“Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Enne must leave her finishing school—and her reputation—behind to follow her mother’s trail to the city where no one survives uncorrupted.
Frightened and alone, her only lead is a name: Levi Glaisyer. Unfortunately, Levi is not the gentleman she expected—he’s a street lord and a con man. Levi is also only one payment away from cleaning up a rapidly unraveling investment scam, so he doesn’t have time to investigate a woman leading a dangerous double life. Enne’s offer of compensation, however, could be the solution to all his problems.
Their search for clues leads them through glamorous casinos, illicit cabarets and into the clutches of a ruthless mafia donna. As Enne unearths an impossible secret about her past, Levi’s enemies catch up to them, ensnaring him in a vicious execution game where the players always lose. To save him, Enne will need to surrender herself to the city…
And she’ll need to play.”
This book evoked a lot of feelings from me and more than anything a lot of the little things in this book (like language, characters, etc.) annoyed me beyond expression. The concept sounded amazing but I still have mixed feelings about the execution.
On the topic of language; the characters use the word “lo” as a greeting and for whatever reason, this and their other made up language like “mucking” was annoying and unnecessary.
A lot of this book didn’t make sense. Rather than providing the dreaded information dump Amanda Foody somehow did…. the opposite. Information was mostly withheld and delivered in confusing manners. The world and blood talents sounded really cool but information like that wasn’t presented until at least a hundred pages into the story. Just as I was getting used to the world and understanding the author just threw in some new information that I was apparently already supposed to know??
Onto more stuff, I didn’t get. One of the attempts at a subplot is that the second in command of Levi’s gang tries to overthrow him with his provided reason being “You aren’t getting us enough money”. Up until that point, Chez (the second) completely supported Levi and then he suddenly turned… because of money? His betrayal is about as deep as a small puddle. I hope in the second book that’s fleshed out more.
I loved the location this book took place in, a dirty island that I could also imagine perfectly that was overrun with criminals and gangs. New Reynes fueled most of the story, with Enne seeking answers in the city and developing a lot as a character during her time there.
Enne develops a ridiculous amount during her time in The City of Sin. She goes from being an overconfident, snobby and naive girl to someone who can really handle herself. By the ending, I’d say Enne was almost a completely different person. On the contrary, Levi didn’t change much at all. He developed a crush for Enne but otherwise, he was practically the same character (excluding the fact his pride as damaged).
And let’s not forget the cheesy romance between Enne and Levi that was just thrown in there was only expressed in glances, butterflies to the stomach and thundering hearts. By that I mean nothing really happened besides an attempt at romantic chemistry that only worked half of the time. That being said, I still totally ship them…
Enne and Levi both have their perspective in the book. At first, I just enjoyed being able to see the city from both of their perspectives which were vastly different. Later in the story, it’s pretty obvious that this method of point of view is only used so the story has more than one clear plot line. Besides Enne deal with looking for her looking mother, there’s also Levi’s money owing issues. Together these two plot lines, some romance and a fair amount of betrayal a mediocre YA book was made. I feel that this series could get a lot better as it goes, so, for now, I’ll be waiting around hoping that Amanda Foody writes a sequel that tops the first book.
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