As the sequel to Foody's Ace of Shades, this book certainly did not suffer from middle-book syndrome. Although characters were still reeling from the consequences of their actions in the last book (Enne and Levi especially), this book builds on new character dynamics and stakes. New potential antagonists and partners are introduced very quickly, drawing Levi and Enne into a new game.

This book's cast is much bigger than the last, adding new members of both gangs and the ruling Families of New Reynes. But I never felt it was too crowded or too confusing to distinguish characters from one another, which is sometimes a pitfall of books with many characters. The book is narrated by 3 POVs: Levi, Enne, and Jac. Each character has their storyline and arc that's very separate from one another. Probably the least memorable of them is Levi's, but I really loved Enne's and enjoyed Jac's.

This book adds on to the myths of New Reynes and the politics, delving more into the war that killed the Mizers and the gangs themselves. Enne especially has seen a lot of character development since the first book, which I really appreciated.

I will admit that reading this book was a bit of a slow process for me because I struggled to connect with the story at times, which also happened with the first book. That said, I'm giving it one more star than I thought I would because of the ending. So many big things happen, and I think it neatly sets up the conflict and danger we can expect in the last book.

Overall, a solid sequel.

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!

In the words of the legendary pop princess Britney Spears...

”Gimme Gimme MORE!”

This book was soo good! The action was turned up to ELEVEN! I liked how the politics of New Reynes, both of the north side and the south side was the focus of this book without being boring. I also liked the kind of 3-pronged attack feeling that this book has. You follow Enne, Levi and Jac as they are focusing on their own parts in the story. I love Enne’s growth throughout the two books. This series has a very unique feel. Even the romance aspects are unique in my opinion. I would 1000% percent suggest this book to people who loved the first book and I would even suggest giving the sequel a chance if you were iffy about the first book. Because this sequel is incredible!

Good Job, AF!

I NEEED THE 3rd Book!

With the Chancellor dead at the end of the Shadow Game, Levi and Enne are now wanted criminals. The political situation in the city takes a nosedive and a street war seems imminent as the South Side begins to take a harsher approach with the gangs. In the middle of all this, Harrison Augustine, Vianca’s estranged son, returns to the City of Sin, intent on bringing down his mother’s empire. His offer to Levi, if it works, will be exactly what he needs to free himself of Vianca’s Omerta – something that is becoming more critical as Vianca has given him a very tight deadline to prove that he can establish himself as a lord to the Irons again. Enne, having assumed her mother’s identity of Seance in the Shadow Game, begins to build her own girl gang.
Jac, meanwhile, accepts a mission that takes him into Torren territory, putting him face to face with some of the darkest moments in his past.

Where Ace of Shades was mainly getting to know the lay of the land, King of Fools is a game of politics, whether it be Levi retaking the Irons, the interactions between the street lords, or the scheming of the Families to sway the election in their favour. The other prevalent theme in this book is regarding legends. From the brief glimpses into the prominent figures in New Reynes’ past to the influence they have on the central characters, they are a recurring theme throughout. Levi with his unquenchable ambition continues to chase glory. Enne, so used to being in the background, unnoticed, feels like she is finally in a place where she fits in, where she can be someone. And Jac, the loyal friend, is tired of being part of someone else’s story – he wants his own legend. All of them yearn to make their mark on history – and their inner thoughts and the emotional turmoil that accompanies each of these characters is beautifully portrayed.

I was looking forward to some amazing character development for Enne, now that she is past the discovering her identity phase. Unfortunately, she got on my nerves for most of this book. The girl gang she puts together, later known as the Spirits, was nothing at all like what a street gang has been made out to be. There was so much potential there, but the end effect was very childish when compared to the other gangs like the Scarhands or the Doves. Apart from that, the whole investment idea they come up with, while definitely smart, hardly feels like something gangs would buy into. It would have been far more interesting to see Enne use her talent to create volts and the consequences that would no doubt arise from that – and while I’m on that vein, I’m particularly annoyed that Enne’s heritage was brushed to the side for the most part. For me, the largest question mark is Enne’s past, and it feels like in this book, Enne learned about her identity, the truth of how Lourdes died and then swore to get revenge on the Phoenix Club without a shred of further curiosity as to her own past – and then going on to make some remarkably reckless moves.

Levi and Jac on the other hand, were amazing. I was initially confused as to where Jac’s story was going and why it merited a separate POV, but that plotline was what held the story together while everything else was (slowly) moving into place. And Levi…well, his life has just been turned upside down and he’s trying desperately to pull things together. The list of people he trusts is basically down to Enne and Jac – and with bounties on all their heads, everything is just a huge mess for him. Levi’s arc was by far my favourite in this book.

And talk about an explosive ending! With how this book was progressing, I thought that that particular piece of information was never going to be revealed, much less by that character. And it never ceases to amaze me just how many double-crosses seem to be going on in this series! Literally, I think everyone has betrayed everyone else by the end – and I find I can still be surprised when it happens again. Pacing wise, I found it quite annoying that none of the real action starts until well after the halfway point because the board was being set up for so long. Yes, this takes place over several months as opposed to the ten days of the first book, but the last chapters felt noticeably rushed.

If you enjoyed Ace of Shades, this is definitely worth the read. Part one will likely test your patience, but once it picks up, the action doesn’t stop. Overall, this is an amazing sequel just as suspenseful and engrossing as the last.

My Review: So this one what can I say about this title? I ended up reading this one since Jessica didn't like book one and I did. I loved Ace of Shades but I have to say that this one just didn't cut it. I felt like the feels for this one could have been better and that I just didn't feel as connected with the characters as I did in book one. I think that this series would have been better done as a stand alone vs. a series. It could have been tied up in book one if things would have been cleaner cut. So for me I think this is the end of my journey with The Shadow Game series. Because in the end this just was not as good as book one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin for allowing me to review this book. My review will be posted on Goodreads on 3/22/19, and on Barnes and Noble's website on the book's publication date, 4/30/19.

The sequel to Ace of Shades may have been, dare I say it, even better than Ace of Shades itself! This fast-paced roller coaster of a book just sucked me right into the storyline, and I have to say it had me pretty stressed out right along with the characters in a lot of parts... but I won't say that that's necessarily a bad thing... it's gripping to say the least.

King of Fools picks up right about where Ace of Shades left off, and from there everything just snowballs. We have Enne now becoming the street lord Seance and taking the helm of her own girl-gang (they're classy, but can still hold their own for sure.) Levi has an encounter with Vianca's estranged son, who is back in town to take power and take Vianca down for good. Jac has to come face to face once more with his old life on Lullabye, and fears falling back down that road once more.

In this books you'll find more politics, gang-related and otherwise, gambling stakes that become higher and higher, North Side legends, and so much more. We get a lot more character development in King of Fools, good pacing, and a lot of emotional investment on the part of the reader (at least there was for me.) All this, plus a couple of plot twists that really had me reeling? All I can say is, you've just gotta read this.

Set immediately after the events of The Ace Of Shades there is a street war brewing and with bounties on their heads Levi and Enne must navigate through their next dangerous journey.

Enne Works on creating her own street gang. Lola and Grace are among the first to join her group with each bringing their own talents. I really enjoyed the whole girl gang aspect and loved that Enne filled her team with strong females that all worked together. Levi seems to have trouble follow him and there are scenes where Levi seems to be dealing with jealousy issues.

This book is filled with politics, secrets, and betrayal. The pacing for me tended to waver back and forth throughout. I had scenes I enjoyed and others that I had a hard time focusing on. I was looking forward to this book and it was a decent sequel.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this early copy!

Once again Foody has done a great job crafting this new world with interesting characters. I enjoyed both books in this series. I recommend checking out the Ace of Shades series!

I truly enjoyed this book more than the first. Our characters get developed more thoroughly, the plot is well woven, with unexpected twists and turns, the romance is angsty AF.

Levi continues to be my little self-deprecating prince. He's just trying to live his best life while also taking care of his gang and falling in love. Enne is also trying to figure herself out with her gang. I love how she takes her newly founded and ever growing gang of women and makes it like a dangerous sorority house. Hysterical. Jac.. my poor Jac... he gets crapped on a lot but he's just so dang loyal, to a fault at times. We get a few new characters that are well rounded and critical to the story line as it unfolds.

My only complaint is that this has a bunch of "miscommunication" or "deliberate withholding of information" tropes which, as and adult, I don't enjoy.

Just as I felt with the first book, I didn't find the story enthralling at first but by the time I reached the end, I loved it! The story takes awhile to take off despite being a second book, but by the time it reaches the end, the plot is fast paced and very interesting. The characters are wonderful, both as individuals and in their relationships/interactions. The world they live in is just as interesting this time around as it was in the first book, Ace of Shades. Enne and Levi grow as individuals and in their relationship and Jac develops into more of a main character.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, the story and characters kept me going and the end has me hooked for the next one!!

King of Fools 5/5 Stars

This book picks up pretty much right after Ace of Shades ends, which is amazing. I'm always a little annoyed when sequels pick up like months in the future. It starts out with Levi being picked up in a car that is supposed to be Vianca's, but it's actually her son Harrison's *gasp*! Harrison offers Levi a deal he can't pass up, and that pretty much sets the scene for the entire book. I loved all of the character growth that Enne went through in becoming a real street lord. And I ended up really loving Jac, which I didn't think I would! The new characters introduced in this book (Tock, Grace, Sophia, etc) were such great characters and I loved all they added to the story.

I was really hoping that all the good things about the very end of the first book would carry over to this one. They didn't and I found myself struggling to get through this one, just like the majority of the first one. I didn't care about what the characters were doing or feeling. I honestly didn't care what was happening in the world or to our characters.

Just like with Daughter of a Burning City, Amanda has a spectacular premise and a lackluster execution. These characters should be everything I love in a novel, but they're surface level and hard to connect to. I'm not invested in their story or world. I really wish I was because the world is unique and I love the idea of their magic. I wanted so badly for this to work out for me, but instead, it fell flatter than the first one.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Inkyard Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

Do yourself a favor and pre-order this ridiculously stressful masterpiece.

Leave it to Amanda Foody to remind us that we don't need girls who tear each other down- we need girls who do criminal accounting together! King of Fools is wildly amazing for a number of reasons but I have to mention, first and foremost that these are the female characters we need in YA!!! Girls who are just like other girls. Badass and unique and (occasionally) vicious.

King of Fools creates an amazing atmosphere of gangs and casinos and mafia families- your opinions on every character will flip every two seconds and it'll be painful and amazing and heartbreaking and awesome.

I was constantly surprised and shocked and just utterly drawn in.

Admittedly, it took me a few chapters to become re-invested in this world but after I got through the initial set-up, this story was hard to step away from.

Support your local girl gang! Read King of Fools!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for E-Arc copy of King of Fools.
What a great series! Imaginative, exciting, and darkly delicious adventure. King of Fools does not disappoint.

I've come to think of myself as a fan of Amanda Foody's work. Her thrilling debut, DAUGHTER OF THE BURNING CITY, hooked me in. ACE OF SHADES plunged me into a captivating, dark, twisty world of risks and sins. Needless to say, I was beyond delighted when I was approved for KING OF FOOLS. I finished it in one sitting and I had a lot of thoughts about it. Most of which were disappointing thoughts. For me, this book suffered through a sophomore slump. Though the prose was engaging, the pacing and the plot did not interest me. As plot threads from BOOK 1 took shape in BOOK 2, I saw where she was trying to go, but it was a rather sluggish roundabout way of getting there.

As where BOOK 1 was a fast-paced page-turner, BOOK 2 did not hold the same appeal. We are introduced to an interesting set of new characters and a new POV, which are great ingredients for an in-depth adventure into the sinful city of New Reynes. However, the execution left much to be desired. I knew where the author was trying to go, but journey to get there was long and tedious. There were two character deaths that jolted my senses and some plot twists that encouraged me to keep reading, but if ACE OF SHADES was a bang then KING OF FOOLS was a bump.

I've been invested in this story for two years now, so I do want to see how the author concludes this series and hopefully, BOOK 3 will bring back the much-needed spark I found in her previous works.

3 STARS

King of Fools was absolutely fantastic. Amanda Foody does an incredible job at pulling you in and refusing to let go even after the book ends. I am dying for the next book!

I think this is the end of my run with <i>The Shadow Game</i> series from Amanda Foody. I'll admit that I don't think the story is terrible; in truth, one of the big reasons I bothered to request <i>King of Fools</i> from NetGalley is because I liked <i>Ace of Shades</i> more than I liked <i>Six of Crows</i>, the novel with which it is regularly compared with for reasons I personally find inadequate, but there you go. I think the big moment in which I realized that I had never fully invested myself with this series and the characters within it was when I neared the end of the novel and realized that a moment which was supposed to be immensely emotional just...was not for me. And the thing is, this emotional moment involved my favorite character. But for some reason, I just didn't care. And that alone is eye-opening enough to let me know that I probably should spend more time with books and characters that actually evoke emotions from me, whether they are incredibly happy ones, sad ones, or even angry ones.

<i>King of Fools</i> picks up quickly where <i>Ace of Shades </i>leaves off, reacquainting you with characters you already know and introducing the next steps our main characters need to take in order to continue their survival. An integral chess piece in this game, of course, is Vianca Augustine. And as things begin to heat up with the sudden return of Vianca's son, Harrison, Levi and Enne are forced to make a number of cagey decisions in order to carry out orders and save themselves. Just as it was in the last novel, the games of intrigue that the characters all get themselves into are very soon matters of life and death.

I'll take this moment here to say that I've grown to really dislike Levi. Where I enjoyed his character in the first novel, his utter selfishness in nearly every decision he makes quickly proved to remove any kind of affection I had for him as a person and character. I grew increasingly annoyed with him throughout the course of the novel and even found the moments in which he disagreed with a choice Enne was making rather hypocritical considering all of the choices that he, himself, had made and was currently making. I really don't think that he has a moral high ground to stand on.

Overall, I wasn't invested in the story or the plot. And while I found it interesting and definitely don't feel as though this series is a terrible one, it was unable to engage me enough. I never felt concern for the characters involved, barring two whom I was vaguely rooting for that of Sophia and Jac. And even then, I had a hard time. Instead of getting emotionally invested enough to feel happy for characters when things went right and upset when things went wrong, I felt more of an annoyance when things went wrong for those that I was interested in and didn't care when they went right.

And then there's just the fact that a lot of the accomplishments the characters made felt either too easy or too ridiculous. Now, I'm not really all that involved with the stock market and I do still require some explanation for how it works, but the involvement of <i>investing</i> in the gangs was just incredibly difficult for me to buy into. Enne's money was made far too easily and with very little effort from her, leaving me feel kind of cheated with an easily achieved solution to her problem. I would have much preferred seeing her make the mistake of creating volts with her talent and dealing with the fallout from that. Both Enne and Levi's success just didn't feel realistic.

And I mean, I didn't hate the book. But I didn't leave it with any emotion other than annoyance. As that isn't a feeling I really care to continue leaving books with, I feel it's time to for me part with these characters. There are certainly areas where Foody could improve both her characters and her novel, but I think the bigger problem I had was struggling to find a connection with them. And that, in the end, is something I think has more to do with me.

<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

I really enjoyed Ace of Shades so was eagerly awaiting the sequel. I was not disappointed! The book was as exciting as the first. The character development was great and the story moved along at an excellent pace. I really enjoyed the main characters and their relationships. All in all I would say this book has it all! Definitely looking forward to more books by Amanda Foody.

*thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this free copy in exchange for an honest review*

King of Fools picks up right where Ace left off: Levi and Enne are on the run. King of Fools sees Enne starting her own street gang: a motley crüe of ladies who don’t take no trouble from nobody and have plenty of courage and fire to dish out.

Foody’s wriring has improved quite tremendously from Ace. This book also moves along a bit faster than the first: perhaps due to lack of need of establishing the world.

"The hero of one story is the villain of someone else's. It's all just a matter of who wins." With a line like this it is no wonder that the book from start to finish is white knuckled nail biting heart racing stress and absolute pleasure. Amanda Foody's books are out of this world.