Despite a slowish start, this book grabbed me. Once I got about a third of the way through, I was unable to put it down until I finished it at 3 AM. Whoops.
Rance carried this book for me. He was interesting, complex, and charming. I would read a book entirely about him. His dynamic with Ash was fun, but he is definitely the more interesting of the two.
For me, Ash felt rather thinly written. I didn't get a good sense of her personal motivations; she spent most of the book either following orders for others or reacting to life or death situations. The book picked up in the last 20 percent or so when she started to make decisions for herself, but some of these choices felt like they came out of nowhere. Perhaps the book was about Ash trying to figure out what she wanted for herself, but if so, that internal journey didn't get the space it needed in the narrative to be clear. I didn't dislike Ash (for the most part — more on that later), but she didn't command my attention either.
I also thought the ending was a bit too convenient with regards to the conflict between the Elorians and the Solisti, and I can't help but feel like the solution the characters came up with was kind of colonialist. Some of Ash's attitude toward the Elorians, in particular, came off as really privileged toward the end of the book (in addition to coming out of nowhere).
I still enjoyed the book a lot, especially the romance, but most of my enjoyment was despite Ash instead of because of her. I recommend this book to anyone who likes fairytale/Cinderella retellings, with the caveat that you should read this book for Rance, not Ash.

[Review to be published on Goodreads 30 days prior to publication per publisher's request]

This is a creative reimagining of the classic Cinderella story, except that our Cinderella character is actually in cahoots with her stepmother and stepsisters to use magic to seduce the prince and take over the country's magical resources. I struggled to like the main character, Ash, because I felt like I never really got to know her since she was always trying to be somebody else. In fact, the only character I really found interesting at all was mysterious and brooding Lord Verance. The story got better once we got to see more of him. In all honestly, this book should have been about 10% shorter. It has a very slow start, and it takes too long to get interesting. Once the plot started moving, I was hooked, but that didn't happen until about halfway. The magic system of lustre was also not well-defined. Lustre is just this magical substance that can basically do anything that you want it to do. We know that Ash is trained in some kind of way, but there are never any details about that, making her use of lustre to get through every situation a bit of a cop out. Again, I thought this was a creative spin on a classic fairy tale, and I also thought the writing was good, but it needed some edits and a more believable world.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of Thief Liar Lady in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own & may not be reproduced.

Oh my goodness!!! I was so thrilled to be able to review an advance copy of Thief Liar Lady and it did not disappoint!

This is basically a reimagined Cinderella (I love ANYTHING Cinderella).

Full of magic & girl power, this novel is a winner!

Aislinn’s magic is running out and she is in a race to fix it before it is too late. But what would a race against time be without some bumps along the way.

I love that this is not your typical Cinderella story with women being hateful to each other. I love the girl power camaraderie.

The writing was spectacular, the pacing was great & you will love the characters!

I highly recommend picking a copy of this one up. 4.5 stars!