is fast-paced. Each scene has a purpose and it doesn’t linger just for the sake of fluffing up the pages.
It doesn’t have the most complex world building. But assassin fantasy stories? Small village girl. Countries divided by war, treaties and a rebellion? How could I resist? In one moment, your heart is racing because of the dangers the protagonist experience. In the next, you want to melt because of the romance. And then you’re at the edge of your seat because decisions! Choices!
Mira is plucked & groomed to assassinate the king and his evil son, Joren. Evil son who, as we progress and his actions show his character, makes us - and Mira - doubt whether he was such a big bad meanie. At first, her naïveté is obvious as I’m SCREAMING at her from my phone. But this is a story of redemption and the growth, the learned experiences, the unlearning of what was previously taught was entertaining.
Also, I said it was predictable but the unpredictable ending alone turned my expectations around.
Its plot is predictable in the fantasy genre. But it is fast-paced. Each scene has a purpose and it doesn’t linger just for the sake of fluffing up the pages.
It doesn’t have the most complex world building. But assassin fantasy stories? Small village girl. Countries divided by war, treaties and a rebellion? How could I resist? In one moment, your heart is racing because of the dangers the protagonist experience. In the next, you want to melt because of the romance. And then you’re at the edge of your seat because decisions! Choices!
Mira is plucked & groomed to assassinate the king and his evil son, Joren. Evil son who, as we progress and his actions show his character, makes us - and Mira - doubt whether he was such a big bad meanie. At first, her naïveté is obvious as I’m SCREAMING at her from my phone. But this is a story of redemption and the growth, the learned experiences, the unlearning of what was previously taught was entertaining.
Also, I said it was predictable but the unpredictable ending alone turned my expectations around.
August 31, 2023
Out now [Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an Audible copy for review!]
Rating: 4/5 stars
Mira is a reluctant assassin charged with killing the crown princess, but a tragic mistake sets in motion a chain of events that upends everything she thinks she knows about herself and her world.
I went into this one almost completely blind and ended up really enjoying it! The premise was a super interesting one, Mira was a unique character, and the audiobook was really well done with a good narrator.
I did want a bit more world building earlier on—it felt like it a took me a while to really understand the politics or the main conflict. Still, I generally found the plot straightforward and easy to follow, with just enough twists and turns to keep me entertained (I did see the two “main” twists coming, but was TOTALLY surprised by the ending!)
Overall, a solid stand-alone fantasy that I recommend, especially if you have KU!
Recommended to anyone, but especially if you like: assassin stories; stand-alone fantasy; books about self-discovery
CW: Blood/violence/murder/death, grief, elements of self-harm and mild suicidal thoughts
Rating: 4/5 stars
Mira is a reluctant assassin charged with killing the crown princess, but a tragic mistake sets in motion a chain of events that upends everything she thinks she knows about herself and her world.
I went into this one almost completely blind and ended up really enjoying it! The premise was a super interesting one, Mira was a unique character, and the audiobook was really well done with a good narrator.
I did want a bit more world building earlier on—it felt like it a took me a while to really understand the politics or the main conflict. Still, I generally found the plot straightforward and easy to follow, with just enough twists and turns to keep me entertained (I did see the two “main” twists coming, but was TOTALLY surprised by the ending!)
Overall, a solid stand-alone fantasy that I recommend, especially if you have KU!
Recommended to anyone, but especially if you like: assassin stories; stand-alone fantasy; books about self-discovery
CW: Blood/violence/murder/death, grief, elements of self-harm and mild suicidal thoughts
July 25, 2023
This book is set in a time of fantasy. Mira is a from a small village but dreams of being more and helping people. With a talent with blades and none for embroidery when her mother passes she has to make plans to change her life. It’s a story of finding one’s self, a love story and the battle to control the kingdoms. There is action and some serious tension. There’s betrayal and redemption. There is love and heart ache.
The narrator does well giving each character a personality and emotions. She takes the characters through emotions with her inflection and was easy to listen to.
Overall the story just kind of ended abruptly and it was just over. That’s the only reason I really gave it four stars. I’m not going to go into details because I don’t want to ruin anything but maybe an epilogue would be good addition.
The narrator does well giving each character a personality and emotions. She takes the characters through emotions with her inflection and was easy to listen to.
Overall the story just kind of ended abruptly and it was just over. That’s the only reason I really gave it four stars. I’m not going to go into details because I don’t want to ruin anything but maybe an epilogue would be good addition.
November 17, 2022
This is the kind of book that makes you lose sleep in the best kind of way. The author is such an incredible universe-builder that you can easily become invested in the story and the characters to the point of losing track of time. I just hope there is a sequel so that I can become lost in this world again! More Mira please!!!
November 18, 2022
Mira didn't want to be an assassin, but she is. She is inadvertently responsible for the explosion that killed several people, including her own sister. But it didn't kill the one person it was supposed to kill: Prince Joren. And now, he is on the hunt for Mira. This is a book you'll want to read in one sitting!
February 19, 2023
More please
Throughout this book I kept saying to myself, “Did that really happen? and OK. So what will happen next?” This is an awesome book with surprises and challenges that just don’t seem fair for a character to endure. Will there be a book two so I can read what happens next?
Throughout this book I kept saying to myself, “Did that really happen? and OK. So what will happen next?” This is an awesome book with surprises and challenges that just don’t seem fair for a character to endure. Will there be a book two so I can read what happens next?
January 13, 2023
This book might seem long at 400+ pages, but is a easy, fast paced read. I enjoyed the story and the rich world building. I'd definitely like to read more stories set in this world. I really liked Mira, the main protagonist, and couldn't help but root for her...
November 29, 2022
This is a phenomenal story. The characters are real and the deception, manipulation done by the villan is so true to life. Buckle up when you read this. It is not to be missed.
July 20, 2024
All the feels!
Amazing book! I loved the adventure, the love story, and unexpected twists and turns. I hope there is a sequel coming.
Amazing book! I loved the adventure, the love story, and unexpected twists and turns. I hope there is a sequel coming.
August 29, 2023
This is a fast paced and adventurous story about a trained assassin. Though realistically shes not a very good assassin lol. The story is mainly about her redemption arc. There is a bit of romance though mostly slow burn and star crossed. I received this audiobook to give an honest review. I really liked this story and would recommend it! The narrator Victoria Connolly did an incredible job as well.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews