King of Fools

I have received a copy of this book through a giveaway hosted by the author. This has not affected my rating or review in any way.

Pre-Reading Updates

3/5/2018:in W2S's voice IT'S BLUE!!! IT'S BLUUUEEE!!!!!

took me ages to finish this one, didnt like it as much as the first book. kinda meh

I really wanted to love this book as much as I did the first in the series. And I did love so many things about it, but Enne...I just couldn't believe in our protagonist. It was too far a leap to get her to ruthless gang lord in such a short time. I wanted her to struggle more with what happened at the Shadow Game, her conflicting feelings for Levi, etc. I loved Jac (my fave ... he's coming back to life somehow, right? Right?) and Levi and later the introduction of Sophia and the evilness of Vianca, but Enne was just too shallow which sadly distracted me from all the other wonderful elements of this book.

I will say, the ending was a fantastic hook that promised good things to come. I'm going to hold out hope that Enne develops some depth in the meantime...and also that Jac finds his way back somehow (hidden talent?)

Pros:
- This book starts up shortly after the ending of Ace of Shades. And you are right back in the City of Sin, but the world is expanded in this novel. We get to see more of the South Side and learn more about the history of New Reynes. I actually really enjoyed the expansion of the world and seeing more that was going on beyond the Shadow Game and Levi and Enne's search in the first book.
- This book brings a lot of new characters into the fold and also shows us more about the “secret society” within New Reynes and how everything is connected. This goes along with the expansion of the world, but I enjoyed having more characters to meet and learn about their talents and their backstory. I have to say Grace and Tock were some of my two favorites in this book.
- I also love that even though some parts of the story were wrapped up in this book, there was still the bombshell at the end leading you to believe way mroe is going on than what we know about and I have so many questions after finishing (even though I will say it is still frustrating to have a cliffhanger like that when it will be at least a year before the third book is out).

Cons:
- So the first book was solely a story of finding Enne's mother and what happened to her. This book I thought was going to be about Enne's dealing with the revelation at the end of Ace of Shades but I really feel like this aspect was ignored in this second book. This really bothered me because it does not seem believable to me. I think there should have been a bigger focus on it from Enne's perspective.
- I also would have liked to have more of Lola in this book. I really liked her in the first book, but I feel like we focused more on Jac in this book and his story as it related to the main plot. Maybe in the third book, we can get some of her POV!

Thanks to Inkyard Press and NetGalley for an early copy of this book!