BOOKS | Review: Labyrinth's Heart by M.A. Carrick

Name: Labyrinth's Heart (Rook & Rose #3)

Author: M.A. Carrick

Publisher: Orbit

Date published: August 2023

Genre: Fiction, adult, fantasy

Pages: 632

Rating: 5/5 

May you see the face and not the mask.
Ren came to Nadežra with a plan. She would pose as the long-lost daughter of the noble house Traementis. She would secure a fortune for herself and her sister. And she would vanish without a backward glance. She ought to have known that in the city of dreams, nothing is ever so simple.
Now, she is Ren, con-artist and thief. But she is also Renata, the celebrated Traementis heir. She is Arenza, the mysterious pattern-reader and political rebel. And she is the Black Rose, a vigilante who fights alongside the legendary Rook.
Even with the help of Grey Serrado and Derossi Vargo, it is too many masks for one person to wear. And as the dark magic the three of them helped unleash builds to storm that could tear the very fabric of the city apart, it's only a matter of time before one of the masks slips - and everything comes crashing down around them.

- From Goodreads. 

This was a really fantastic third and final book in the Rook & Rose trilogy. It really kept up the tension and surprises right to the end and the ending wrapped up everything perfectly. With each book I've thought I knew what we were leading towards for the climax, but usually what I think is going to happen at the end happens halfway through and then the book takes you on a completely unexpected journey! It made things very exciting!

The books also did a great job of having a new villain or challenge for the characters in each one, while still following the overall arc of the series plot. It kept things refreshing while also making sure each book flowed well into the next.

I loved that the themes that had slowly been developing over the first two books really got explored in this final book and came to conclusions that felt very thoughtful. The story really showed that you can choose your own family and find people who really love and understand you, no matter where you come from or what struggles you faced in your past. It showed that you can find strength and courage even when everything around you seems terrifying and hopeless. I think it balanced the different roles of friendship, romance, and family really well and I felt it was really emotional at the end.

I think each character got their moment to shine and that was impressive considering how large the cast was by the end. I loved Ren and Grey even more with each book and I felt the ending they got really was right for them and and made me really happy.

Overall, this was a wonderful book and excellent conclusion to the series. I would definitely recommend it if you enjoy the incredibly detailed world building of Samantha Shannon's books, and the intricate politics of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison and the complicated but also loveable characters of both. I think this will certainly become a favourite series of all time for me! 

BOOKS | Review: The Liar's Knot by M.A. Carrick

Name: The Liar's Knot (Rook & Rose #2)

Author: M.A. Carrick

Publisher: Orbit

Date published: December 2021

Genre: Fiction, adult, fantasy, romance

Pages: 639

Rating: 5/5

Trust is the thread that binds us... and the rope that hangs us.
In Nadezra, peace is as tenuous as a single thread. The ruthless House Indestor has been destroyed, but darkness still weaves through the city’s filthy back alleys and jewel-bright gardens, seen by those who know where to look.
Derossi Vargo has always known. He has sacrificed more than anyone imagines to carve himself a position of power among the nobility, hiding a will of steel behind a velvet smile. He'll be damned if he lets anyone threaten what he's built.
Grey Serrado knows all too well. Bent under the yoke of too many burdens, he fights to protect the city’s most vulnerable. Sooner or later, that fight will demand more than he can give.
And Ren, daughter of no clan, knows best of all. Caught in a knot of lies, torn between her heritage and her aristocratic masquerade, she relies on her gift for reading pattern to survive. And it shows her the web of corruption that traps her city.
But all three have yet to discover just how far that web stretches. And in the end, it will take more than knives to cut themselves free...

- From Goodreads. 

This was an excellent second book in this trilogy. It did not suffer at all from the problem some middle books have where the action and intensity dips, in fact it felt like enough happened that this could have been a final book in a series! It definitely met the expectations set by the first book and I'll be excited to find out how things wrap up in the third!

I think all the character development was done very well in this book. Each character had a different personal journey but they still all linked to each other's stories, and even the smaller side characters had good development. I still cared about each main character and became even more deeply invested in them.

I enjoyed that we got more romance in this book with a couple of different relationships, I think the main romance was paced perfectly and felt like it meant a lot to the characters involved. It was very lovely and sweet and I cared a lot about their happiness together.

The character of the Rook was still very enigmatic even as we came to know more about them. It was fun to see how different characters interacted with them and how everyone was curious to solve the mystery of who they were. They had a great part to play in the story and I'm intrigued to see how that will continue in the next book.

The mysteries of the plot were still very fascinating in this book and it was thrilling to see how it all came to a conclusion at the end, I was pretty anxious to see how all the characters made it out of the situation at the end!

Obviously I loved this book just as much as the first and I will definitely be moving right onto the third and final book! I'm certainly nervous to see how it resolves and how it ends for each character, but I am sure it will be a thrilling adventure! 

 

BOOKS | Review: The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick

Name: The Mask of Mirrors (Rook & Rose #1)

Author: M.A. Carrick 

Publisher: Orbit

Date published: January 2021

Genre: Fiction, adult, fantasy

Pages: 643

Rating: 5/5

Fortune favors the bold. Magic favors the liars.
Ren is a con artist who has come to the sparkling city of Nadežra with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house, securing her fortune and her sister's future.
But as she's drawn into the elite world of House Traementis, she realizes her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her. And as nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the City of Dreams, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled... with Ren at their heart.

- From Goodreads. 

This was an incredible book. It had a bit of a slow start, but it was good to have some time to slowly get to know the characters and setting, as it was quite an intricate world with a lot of detail to take in. Once we got to about halfway through, the plot started to get more intense and action-packed and it was a struggle to put the book down at all as it became even more intriguing and exciting.

There were a lot of fascinating mysteries, and it was interesting to see how all the threads of the plot came to intertwine and how the different mysteries were connected. The mystery of who the Rook could be was especially intriguing and I loved following Ren as she tried to figure it out.

Ren was a great character to follow in general, she was very clever and resourceful and also also had a good heart, I really loved the bond she had with Tess and it was great to see how much they cared about each other.

Captain Serrado was another favourite character for me, his backstory and his conflicted feelings about his position were really compelling and I was always excited to see more from his perspective.

This really was a fantastic story and I will be excited to continue on and find out what happens in the next book!