A good, solid, fantasy novel. I liked the world building and magic system. I am not sure I was as into the characters as I could of been, they weren't bad I just never felt fully invested in them.

Fun. Inspiring. Read it now.. the characters are fun and the action sets up I your mind like
A movie playing on the screen.

A great debut book, well written with a good character development. The only downside is having to wait for the next to continue following such a great story.

I can't remember the last book that I read, that was this incredibly boring. I feel like I've read this exact story too many times.

The magic in this story has strong vibes of that in Mistborn & Six of Crows, the cost of using your given skill being your memories. (but only sometimes?) The characters are predictable, and while everything is well written it's just boring.

The storyline, plot and themes are perfectly planned out, it's a by the book story of a black listed family, and a plot of discovering the truth to get their namesake back. So it's not that I hated it, it's just over done tropes and I forced myself through many parts of the story.

Michael is oblivious and child-like through many parts of the book, which doesn't really fit with the way he was raised. Many plot lines were left open, I assume to be resolved in the next book. I won't be continuing on, but hopefully others will discover the fate of like half the cast.

I received this book via NetGalley.

Instead of killing the children of the man who killed his own son, quid pro quo, the king branded the traitor's kids, and tossed them out into a world that now hated the children of their fallen hero. Until the day his father was tried as a murderer, Michael grew up on stories of his family's great legacy of heroism. Years later, Michael hates his father for ruining their legacy, but still struggles to come to terms with his own place in a society that hates him for his father's deeds. When he gets a chance to learn to use magic and to learn of his father's motives, Michael learns things he's never expected about himself, his friends, and about his father. But some secrets don't want to be uncovered. Some secrets can cause him to join his father in a neighboring grave.

This book was a blend of mystery, a bit of fantasy, and most of all, a journey of character. The question of Michael's father's innocence or guilt, and his unknown motives were well done and compelling. Until the end, it was difficult to answer all the questions, and even when I thought I understood, some new twists came up to prove me wrong. I really didn't see that end coming.

Mostly, this book was a great character journey, following Michael as he went from an adolescent trying to come to terms with his father's traitorous act. While he's willing to throw his own life away, he comes to understand and appreciate the importance of friends and family. I really enjoyed both the complex plot and characterization in this book.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

My reaction after reading this book was "Wow wow wow!" The magic system has an excellent risk/reward mechanic that works really well with the theming of the book. The protagonist is flawed and his actions feel like they have real consequences. There are some real big mysteries to the way this world works and its history as well. I am excited to keep reading this series and see what else is in store!

This book was unexpected. It started off quite slow for me, but I kept reading and I am glad I did. The plot line is very fun and interesting. You never knew what was really going to happen. I enjoyed it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

I enjoyed this book. The world-building was interesting and the narrator's story was engaging.

I liked that the world wasn't completely fleshed out because the main character didn't understand that much of it. He was completely confined to his city with no world view at all. However, the city he lived in also seemed incredibly isolationist. The main character also seemed to be stuck in a loop, with no real understanding of the city he lived it, which didn't really make sense, as we are told her relied on understanding that city for income. We, the readers, saw none of the city's structure, except what the wealthy and privileged were doing. Although the main character spoke of living through many hardships, it never really felt like he did. He had more than enough money to buy extra things. He didn't ever seem in real danger, except at the end. For the most part his friends seemed to be getting along just fine. The push for one of them to move seemed a bit contrived, since he could have just waited a tiny bit longer and would have been fine. The upward mobility in society seemed really strange. With poor and middle class people very quickly jumping multiple ranks to socialize with the elite. If there was some means where this was happening, the author never said. The main character seemed extremely naive and trusting, even at the end, SPOILER [where he suddenly decided he'd be a king. Where did that come from? Nothing about his character ever screamed that he'd want to rule or lead, only that he wanted to live a happy and normal live. It would have been much better for him to pursue that route out of necessity rather than agency, which was a route completely set up for him at the end of the book.] The primary conflict wasn't resolved in this book, which is a shame, I think. It would be nice if there was a different 'bad guy' in the coming books, but there probably won't be, or they'll be in some way lesser than this book's 'bad guy.' END SPOILER

All that said, what we saw of the world was really interesting, and I'd like to see more beyond the bounds of the city, which is where the next book is probably going (hopefully). I like the city-state setup a lot, it's something I don't see often enough in fantasy books! I liked that we didn't see much violence in the book mainly because of the main character's aversion to it. He blacked out his memories of violence in his childhood and completely shut down when confronted with it as an adult. I really appreciate this consistency. I also appreciate that the main character's strength is in the people he surrounds himself with. I wish this was developed a bit more, though. The main character has plenty of growing to do, as well, which I'm hoping the author acknowledges. It would really push the story along if he realizes how naive and careless he is. I like that there are plenty of mysteries left about how the world works and how its magic system works. There are plenty of mysteries left about the royal family as well and the connection with the Kingman's as well.

This wasn't good. I would have DNF'd it at 3% based on the bad writing, but it was an ARC from netgalley and I didn't want an unfinished book on my record, so I persevered in the hopes that it would get better. It didn't.

The characters were not fleshed out. There were quite a few of them — not more than a book could handle, mind you, so that's not really an excuse — and none of them got enough focus for me to actually care about them. Michael, the main character, is constantly telling you how much he cares about his friends and how taking care of them is all he cares about, but there's maybe two scenes total that have any genuine sense of camaraderie or warmth. Otherwise, it's just his word as the narrator, or stiff, hackneyed dialogue between him and these "friends."

As a main character, I did not prefer Michael over the other characters. The story is at least cognizant of the fact that he's kind of whiny and makes stupid decisions. But when I can't find any reason to like him, whininess and dumbness go from acceptable character flaws to defining traits that I can't stand.

The writing style is to blame for these problems and all the others. The dialogue falls very short of both realism and cleverness; there's nothing enjoyable to it or the descriptions of the setting. Actions are choppy and disconnected, and Michael's reasoning never makes any sense.

This book hates reasoning. It hates explaining things. It hates setting up literally anything in advance. Worldbuilding is done on the fly as things happen, never in advance (which is especially bad in a story with a central mystery, because you have no chance to pick up clues as a reader when you don't know basic things about how the magic works). And backstory is given on the fly too. If Michael has an enemy, for example, you find that out when he happens to run into that enemy, and not a moment before.

It feels like a first draft: like the author is pantsing his way through it, figuring out what he wants to happen in the story, and hasn't yet gone back to rewrite it so that everything properly leads up to what he ends up deciding should happen. And that does not make for a good plot.

This book needs another round of rewriting. It could be better then, since there there are already some interesting worldbuilding elements, like the shattered moon and fallible memories, and maybe one and a half good plot twists too. But as it stands now, I had to force myself through every chapter of this book, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Kingdom of Liars by Nick Martell. An engaging read, of a young man out to redeem his family name. In a world where magic use costs memories, how can anyone be sure of the past?

Well, that was a disappointment. The overarching story was good. A young man who believes his father was wrongfully executed for killing the prince 10 years ago seeks to find out the truth when the opportunity presents itself. Unfortunately, the product was messy. I kept writing it off as an unreliable narrator, but the actions that Michael takes don't make sense. If he has been conning nobles for years and surviving in this cutthroat culture, why does he make so many stupid decisions? Why does he consistently trust the wrong people? Why does he always wind up on the wrong end of a situation? It tries to come back together in the end but there were some serious mental manipulations to get there. If it hadn't begun with Michael's trial for killing the king, I probably would not have been interested enough to finish it.