Published: May 5, 2020 (eBook)
Publisher: Gallery/Saga Press
Series: The Legacy of the Mercenary Kings #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 608
My Rating: 4.5/5.0
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
In this brilliant debut fantasy, a story of secrets, rebellion, and murder are shattering the Hollows, where magic costs memory to use, and only the son of the kingdom’s despised traitor holds the truth.
Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s nine-year-old son, by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family.
In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind. So when the opportunity arrives to get folded back into court, via the most politically dangerous member of the kingdom’s royal council, Michael takes it, desperate to find a way back to his past. He discovers a royal family that is spiraling into a self-serving dictatorship as gun-wielding rebels clash against magically trained militia.
What the truth holds is a set of shocking revelations that will completely change the Hollows, if Michael and his friends and family can survive long enough to see it.
This book is a great example of the right book for the right mood. When I first picked it up in early May, I was excited but ultimately just wasn’t feeling it after about 50 pages. I read a few other books I was more interested in at that moment and picked The Kingdom of Liars back up at the end of the month. At that point, I fairly tore through it and ended up really enjoying it! Moral of the story – if you’re just feeling a little meh or like you’re in a reading slump, consider picking a book up when you’re actually in the mood for it. Sometimes obvious things like this need to be pointed out to us bloggers who are trying to write reviews by certain dates etc.
Now to the actual review!
Michael Kingman is the son of the man who murdered the prince. He and the rest of his family have been stigmatized and spat upon by most of the kingdom – commoner and noble alike – since the terrible event and he’s never quite come to terms with that. The Kingman family had been the right hand of the King for centuries and were instrumental in founding Hollow but that legacy has been tainted and the Kingman children have taken their own paths in life. Michael is a bit of a rogue and hangs out with folks who are somewhat criminally inclined or who’ve just had a hard upbringing. His eldest brother is the executioner and wants nothing but to lose his tainted last name. His sister Gwen works in a care home where their mother has also been secreted away from the public eye.
When Michael is offered a high paying job assisting a noble called Domet as he moves from the care home back into society he can’t refuse. It’s the only way of continuing the care his mother needs after she suffered terrible memory loss, which is the unfortunate side effect of having a magical gift that is overused. Domet turns out to be a brilliant drunk and encourages Michael to enter the Endless Waltz, which is basically a ritual wherein a young noble steps out into society, in order to prove that Michael’s father didn’t truly murder the prince. This is where the story begins to really take off and become a page-turner. From this point I didn’t want to put it down – the stakes and drama were high!
Overall, this ended up being a fantastic read and I’m incredibly excited for the sequel because it had one heck of an ending. The whole ending was just traumatizing and I loved it! It totally turned my expectations on their head – suddenly nothing was as I thought and just… wow!
Powder & Page 
Whoop Whoop!
LikeLiked by 1 person