Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody [review] (This was amazing?? One of my favs??)

I think I’ve said this 500 times on the internet already but: the only bad part of my experience was seeing the left side get smaller and realizing this book would end.

This is the same exact reaction I had with The Forbidden Wish, where I realized… wow i’m in love with this book and i never want it to end. I got to the 50-page mark and I just thought, “when this book ends I’ll cry in a bucket.”

And I did.

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Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

goodreads • book depository • indiebound

Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Enne must leave her finishing school—and her reputation—behind to follow her mother’s trail to the city where no one survives uncorrupted.

Enne and Levi’s search for clues leads them through glamorous casinos, illicit cabarets and into the clutches of a ruthless mafia donna. As Enne unearths an impossible secret about her past, Levi’s enemies catch up to them, ensnaring him in a vicious execution game where the players always lose. To save him, Enne will need to surrender herself to the city…

And she’ll need to play.

This book is dual-narrated between Enne and Levi, and Enne is a fair-skinned girl from Bellamy while Levi is a black, bi street lord who just wants to protect his crew.

Trigger and content warnings for death, torture, and pedophilia.

“In the City of Sin, secrets are their own sort of currency and reputation holds more power than fortune.”

Enne and Levi are both amazing characters. Levi is morally gray and just fantastic and I loved reading from both of their perspectives?

The romance in this story is really slow-burn and while it’s tangible, it’s not tangible enough for it to be an entire plot on its own. The little glimmers we get of their relationship are done really artfully and I’m so excited to see their relationship more fleshed out in the second book!

Her guidebook had been wrong about one thing: the most dangerous part of the City of Sin wasn’t the beckoning of the card tables or the thread of the gangs. It was the allure of Levi Glaisyer’s rogueish smile.

I loved this worldbuilding. Each person has two gifts/talents* that they possess, each of them passed down from a parent. However, some people have the same gift/talent from both parents, making them doubly strong and powerful in that talent. Levi’s talent is fire and orb making, while Enne Abacus Salta means math and dancing.

Another neat aspect of this world was the volts and orbs. Volts are used as a means of money, and they can either be held in your body or in orbs; holding your volts in your body can be really dangerous.

I honestly thought this book would go into the “holding volts in body” aspect more, but unfortunately it didn’t. (Who doesn’t want to read about quite possibly electrocuting yourself?)

The conclusion was wrapped up in a way that left me satisfied, but I’m also dying for the second book at the same time. King of Fools is one of my most anticipated reads of 2019!

*Wow I wish I had two gifts/talents, but unfortunately I have one: screaming into buckets.

Thank you so much to HarperCollins for sending me a review copy in exchange for a review!

Have you read Ace of Shades? Or Daughter of the Burning City? Do you like the cover of this book?