*UNRATED DUE TO DNF*

DNF at 36%.

Now, I'm not usually someone who DNFs books, but I have been trying to read this one for a while as I got sent an arc copy back in June of last year. I tried to pick it up twice and have just had to admit that this book simply isn't for me.

I'm just not feeling particularly attached to the characters or the story, and I honestly don't really have much of a grasp on the magic system either. I think that this book will definitely find its audience, especially if you want a slower-paced, regency style gothic story, but I personally just couldn't get invested in this book.

Thank you again to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for sending me an arc copy in exchange for an honest review! (I'm sorry that it took me so long to review!!)

Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright is a novel with intriguing twists and a complex world, but it didn’t fully convince me. While the premise is promising, with a protagonist fighting for the truth in a landscape of lies and betrayals, the pacing can feel slow at times, and some character choices didn’t completely engage me. That said, the author has certainly crafted an interesting world, and for those who enjoy stories of political intrigue and tension, it could still be an enjoyable read.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the e-ARC!

This book started off so strong for me - it throws you into the action, the magic system is so compelling and the politics sounds complicated enough to be satisfying rather than mind boggling, however by about 50% I found myself really pushing to keep going.

I didn't find the characters easy to invest in and I found their story quite lacking and found it difficult to really care. I did however, like the POV changes as it helped break up the narrative and the storyline a little bit.

Overall it was a good read, however it was very difficult to want to continue with - Sorry!

Unfortunately I didn't love this one. The characters felt flat and the romance took up way too much of the overall book. The plot was more telling than actually showing and just boring overall

GOD DAMN... This book may just be my newest obsession.

Mistress of Lies never stops from it’s first line and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. With its super high stakes political intrigue, highly messy and morally grey characters and dark world, I was gripped. If you’re looking for a group of characters that will do ANYTHING for the ones they love, look no further.

With murder, blood magic and an eternal king the stakes are high, the plots devious and the twists will have you holding your breath.

I started reading “Mistress of Lies” for the first time around October, but I ended up putting it aside because something didn’t feel quite right. At the beginning of January, I decided to give the book another chance, and now I understand what my initial issue was: the very first part of the story.

Specifically, I think the pacing was the real problem, especially when it came to developing the relationships between the three main characters, Shan, Samuel, and Isaac. I’m a big fan of slowburn, and I felt its absence here. Taking the slowburn approach, in my opinion, the characters could have had a more solid development.

That being said, I must give credit to the author for the spicy scenes in the story. I really enjoyed those.

If you were to take out the romance, the core plot is captivating. It’s about revolution, putting an end to a monarchy that’s become increasingly dictatorial, social injustices, and mysterious murders. All elements I usually love, and especially in the final part of “Mistress of Lies”, I truly appreciated them.

A special mention goes to Anton, Shan’s twin brother. Among the secondary characters, he was the best, and overall, he was my favorite. Since I plan to read the second book in the series, I hope to see more of him in the story and for him to play a significant role.

Final shoutout to the queer and poly representation. Midway through the story, I thought it was heading in one direction, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. Once again, I’m looking forward to the publication of “Lord of Ruin” to learn more.

First of all I would like to thank NetGalley and Orbit for the eARC of this book!

I wanted to like this book, I really did. I gave it a chance, but sadly it didn‘t get me hooked. Something about the characters felt a little flat to me and the concept didn‘t draw me in.

Perhaps it just wasn‘t the right timing, I’ll probably give it a shot at a later time. It might just not be the book for me.

A villainous heroine finds herself plunged into a seductive world of power, politics and murder in the court of the vampire king in this bloodthirsty debut from an unmissable new voice in fantasy romance. Perfect for fans of Hannah Whitten and S.T. Gibson.
Mistress of Lies ticks all the boxes for what I enjoy in a great fantasy, and it's unsurprising that this was one of my top tier reads of 2024. A vilainous heroine gets entangled in a web of secrecy, lies and betrayal as she tries to navigate the court of the vampire king.
K.M. Enright delivers a bloodthirsty debut with a murder mystery at heart, set in a city where unrest is brewing. I loved our heroine's mettle as she tried to manoeuvre and claim her place in the upper society. The sibling relationship with her brother was well portrayed, and I enjoyed the system of blood magic and the horrors that were gradually revealed. Looking forward to finding out how this series continues, in particular the poly relationship, as this was left on an interesting cliffhanger.

Mistress of lies started as a captivating read, starting with murder, mystery, corruption and intrigue in a dark and sensual world.

The book features a strong cast of characters each with strong motives.

I found that the politics started strong but then felt quite stagnant throughout most the book as we instead spent quite a lot of time focusing on character interactions which begin to feel quite grating as the interactions felt overly sensual for no reason- not something that interests me. Almost reminding me of A Dowry Of Blood.

The magic was a cool system, the magic, politics and inequality creates a dark and captivating story for justice.

Towards the end I found I begin to tire of the book, I would still consider giving book 2 a try as the start was very promising for a great book overall.

The individual threads of this story ties into one beautiful woven tapestry of a captivatingly beautiful and deadly, romantic tale with a clever twist on blood magic!
A remarkable debut I immensely enjoyed and really looking forward to reading the sequel!

I had a bit of a mixed experience with Mistress of Lies. The premise immediately drew me in—there’s something about a character like Shan, who is so calculating and mysterious, that promises a gripping story. The world-building is intriguing, especially the magic system that revolves around blood, which has a dark, almost sinister quality that adds an edge to the story. The way magic is tied to bloodlines and power creates a tense atmosphere, and the Eternal King makes for a chilling villain.
However, as the story unfolded, I found myself losing some of the connection I had with the characters, particularly Shan. While her actions are bold and her ambition clear, I often felt like I was being told about her motives rather than shown them. As the book went on, I struggled to maintain a strong connection to the characters or their motivations.
The dynamics between the main characters also felt a little disjointed at times. There’s a lot of interaction between Shan, her brother, and two love interests, but it didn’t always feel as compelling or as cohesive as I expected. The relationships, particularly the romance, lacked the emotional weight I hoped for. I was told there was tension and passion, but it didn’t always come through in a way that felt real or engaging.. I’m definitely curious about where the story will go in the sequel, but this book left me wanting more closure and clarity.
Mistress of Lies has a lot of potential with its rich world and complex characters, but I didn’t feel as connected to the story or characters as I hoped. While it’s an enjoyable read with some unexpected turns, I think it could have benefited from a bit more character development and a tighter narrative. I’ll be interested to see where the series goes, but for now, this one ends up as a neutral 3 out of 5 for me.

So I started this book a while back, I’ve managed to get just below 50% but for me this is the first book I’ve had to DNF
I thought the way it started I was going to absolutely love this book, like the ruthlessness with the main Fmc but once it was getting political I couldn’t keep going I just lost interest

Polyamorous vampires again? Yes please!

The first few pages immediately hooked me with action and smooth writing that kept me reading. It has angst, it has action, it has vampires and intriguing queer characters. Definitely a good autumn read !

Thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for the advance reader copy.

I will start by saying that the premise of this book sounded amazing and very interesting, but unfortunately I feel like the story itself feel into the waffling category of books.

There’s a lot in the beginning which feels like it’s setting up a fast paced story and then the pace becomes nearly glacial.

I found that this took me a lot longer to read than it should have and I wasn’t interested in any of the characters as the book went on.

This is a 2.5 review rounded up to 3.

I WANTED to love this so badly because it had everything I usually enjoyed and those things were honestly not that bad but this book's biggest offense was the writing style, especially since we were told everything and shown nothing. No atmosphere, no nothing. I'll keep an eye on this author but this debut wasn't it.

Started off promising but ended up disappointing on many fronts. Firstly, I don't think I ever read a book about an investigation less interested in investigating. The stakes were very high and the characters just bumbled around, attending balls and endlessly commiserating their misery. The book would go in circles, bringing up the same needles internal monologues... we get it okay. The twist was so predictable a character raised it as a possibility in the book very early on. The world was confusing, I don't understand the dimensions of the magic system, what they can do or the significance of any of it. The silver lining was the characters (mainly Samuel) and their relationships. Shan got on my nerves with the whole Sparrow obsession but seeing them together was cute.

I really wanted to like this but it needed more focus and fewer pages.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC, all thoughts are my own.

This book was intensely fascinating and compulsively readable, and I imagine that I will be thinking of it a long while after reading its final page.

Pretty much every character in this book is arrogant and foolish, which makes for an interesting, if often frustrating, story. Shan in particular is so certain of her cunning that you can almost believe it, were it not for the way in which everything seems to go wrong, or at least slightly to the left of what she had been planning. Everyone dances around each other, convinced of their own worthiness even in circumstances where such consideration should probably be suspect, and while I didn't dislike it, if they don't wise up a little in the next book I may rather lose interest. No one communicates with anyone else, even when they are working towards a common goal and know it, which to me just felt odd.

The one thing that rather baffled me, I suppose, was the ways in which the characters act regarding improving their society. Ostensibly, all of the three main characters wish to improve conditions for the Unblooded, but none of them seem to have a very clear vision of how to accomplish this and mostly act in self-interest with very little actual strategy. I was intrigued by the ways in which the book began to explore how revolution and societal improvement were viewed by the privileged versus the unprivileged, but it seemed to shy away from really committing to contemplating it and the characters' motives seemed so muddled by the end that it was hard to tell whether what I thought was touching on it was actually there intentionally at all. I'd very much like to see how this might be further explored in the sequel, though.

This book was faintly reminiscent of Blood Over Bright Haven to me, but with less of a distinct sense of its own identity and somewhat less of a willingness to look at the social issues that drive the plot directly in the face. I will be reading the sequel because I very much want to know what happens next but how that turns out will probably strongly inform how I feel about the series overall. This book certainly gave me a lot to think about, and I enjoy that in a story.

Mistress of Lies is a book that sweeps you away in a dark fantasy world of blood magic, horrific killings and actually morally grey characters, and I absolutely adored it way more than I expected. This is not your usual romantasy, but a thought-provoking story that intertwines a captivating plot with an interesting commentary about revolutions and the often hard costs of changes through its brilliantly built characters.

The only issue I had was probably the fact that for how fascinating the magical system was, a mix between common witchy magic and vampiric abilities, I would have loved a little bit more information about the actual dynamic of how it worked.
Nevertheless, the world-building was generally blended almost seamlessly into the story, while also providing a rich and interesting setting to the plot, and the writing was evocative, rich and easily flowing, perfectly fit for a book bathed in blood.

Characters-wise, it was simply perfect. All of them felt unique and all-round, playing their role in a layered game of conspiracies and violence: Samuel has a special meaning to me, for his heart of gold that has to constantly battle with that mix of anger and fear hidden in the deepest part of himself, and the way his thirst for justice and his rightful anger makes him so much hotter; and Isaac, even if he was extremely tired and stressed for most of the time, is such a marvelous character overall, almost as morally grey as Shan and so deliciously flirty.

But Shan was definitely the main character through and through: she is so unapologetically herself, never shying away from what needs to be done to fulfill her goals for the sake of the people she loves, for the greater good, and admitting it proudly.
She is beautiful, bold, and bloodied, and in a world of heroines who often keep their moral compass too much on the white side, she is a breath of fresh air, impossible not to get addicted to.

The romance between the Shan, Samuel and Isaac is one of my favorite parts of the book, and so perfectly written: it is the kind that makes you gasp and giggle your toes but also cry a little bit, steamy and filled with tension but also soft and comforting when needed. The way the feelings between them slowly develop (or reawaken) into something deep and true, not a fling or a quick romance but the soulmate kind of love, was so beautiful to read.
It was absolutely heartbreaking how a certain plot twist (which I probably should have expected, but ended up surprising and gut-punching me either way) influenced their relationship, and yet the feelings, the love, stayed there through the hardships and the mistakes – I truly can’t wait to see more of it in next book.

The non-romantic relationships were equally well done, from the loyal friendship between Shan and Bart, to the complex and bumpy one that bonds Shan and Anton in a way that often felt suffocating and in which, still, the love and the care were undeniable.

I recommend Mistress of Lies to those looking for a unique fantasy with a poly romance, brilliant characters ready to sacrifice (almost) everything for their rightful goal, and a truly creepy and unjustifiable villain (which the bookish world needs more of).

What a hook. Instantly I was sucked into this book and world. Completely obsessed with the fmc and the writing style. Poly romance AND political intrigue?! What a debut for an author I will absolutely be keeping an eye on from now on!

Thank you netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review

Whilst I enjoyed the idea of the plot in this book, I personally didn’t enjoy the way all of it was executed. I loved the mystery and trying to track down what was going on in the community in the book, but I found the romance part of this book very confusing, and just messy, I didn’t like the romance part of it at all. I think the book could have done without the romance.