Thank you Little Brown Book Group UK /Orbit and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book for the purpose of leaving an honest review.

Mistress of Lies is a dark fantasy, murder mystery with a subplot of romance (poly) and a sprinkle of politics.

The main fantasy elements that can be found in this novel are vampires and blood magic, it was the blood magic that drew me to this book and whilst I wasn’t completely disappointed, I wish it could have been developed more.

However, I will say that this author has taken a different approach to vampires (blood workers) and has made them more interesting due to this approach.

The world building was excellent which I would expect for the first book in this world.

I enjoyed this novel but my main criticism would be that the murder mystery aspects was push aside and replayed with romance between the three main characters, this occurs for a substantial amount of this book.

I did struggle to get through this book but that could be a me issue, I was hooked on the first few chapters but felt like it dragged until we got to end, which was equally as captivating as the beginning of this book.

Overall, I did enjoy this book and I will read the sequel to see where things go after that ending.

Although this book has very little in common with it, this first installment reminded me a lot of the “Boneshard Daughter”, perhaps due to a similar family dynamic. Shan, coming from an aristocratic family of bloodworkers, is trying to reestablish the name and fortune of her family - and she has all the right cards to make this happen. When she hears about Samuel and his powers she knows the last piece of her complex plan has been finally found. It finally can be set it motion.
This book has a significant romantic plot, even if at times it is hard to distinguish if it is really romance or just infatuation - said this given the age of the characters this is all quite understandable.
The bloodworking aspect of the magic system is intriguing and while a little vague, all in all very enjoyable. I will surely continue reading the following volumes (is it a duology or a trilogy?). I wholeheartedly agree with the opening notes of K. M. Enright - choosing to make this book equally about Shan and Samuel was absolutely the right choice. Both characters are so rich, deep and relatable that it would have been an injustice to put one of them in the shadows of the other.

Mistress of Lies is a fantastic first instalment in what promises to be a dark and delicious series.
Shan, Samuel and Isaac are complex, flawed, and deeply relatable characters, moulded and broken and moulded again by the worlds they live in and the choices they make.
Shan is the titular Mistress of Lies, gathering information and spinning a web in order to accomplish her goals. She plays the long, patient game to effect what she hopes is real change in their city and country, but for others, the long game is simply too distant. They take more radical action.
I really enjoyed Anton's character arc, as well. Rich and privileged in all ways but the one that really matters - his inability to use magic. Because of that, despite his family name and its status, he is forever on the outside of society, an Unblooded. Only not like the other Unblooded, who are mostly poor and desperate and rapidly growing angry at how they are treated by the Blood Workers - the elite.
In a city of growing civil unrest and class tension, Shan, Samuel and Isaac are ostensibly working together - but in reality they're all falling apart.
The romantic and sexual tension between the trio was incredibly well done, and added a great deal to the overall narrative, making the final plot twists that much more devastating.
I loved this!

I really wanted to love this book and I was so drawn in by the first few chapters that I maintained high hopes for a while. However, I found it difficult to connect with Shan, which is disappointing because normally I love an unlikeable but likeable main character! Aside from that, the book was heavier on political intrigue than I'd expected and that's not normally my bag.

The first chapter was one of the strongest I've read in a while, and I did enjoy the writing, the representation and the premise, but unfortunately I think it's just a case of this book not being right for me.

Mistress of Lies by K. M. Enright has an intriguing premise; vampires, magic and some revenge and romance thrown in for good measure. Shan, one of the main characters, has spent her life trying to perfect her skills and become powerful enough to protect her brother from their father which she ultimately achieves. I thought that the premise was interesting as it weaves the more fantastical elements with the more "real" political elements really well. I did feel like more could have been written about Shan's background, how she acquires her network of spies and apart from her revenge on her father, what her real motives were. Maybe there will be more about this in further books? I hope so. I do feel also that a lot of action happened "off page" rather than us going along with the characters. I will say that the world-building was good and the story does reel you in. I am really hoping that the characters have more growth in further books and some questions that you are left with at the end will be answered. I felt that the pace of the narrative was a little off and I would've liked the action to move a little faster but maybe if more of the action had taken place "on-page" that might have helped. However, the political/vampire trope was a fresh one for me. Often we see "courts" but the political aspects feel rushed but in this story, it did help round out the world. I did really enjoy K. M. Enright's writing and I look forward to reading more from this author.

I thought I would like this more.... Don't get me wrong, the rep is great, and I'm all in for the Poly side of the story!
But, its also a lot of politics, so if you love it go ahead, was a tad too much for my taste.
Also, I found the story to be slightly too slow... It was dragging at times.

So... Will I read what's coming next? ABSOLUTELY, but I wasn't as flashed as I expected to be.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for access to the ebook against an honest review.*

The beautiful cover immediately caught my eye, and I couldn’t resist requesting an ARC. Unfortunately, I had to DNF it—I just couldn’t connect with Samuel in the second chapter. I was too invested in Shan, and the sudden shift in focus made it hard for me to continue. That said, I plan to give it another try around Halloween, hoping the ambiance will help me enjoy it more.

2.5★

Thank you, Little, Brown Book Group UK, and NetGalley for giving me this free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When I first read what this book is going to be about, I was very intrigued. I had very high expectations; however, not all of them were met.

The book starts with Shan killing her father and inheriting basically everything he ever had. With this power and the power she has gained throughout her life, she decides to take down the eternal king, who reminds her of her shitty father. She wants to replace the king with someone better, someone like Samuel, our male main character.

Shan is a good character with a lot of complex emotions; however, I find it hard to root for her sometimes. She was really arrogant at times and got on my nerves. The things she said about herself in her own POVs made her really unlikable, and even though she and her twin were supposed to have a strong bond (she killed their father for him), we never got to see that, and mostly, it just felt like Shan thought he was less than her. She and her story were fairly underdeveloped, and because of this, I never felt the connection with her that I expected when I first read the synopsis. The thing I didn’t like was that we never really saw how she gained all of her power and how brilliant she was; the author just told us this without showing us.

The world was interesting, but there wasn’t a lot of world-building because the author tried to have too much in one book, and I think it backfired. The author tried to have a romance, dark fantasy, vampires, and a detective plot, which was too much, and because of this, the novel was kind of messy and underdeveloped. However, the plot twist was shocking, and I didn’t see it coming. I loved that!


Overall, the novel could’ve been better, but the idea was very original, as was the plot. I really liked the author's writing and the amount of representation they included. I will read book two in the future, as I am interested in where this story goes!

There are so many good vampire books appearing this year that the challenge I face is doing the best titles justice. Because how is it still possible to write an original vampire novel? It’s all been done before, right?

This book proves that there is still a good deal of life (yes, yes, I know) left in this trope, with the vampire acting as a whole new type of metaphor for society while still retaining a strong sense of seductive threat.

Set in a land ruled by Vampires as an Elite class, blood is a form of magical ‘fuel’, with the non-gifted (ie regular folk) being tithed to keep the balance of benefits dispensed by the Blood-Worker rulers. One of the first scenes is a public sacrifice to this end, which is an ironic reflection of a French Revolution guillotine scene - only it’s a criminal being sacrificed by the rich for the good of the people.

Of course it’s not that simple, and we’re immediately in for a fantastic ride of politics and very morally ambiguous characters. How can any form of justice be found when those at the top are virtually immortal? Yes, the working classes outnumber the elites, but why would the former revolt? They should be grateful for what they have in this twisted welfare state!

The protagonists are engaging and complex, with initially clear goals that are gradually broken down as more truths come to light. Nothing is as straightforward as ‘good/evil’ here - this society reflects our own so skilfully that even as I type this, I’m thinking of the online tangles of misinformation happening in our world right now. There’s also the unfortunately-familiar idea of ‘well, if you’re rich enough to get away with something…’

Our heroine-of-sorts Shan battles with her own ethical code versus what she sees as her duty to her family, while being openly challenged by her own lower-caste brother. She finds Samuel, who in a lesser novel would be a ‘chosen one’ here to save the day… except he really does not want that job, having lived in the poverty that all are forbidden to question. And there’s Shan’s ex-lover, Isaac, perhaps this Revolution’s Chauvelin - but caught in his own prison, seeking to hold on to his true self while enslaved within the Blood hierarchy. From the ruling class to the workers, we see the need to come together against the corrupt system, but like the best mystery thrillers, for most of the book I could not for the life of me see how this would be done!

It’s never difficult to keep up, thankfully. The relatable nature and motivation of the characters was simple to follow, even if I had to juggle the pieces of who to root for based on the latest information. The twisting plot kept me guessing until the very last moments, and I was left with a huge book hangover at the end!

Incidentally, I’ve not been a fan of the often-contrived Vampire Romance Novel, but here it was a genuine pleasure to see the nature of such inhuman (and often bloody) relationships portrayed so beautifully. We have a mix of queerness and polyamory that is handled with true care - it’s not subtext, it’s just the way these people feel about each other. What if blood could help someone find their true self as a trans person? Why have a conflicting relationship triangle (I’m looking at you, Twilight) when all three participants are happy to engage together like adults?

A huge recommend for those who like their vampires smart as well as sexy.

Dark and twisted. This is a fantasy novel full of political moves and motivations. A wonderfully created fantasy world with new ideas and a different romance. Well worth a read.

Oh how much I wanted to absolutely love this novel. "Mistress of Lies" was a really anticipated read of mine, but sadly, it couldn't quite give me what I wanted from it.
I did like some of what it was doing. The characters are generally interesting, the setting and its politics very on the nose but still intriguing, and the writing style is easy to read. There are some great aestheticts, too. The themes are important, be it the racism two of our main three characters have to endure or the abuse of power by an authoritarian regime, headed by a godlike dictator.

Sadly, I feel like none of these themes were explored fully or with any nuance. The main conflict between the powerful ruling class, the Bloodworkers, and the poor and abused Unblooded seems superficial, mostly because the Bloodworkers are almost comically evil. There is much more nuance to systems of power like these, but it isn't explored at all. There's barely any world-building. The central plot is basically a murder mystery, but it never really felt important at all. Much more time was spent on the relationship between the three big characters, Shan, Samuel and Isaac. And sadly, the romance between them is just... not good. It's incredibly instalusty from all sides and there is no emotional, romantic chemistry between any of them. This is partly to blame on the pacing and the book's probably biggest issue: it's incredibly heavy on the tell-don't-show.
We are told constantly how brilliant of a spymaster Shan is, but her actions very much show otherwise. If you want me to believe a character is so terrifyingly good at something, you have to show them being terrifyingly good at that thing or I just don't believe you.
We are told constantly how Samuel's training progresses, but because there are time jumps of a few weeks like every next page we see none of it.
We are told constantly how the relationship between the three has developed but we aren't shown any of it because of aforementioned time jumps and all-over-the-place writing.
We are told constantly how abused the Unblooded are and how the ruling class treats them, but we feel very little of it because we are only shown very few scenes in between of how they actually live and what the Bloodworker rule means for their lives and how all this anger they feel developed.

All of this means that I didn't feel any emotional attachment to any of the characters nor was I emotionally involved in what was happening. There's more I didn't enjoy, but these come down to very personal dislikes and wasted potential. All in all, I really had high hopes for this one, but stark pacing and plot issues, easy but simplistic writing that I just personally didn't vibe with, forgettable characters and an overabundance of telling instead of showing made me just not enjoy my time with it.

DNF @ 20%

I found this book incredibly intriguing, after all, Shan (the FMC) offs her own father in the very first chapter. It kicks things off with a bang. This book has trans representation, Filipino roots, has vampires, a love triangle, an aristocratic FMC with a spy network, a poor MMC who stumbles upon a murder - basically everything to make this a gripping read.

I‘m really sad to dnf this, but I couldn‘t stand the FMC and knew that this would drive me to distraction. I don‘t mind an unlikeable MC, but very early on, two things really grated me the wrong way, so much so that I had to eventually put this down because the story didn‘t pull me back in enough:

In her own POV, the reader learns that „Shan wore it with a graceful elegance, the kind that moved people to shamed deference“ which I found really odd. It‘s likely not intended that way but because it‘s in her chapter (and thus her own POV), it seems really arrogant and aloof. Sure, POVs can change, but it still felt strange to me mainly because we don‘t know whose POV this sentence is.

Also, she kills her father for her brother the latter is angry at her when finding out, but then she thinks that „eventually, Anton would come crawling back to her. He always did“. This seems really despicable to me, as if her brother‘s beneath her.

I‘ve seen that lots of people have enjoyed this, so please don‘t get influenced by my dnf. It wasn‘t my cup of tea, but reading is subjective, so you might love this, which would be great.

Thank you to NetGalley and Litte, Brown Book Group UK | Orbit for providing me with a digital review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

I had a great time with this book! Political intrigue, murder mystery, and scheming. Wonderful trans representation. I wanted more development on the characters and their relationships, but hopefully that will come in the sequel. I'm very much looking forward to the sequel and seeing how the story progresses.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.

So mutch potential, but not what i hoped it would be

2.5 /⭐
2/🌶️

ARC Netgally

#vampire #darkfantasy #murder #detective

In a world of bloodworkers and royalty we follow both Shan and Samuel in alternating chapters.
Shan is a bloodworker, from an old powerful family who inherited her father's estate and has to live with the fact that she is different from the other bloodworkers
Hiding behind her schemes

Samuel is a unblooded, living in the poorest regions of the city
And somehow their world collide into this story

What i loved:

The beginning:
The first chapter is captivating, murdering your own father in the beginning of a book sets expectations

The alternating chapters:
The view from the different perspective is interesting
It keeps you drawn into the story

The plottwist:
Although i am not sure i liked the plotwist because i wanted so badly that it ended well for Isaac but i must say i did not see this one coming !

The cover:
This is so beautiful
It is wat made me want to read the book in the first place


What i did not like:

Identity crisis:
To me this book wanted to be too much
It wanted to be a romance, a dark fantasy, a detective story,...
This means that there was too little world building and too much time spent trying to put in extra story lines. It works a bit distracting

Because of this a lot of the things were left unexplained.
We have a seposibly brilliant Shan but we never really see how her mind works, how her network of information was built, how strong her relationship with her brother was, why plot to murder your father now ? ...

To little world building:

We only see parts of the world, and to little is explaoned for the story to make sens to me
For example the bloodtax Vs the other ways the get the blood, why not do this differently
Why is the king the only one who has had the chance to experiment with bloodworking while half of the population can do this ?
...

Romance:
Although i did not mind the love triangle
It was to fast and to little


Overall I did not really love it, would not recommend it
There was a lot more potential than eventually was used

It started so so so so so well
And then…… it went downhill
It had a very promising first part but after that not much made sense for me
We had a lot of talk about samuel s power but there was never a lot shown?? The mmf part of the book never made sense. Im sorry but in a fantasy i dont think it makes much sense
I really like the fmc she had a very well developed character

Thank you Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Release date: 15/08.

This e-arc contained an author letter, which really added to my reading experience. The author is Filipino, queer and trans and I felt his pain and anger about the injustices in the world, throughout reading this book.

I liked this book but didn’t love it. I think mainly because apart from the start and some parts near the end, very little happened. And the licking and lapping up of blood and some parts of the spicy scenes were just too weird and even disgusting to me.

I usually don’t start with the things I disliked about a story but there’s just not much to tell about this book.

So the story does start with a bang. Shan kills her awful father. She got her vengeance but she feels like a monster. She did it to protect her twin but honestly, not much of their supposed bond is “visible” throughout the story. Shan is a bloodworker, in a town where bloodworkers are seen as better than unblooded and they rule the country. Bloodworkers have certain powers tied to blood and use their own or blood from others.

Shan pretends her father died suddenly of a heart attack. Very handy that he had an incinerator in his mansion, where she disposed of him.. But nobody cared I guess. He wasn’t loved or probably even liked by anyone anyway.

Shan becomes the head of her line and she supposedly wants to replace the king who is also awful. She has this delusional idea that she can replace him with someone better and it will fix everything. That someone being Samuel. Nice to have his POV too. He has a darkness, an evil power inside him that the king wants to use and not for good. But Samuel would rather be rid of it.

There is romance in this story but it’s a love triangle that isn’t well done.

Shan is a master at playing games and using people as pawns to get what she wants. But it didn’t really lead to anything.

There are mysterious killings happening and the unblooded start to revolt against the current politics and ruling caste but there isn’t much of an investigation and it was pretty easy to guess who did it.

Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright is a dark and captivating debut that plunges readers into a world of Vampire, blood magic, political intrigue, and morally grey characters.

Enright’s writing is richly atmospheric, immersing readers in a meticulously crafted world where magic and danger lurk around every corner. The characters are multifaceted and morally ambiguous, particularly the lead character Shan, whose ruthless ambition and cunning make her a compelling antiheroine.

The themes of power, desire, tension and betrayal are expertly woven into the narrative

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
🌟✨/5
Mistress of Lies leaned more towards romantasy than I expected. Unfortunately, as is often the case with romantasy, logic, worldbuilding and character development were thrown out of the window in favour of the romance (which was...not great).

To begin with, this is very much a more telling, less showing kind of book. Also, whatever is told often contradicts what it shown on the page. We're told that Shan is a highly skilled spymaster but we are never told how she became the Sparrow and built her network of spies. The decisions she makes are stupid and lack clear motivations. I was expecting to love her character, especially because of the fact that the first chapter starts with her murdering her father. Samuel is one of the blandest, most one dimensional MCs I've ever come across. His character arc didn't really make sense. The 'romance' is just insta lust (not even love) in a wig. There was no chemistry between the characters, especially Shan and Samuel. I also hated Isaac with a burning passion because of what he did.

Secondly, the worldbuilding is non-existent. The setting had no clear boundaries and defining characters. We are told that other countries prosecute blood workers but it is never clearly explained. A little bit of history would've worked well. The magic system doesn't make sense. For example, we are never told how the Eternal King became immortal and why other blood workers cannot. I was expecting this to be a well developed high fantasy with lots of court intrigue, but...no. The Filipino rep isn't really well done. Besides a couple of mentions regarding food, we don't get to see much of Shan's Tagalan heritage. I know this is on me, I should know better and check if a book is romantasy. (It was marketed as a dark, romantic fantasy, though. The publisher should know that there's a difference between that and just romantasy). The middle was a huge slog to get through and the plot twists were predictable and quite lame.

Overall, this was a huge disappointment. If you, like me, are particular about fleshed out characters and we'll developed worldbuilding, better stay away from this one. I hate being so negative about a book, but I really cannot help it if it's this poorly written. I will not be reading the sequel.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for this!

This was an anticipated read for me this year, but sadly I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I’d hoped I would.
That said, I did enjoy the first ca. ¼ of the book. The introduction into the characters, the political intrigue as well as the possible murder plot made for a really good and interesting start.
Sadly that changed around half of the book when everything seemed to evolve around the romance subplot. I really don’t mind the romance, but I enjoy it much more when it is sprinkled throughout the story, rather than halting the plot to have the romance happen.
The plot does pick up again, however at that point I had stopped caring about most of the characters to be honest.

I think had this book focused more on the political intrigue and the murder mystery, I would have enjoyed it much more. For me, the romance took up too much space in a story with a lot of other more interesting things going on.

That said I really liked the magic system, blood magic is a cool concept in itself and I think it was executed really well here. The world building on the other hand could have used some more time. We are told that other countries do not condone blood magic for example, however we are never told as to why. Especially in a story about political intrigue, I think it would have done well to dive further into Aeravin’s relationship with it’s neighbouring countries.

Tldr: Interesting premise with political intrigue and a murder mystery to solve. The characters are interesting with each having their own intentions and purposes, and I loved how queer the cast is.
The blood magic system is really cool, but to me the story focused too much on the romance subplot.

The premise of this book was intriguing and there was so much that interested me when I read the blurb; a vampire king, blood magic, a network of spies, a magical serial killer, polyamory and queer/trans representation - of course I wanted to read it!

Unfortunately, the book didn’t deliver and ultimately I was left disappointed.

Let me start with the vampire king point. He’s not a vampire king at all, blood magic is used in this world but they are not vampires in the true sense of the word. I’m not sure if I’m the only person that was misled into thinking this was a vampire book but if that’s what you’re looking for, you won’t find it here. The blood magic itself was interesting enough that I didn’t think the comparison was necessary so left me feeling a little duped.

The network of spies and magical serial killer were also promising but sadly these parts of the story were overshadowed by the political elements and power struggle which became tedious and I’m sorry to say, boring.

The polyamory and queer/trans representation were good and could have added so much more to the story but the slow build up and lack of character depth didn’t allow that to happen. I had such high hopes for the relationship but you never really get to see the three of them together in that way which was a real shame and a missed opportunity in my opinion.

As always, this is just my opinion and I’m sure there are elements of the book which will appeal to lots of other people, such as the world building, political intrigue and murder mystery, but sadly it didn’t hit the mark for me.

2.5 stars ⭐️⭐️💫 rounded up.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher, Littlebrown Book Group, for my early copy.