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.

4.5

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thanks, Netgalley!

You're really coming for our hearts with this book, Amanda Foody.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2019, and when I found out I got an ARC, I was stoked. I reread Ace of Shades before starting, and honestly? I could stay in this world for eternity. If Ace of Shades was great, King of Fools was excellent.

First off, as I've said about Ace of Shades, I just love the vibes of the series. The whole Vegas but with magic and gangs gives off major Fallout vibes and it's just such a creative world to spend time in. Suffice it to say, I loved it. I could read an infinite number of books set in New Reynes. Seriously.

I absolutely adore each and every character in this book. Particularly Enne's new gang of badass ladies. I love love love them. Grace, particularly. I'd LOVE to see more of her in the next one.

And Levi and Enne's chemistry??? SIGN ME THE FUCK UP. I love these two. I love how they interacted in this book.

...and, I realize I'm saying love a whole lot. But I loved this book! So I can't help myself.

Overall, I though the story was great, the characters were great, and the nuances of the world were great. I'm really excited to (hopefully) learn more about New Reynes and the magic of this world, as well as the history of it! Everything's so mysterious--and I love that, it builds so much suspense--but I'm DYING to know more.

My only beef with the book is the pacing and the storylines. Sometimes it felt a little slow, even when things should feel sort of tense and action-y. It didn't bother me too much, but sometimes while reading I wished things were moving along a little faster. In terms of the storylines, it felt like there was a lot going on at times--BUT, it didn't detract, not in my opinion. I think we were trying to see a lot of characters and sometimes things got jumbled up. But it all worked out!

I guess what I'm saying is, read this book. Read Ace of Shades. And then come cry with me about how much you love it, too.

If you LOVED Ace of Shades and couldn't wait for the sequel, rest assured that it is FANTASTIC! My only hope for this book is that everyone else loves it as much as I do! Filled with everything that made her debut novel so great, Foody really steps it up with King of Fools and everything is EVEN BETTER! Five stars for sure.

This book was received as an ARC from Harlequin TEEN-Inkyard Press in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I was in shock of excitement when I finished King of Fools because I never read a book that was so heavily involved with adventure such as this. Levi and Enne are on a quest tothe underworld and teaming up in finding their missing mother. They have to put all of their differences aside and they made have to team up with some unlikely allies in order to not only find the mother and save her but save themselves. I do have to say though, some parts throughout the book I got a little lost on because the chapters jumped in all sorts of directions and that made it hard to follow and understand at times but once things started to pick up the book finished very interesting.

We will consider adding this title to our YFiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 4 stars.

Welcome back to New Reynes, where sassy teenagers run the streets and overthrow evil empires!

I liked the first book in this series well enough, but I fell screaming head-over-heels for this one. The character arcs are huge and sweeping, and there are points in time where I want to grab Enne and Levi by their collars and shake them. If they'd just TALK to one another! Sheesh. It would save me A LOT of stress.

One of my favorite things about this book is Enne starts her own gang, and it's a GIRL GANG. And they own. While I thought she was just meh in the first book, I really liked her in this book. She's lost her - idk, annoying whine? - and replaced it with clever sass that totally befits her Seance personae.

I feel for Jac in this book, for the difficult position he's in, for the sense of loneliness, but I do so appreciate his loyalty to Levi. And I hope that Levi appreciates it, as well.

The nice thing about this book is that all the world building happens in the first one, so this book can really concentrate on advancing the story. And that it does. We learn more about Vianca, her son Harrison, the inner workings of the New Reynes gang system, the politics of the city, and - essentially - about our (anti)heroic cast. There are two new characters in this installment who *nearly* steal the show, but end up mending really nicely with the ensemble.

Overall, I remain impressed by Amanda Foody's ability to write amazing female characters who are unapologetically beautiful in their silk, lipstick, and heels, while still able to stick a stiletto into someone's heart, if necessary.