Sallot Leon is an orphan and a thief. However, Sallot wants to escape that life as a highway robber living on the outskirts of society Sal wants to get close to the nobles that destroyed their family and their home. During a robbery, Sal comes across a piece of paper that features an audition to become a member of the Left Hand – the Queens elite and personal assassins. And Sal plans for the perfect infiltration to get revenge.

Mask of Shadows was a well-written high fantasy novel. There were instances of info-dumping and places where the plot became slow paced but it is an impressive debut. Mask of Shadows was an action-packed assassin in-training novel. Sallot was taking part in a competition to become an elite assassin for the Queen. The competition itself was full of high-stakes and it was very smart and detailed. Each competitor had to kill their opponents – without getting caught, and it made it an original and compelling read.

Mask of Shadows also featured a genderfluid protagonist, Sal. Sal liked to be referred to specific pronouns depending on how they dressed. I can’t speak for the rep, but I feel like Sal being gender-fluid was handled respectfully. I really liked Sal – they were motivated, daring, and funny.

I also loved the secondary characters. I was sometimes a little confused between who was who when the competitors were numbered – except for the main five. But I guess that held up the secrecy a little more and added to the atmosphere. I also really liked Ruby, Emerald, and Amethyst. I also found it really interesting how they were all named as well. I also really liked the subtle romance between Elise and Sal – definitely a highlight of the book.

I’ve seen this compared to Throne of Glass quite a lot, and while there are similarities there are also a lot of differences. Mask of Shadows has a much more developed and logical assassin competition and is much more diverse.

Overall, Mask of Shadows is an exciting and action-packed high fantasy that I would highly recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for giving me this book to review.

Mask of Shadows is a likeable dark fantasy book. Slow paced and I would have liked more world building and a cast of characters I could relate to more. Apart from the gender fluid protagonist, it felt like I had read this story before. Also with the war and the magic being gone from the world, this book felt like a new story but in a world that had already been established in previous books. While I liked that this book added some unique diversity to the YA fantasy genre, I wish that Sal being gender fluid was either given more or less importance in the story. This is because I felt most of the characters understood and accepted Sal but Sal acted as if this was unusual and got very emotional when people did accept them. Also, I will admit that I do not fully understand gender fluidity but one thing that bothered me was that it was Maud who was choosing Sal’s clothing, therefore I felt like it was Maud who was deciding Sal’s gender not Sal.

Sal was determined, hell bent on vengeance and rough around the edges but I just did not connect to them. Maud was my favourite character as she was honest and did not mince her words but as we got to know her better we got to see how caring she is and how much she has struggled. Elise is an OK scholarly character who is kind and intelligent.

This book has an interesting concept but ultimately it did not grab me as much as I hoped. I would recommend Mask of Shadows to fans of Throne of Glass.

Long Story Short: This was a good book, fast paced and filled with its fair share of action scenes but there was something missing, specifically the lack of deeper story or explanation to the gender fluidity and some world building plot holes.

Let’s talk more in detail:

I first saw Mask Of Shadows on NetGalley. A gender fluid YA protagonist? I hadn’t read a fantasy book with someone who identified as gender fluid much less a contemporary novel and so this fact, and the BEAUTIFUL cover, were these unique selling points in my head that made me go: NEED. TO. READ.

Sure, I liked the Assassins plot, and the competition to become an assassin but we’ve seen it before. The gender fluidity was supposed to make the book stand out, but it was BARELY TOUCHED UPON.

Post Reading THOUGHTS:

1. The world building was SO SUB PAR. It started off throwing a few facts at you, when a common thief magically decides to audition to serve the Queen who he/ she/ they “HAS ALWAYS LIKED.” These random facts keep hitting you. Later we find out that Sal’s country was destroyed by “Shadows” (WHAT. HOW. THESE ARE NOT EXPLAINED AT ALL) and Sal lost “his/her WHOLE WORLD” but WHO IS THIS WORLD? From where I sat, Sal had some motivation to do the things he/she/they was doing BUT I WAS NOT EMOTIONALLY INVESTED AT ALL BECAUSE I WAS GIVEN NO DETAILS TO FIND ANY EMOTION.

2. I like that this book was fast paced, all stab stab stab, and not slow like the last book I read (which nearly put me to sleep) and that kept me entertained. The last test, specifically was interesting and it had me hooked.

3. THERE WERE TWO DEATHS THAT WERE SO RIDICULOUS IN THIS BOOK THAT THEY MADE ME CRINGE. Honestly, they were some of my two favourite secondary characters and the manner of death, the way it was described and just WHY annoyed me to no extent.

4. Since this book name drops Sarah Maas in the beginning, I think it’s only fair to compare Sallot Leon to Celaena Sardothien (If that’s even her spelling. I can never get this right. WHY ARE FANTASY NAMES SO COMPLICATED?) When I was reading Throne Of Glass, I felt like Celaena was a GOOD ASSASSIN. She was dangerous, ruthless and well, GOOD. I didn’t feel that with Sallot. It seemed that Sal got by on luck and instinct which I wouldn’t have minded, considering where he/she/they came from BUT SAL DIDN’T IMPROVE OR GROW DURING THIS COMPETITION WHERE NOBODY LEARNT ANYTHING, which brings me to:

5. WHY WAS THE COMPETITION SO FAST PACED? If we were going to have Trials AND Classes, don’t these classes have to at least be long enough for the Auditioners to learn and master things, and not for two DAYS each?

6. I felt like the Genderfluidity could have been handled better. Or actually, handled MORE. It’s an important topic to talk about that I haven’t seen before in books but other than it being mentioned with Sal’s dressing sense

I had some high hoped for this book, I will admit. I give it stars for the fast pace, the fact that there was a lot of killing and that some parts of the plot were very unpredictable, but I WISH IT WAS BETTER and now I want to SOB because it COULD HAVE BEEN. 3 stars.

Since we heard the words “genderfluid assassin” about this book, pretty much the entire bookish community has been excited for Mask of Shadows. It’s hard enough to get genderfluid characters in contemporary YA, let alone, fantasy YA–and if you want to bring quality into the debate as we always should when discussing the representation of marginalized people, it’s probably going to end with someone crying. I’ve got a few small quibbles with the book, but Mask of Shadows is otherwise a solid debut.

Sal’s genderfluidity isn’t dwelled on, so if this book is the one to introduce you to the concept, it’s not going to walk you through things. Sal’s choice of pronouns depend on their choice of outfit for the day: she/her if wearing a dress or otherwise feminine clothing, he/him if wearing pants and a specific style of shit, and they/them if their outfit is more androgynous.

This approach relies heavily on the gender perceptions we the readers attach to clothing, which doesn’t gel with the internal logic of the world Miller builds. There’s a single character in the novel who misgenders Sal, but everyone else seems perfectly accepting of Sal’s gender identity. With such a lax attitude toward the fluidity of gender, it doesn’t seem like they would attach the same gendered ideas to clothing that our own society does.

Nevertheless, I’m a cis woman typing all this. A genderfluid person who reads the book might be perfectly fine with this representation, but I don’t currently know of any reviews of this book from genderfluid people. If I were still in college, I’d pass my copy along to my genderfluid friend Ten for his opinion. (Ten generally uses he/him pronouns but lets people know when his pronouns change.)

CRUD, I DIDN’T MEAN TO START WITH THE NEGATIVE. Okay, now the good stuff: Sal’s desperation for revenge against the nobles who let his entire country Nacea be wiped out by mages’ shadow creatures. Though some have called Sal bland, they’re determined to see their revenge through as soon as they learn about the auditions to become the queen’s new Opal assassin. Almost as soon as they learn of it, they make the massive leap from being a small-time thief and pickpocket to being a killer by murdering his heavily-wanted-by-the-government boss and using the man’s hand to get into the competition.

And that’s far from Sal’s only kill in the book. They’re willing to do absolutely anything to get at the two nobles most responsible for Nacea’s destruction. Such determination to do anything and cross all moral lines in the name of justice for the dead is my catnip, so Sal will be in my memory for a long time to come.

Though the plot is a bit predictable and the pacing is uneven, the book is just really fun. It seems like I’ve said more negative than positive about Mask of Shadows, but that doesn’t make it bad! The bad just needed more words to explain. The good is easily summed up as “Mask of Shadows is a fun romp with a vengeful, determined main character and queer people everywhere.”

If you loved Throne of Glass but wanted a more diverse cast and an assassin who kills people throughout the competition, Mask of Shadows will give you exactly that and more. Sal is ready to raze the land of the by the end of the book and I’m excited to see them do just that in the second book of this duology.

Mask of Shadows suffered from a shocking lack of depth in all respects. It’s a small puppy wanting so desperately to play with the big dogs when it comes to high fantasy thief plots. Having come from a summer of reading Six of Crows and The Lies of Locke Lamora, I know perfectly well what an intense, well written assassin heist plot should look like. Both the aforementioned series stressed me right out in the best ways. Why? Because the stakes kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed until it seemed like there was no way the protagonists would get out of their mission alive. I want to be holding my breath while reading these types of books and I just didn’t get that from Mask of Shadows because there were no stakes to be seen.

This particular nuance baffles me. From the very beginning, Sal’s trials and tribulations seem to be conveniently untangled for them with little fuss. The novel opens with a highway robbery (which, as a writer of highway robbers myself, I personally love when it’s done right), and the woman Sal has chosen to rob simply hands over her jewelry and money, they banter, and Sal goes on their merry way as if they hadn’t just threatened her. This sort of thing happens again and again and again throughout the novel, to the point of predictability.

Sal gets thrown into basically the entire plot of Throne of Glass (back when Throne of Glass still had the semblance of a plot). They have to compete against twenty-three other assassins to win a spot in the royal guard. You would think with each test, the stakes would be raised each time. If you’re gonna raise the bar like that, you have to make your readers anxious for the protagonist at one point or another. Instead, for every trial, Sal sets out their plan beforehand, and one way or another, they successfully complete their plan. This happened at least four times before I DNF’d with 100 pages to go. At that point, I no longer cared about finishing the book because I knew exactly what was going to happen. Miller leaves absolutely no room for surprise, and thus there’s nothing for her readers to really care about. The romance is boring, the background characters are all literally faceless numbers, and Sal’s a Mary Sue without any flaws or obstacles put in their way. As a result, there’s no development whatsoever. No relationships are made between characters because they’re nameless, faceless people out to kill one another Hunger Games style. There’s no consequences for Sal’s actions, and they just continually get what they wanted, because for the millionth time, there are no stakes in this novel!

As I suggested earlier, I picked this book up because I was having a bit of a heist-themed summer, and figured I’d add one more to my reading list. But another aspect that got me interested in this book in the first place was the fact that Sal is gender fluid, preferring to identify as she/he/they, depending on the clothes they choose to wear on any given day. Now, I know this is a fantasy world and Miller can build up whatever rules for societal expectations she wants (and to her credit, in terms of gender identity, she’s doing more than several high fantasy writers have done before her), but I can’t help but wonder why she chose to define Sal’s gender fluidity within the boundaries of the gender binary itself. She only identifies as a girl when she’s wearing girls’ clothes and he only identifies as a boy when he’s wearing boys’ clothes. I’m not nonbinary myself, so I can’t speak toward the nonbinary community any more than Miller can (although to be fair, I don’t know what her gender identity situation is, nor is it my business), but I feel like this is a sketchy, conformist way to approach gender fluidity. Especially since Sal gets so offended that people don’t automatically understand their gender just by looking at their clothes. Surely it’d be far simpler and more accurate representation if Sal simply identified as they and wore whatever because guess what? Clothes aren’t gendered, and boys can wear dresses and girls can wear pants. Of course people wouldn’t automatically assume you’re a boy because you’re wearing pants; girls wear pants all the time. I don’t understand this decision. So, I mean. Miller tried it, and I’m impressed Sourcebooks Fire went there, because publishers rarely take a risk on nonbinary protagonists like that. It’s one of the rare few books with nonbinary protagonists out there as a result, and to be fair, though it may not be an accurate depiction, it’s not an offensive one by any means. Given that Mask of Shadows is essentially a repeat of so many classic high fantasy tropes, the gender fluid protagonist is literally the only thing setting it apart. I just wonder if it’s enough, considering it is such a mediocre one-note story…

Would I recommend it to my nonbinary friends? No. Would I recommend it to people who loved Six of Crows and The Lies of Locke Lamora? Probably not. Would I recommend it over Throne of Glass? Absolutely. Because while Mask of Shadows’ development is incredibly shallow, it’s at least coherently written…

Well this was different. A young man who passes for a young woman to fight for a possision as an assassin.
It took me a while to get the jist of this story. There were a lot of characters and plots. It took me half the story just to figure out what was going on and then keeping track of everything.
I thought the "tests" were rather lame at times and some were downright grissley.
I am sure there are readers who will love this story and really get into it. However, I am not one of them. Sorry but it just didn't work for me.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I was so excited when I was sent this book. We have a deadly competition, a gender fluid MC and it's a new to me author. One thing (gender fluidity) and one author I haven't read before. Unfortunately, I found that this book was full of fantasy-books-with-a-competition-in-them clichés.

Everyone was labeled by a number so it was hard to connect with characters. I was so confused throughout that I almost gave up reading but I kept on.

One thing this book had going for it was the gender fluid main character, but even in that department I was disappointed. Gender fluidity was never blatantly talked about. Furthermore, it was never questioned. I really wanted to see it fleshed out more.

This story had great potential to be the start of an awesome fantasy series, but for me it just fell flat. I feel like Miller held back on some parts. That she was hesitant to write what she wanted to write and a good writer should always write what they feel and never hesitate. I really hope she rewrites this in the future because I'm up for rereading it if she does.

“I would remember them forever–their names, my reasons, the way their bodies slumped in death and their eyes stared through me. If I stopped, if I let their deaths weigh me down and keep me from being Opal, it was all for nothing. There was no going back. I was what I was, and they were a part of me now.”

How long has it been since I have done a full length book review? Legitimately it has probably been about two months. Yikes! I haven’t necessarily been in a reading slump but I haven’t felt that need to talk about what I’ve read, do you know what I mean? If a book leaves me with a “meh” feeling I just don’t have anything to say about it. I’ve been reading a lot of “meh” books. However, Linsey Miller’s Mask of Shadows left me with a different feeling.

I received Mask of Shadows from Netgalley back in July. To say it took me a bit to finish it would be an understatement. I just glanced at Goodreads and I started reading it on August 19th and didn’t finish it until today. Whoops. Now, you might think I didn’t read it quickly because I didn’t like it but that isn’t the case. What I really am is conflicted. Let’s break it down, shall we?

~Positives~

-The premise. A group of people in a competition to become one of the queen’s personal assassins. This group has to kill each other without getting caught and must impress the other three assassins currently employed as the queen’s Left Hand. Has the general premise been done before? Sure. Absolutely. Is it still fun? Hell yes it is.

-Definitive character personalities. Each character is very unique. There were no blurred lines or copies even though the cast was sizable. Our main character, Sal, is gender fluid which admittedly look some getting used to while reading. The typical he/she pronouns were not employed, they/them were used instead. This was the first book I read with a gender fluid character and, though I have little to no experience with that topic, it felt well done for the most part. In the first few chapters I did feel like it was made a bigger deal of than it should have been but maybe that was just personal preference.

-Sense of urgency. This was a winner take all competition, and if you didn’t win you probably died or were imprisoned. Miller did a great job of conveying that sense of urgency and peril. Some books I have read that have tried to portray that same feeling failed miserably so it was wonderful to see it well done.

-Setting. This competition takes places in a specific area of the capitol city in a young country. There was enough detail to make the setting clear without going overboard. I got a very definite picture in my mind of the swaying trees, cobbled walkways, and every dusty corner Sal explored. At the same time it wasn’t as heavy as Tolkien telling us about a tree for twenty pages (I swear I will never get through LOTR because of that).

~Negatives~

-Choppy flow. Occasionally while reading I would get lost as to what was going on. The topic or setting would jump and it would take me a few paragraphs to figure out what was going on. It didn’t happen a lot but I found myself rereading most of those pages when it did occur to get my bearings again.

-Romantic aspect. At one point, Sal becomes enamored with their tutor who is teaching some of the competitors to read, write, and do math(s). The flirting between the two was actually quite fun but when the relationship progressed it felt awkward. I suppose toward the end you could say the romantic relationship was integral to the plot progression but, well, I’m not sure. I think it could have remained a flirty friendship and things would have turned out the same. It is a bit spoilery so I won’t dive too far into that.


For the most part I did truly enjoy this book. Another point I want to bring up comes from some of the reviews I have seen. If you’ve looked much into this book you will have noticed people talking about info dumping at the beginning. Honestly, I didn’t get that. I never felt like the background and information given at the beginning was overkill. The information given fit into the story and had a purpose.

In conclusion, is this the perfect book? No. Is it still an enjoyable read? Absolutely. There were bits I would have liked to have been done differently or given more weight, but for the most part I was entertained. Isn’t that the point of reading?

This was a rather dull fantasy read that I struggled to finish. I ended up skimming over the last half just to say I finished, but it wasn't that memorable, unfortunately. I don't think I'll be continuing with this series.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for review! All opinions are my own.

THIS. BOOK. WAS. AMAZING. Seriously, I absolutely devoured it and had to slow myself down when I realized I was halfway through in almost no time at all. I just fell in love with this creepy world and Sal within the very first chapter, not even joking. By the end, I was jumping around my room screaming about how much I loved it and how I need a sequel! Alas, the downside of reading an ARC is that you have to wait for it to be released before you can even think about a sequel. But I will wait forever if that's what it takes.

Plot:
Sallot Leon is a thief but they want nothing more than to escape the life and get close to the upper-class and nobles that destroyed their home. When Sal steals a poster announcing open auditions for the Queen's Left Hand, personal assassins named for the rings she wears, Sal's world changes. It's a chance for Sal to accomplish their goal and change their life forever. Except the audition is filled with people from every background like circus acrobats and ex-soldiers, and it's a fight to the death. Only a common criminal, Sal is hardly prepared for the brutal audition that lies ahead of them. In order to survive, Sal must put their real reason for auditioning into play: revenge.

I've seen tons of reviews stating that Mask of Shadows is similar to The Hunger Games and while I can see some of the similarities, I feel that Mask of Shadows is in a category all on its own. I've also seen it compared to books written by Sarah J. Maas and to be honest, I've never read a book by that author so I couldn't see the comparison at all. Sure, the plot may be familiar, but I truly believe that Mask of Shadows stands out from any other potential assassin books I and others may have read. This book has action, romance, revenge, blood and gore, creepy shadow monsters, awesome training "montages" and did I mention Sal?

The world building was fantastic and had me dying to learn more, especially once the shadow monsters were introduced. Seriously, I need the next book to be filled with more shadows because they were so incredibly creepy and disturbing! I would love to learn more about the war and destruction of Nacea and really why it happened. Also, the Queen is a very mysterious character but I'd love to see more about her past and just how she ended the war and destroyed the shadows. The interaction that Sal has with the Queen at the end of the book piqued my interest and had me wondering just why Sal acted the way that they did towards her, so I'm hoping there will be more about the Queen in the next book!

I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this book and while reading, it quickly climbed its way up to one of my favorite books of 2017. The world was interesting, the main character was incredible, the romance was absolutely adorable, the shadows were terrifying, and the audition was bloody, just like I was hoping. The pacing was set at a moderate jog and it felt like it was moving quick, but never too fast that I felt left behind. I loved getting to learn everything about the plants/poisons and weapons and seeing how each of the auditioners incorporated their lessons into their kills. The writing was also amazingly detailed while not being overly descriptive and was so enjoyable to read. This is the first book in a duology so potential info-dumping is possible due to the story being restricted to two books, but I honestly never felt like there was tons of information being thrown at me all at once. Mask of Shadows was a killer opening to a fantastic new YA duology and I can't wait to see what happens in the sequel!

Characters:
I quite literally instantly fell in love with Sal. They were sassy, funny, smart, brave, strong, and so much more and it was pretty much impossible not to love them! I really liked that I had the opportunity to read about a gender fluid character (first time ever reading about one, actually, and I think that there need to be so many more gender fluid characters!) because it really opened my eyes to something I realized I knew nothing about. I loved that Sal was so unique in not only the way they decided to dress but also how they carried themselves. Sal really was a fantastic character that I just couldn't get enough of and I can honestly say I've never read about a character like this before. I feel that a lot of people will really enjoy not only getting to read about a gender fluid character, but will also thoroughly enjoy Sal's sense of humor, their darkness, determination to seek justice for the destruction of their people, and also how fiercely they love.

A complaint I've seen quite a bit of is regarding the other auditioners and the fact that you're given names, only numbers, and therefore cannot make a connection with them or really care about them. I think it was genius. Obviously, you're rooting for Sal, you want them to win this whole thing, right? Well, with 22 other auditioners, it's not going to be easy. The name of the game is basically to eliminate your competition without getting caught so Sal is in constant danger of being killed. If the 22 other people were given names, you'd surely begin to get confused as to who's who. You're not supposed to care about the others, you're not supposed to remember them or care about them or connect with them. Sal is the one you want to win because Sal is the main character, so giving names and detailed descriptions of Sal's competition would only lead to confusion. They're supposed to be vague background characters that help to further the story and I believe Linsey Miller did a great job at making them just that. Sure, you start to remember some things about the auditioners who make it far, but you'll never know their names because names only complicate things. Anonymity is key with the audition and it holds true with the characters that are participating. You can't connect with these people because you're not supposed to. Serious snaps for Linsey Miller for doing such an excellent job with these characters!

Writing:
One of the most important parts of a book for me is the writing. You can have amazing characters and a perfect plot but if the writing is dull or falls flat, then I just won't enjoy the book. Mask of Shadows hit all of those points and then some! It has amazing characters, an exciting plot, and magnificent writing.

"I'd so much blood on my hands, seeped into my soul and heavy as lead, and she was light as air, a breeze through ocean sands. She was summer and heat, the taste of salt on white crests, the shade of storm clouds before late spring rains. She was everything I wasn't."

SAL PLEASE. Seriously, Sal had such a way with words. But the overall writing of this book was magical. I honestly felt like I was in this world with Sal, participating in the audition with them. It was so easy for me to sit down and get lost in this book because the writing was just so easy and fun to read. It was detailed enough to give me an idea of what the world was like without feeling like it was too much at once. I found myself devouring page after page trying to find out what would happen next! The writing was descriptive and fun and really takes you into Sal's world to experience what they're experiencing. From start to finish I was completely hooked and I am eagerly awaiting the sequel to see what happens to Sal!

Despite the numerous low reviews I've seen, I genuinely enjoyed this book. I've never read anything like it before and can honestly say it has skyrocketed to one of my top reads of 2017. It has action, blood, scary monsters, a swoon-worthy main character, an exciting plot, and writing that you'll want to dive head first into. Definitely don't miss this new debut YA fantasy from Linsey Miller!

I Needed to Win.
They Needed to Die.

Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class—and the nobles who destroyed their home.

When Sal steals a flyer for an audition to become a member of The Left Hand—the Queen’s personal assassins, named after the rings she wears—Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge.

But the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. And as Sal succeeds in the competition, and wins the heart of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court, they start to dream of a new life and a different future, but one that Sal can have only if they survive.



* * * * *



MASK OF SHADOWS is a well written fantasy. Ms Miller does an excellent job of world building to the extent that I could almost smell the stench of the cities that Sal does jobs within. The characters themselves are also very well done. I swear that I would recognize some of them if I met them on the street.


What really sets this book apart from other fantasies is the fact that Sal is gender fluid. I just love how Sal describes it. Sal is a he is he is wear male clothing, a she if wearing a dress and they if the clothing can't be ascribed to either gender. MASK OF SHADOWS is the first fantasy that I have read that addresses this issue and it's an important one as I feel that everyone should be able to be the gender that fits them best.


I do feel that readers who enjoy fantasy will enjoy this book. There is violence within the story but no graphic sex beyond kissing. This is the first book in this series and I can't wait to be able to follow more of Sal's story.



*** I received this book at no charge from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed within are my own.

I'm sad to say that I have a few books from Netgalley that I DNF on... either it didn't hook me into the story and I lost least or I found out that there is more to the series and can't get the first and so on book from that series... Yup here it goes, Don't believe me wash the dishes! Look at the website: http://fkrants.blogspot.com/2017/09/ng-dnf-sept-edition.html

Unfortunately I just couldn't get into this book. It was slow for me and after 10 days of trying I just had to put it down. I wanted to love it because it's been recommended for awhile but It just didn't do anything for me.

I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me a bit of Hunger Games, a bit like Sarah Maas's books but it was really well done. I also like the gender fluid aspect of the main character- YA needs more diversity of all types and seeing gender fluidity in this book was refreshing.

I really liked this book and I tend not to read a lot of books from this genre but I love how it sounded. I enjoyed the writing style but I did feel the pace was slower then what I am used to. The action will keep you on the edge of your seat and I myself liked the gore it added another element to the story. The world created in this book really stood out to me it's vivid and magical. The characters were not easy to relate to in the beginning but once you read more of the story you get a better understanding of why. I look forward to reading more in this series and from this author.

3.75/5 stars

I really enjoyed the plot of this book.
The story follows the main character Sal/twenty-three through a competition to become Opal, one of the queens left hand after the previous left hand Opal has died. Sal has to finish trials to become he next left hand but on top of these trials Sal has to stay alive from being killed from the other competitors. This gave me a Throne of Glass vibe where Celena had to compete trials and stay alive to become the kings assassin. Although this was very similar I thoroughly enjoyed Mask of Shadows more. No only is Sal hoping to become the next had, Sal is also hoping to exact revenge on those who let his people die.

The main character is gender fluid, Sal dresses they way he/she wants to be addressed, which is such an interesting point of view to read from.

Overall I really joyed the plot and characters of this book , there is some minor romance which is nice and if you enjoyed Throne of Glass I think you will enjoy this new upcoming series. I will be continuing on when the next books come out!

I received an advanced copy via Netgalley for review.

***Thank you NetGalley for this ARC***

I loved the synopsis of this story and was hoping that this would be an amazing book. Sal is a gender fluid thief. They audition to be part of the Left Hand to work for the Queen. Sal hoped for vengeance against the Queen and in order to do that, they need to become the next Oplal and join Emerald, Ruby, and Amethyst to be a personal assassin to the Queen. The auditions are lack luster. They are a tedious replay on how to shoot an arrow, pick out a poison, and defend them self. This book was hard for me to finish due to the lack of suspense. I almost marked it a DNF book. There is some romance but again it lacked. The story line ended up being very boring and it was not well written. The author uses the word "till" over and over again which really bothered me. The audition characters were names after numbers which was odd to me. Once I finallllyyyy got past the auditions, the booked picked up a little but the ending was very predictable. Overall, I was disappointed. I had hoped for an epic fantasy novel with a badass gender fluid assassin. This book did not meet my expectations. Some things I did like about the book: there was a gender fluid character, some romance, and some sassiness between characters.

I got this book in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley.

This book was nothing special. It honestly was just a rip-off version of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. It was about assassins fighting to the death, so in that sense it was also a little bit like The Hunger Games.

I hate when books are just rip-offs, and I thought this would be interesting because it was marketed as a gender-fluid main character. Okay. A little bit about that.

The ONLY representation of that was when they said that they liked being called what they were dressed as. Which I’m assuming is a quality of someone who is gender-fluid, but there was nothing other than that. There was no reason other than the fact that the author wanted it to be a diverse book. Which pisses me off. Have adequate representation, and if you’re going to try, at least do it right and do it justice. Please. There are people that refer to themselves as gender-fluid, and I feel like this isn’t good representation of that.

There was also no beginning to the story. None at all. It just jumped right in with Sal fighting people pretty much. I’m not about that. Give me a little background information, please.

The romance in this book was also quite below average, and I was so disappointed with that. Because the gender-fluid thing wasn’t really introduced well, the romance seemed so rushed and fake because there was no back story on sexual preference. Sal just kinda ended up liking this girl, but she was of course the one who he robbed at the beginning. UGH give me some actual plot please.

I would not recommend this book just because of the poor representation attempt. I’m sad because I wanted this to be good. Ugh, life.

The first thing that drew my attention to this novel was the fact that the main character, Sal, is genderfluid. I've been trying to find more books with such characters and while I wish there were more, this was a decent example and I appreciated Miller's attempt at including a genderfluid person. Something of note: the book isn't about Sal's coming to understand their genderfluidity. They exist as a genderfluid person and that's how it is. A lot of books focus on coming out as a plot point and it gets frustrating after awhile because not every book about a genderfluid, a gay, a trans person has to be about their coming out. 

Mask of Shadows begins in a very similar manner to a lot of relative books. There's more than a bit of info dumping and the events of the book felt a bit slow to get into as a result. An assassin competition is not exactly a new concept, but I was intrigued with the master of the assassins, the Queen. She was different than your usual intended bad person in that she has done some questionable things, but she's legitimately trying to do the right thing as opposed to a wicked person pretending to be good when they want to watch the world burn.

Elise, the love interest, was interesting because while she "looks" like a traditional fairy tale/fantasy princess, she had more gumption than one of those cutouts. Maud, Sal's assigned servant, was one of my favorite secondary characters. She had ambition, smarts, and she did not take crap from the person she was serving. I liked hearing her ideas, watching her maneuver through the insanity that was the competition where, if Sal wins, Maud gets paid.

I kind of got confused sometimes with the code names the auditioners used. They were numbered and with so many of them, I had to pay stricter attention than usual. The sinister deeds, the quest for vengeance, the competition to become Opal made for some twisty portions to contend with along with a large cast of assassins.

Overall, Mask of Shadows has a lot in common with other fantasy books but it also has enough assets of its own to make for a good read. Things aren't over yet, either, so more Sal adventures in the future may well prove even more interesting than this first book.