The Mask of Mirrors by M. A. Carrick is a captivating fantasy novel that immerses readers in a richly crafted world of intrigue, deception, and ambition. The story follows Ren, a con artist seeking to secure her future in the opulent city of Narin, where masks and identities hold profound significance. With its intricate plot and complex characters, the novel explores themes of trust, power, and the lengths one will go to achieve their desires. Carrick's vivid prose and masterful world-building make for an enthralling read that keeps you guessing until the very end.

Yet another DNF - I just couldn't enjoy this book and it felt very undeveloped

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read

I received this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book I was hyped for as soon as I heard about it. Con woman, friends as family, political intrigue, masks and secret identities... what's not to love?

This book does have some SUPER long chapters though, which made it hard to get into at first - I was enjoying it, but also struggling a little. Once I got used to that I was fully swept away by Ren and her charming ways.

The worldbuilding is so good - it's subtle and builds as needed. It does give a little of a slow start while we establish Ren as a former street rat turned maid turned con artist in the city. But it's a great way to establish the city, its influences and how it functions.

Also, I loved how much clothes play a part in this - especially as we get to see Tess create so many! From little things to reusing the fabrics and scraps, to the wonder of creating a truly epic-sounding ballgown. I want to see that dress in real life! It's also a great introduction to the smaller magics, through imbuing. We don't see a lot of fancy casting in this, and I loved that a lot of what we do see is the smaller parts.

Though that does bring me to the magics - there's so much going on. From the imbuing I just mentioned, to more intricate circles and influencing to the tarot style card readings, magic is everywhere while not really being a central focus of the book. I think that was an element that really intrigued me and I definitely hope to see more of. I'm definitely dying to see more of the numinati in action and learn more about how they work. I also really enjoyed the aspects of the card patterning vs astrology - I definitely want more on that conflict.

The cons themselves were fascinating. Especially as we get a real mix - there's a couple of longer cons, and lots of smaller ones in both personas. AND we get elements of Ren falling for her marks. I loved her relationship with all the Treamentis. This is not just a nod to Ren being a con woman, but the authors show us a lot of her actually being one, which is great. I could have happily had loads more of the political manoeuvring she must have done too, but I understand why that didn't make it into this beast of a book!

There's also great chosen family moments - seeing Tess and Ren as sisters and both working towards the goal is so lovely. Especially as we get a reveal later on which is SO heartwarming. And there's a real risk in it - we see Ren go through so much! Plus a truly shocking moment about half way which threw me as I did NOT see it coming at all.

It's also a hierarchical society but one with great moments of inclusion - the LGBTQ+ rep in particular is lovely. We see lots of instances of it throughout.

I want to finish by discussing Vargo, who I loved. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? WHO KNOWS? I love it. I am dying to know more about him.

4.5 stars.

I love it when you start reading a book and you're really enjoying it from page one, and then it just gets better and better as you go on. This book was like that for me. The opening third focused on the political machinations of the upper classes of the world (which I ate up) and then, the plot took a turn and things got pretty dark and I bloody loved it! The character work was top notch and the world building was excellent, giving us enough to be able to follow the plot, but without overloading us with information. There are lots of twists and turns, reveals and unexpected moments and there is a sense of completion at the end while still leaving plenty to discover in the remaining books. Overall, I thought this was a fantastic book and can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I love heist books and if it's queer I will absolutely adore it. Though I expected more from this book as it is marketed as The Lies of Locke Lamora so I have my expectations quite high. When I finished the book I didn't feel quite satisfied, it is not that its a bad book it is just okay. The characters, world, and everything in between is just okay. Though it is the first book to a series I didn't expect it to be fast paced and it was as expected slow in the beginning. There were many chances for the story to pick up but instead it felt stagnant.

This is the first instalment in the Rook & Rose series.

Ren learned how to cheat and gamble during her time spent on the streets of Nadežra. Now she is part of its sparkling elite, posing as a wealthy long-lost family member returned to its fold. She plays her part well, beguiling all around her until she can steal their wealth for her real sister and herself. However, the family she lies her way into isn't what it appears on the outside and the entire wealthy populace of the city of Nadežra might all have secrets that could, if exposed, prove that every facet of this glittering city is a façade.

I loved learning about Ren's role in her and her sister, Tess', plan to steal from this wealthy family. Their lives prior to this coup was a tough one, with many losses and much suffering. It made them tougher and more unforgiving, but still with a softness at their core and loveable qualities that quickly earned them a place in my heart. I knew their plan would see others ruined but their intentions were only to aid themselves and I longed to see them successful. This was not to be so.

The first half of this novel was slightly slower in pacing than the latter. This did not impact my enjoyment but the later reveals, and the magic and mayhem that also appeared, was where I truly began to love this story as much as I already loved its key players.

Many mysteries featured here and I became invested in them all equally. I thought the author did a commendable job of pacing the reveals for each and luring the reader's interest with littered puzzle pieces to the truth appearing in many scenes. I finished this book and moved directly onto the second series instalment to continue on my quest to finding the rest.

So thank you to Netgalley for giving me access to this forever ago. To my great disappointment it didn’t work for me. I was stubborn as I really rate the Marie Brennan part of this partnership. But this book just never clicked for me. The plot was slow and the density of the prose and worldbuilding just made everything slower. As such I never really cared about anything, never really got excited about anything. And so I put this one down.

Bajo el pseudónimo M. A. Carrick, se esconden las escritoras Marie Brennan y Alyc Helms, que han aunado esfuerzos para crear una trilogía fantástica con intrigas políticas, tarot y magia.

Ren es la protagonista de la primera entrega, titulada The Mask of Mirrors, una timadora que se dispone a hacer su mayor truco hasta la fecha: hacerse pasar por una familiar perdida de una pudiente familia para escapar de la pobreza. No obstante, esta es solo una de las muchas máscaras que habrá de llevar para conseguir su objetivo, mientras que se ve envuelta en un juego de intrigas políticas para el que quizá no estaba preparada.

El mundo que han creado las autoras es bastante atractivo y además consiguen sorprender al lector cuando la historia se desarrolla por unos derroteros que no eran los esperados. Se le da mucha importancia al tarot y los augurios definidos por la fecha de nacimiento de cada persona, tanto que incluso las autoras crearon un anexo en su página web con información al respecto. En este sentido, me recuerda mucho a la Guía de Lectura de Ignotos Mayores de Ferran Varela, así que si os gusta el tema, no dejéis de darle una oportunidad.

El sistema mágico, no obstante, queda un poco más velado. La posibilidad de viajar al mundo onírico se revela como fundamental en el libro, pero no queda demasiado claro el funcionamiento, aunque también hay que comprender que no se pueden mostrar todas las cartas en el primer volumen.

Hay conceptos que están muy bien representados, como la familia que uno escoge en vez de aquella a la que pertenecemos por nacimiento y los vínculos afectivos que se forman a través de la amistad. El racismo y la lucha de clases está más que presenta en todo el libro, desde la lucha de Ren por asegurarse un futuro con una familia noble hasta el resto de personajes que disfrutan de una posición u otra dependiendo de su cuna, no de su capacidad.

Los personajes son complejos y la sociedad está bastante bien representada, si bien el ritmo en ocasiones se vuelve lento quizá por una excesiva atención al detalle, por la parsimonia en la acción y las descripciones. En general se trata de una novela pausada, aunque tenga sus momentos de acción y hay que disfrutar del proceso. Es por esto que no la recomiendo para todos los públicos, debido a su longitud y a su ritmo. Pero aceptando estas premisas, es una novela perfectamente disfrutable.

Ren comes to the city with her sister to pull off a huge con and get inscribed into the House Traementis register as a long lost relative. Ren goes on an adventure whilst changing between her identifies Tenata/Arenza/Ren and discovers that whilst she's pulling her con off, there is more than meets the eye to Nadezra and its people.

The book started off slow, only picking up the pace at around 50%, and very heavy in world building with unique names for the Gods/time keeping/titles/times/days, etc. It was so heavy in world building that I feel like I kept getting lost and disinterested as a result which discouraged me from finishing the book. I also didn't feel much connection to any of its characters and the only thing that intrigued me to keep going was to find out who Rook was.

The book has a very unique magic system which even though I still don't entirely understand, I can appreciate. The concept is interesting but I don't feel like there is anything pulling me towards reading the sequel. However, the book being set in a LGBT-norm world and the mysteries behind Rook gave it a huge plus.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book for an honest review.

Gave me Lies of Locke Lamora vibes, entertaining, deep and complex. Well written, the world could be a bit confusing at times but I ended up just rolling with it and enjoyed immensely!

Content warnings: Violence, injury and death, including major character death, death of children, and death of family members; fantasy racism, classism and xenophobia; drug/alcohol abuse; some horror elements involving zombie-like creatures.

Somewhere about 150 pages into this book, I paused for breath and thought, “Yes. This is exactly the kind of fantasy that I love.” And honestly, if I could leave you with that for a review, it would say enough – not many books manage to feel fresh and original and genuinely unpredictable, but also as completely, overwhelmingly right as putting on your favourite pyjamas. This is fantasy that absolutely hits all my major buttons – a wonderfully rich world with an elaborate social system, facinating, flawed characters, and just enough magic to keep it all ticking over – and also a lot of my more specific loves – con artists, dressmaking, decaying old aristocratic families, multiple forms of magic, casual queerness, social intrigue, flirting, fencing, flirting while fencing! – so I cannot sing the praises of The Mask of Mirrors highly enough. It’s a rather twisty book, so I’m going to be deliberately opaque in talking about characters and plot, as I think it’s best to go in knowing as little as possible.

I’d heard from multiple friends that it had a challenging opening, with a lot of information to take in – if you’ve also heard this, take it with a large pinch of salt if you’re a seasoned fantasy reader. It’s really nothing out of the ordinary in terms of how much knowledge you need! I ran into a little bit of difficulty with pronunciation on some of the names, but it wasn’t hard to keep them straight, even if I’d prefer not to have to say them aloud. I actually thought that the world-building and backstories were dripped in pretty much at the perfect pace – yes, this is an intricate setting, but you get a wonderful feel for the city and its people very quickly. There’s something a little Venetian in the river-city setting, but it’s not a wholesale cipher; there’s a lot more going on as the world unfolds. I will say that this was a book I found myself unintentionally reading at a much slower pace than usual – it’s just under 650 pages, but it took me around a week to finish it.

Books with multiple point-of-view characters can often feel a little uneven to me, where I like one or two plotline/characters less than others; while I had my favourites and least favourites among the cast, there was never a point where I wanted to be in any other point of view than the one I was reading. Yes, I felt the urge to know what was going on after cliffhanger chapters, but not at the expense of the other plots! Ren is definitely the most interesting character to me, but I was lucky that although there are multiple plots, hers felt like the main one, which meant we spent a lot of time on her! All the other characters are great too, and I was constantly amazed at the ways in which even the most insignificant character moments turned out to be very important later on – no one and nothing here is filler. Many ‘oh!’ moments await a careful reader!

This is a book filled with incredibly rich visuals, from the different locations in the city to the fashion – if you’re someone who enjoys clothes in fantasy, this is an absolute treat. I was amazed at how much detail could be packed into each scene; it’s such a vividly imagined world and feels so real. Alongside all the glamour of Nadežra’s masquerades and tea parties, the book makes sure to show the darker horrors lurking in the shadows, from the magical to the mundane. Many of our characters stand in the borders between classes and nationalities, in a city awash with racism; it quickly becomes apparent that Nadežra is a tinderbox and the widespread cultural erasure and poverty are not going to be able to be ignored much longer. The city’s rotten heart is an ever-present shadow on its glamour, and it makes for an utterly fascinating setting.

Every so often I find it completely impossible to sum up how much I love a book without going into spoiler territory, so I’ll just say this: this is a brilliant, brilliant read for anyone who loves chunky, intricate fantasy. It’s definitely one you should try if you love The Lies of Locke Lamora, but I’d also say fans of the Mistborn books or the setting of Kushiel’s Dart should give this a go. I’m really excited to read the rest of the trilogy after that explosive ending – book two, The Liar’s Knot, is out now, and I think the third book is out sometime this year. Five out of five stars, obviously!

I loved this book. Adult fantasy is a firm favourite of mine and I felt this was an absolute shining example of adult fantasy at it’s finest.
The characters were nuanced and flawed and so complex. I loved how they all worked together to build this web within the world.
I do think the pacing definitely felt more Adult so if you’re more used to YA you’ll feel like it’s slow but to me it was right for building the world without making it feel overwhelming.
I’m so excited for the next books!

The Mask of Mirrors promised all of the things I love in a chunky, epic fantasy book - and for me, it absolutely delivered! This was a very easy 5 star rating to give, and I am ever so desperate to read the sequel, to return to Nadežra and see what's in store for Ren and co.

I'm already a fan of Marie Brennan after reading her Lady Trent books, and this author duo have crafted a marvellously intricate world, with a rich history, mythology, magic system - even its own tarot deck and astrology! I honestly cannot recommend this book enough; I even find myself disappointed that it's only due to be a trilogy, because I want as much of this world as I can possibly get!

I understand criticism about its slow pacing, and all of the new terms could, I confess, be a little confusing at times, but there's an in-depth glossary, and in my opinion the slow pacing simply allowed more time to explore the world and its characters!

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book. I found it really dense and struggled to get through the chapters. I didn't care much for the characters either so I found it hard to keep myself invested and ended up dnfing

A great start for a new fantasy series!
Excellent world building, character and plot development.
It's gripping and highly entertaining even if a bit slow at the beginning.
I can't wait to read the next instalment.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I had high hope for this one, initially the cover caught my eye, but once I started reading I was captivated. This book weaves a web of mystery, magic, and political treachery. It’s a fantasy adventure in which a con artist, a vigilante, and a crime lord must unite to save their city. I didn’t realise it was book one of a series but I’m glad it is. It was well thought out and written beautifully. I couldn’t put it down. I found the characters likeable and wanted to find out more about them along the way. I look forward to the next instalment and recommend it to all fantasy fans.

The Mask of Mirrors is the first book in the Rook & Rose trilogy, written together by Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms as M. A. Carrick. It is a adult fantasy story and follows multiple perspectives, although the plot mainly focuses around Ren's infiltration into an elite house in the city of Nadežra. The cover is illustrated by Nekro and designed by Lauren Panepinto. Overall I really enjoyed this first instalment to the Rook & Rose trilogy and I am definitely planning on checking out the sequel, The Liar's Knot (set for release December 2021). If you are looking for a new fantasy series to check out, I'd recommend checking this one out if you're interested.

Did not finish due to slow pace and in a reading slump. Outline seemed promising and I am hopeful that I will return to finish the book. Characters were interesting but just slow on plot / action

I actually experienced most of this book listening on audio, because my reading and scheduling is all over the place right now (and when I say "now" I means "always) and that way I can squeeze in a few more books. It perhaps wasn't the best choice in some ways because The Mask of Mirrors is more than 25 hours on audio, and so took me a couple of months to finish. (Of course once I got within sniffing distance of the end I switched to the paperback because EXCITING FINISH).

In other ways, the medium of audio suits this story exactly. I generally find the experience of listening to a book more immediately immersive and it especially suited the complex, intricate world that Carrick (Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms writing together) create.

We are in the city - indeed the city state - of Nadežra, a merchant enclave with something of a feel of Renaissance Venice to it: Nadežra is a place founded on inlets and islands, run by noble houses with trading interests who govern though a Council, the Cinquerat. A great deal of the background to the story is rooted in this - we're particularly interested in one of the noble houses, House Traementis, whose fortunes have rather fallen, and there is a great deal of business with charters and commerce, involving a long-lost member of the family, Renata, who shows a singular ability to get things done and who may just be what they need to reclaim some of their lustre.

The only problem is... Renata is actually Ren, a skilled con artist and former thief who came from the gutters of Nadežra. Though her, Carrick explores a whole dimension of colonialism and class inequality in Nadežra since the ruling nobles actually derive from Liganti invaders, the indigenous poeople of the region being Vraszanians like Ren. In the audio, this is marked by Alta Renata's cool, very Standard English compared with the rougher rougher, Slavic(?) infused accent used by Ren and her partner in crime, Tess (who poses as her maid). Ren uses the same accent when she's playing the part of a fortune teller, something she does quite often since the use of cards to divine the past, present and future is something of an obsession among the Vraszanians and also a means the author uses to hint at where the story is going. This was where the audio was slightly frustrating because the system of cards as developed by Carrick is understandably very visual, and without words on the page to describe what's happening in the various readings (some of them real, some faked by Ren or other characters as the need arises) it can be hard to keep track of what's happening.

That in no way reduces the delight of this story, however. It simply teems with life. Carrick introduces us to police, haughty nobles, a dashing and daring outlaw ('the Rook'), a faction of Vraszanian rebels, rival mobsters with their own street gangs and trading interests, and a couple of magicians (magic - numinatria - is a Thing here, although more an offshoot of geometry than an occult art). The conception of all this, the different viewpoints, the manoeuvring and skullduggery between the houses and the skin-of-her-teeth efforts of Ren to project herself as the wealthy and privileged Alta Renata, give the first half of the book something of the air of a Dickens novel. There is simply so much going on, yet it's all so vividly depicted that one never feels swamped. Above all it feels real.

The city and its resident established, with the second half Carrick swerves hard in other directions. It's hard to say much about this without some spoilers about certain shocking events, but what I will say is, Carrick is BRUTAL with some of what happens and, like Ren, she's playing something of a shell game. I certainly never suspected where this book was going and if you do find the minutiae of the first half a bit technical, well, the second goes in other directions (magic may be involved is all I will say) and, as it were, scratches quite a different itch. There are more plots than Ren's at work here and compared to some of what's revealed, she is pretty much an innocent.

I'd wholeheartedly recommend The Mask of Mirrors if you love a well worked out, immersive fantasy world peopled by a gallery of obstreperous characters who may make alliances but are, mostly, never going too get on.

And it's only the first 'Rook and Rose' book - the title of the sequence suggesting that the focus will be slightly different again from what we might expect based simply on this one.