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Review: Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

Release date: April 10, 2018 Author info: Website | Twitter Publisher: Harlequin Teen Pages: 416 Format: Egalley Source: Publisher provided for review through Netgalley Buy the book: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | The Book Depository Welcome to the City of Sin, where casino families reign, gangs infest the streets… and secrets hide in every shadow. Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Enne must leave her finishing school—and her reputation—behind to follow her mother’s trail to the city where no one survives uncorrupted. Frightened and alone, her only lead is a name: Levi Glaisyer. Unfortunately, Levi is not the gentleman she expected—he’s a street lord and a con man. Levi is also only one payment away from cleaning up a rapidly unraveling investment scam, so he doesn't have time to investigate a woman leading a dangerous double life. Enne's offer of compensatio...

The Secret

Review: The Gilded Cage by Lucinda Gray

Release date: August 2, 2016
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pages: 245
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher provided for review
Buy the book: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | The Book Depository
After growing up on a farm in Virginia, Walthingham Hall in England seems like another world to sixteen-year-old Katherine Randolph. Her new life, filled with the splendor of upper-class England in the 1820s, is shattered when her brother mysteriously drowns. Katherine is expected to observe the mourning customs and get on with her life, but she can't accept that her brother's death was an accident. 

A bitter poacher prowls the estate, and strange visitors threaten the occupants of the house. There's a rumor, too, that a wild animal stalks the woods of Walthingham. Can Katherine retain her sanity long enough to find out the truth? Or will her brother's killer claim her life, too?
Well. My cover lust got me again. Admittedly, The Gilded Cage wasn't completely cover lust, but, I mean, that's a pretty cover, yeah? I don't know what I was expecting from this... But it certainly wasn't what I got. Even had I known the type of story I was getting, I don't know that it would have saved the reading experience, though.

The Gilded Cage follows Katherine as she and her brother George are brought into the dazzling life of the rich and titled in England. But quickly, their new world loses its shine, for her brother is found dead. As Katherine questions the circumstances, she also begins to question her sanity...

And this sounds pretty good, yeah? Like a good old Gothic, where there are things that go bump in the night and a sense of foreboding surrounding the story. You can tell that's what The Gilded Cage is trying to evoke, but it misses the mark. Where the mood should be dark, it's...grey. Where the sense of doom should be heavy, it's there, but never feels imminent. Never did I feel like I got Katherine or her decisions, and I didn't find much to enjoy in any of the other characters.

Honestly, it's not often that I don't have, like, anything good to say about a book. I'm sure there's someone for it, but it left me feeling like I'd wasted my time--and I don't even have any strong feelings, good or bad, to account for that. If this sounds like something you'd like, I'd recommend reading Sharon Cameron's The Dark Unwinding instead (though it's got a touch of steampunk to it--which only makes it better in my book!)

About the author:

Lucinda Gray is the pseudonym of an American novelist who lives in New York.

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Review: Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

Release date: April 10, 2018 Author info: Website | Twitter Publisher: Harlequin Teen Pages: 416 Format: Egalley Source: Publisher provided for review through Netgalley Buy the book: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | The Book Depository Welcome to the City of Sin, where casino families reign, gangs infest the streets… and secrets hide in every shadow. Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Enne must leave her finishing school—and her reputation—behind to follow her mother’s trail to the city where no one survives uncorrupted. Frightened and alone, her only lead is a name: Levi Glaisyer. Unfortunately, Levi is not the gentleman she expected—he’s a street lord and a con man. Levi is also only one payment away from cleaning up a rapidly unraveling investment scam, so he doesn't have time to investigate a woman leading a dangerous double life. Enne's offer of compensatio...

Review: The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

Release date: January 26, 2016 Author info: Twitter | Facebook Publisher: Razorbill Pages: 400 Format: ARC Source: Gifted Buy the book: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | The Book Depository Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves.  Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start…until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right. That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s ...

Stacking the Shelves {160}

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews where we get to share the books we've bought, been gifted, or received for review! Hii! Nothing much exciting going on for me this week, just the holiday meeting at work this morning. I used my last bit of vacation and visited my best friend this week, and we spent too much money. Oops. :) ANYWAY, on to the books! Purchased: Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson (signed! YAY!) Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt Notorious Pleasures by Elizabeth Hoyt Traded: The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman I am more than a little bit excited to have this in my hands, y'all. I LOVED the first book. But I'm pretty sad about the new cover direction. I wish they'd stop doing this. I also got this super fun promotional package from Swoon Reads! I did a happy dance when I saw what it was. I love that tote! Books I read this week: The Sun Is Also a Star   by Nicola Yoon I'm currently reading: Notorious Pleasures b...

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