Synopsis:

Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class and the nobles who destroyed their home.
When Sal Leon steals a poster announcing open auditions for the Left Hand, a powerful collection of the Queen’s personal assassins named for the rings she wears — Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst, and Opal — their world changes. They know it’s a chance for a new life.
Except the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. But Sal must survive to put their real reason for auditioning into play: revenge

Review:

What I liked most about this book was the main character was gender-fluid which is brilliant and you don’t see that enough in any genre really, so kudos to Miller! But what really won me over was the story line: daring, creative and full murder. Though it does have a similar plot to TOG I would have to admit I much enjoyed Mask of Shadows over Throne of Glass, I know sacrilege but Mask of Shadows didn’t drag on as much.

Now focusing our attention on the main character Sal, who gets a chance to addition for the chance to be the Opal, one of the Queen’s protectors. However Sal also has other plans under his sleeves as well. Just one thing to add though, is they can kill each other during the trials or at any point of the book unless instructed. And I mean  they can try and take each other out during the day or at night, so you almost get a 24 view into the depiction, sly and dangerous life that Sal decides to take on. If you like assassin books then this is a nice easy read to enjoy.

The overall set up or the book was brilliant and it dove a bit into the politics of it all without bringing the mood down. Also the building of this world, the history, culture and the suggestion of magic is smoothly introduced into the story, but I have to admit I hope that there is more talk of the magic in the sequel. The only thing that did bring it down was the fact it dragged on a bit while they were in training, there was a tad too much description around Sal getting tutored, this could have been shortened. Oh and the constant conversations around what Sal will be wearing for the day, I understand that this helps with the gender-fluid aspect of the book but hearing about it every morning was a bit of an overkill.

It will be exciting to see what the sequel rings to the table.

Rating: 4/5

Publisher: Source Books

ISBN:9781492660897