way too much info-dumping

overly complex and convoluted to read, and none of the characters stood out

it seemed like it was going to be a very basic ya fantasy, and I just can't help thinking there are much better books out there, in my opinion.

I loved sholte's four dead queens but this one was a hard pass for me.

#LeagueOfLiars by #AstridScholte is a thrill ride. I had a lot of fun reading this book. The world building is immersive quickly and the characters are likable, garnering the reader's empathy. I always find Scholte's writing to be extremely readable, and this was no different. I read this entire book over the course of a single weekend. I was actually disappointed when it ended because I wanted more to read, which is a rare feeling for me at the end of a book. I liked that it wasn't too deep, complex, or serious, just perfectly entertaining enough to be fully enjoyable.

Disclaimer: I received an advanced reader copy from #PenguinTeen and #NetGalley. This did not affect my honest review.

six of crows vibes all the way. from the first chapter this book was amazing, the suspense, creation of the world and so much more. this book gives great backstory on each of the characters and really kept me hooked all the way through. the only thing i have to say it that with this compared to six of crows, there isn’t a heist in the book so that was a little upsetting since i was looking forward to it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ebook of Astrid Scholte’s LEAGUE OF LIARS, out on February 22.

This book was marketed as a high fantasy mystery thriller with a bit of romance, but unfortunately it checked none of the boxes for me. I don’t like giving bad reviews out because I can’t imagine how difficult it is to write a fully-formed book, but this one read more like a first or second draft rather than a finalized story. The pacing and timing of scenes didn’t quite feel right, the ending got a little rushed and bizarrely disconnected, the world-building could have been improved (torlu, I’m looking at you)—but my biggest gripe was how the relationships were built up (or rather, not built up).

I’ve been watching CBS’s ELEMENTARY, a modern adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, for the third time and trying to understand why I felt so emotionally connected to all the characters. Granted, a TV series has seasons and seasons of space to develop emotion while a book has only a couple hundred pages to convince you (to believe or to pick up the next book, if there is one), but fictional relationships are only convincing if they are built up, scene by scene, rather than forced it upon you in blocks of text. TV doesn’t have the luxury of piling text at the viewer—no, it has to place objects, place expressions, communicate through hand touches and looks and silences and dialogue. That’s how you get invested in fictional characters, and that’s exactly why I was not invested in LEAGUE OF LIARS.

Shadows are dangerous in this world, so much so that special lights exist to banish them. Shadows contain edem, a special magic that is powerful, dangerous and regulated by the mysterious Regency. Cayder's mother died from edem magic, and he was imprisoned once as a child for using it. Now, he wants to work as a prosecutor to make sure no one else gets away with edem-related crimes. But in his first internship at Vardean, he quickly finds that there's more than meets the eye to the teens imprisoned there. When his own sister is arrested for a crime she swears she didn't do, burning down a town with 300 people in it, Cayder's determined to do the impossible: get her declared innocent or break her out of Vardean.

This book follows four teens - Cayder, his sister Leta, who is obsessed with edem, Jey, a wealthy boy accused of using edem to kill his own distant father, and the biggest surprise of them all, a girl whose connections and power extend far beyond Vardean. At times, it felt a little confusing and jarring when the book switched between the four points of view. Their stories don't fully combine until the very end.

The magic system was interesting, but it felt like the book barely skimmed the surface of it. Edem flows everywhere, and there is a mysterious place called The Veil, which is rumored to hide a parallel world. Mysterious edem creatures roam the countryside, and anyone who kills someone with edem has a death mark appear on their hands, making Leta's claims of innocence harder for Cayder to fathom.

This book was enjoyable, but all the different perspectives and plotlines seemed a little disjointed at times.

It's worth noting that this book is the first in a series and ends on a cliffhanger. This book is meant to serve as an introduction to the characters and the world, drawing us into the rest of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book.

ALL THE STARS!

I LOVED every moment of this book! A page turner from the start.
What I Loved: It’s a fantasy thriller! A murder mystery, and the most entertaining YA book for me this year (so far). It’s filled with such memorable characters that you’ll want to keep in your heart forever! (Cayder I LOVE YOU!)
The author did an amazing job giving us readers a beautiful description of the world building, where we could picture it so clearly in our minds. I imagine this played out as a great action movie, not to be missed!
The cliff hanger will stay with me until I get my hands on the second book!😭
This is the first book i’ve read from Astrid Scholte and I’m running to get my hands on her previous works!

If you loved Six of Crows, and need a new bookish boyfriend (or two) You’ll need to get your hands on this book!!

Thank you to the publisher, Penguin Teen Canada, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The use of edem, extradimensional magic that can be found only in the shadows, is illegal in the land of Telene. Ever since his mother was killed as a result of someone wielding edem, Cayder Broduck has always wanted to bring criminals responsible for such occurrences to justice. When he gets a summer internship with a public defender, he is excited to finally learn the tricks of the trade that will help him in his ultimate goal to become a prosecutor. He is initially not all that interested in what justification for their actions the criminals he is supposed to defend may have, but when three prisoners arrested in high profile crimes with equally mysterious stories show up, things are no longer as cut and dry as he has always viewed these cases – especially not when one of them is his own sister Leta. While their stories initially appear unrelated, as Cayder desperately delves into the accusations made against Leta, it becomes clear that these cases are linked with a much larger conspiracy in play.

This is the third book by this author I’ve read so far, and I was very intrigued by this premise since it’s something I’ve never come across in YA before. The story is a mix of courtroom drama, a heist and a jailbreak which gives it the feel of a fantasy novel and thriller all rolled into one. While it takes its time setting up the world and moving the characters into play, this had me glued to my seat right from page one because I just had to know what would happen next. The magic system was an interesting one, being able to pull edem from the shadows that can be used to wish for things to happen, but the side effects are unpredictable and it could lead to bystanders getting injured or worse. I really enjoyed the world-building, though I do wish there had been more information about the places beyond Telene if only to give us a better context for the story. I wouldn’t say no to a map either. The plot twists were well executed, and though I was able to figure out who was behind everything reasonably soon, the motives were harder to guess, and that made this quite the riveting read.

With so many things going on plot wise, I felt like the character development suffered for it. Despite having four POVs, I only got a good understanding of Cayder’s character and the other three didn’t feel like they had much depth at all. That said, I liked the somewhat non-linear narration style of this book, though it isn’t obvious until later. Much of the characters’ backstories are told through flashbacks which was a great touch. There wasn’t really much romance in this story and I think it was a good choice because there’s enough going on and adding it in would have lent an awkward feel to the subplot, especially given the rather minimal character development.

The pacing was a little on the slower side, which was ok through the courtroom scenes, but it didn’t pick up until nearly the last quarter of the book when the action begins and it felt like it came out of nowhere and the last chapters were very rushed. The heist and jailbreak portions definitely did not feel as well planned as the first parts of the story either.

This isn’t listed as a series, so I kept waiting for the pieces to come together, only to run into that very abrupt ending. I certainly hope there is a sequel because there’s plenty of story left to tell and many threads to tie up. Overall however, this was a fun read and a wonderful concept for a story, and I would definitely recommend it.

Well, that was unexpected. I thought this was a standalone but after finishing I have a feeling it’s the first to a series. The ending definitely leaves some things unanswered so I look forward to another book. It does tie up most loose ends to give a satisfying conclusion while still leaving you wanting more. The world building is minimal and well done, no 200 pages of info dump here which I really appreciated. The characters are well fleshed out and their story lines are believable and interesting. I am fully invested and can’t wait to see where this story goes. If you’re a fan of books like Six of Crows and All of Us Villains I think you’d enjoy this one too. Thank you to @penguinteen and @netgalley for an eARC of this book.

I heard "perfect for fans of Six of Crows" and I was in. League of Liars follows Cayder, an aspiring prosecutor trying to bring justice to those using dangerous magic after his mother dies from said magic. I enjoyed seeing the development of each character throughout their POVs- I just wish we had Kema's POV too! Kema and Jey (who reminded me very much of Jesper, from Six of Crows) were by far my favorite characters. I LOVED the court and trial parts of this book. The dynamic was captivating and had me shocked at every twist and turn. However, the rest of the book was fairly slow and the ending was unresolved. I'm curious if there will be another book continuing the story.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the advanced copy!

League of Liars is a great book and perfectly meshes thriller and fantasy straight from the beginning, once you start reading you seriously cannot put it down, you will be completely hooked. The magic system is very interesting and has me asking a few questions, but I'm sure those will be answered later on. The ending is... weird? Super abrupt and felt like something was missing and defintiely leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

Creative challenges.
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I was so excited to get my eyeballs on a copy of League of Liars by Astrid Sholte. Sholte is an author who continues to wow me with worlds and plots that are fresh and new in YA fantasy. I am constantly amazed at her ability to craft a story that includes a mystery I can’t solve before she wants me too and magic systems, technology, and realms I have never seen the like of.
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League of Liars is no different except for the fact that it is a series opener instead of a stand-alone like her previous books. This YA fantasy is part mystery, part court room drama, part heist, and all fast paced fun. I loved the interconnecting stories and flashbacks we get as we jump from the different POVs. It was part of the fun to connect the dots between the different stories and then see them all start to come together to show the big picture at the end. I’m fully invested in this story and where it is going to take us next.
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League of Liars published this week. If you are a fan of some Law and Order type mystery to go along with your fantasy, I would definitely put this on your list.
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You ever read the first chapter of a book and immediately regret your decision to pick it up? Yep. That’s what I did here. This is definitely not going to be for me. I blame it on the beautiful cover.

“Justice is an illusion. A mask we wear over our grief. Take off the mask, and the pain is visible for everyone to see.”
This book is described for lovers of Six of Crows and How To Get Away With Murder. I don’t agree with either of those but that’s why I picked it up!
Teens are charged with murder or illegal use of magic and devise the ultimate heist to get out of jail.
It focuses quite a bit on a courtroom drama and an attempt at being an intricate heist, but it doesn’t flow well. The heist almost went off too easily and didn't get my adrenaline pumping. I think my biggest complaint was actually the characters. I prefer very character-driven stories and these characters had no impression on me whatsoever. They each had almost the same backstories (I need some variance here) and it became quite repetitive. Nobody stood out to me as anybody I should care for or pay attention to.
I think part of the story’s demise was how it was presented. Instead of experiencing backstories or big moments, we instead hear about them being referred to. Instead of feeling the deep emotions of the experience, it comes off droll and unimportant.
The magic system felt quite a bit unfinished. I didn’t have enough information for what was a very large part of the story. I had questions that weren’t answered or weren’t answered fully. I never felt invested sadly, but it was a quick read with a great premise. And can we talk about that cover? Stunning.

The entire premise of this book was very intriguing. A sci-fi fantasy with sort of a "thriller aspect", breaking out of jail, murder trials and obviously, enemies to allies !! I will read any book with that trope, its true. Unfortunately, this was a huge miss for me for two major reasons.

I am aware that info dumps are very common, but for majority of the fantasy books i read they usually aren’t very discernable or can be ignored. And also, they occur at around the 15-20% mark of the book. So in general, I don’t get bothered by them. However, when it comes to this book I have to say that it felt like all the information related to the worldbuilding and magic system was being forced on me and i could actually feel the information going into one part of my brain and out through the other (that’s probably not even possible but yes, true story). I can’t exactly point out why I had that problem I mean, it could be the writing style which because I haven’t read any of the author’s other books, I was unfamiliar with.

The ending of this book had my head spinning. I wish I could say I meant that in a good way but uh, no. Like I mentioned before, I was essentially clueless as to what was going on for most of the story and by the time I got to the ending I was left even more confused than I was at the start. I think maybe it’s because the book felt incomplete? I was under the impression that this was a standalone novel and there is no information about a companion or sequel to this book, at the time I'm writing this review. Going with the information I have, I have to say that the ending of this book was super disappointing.

I think what really makes me sad about this whole thing is that when the book was announced, I was super excited to read it. I mean, I’ve been waiting 2 years for this book to come out. AHH. I really wish I could’ve loved it but it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you so much to penguin teen for sending me an arc of this book. All opinions are my own.

For astrid's books I find im not able to follow very well on ebook. For all three I had to get the print copy and ended up with an ebook this time. If anyone wants to send an extra arc for me to review that would be great but I will probably purchase this at a much later date to read

Cayder wants to be a lawyer in a world where edem, a magical force tied to shadows, is outlawed. While being the assistant to a well standing lawyer in the kingdom's prison, he finds out that there is more at stake than just lives when his own sister is charged with murdering hundreds. Will he save her and others?

This book has such interesting world building. I've never read a book with a magic system quite like this before, where the source of magic is still mostly unknown but also we still get a good grasp of how it exactly works. I wish we got to see more of it but with what we saw in the story, I think it has some good buildup for the second book in the series. Yes you heard me, this is the first book in a new series.

However, I wasn't really hooked into this book until more than halfway through. The first half of the book was so fast paced that it sent me reeling. The first 10% of the book is the main character Cayder just throwing worldbuilding at you, to the point where it felt just primarily exposition and not really being introduced to the character himself. Furthermore, in the first half, Cayder and his boss get thrown client after client and while they all had a role to play at the end, it was too much in such a short period of time that I wasn't entirely sure if it was worth continuing.

I honestly forgot that this was a prison break story because of how everything proceeded in the beginning. As a result, I was concerned why exactly Leta's trial was so early in the story. But once it hit that point, I was entirely hooked in the story and finished it in two sittings.

In terms of characters, I'm very torn on some of them. First, I didn't really liked Cayder. He was too temperamental and headstrong for my liking, to the point where I felt like most of the time he was just angry. I did like Leta surprisingly, more because she's the studious type. Although Jey's father is important to the story, Jey himself felt kind of useless as a character. He's mentioned every once in a while, but only becomes a major player at the end. Elenora was... okay. I don't really have any major opinions on her. And some of the side characters I felt could have just been left out and the story wouldn't have changed much.

There was also a romance subplot in the story and it just felt so out of place in comparison to the rest of the story. When it got revealed, it was like a slap to the face with how shocked I was. It was too rushed and didn't really feel like it had much basis to back it up. I wish it had more time for build-up, maybe even more so in the second book. But for just this as a standalone for right now, the romance was extremely out of place and didn't feel like it belonged in the story at all.

League of Liars is a decent beginning to a series with a unique magic system and a prison break that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

I received a copy of this story from both NetGalley and Penguin Teen. Any and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Didn’t know I needed a fantasy thriller in my life, but here we are. I’d agree with the author that this is up your alley if you enjoyed the camaraderie, found-family, and ragtag crew-heist elements from Six Of Crows. Morally grey characters you can’t help but love. Legal/courtroom drama.

The world-building sounded intricate and would’ve been well done if it wasn’t instant info-dump in the beginning. I prefer that drawn out so it’s easier to keep up with and remember. The magic system of pulling from the shadows was really cool. I enjoyed the multiple POVs. There’s a lot of fun banter between the characters.

I’ll definitely be interested in the sequel.

This book unfortunately did not hit the mark for me. It fell a little flat in a variety of ares that overall had me underwhelmed. Some interesting concepts but a lot of work was needed I think.

Full RTC

Thank you very much to the pub and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Did not finish at 34% / chapter 15
I just couldn’t get into it. Also I wasn’t connecting to any of the characters.
I wanted more fantasy and less court room drama.

DNF @20%

Maybe I'll come back to this review someday with an updated review, but at this point in my life, I am not interested in these characters, their plot lines, etc. Astrid Scholte does an incredible job thinking up her plots, but I don't think the execution fits my own personal taste.

I'm ranking the three stars because I feel that is fair since I did not finish it, and I don't want to skew the rating with a one star since it's not a consciously valid review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for a review copy.