Wednesday, December 18, 2019

[Review] King of Fools (The Shadow Game #2) by Amanda Foody


King of Fools by Amanda Foody

Series: The Shadow Game #2 
Rating: 3 stars 

Published: April 30th 2019

Goodreads Synopsis:
Indulge your vices in the City of Sin, where a sinister street war is brewing and fame is the deadliest killer of them all...
On the quest to find her missing mother, prim and proper Enne Salta became reluctant allies with Levi Glaisyer, the city’s most famous con man. Saving his life in the Shadow Game forced Enne to assume the identity of Seance, a mysterious underworld figure. Now, with the Chancellor of the Republic dead and bounties on both their heads, she and Levi must play a dangerous game of crime and politics…with the very fate of New Reynes at stake.
Thirsting for his freedom and the chance to build an empire, Levi enters an unlikely partnership with Vianca Augustine’s estranged son. Meanwhile, Enne remains trapped by the mafia donna’s binding oath, playing the roles of both darling lady and cunning street lord, unsure which side of herself reflects the truth.
As Enne and Levi walk a path of unimaginable wealth and opportunity, new relationships and deadly secrets could quickly lead them into ruin. And when unforeseen players enter the game, they must each make an impossible choice: To sacrifice everything they’ve earned in order to survive...
Or die as legends.

I said in my review of Ace of Shades that I would read the sequel for the sake of finding out what happens next. I still really have no idea what is happening, but it's become a semi-entertaining ride of trying to figure out.


The problem is that there are so many things happening in Foody's novels that it is hard to keep track of it all. It's a 600 page book that didn't necessarily have to be so long. Characters would fade in and out of importance. Enne and Levi are STILL dancing around their feelings for each other, and at one point, Levi has a lover for two chapters or so who I thought would be important (poor Narinder) but he's never brought up again even though he's related to another character!

I think the most clear-cut plot line was the fact that Levi and Enne want to be free of Vianca, and so Levi covertly aligns himself with her son, Harrison Augustine, in the upcoming election of New Reynes, while Enne establishes her own gang, the Spirits. Jac has to invade a drug den to take down the opposition from the inside, and his past of being addicted to Lullaby makes it harder. It's a lot of political machinations.

But it was also a lot of unnecessary romance - will they? Won't they? The first book took place over a few days. For Enne and Levi to be dancing around feelings so soon and to have Enne rise from nobody to leader of a gang felt incredibly realistic. At least this book slowed down the pace, but there was never a cohesive sense of focus. I wanted more badass fighting! More of the girl gang we were promised! Grace and Lola were really cool, but didn't feature as heavily as the three above. Even then, Jac had a more compelling plot that whatever Enne and Levi were doing.

Actually, I liked Jac's storyline! He had to stand on his own without Levi and that individualization was desperately needed in order to face his demons. I also wish there were more moments with him and Lola.
"No matter how many tattoos he inked, what color he dyed his hair, how he changed his clothes - it still lingered on him, a scar everyone could see, and that he always felt." - p. 155
It's just hard to like Enne when a lot of what is happening to her stems from luck/everything fall into her lap as opposed to her having natural character development. She was a nobody in her boarding school, and then seven days into staying in New Reynes, she's the lord of a gang?

Even Grace points it out how unrealistic it sounds.

"You've written yourself some kind of checklist for what a gang looks like. You call yourself a lord, but as far as I cant tell, you're just some tourist with almost no experience, no voltage, and no common sense. You haven't even asked me to swear, yet you're touring me around your future hideout." - p. 163

I thought I was getting the hang of everything (you'd think after 300 pages + a first book you'd have a better grasp of where you're standing in a book, but you're wrong) but then Foody pulls out the supernatural element with Sophia having deals with demons, and then I'm lost. Again.

Really, it's hard for me to streamline the plot when I myself am struggling to remember everyone and what they're doing. I can't feel pity for a character when I don't recall who they are - Tommy? Sorry you were there for five lines, so I can't feel much for you. And then the villains and there backstories are so rushed and hurried because of all the focus on some contrived romance... Vianca deserved better?! What exactly was her motivation?

What is anyone's motivation in this book, really?

Again, I'd stick around for the third and final book to get some completion but this isn't one for a reread.

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