King of Fools by Amanda Foody ♛ 4.5 Star Review

“The city felt like the hush before a stage curtain lifted, but what the city waited for was war.”

The previous novel in this series, Ace of Shades, is one of my all time favorites and I’ve read it a couple of times. This was everything I could have hoped for in a sequel, and more, but I didn’t enjoy it quite as much because it was a bit slower paced. It was still a fantastic read, albeit a long one, so I ended up giving it 4.5 stars.

First and foremost, we have the characters. All of the cast from the last novel are back, but we’re also introduced to a vast array of new diverse and complex characters in this installment. With so many new people being thrown in at once, it could have been very easy for some of them to fall flat and feel one dimensional. But that did not happen here. Amanda Foody is truly talented at crafting characters and that shines through in King of Fools. I loved every single one of them, including the villains.

“Maybe your soul didn’t break like a bone. Maybe it broke like a promise.”

The setting of New Reynes was pretty fleshed out already, but there were still a lot of new and surprising twists in this one. There was even more world-building and we got to learn a lot more about all of the legendary gangs and crime families. Due to that fact, this was a lot darker read than Ace of Shades, but that’s what made it so original. We used to only have Enne’s and Levi’s POVs, but I was extremely excited that here we also got a POV from Jac! Seeing his struggle with addiction and overdose was so painful because I love him, but it was perfect for this story.

My absolute favorite thing about this whole novel however, is the new girl gang. They flaunt their femininity with lace gloves, by giving each other manicures, using face masks, and keeping up with juicy gossip in magazines. But they do all of this while being the most successful gang and one of the scariest in the entire city. It was perfect and I was LIVING for it.

“The City of Sin would learn that a pistol painted pink was just as lethal.”

The only downside to this wonderfully painful book was it’s length and pacing. Due it’s page count being over 600, it felt extremely long and just wasn’t as fast paced as I was used to from Ace of Shades. I understand that it was so long to help flesh out the new characters, and explore some more of the world, but I would have preferred it being a little shorter. Then it would have been a perfect read for me.

Rating: ★★★★.5

Amanda Foody is still one of my favorite authors even though this ending really hurt my heart. I’d highly recommend this series to all fantasy lovers, but especially those that liked Six of Crows, Caraval, or White Cat.

Have you read this series or do you want to? Let’s talk about it!

Sail.xx