Blog Tour | The Knave of Secrets

Hello, welcome to my post on The Knave of Secrets blog tour hosted by The Write Reads and Rebellion Publishing.

Title: The Knave of Secrets

Author: Alex Livingston

Published: 9th June 2022

Publisher: Rebellion Publishing

Genre: Fantasy,

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

A twisty tale of magicians, con artists and card games, where secrets are traded and gambled like coin, for fans of The Lies of Locke Lamora and The Mask of Mirrors.

Never stake more than you can afford to lose.

When failed magician turned cardsharp Valen Quinol is given the chance to play in the Forbearance Game—the invitation-only tournament where players gamble with secrets—he can’t resist. Or refuse, for that matter, according to the petty gangster sponsoring his seat at the table. Valen beats the man he was sent to play, and wins the most valuable secret ever staked in the history of the tournament.
Now Valen and his motley crew are being hunted by thieves, gangsters, spies and wizards, all with their own reasons for wanting what’s in that envelope. It’s a game of nations where Valen doesn’t know all the rules or who all the players are, and can’t see all the moves. But he does know if the secret falls into the wrong hands, it could plunge the whole world into war…

Thank you so much to The Write Reads and Rebellion Publishing for the proof copy of this novel.

As soon as I read that this novel was perfect for fans of The Lies of Locke Lamora and The Mask of Mirrors, I knew this was a book I would enjoy! I love a gritty fantasy, and the addition of card games and magicians is everything I love!

This is a very clever and unique plot for a fantasy, and I was intrigued where the author would lead us. I do think that there was a lot of information imparted in quite a short number of pages, which made the reading slow going at times. But I was still interested enough that this didn’t fully put me off.

There is a very interesting cast of characters in the novel. Personally I thought the relationships could have been stronger and developed more fully by the author. The relationship between Valen and his wife Marguerite needed to be better described, it wasn’t believable to me. But despite that, I loved the other characters, and there was plenty banter to alleviate the grittiness elsewhere.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. An action-packed and politically intriguing novel with some real cool world building, I would recommend this novel!

Thank you so much The Write Reads and Rebellion Publishing for having me!