The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick

Renata Viraudax is a con artist who has come to the sparkling city of Nadezra--the city of dreams--with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house and secure her fortune and her sister's future. But as she's drawn into the elite world of House Traementis, she realizes her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her.nding her.

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S THE MASK OF MIRRORS ABOUT?
What isn't it about, really? In The Princess Bride novel, the fictionalized William Goldman recounts how his father introduced the story to him:

“Does it have any sports in it?”

“Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.”

* Yes, I know that Carrick actually equals two authors, but there's one name on the cover and it's just easier to play along with the conceit for the purposes of this post.

Cyrano de Bergerac

THE MASK OF MIRROR

The Mask and the Mirror

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in return for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was a mixed bag for me. The opening story was engaging, and the authors clearly put a lot of effort into building this vibrant world. Still, lacking background information, crazy tonal shifts, and shoehorned in extraneous details made it very hard to follow all the way through.

I thoroughly enjoyed most of this. MA Carrick has crafted an intriguing buddy fantasy, but this time the buddy characters are both female. This is The Gentleman Bastards with a gender flip! We follow two con artists, who are trying to pull a con to ingratiate themselves with one of the noble families in a Venice-like fantasy city by pretending to be a long lost cousin. The main character (Ren) is likeable and well crafted. The con she is pulling is elaborate but built in a way that makes sense - her alter ego Renata is a carefully crafted facsimile of noble woman. Her partner in crime, Tess, takes on the role of servant, utilizing impressive needlework skills to keep Ren in fashion. This obsession with fashion is, however, the weak point of the book. A pet peeve of mine is when an author spends too much time describing clothing, unfortunately a trap that this book falls into too often.

The political scheming and Machiavellian plans that make up the core of the story are brilliantly done however. The buddy dynamic is well done and the character work is brilliant. The story is all contained within the the city of Nadezra for now, but the wider world is hinted at in intriguing ways. The Zorro like figure of the Rook is also intriguingly built into the plot.

Finally, whilst the magic system takes a bit of back seat, what is shown so far is cleverly done, with an interestingly cultural approach to magic

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this and definitely intend to keep on reading further into the series as it appears!

This book was great right from the start. I loved it. The characters in this book are fantastic. The magic is complex. There are so many plot twists that I was wishing it was even longer than 672 pages.

The story follows Ren, orphan/con artist. Her latest and most ambitious con is to become Alta Renata and join the ranks of the rich and elite. She has plans to con her way into the wealthy Traementis family and let them support her. It will be hard to keep up her ruse with all the dark magic popping up in the city. Not to mention her past dogging her every step.

Great start to a new series. I can't wait for the next one.
I received a copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.