I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters were interesting and the story flowed really well. At no time did I feel I wanted to put it down.

If you are wanting this to be a full on love story, I can assure you it is not. There were many tragedies throughout the story, so many instances where Emeuri could have lost her position as attendant to Lunal who was herself was a breath away from being caught out with her secret rendezvous after dark. When friendships began only to be questioned at a later stage.

The descriptions of the fight scenes were well done and the behaviours of the many characters very believeable and there were quite a few "oh no!" moments throughout.

There were twists, intrigues and heartbreaks but they in no way detract from the book. I now feel I will have to read the previous book by this Author and I will definitely recommend this one and am happy to give 5*.

Thanks to Negalley and Author J. Collette Smith for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book on 21/10/2022.

What I Liked
-Romance is present but doesn't overwhelm the plot
-lovely cover that set a perfect tone for what to expect within the text
-Trope of the character who gets what they want only to learn it isn't what it seems.
-action scenes were handled really well
What Didn't work for me
-odd dialogue tag choices occasionally threw my attention fairly often. I do wish they had just used said.
Who I would recommend this book for
YA Fantasy lovers looking for a dash of forbidden romance and whole lot of intrigue will find themselves at home in the twists and turns offered by A Knot of Lies and Rebellion.

A Knot of Lies and Rebellion
Fantasy
J. Collette Smith  
⭐️⭐️.5

The premise of this book really made me curious but when I started reading, it was quite slow and descriptions were often repetitive.

There were also some weird word choices, almost like synonyms had been googled but they didn't quite fit. For example the word gulped instead of gasped, faded instead of feigned. "There were scratches on his cheek, red and whelping" and "...let out a loud whelp" both use the word whelp when it means something else and it's wrong in each context.

Every time this happened it pulled me out of the story and made it harder for me to become engaged again.

To be completely honest, I found the FMC, Emeuri, annoying. She's dreamed of being an attendant her whole life but doesn't know what it involves. I get that her character is meant to be feisty and strong but I only got the impression that she was stubborn, made stupid mistakes often, didn't listen half of the time and only thought about herself and what she wanted. I preferred the side characters and their roles.

There was only a little world building so I would've liked more. I found myself skipping paragraphs here and there to get through this book.

I'm sure some readers will like this but I doubt I'll remember much of this book in a day or so.

*Thank you to @netgalley and the publishers for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review*

3.5/5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for giving me the chance to read this! This book will be published by Indie Girl Press on 22 November 2022.

The cover, title and description of this book really drew me in. As a lover of fantasy fiction such as this, it was a no brainer for me; I read it over the course of a day, pretty quickly drawn into the world that the author had crafted. I can be quite particular about writing styles, and this one was comfortable from the very first page. Easy to read, but written well. The reader is really introduced to the setting and the world from the beginning, which was great - it meant that I was interested, eager to read more, and not bored as I waited for the story to get going.

I think fans of series such as Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, and The Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon would enjoy this book. Indeed, I did enjoy it! The plot was exactly the kind of thing I like, and the characters were interesting enough; the development of some of them was fun to explore. The main character did irritate me sometimes with the decisions she made (or didn't make), but I think most protagonist's have their moments. The hint of forbidden romance themes throughout were nice, though not massively a focus (which could be good or bad, dependent upon what you are looking to get out of the story). All in all, it was an enjoyable read.

The reason I haven't rated it higher is mostly because it's nothing groundbreaking or new. The same plot elements have been used a lot over the years in this particular genre, and this story was no different. Always a class disparity, always an unscrupulous leader, always those members of society plotting to overthrow beneath the scenes. As I've said, I enjoy reading this genre, and I didn't expect anything different. I would read again, and I would read more by this author.

Secondly, I do think it felt a little rushed towards the end. The battle scene was good, for the most part, though it was incredibly chaotic and a little difficult to follow at times, with so much happening. But it all happened so quickly. There was no real build up, which I think this story would have benefited from - often stories like this come in a series, with three or more, and I think that is a tried and tested format that works. Maybe we don't NEED another series like this; but I think a lot of people (including me) would have enjoyed it all the same!

Apart from the pacing issue (sort of slow in parts, and then altogether all too sudden for me), however, it was a good read. I didn't dislike anything about it, really; it just didn't necessarily excite me or provide me with something new, hence 3.5 stars.