Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC

A fantastic start to a new series. If you've missed a fantasy with deadly trials this is your sign. For anyone who loved the competitions in Powerless, try The Order of Masks. I really enjoyed the book and the characters. There were so many morally grey people in the book and that's always interesting. Highly recommend!

In the cut-throat Ravalian Court, alliances shift like sand, and seduction often precedes murder. The Order of Masks immerses readers in a world where survival is uncertain, and only the most cunning will prevail.

Circus performer Mira has lived a life on the run, determined to secure her future by competing in the deadly Trials to win a place in one of the three magical royal Orders. Meanwhile, Princess Scarlett grapples with her half-brothers’ sinister ambitions as she seeks to seize power. Mira presents an intriguing opportunity for Scarlett—a dangerous outsider poised to disrupt the very foundations of the Court.

As Mira and Scarlett navigate a glittering realm of magic, court intrigue, and forbidden romances, they must confront whether they are allies or rivals in a treacherous bid for the throne. With high stakes that threaten everything—including their lovers—Mira and Scarlett’s journey is filled with tension and unpredictability.

I was captivated by the well-developed characters and intricate world-building, where magic intertwines with politics. The author expertly balances plot and character development, ensuring that the romance enhances rather than overshadows the fantasy elements. With its medium pacing and high-stakes scenarios, this book is a thrilling read that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Read more at The Secret Bookreview.

An interesting range of characters, I liked the two perspectives of the women and the plot connecting them together was well done. Personally I found the beginning a little confusing as there was a lot of people and information, but it settled into its pace.

3.5 stars - fantasy with a small amount of romance.

Told from two Povs:
Mira, a circus worker who is on the run with her mother for unknown reasons enters “the trials” to become part of one of three orders in the ruling kingdom. The orders protect the kingdom with warriors and seers but will what her mother is running from affect her chances to compete?

Princess scarlet is the princess of the ruling kingdom - with two brothers competing to be future rulers and her mother training her to win. Scarlet has recently returned from death with a mysterious gift.

I really enjoyed the beginning part of the book and the trial aspect. The world was easy to understand and the characters had some solid foundations. However, I found as the story continued, I found both Mira and Scarlett unlikeable and I didn’t root for neither romance. With regards to Scarlet, I understood why she acted why she did constantly having to be on her guard from her own family, but instead of turning herself around she went full on evil dark mode. Mira was slightly more likeable and was on her way to redeeming herself but didn’t have enough development to sway my mind back.

The romance felt flat to me and in the end I was actually more rooting for Cassius and Mira over Aric if Cassius had been slightly nicer. I’m not 100% if this is supposed to be adult or YA but only one or two mild spicy scenes and wished for more romance/ genuine love interests.

Overall, I would still recommend the book if you prefer more plot and world over the romance aspect and if you don’t mind morally grey characters who are more black than grey!

I LOVED this book. I didn't want to put it down. I can't wait to buy myself a physical copy of this book and i'm so excited for the next book in the duology.

I'd highly recommend reading this book.

if you like magic, courtly politics, trials, betrayal and everything in between you will LOVE this one!

absjdjdjd i don’t know what to say without spoilers, but this book was definitely fantasy-y & vibey!

also i *will* be needing a family tree bcos this royalty thingy is messyyy (& i’m also surviving on not enough sleep to the extent that i thought someone was marrying their half(?)-brother ANYWAYS)

but this book was so much fun to read! it had short chapters, which is one of my fave things to find in a book and two strong female leads, both which i love in their unique way!

thank you netgalley for the arc!

3.75 / 5

A very politically intriguing story, I love the perspectives and how they were woven together. It’s a fun, easy fantasy read that kept me guessing the entire time and for that part it was easy to read in one sitting and I couldn’t really put it down.

The trials were a very short part of this book, lasting maybe 15 chapters in the middle and there isn’t a lot of romance in the beginning 250 pages of this book, in the traditional sense. We are following two girls and we have like the smallest of crumbs from one of them surely these get extended in book two. It becomes a love hexagon. I feel like you could remove 100 pages and this book would be incredible, I think some chapters are filler and unnecessary in my opinion and the pace is weird for me. I kind of wanted Mira and Scarlett to work together but nonetheless that was never happening. Everyone is morally gray. And some actions infuriated me a lot. Like chapter 61….

That last line is certainly something!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.
4 stars book from me. Loved the plot and the storytelling in The Order of Masks and relatable, likable characters,. Loved every single second reading it.

This was so good!! It's been a long time since I read a court intrigue fantasy with genuinely high stakes, and this book surprised me in the best possible way. I could not put it down!

The protagonists of The Order of Masks are Mira and Scarlett, whose fates intertwine in political machinations, struggles for their own legacy, vengeance, and love. I don't want to say too much about the actual story because this book is so dense that it might be better to start it knowing less rather than more. The plot does take some time to really get going, as the author focuses on setting up the characters and establishing the stakes. Some might find this exposition a bit too long, but it's truly worth pushing through because the rest of the book is so rewarding that it more than makes up for it.

What the author did particularly well is creating a story where the stakes feel genuinely high. This is achieved by throwing morally gray characters into the thick of court intrigue, leaving us never quite sure what to expect from them. There are no easy solutions or situations where no one loses. Death and betrayal lurk at every turn and are very real threats to both Scarlett and Mira. Not only the main characters, but everyone around them lies, cheats, and has no qualms about murder. Reading it gave me a similar feeling to A Game of Thrones—nothing is certain, and anyone can be as much an ally as an enemy. The novel is also exceptionally well-written, with romance, a fascinating magic system, and well-crafted worldbuilding.

I'm so glad I picked up this book, and I will definitely continue the series. I highly recommend it to anyone who feels that political fantasy is missing genuinely high stakes and a good balance between characters, worldbuilding, and plot.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I wasn't expecting to to enjoy it as much as I did.
But it had me hooked, and I ended up flying through this.
A very fun read!

2.25*

Thank you Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This review contains mild spoilers in terms of what kind of main romantic entanglements to expect and content warnings at the end of the review.

This book has done the bare minimum to keep me engaged. I just cared enough about the two main POV characters to not DNF this, even though it took some time to get warm with them and the story as a whole.
First person POV is a hit or miss for me, and I have a dislike for it when there is more than one character we follow in it. Here we have two first person POVs, Mira and Scarlett, and one glimpse of another character's towards the end. Their voices are distinct enough but I think this book would have worked just as well in third person limited because we don't get deep enough into the characters' heads to really use the first person POV's potential. Partly, this is my reading preference, but the emotional depth and character work could have been better as well.
I struggled with imagining and fully grasping the setting and world-building. There is some interesting magic but the world didn't feel fleshed out enough so that names of a lot of places felt meaningless, and the world kinda empty in a way. Some of that will probably be rectified in a sequel, but I don't think what we got here was quite enough of an introduction.
The writing is easy to follow, leading through the story in a non-flowery way. There were some plot conveniences and hole-y, not so smooth feeling transitions in the plot that took me out of the story here and there.
I liked the complicated nature of the mother-daughter relationships. The romances not quite as much. While I do appreciate that our female leads didn't lose themselves in thinking about their love interests all the time, and they do have other things to deal with, they forgot a bit too much about them for me to really root for them. The men they have feelings for weren't present enough for me. There's friends to lovers, and a secret relationship with some side situations of enemies-to-allies with lusty benefits, and an arranged marriage between enemies, in case anyone wants to know what kind of romantic relationships to expect. I prefer romance [developed from scratch, but do enjoy it too when there's already some kind of relationship there. It just might be harder to make me care, and here I didn't as much as I would have liked. To me, none of the romantic entanglements felt very romantic because of the aforementioned reasons. Romance feels like more of a subplot here, which is something I usually love best, and I liked it here too because there were other things I could enjoy instead.
There is not much in terms of spice. I'd say this is a 3 on romance.io, so open door but non-explicit language.
The book's focus is on court intrigue, the fight for power and the throne, backstabbing and revenge, and that is where it shines. It doesn't invent the wheel. It can be pretty predictable but I found it to be pretty entertaining. Don't expect there to be a big trial situation. The whole thing is just a minor thing and quite underwhelming, in my opinion.
On Netgalley this book is tagged as adult, it feels more like older YA or NA to me, though.
This clearly feels like the start of a series, and there is a cliffhanger-type of ending. I'm not sure I'm invested enough to pick up a potential sequel, but we'll see.

Content Warnings: Blood, Violence, Death, Death of Parent, Death of Sibling, Murder, Grief, Mild Sexual Content, Magical Experiments with Animals, Animal Death, Implied Past Sexual Assault, Suicide Attempt, Self Harm Leading to Death

This was a great start to a new fantasy series set among a set of trials that the FMC must win to make in to one of the 3 Orders. Lots of high-stakes competition which makes for an exciting read. Loved this and can't wait for more of this series!

Anyone who likes Trials of the Sun Queen by Nisha Tuli will love the first book in this new series by Alina Bellchambers. Mira enters the Trials to win a place in one of the 3 Orders of the kingdom of Ravalia. Her mother's terrible fate and the dark secrets revealed to Mira change her life and her ambitions forever. What I liked most about this book was that there are so many morally gray main characters, even Mira and you are kept guessing right to the very end. I can't wait for Book 2!

Unfortunately, the exposition was a bit long. I thought about cancelling the book more than once at the beginning because it just wouldn't get going.
This changed abruptly when all the characters were finally in one place and the actual story could begin. From then on, I could hardly put the book down and devoured the rest of it in one evening.
It was fun to see the intrigues of a court from two different perspectives, sometimes working with and sometimes against each other. We also start with a love hexagon, because love triangles are for beginners. I was particularly taken with one character and hope to see more of him in the future. He's cunning, ruthless and charming, which for me are all the qualities a perfect character needs.
All in all, I'm now looking forward to the second part - even though I'm painfully aware that I'll have to wait a long time for it.
If this book turns up in a book box, I will definitely renew my subscription.

What a book.

This is everything you want in a fantasy world. It’s steeped in politics and betrayal, intrigue and drama, lust and murder.

I was hooked from the first few chapters and the plot twists kept me guessing until the very end. I love that each and every single character has a flaw. Scarlett and Mira are morally grey in the best possible way.

Scarlett’s first chapter? I have never been more shocked, that bit of character development was phenomenal.

I loved every page, the trick is to trust nobody.

Will definitely be reading the next one!

4.5 stars rounded down.
Wow, I had such a good time with this book! I loved the characters, the world, the magic, the politics (the politics!), and how committed the author was to the high stakes that are set up right at the beginning. There is a great balance between plot and character, and though there is romance with some pretty intense stakes, this is a fantasy-forward novel with great medium pacing (my favorite).
This book does morally grey the right way, and I loved every second of it. Great start to a new series, I will for sure be picking up the sequel.

Thank you NetGalley and Hodderscape for the ARC.

If you're looking for a book filled with betrayals, revenge and political intrigue in a fantasy world, that makes you question everyone's intentions. Look no further.

The twists and turns, the constant shifting alliances and betrayals will have you on the edge of your seat. With MESSY relationships, courtly politics and romances that could risk everything I could barely stand to put this book down. It wasn't until I finished this, I found out it was a debut and it's a solid read from a new author and a strong start to a series.

The characters felt real and complex, they often had me cursing at their choices, and if that isn't the sign of good characterisation then I don't know what is! The magic system is interesting and I'm hoping we get to learn even more about in future books, and the way the magic itself came to play in the tale and in particular in the political battles in court was superb.