Format: Hardcover, 608 pages
Release Date: September 1, 2020
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Dark Fantasy
Six of Crows meets Ocean's 11 in the third and final book of Amanda Foody's Shadow Game series, a dark fantasy trilogy that follows ladylike Enne Salta and gangster Levi Glaisyer through the ever-more-dangerous streets of the City of Sin in the wake of a brutal street war.
Return to the City of Sin, where the perilous final game is about to begin...The players? Twenty-two of the most powerful, most notorious people in New Reynes.
With no choice but to play, Enne and Levi are desperate to forge new alliances and bargain for their safety. But any misstep could turn deadly when a far more dangerous opponent appears on the board – one plucked straight from the city’s most gruesome legends. While Levi hides behind a mask of false promises, Enne is finally forced out from behind hers and as the game takes its final, vicious turn, these two must decide once and for all whether to be partners or enemies.
Because in a game for survival, there are no winners...
There are only monsters.
"The City of Sin was a game, and the only way to win was to stack the cards in your favor."
Queen of Volts, the third and final installment in author Amanda Foody's The Shadow Game, is set in the tantalizing and mysterious City of Sin, full of casinos and magic, street gangs and Ponzi schemes, and a mire of dangerous politics. The story picks up one week after the ending of King of Fools. Only days after a
corrupt election and brutal street war, a real Shadow Game has been kicked off. The players? The twenty-two of the most powerful, & notorious people in
New Reynes. But, for the sake of this story, the main narrators are Lola Sanguick, Enne Scordata, Sophia Toren, Harvey Gabbiano, and Levi Glaisyer.
Enne is once again is my favorite. The girl has really grown since she first arrived in the City of Sin looking for Lourdes Alfero. She became a different person in Seance. She put together an all girl gang named The Spirits. She tries to reach out to other groups to bring them in as well even though she is in hiding and has the weight of a thousands pounds on her chest. It doesn't help that with Jonas last words, she was outed as the last mizer in existence. Something that tipped the world on its axle and allowed Bryce to step through. Enne is forced to remake herself once again in order to avoid being killed on sight by Chancellor Fenice and Harrison Augustine.
Sophia, who really rose up and took her family down in the previous installment while losing Jac, was probably my second favorite. Sophia spends time in this story hunting down those who made bargains and gave away part of themselves. For Sophia, she has questions about who her real family is and she needs to find the person who took her memories from her. Sophia, Harrison, Poppy and Delaney make for an interesting story. I'm glad that Sophia gets rid of that chip on her shoulder and finds friends and a family.
Levi
is a mess at the start of this book and wondering what to do with his
life/legacy as well as being very angry at Enne, but he also up to some
schemes as usual to put an end to the shadow game. Levi manages to crawl out of his anger driven nonsense to actually make something good from bad. He begins to work in concert with Harrison while also building a casino. His relationship with Enne is barely a blip on the screen since the spend more time hating each other, than working together.
For me, Lola was the most exasperating character. She gave her blood oath to Enne. Then, she decides to dig for information about Enne's past and who her parents were. She
wants so badly to become Zula Slyk's fellow Pseudonym, that she ends up breaking the heart of someone who loved her in order to hurt Enne? I
think you will be surprised to discover who Enne's real parents were and what happened to them. Lola
spends a lot of time with a dangerous character who we shall call Arabella causing her to go to great lengths to dig up
dirt on Enne's parents as well as losing her own heart in the process. Something that could have been avoided from the very beginning.
Harvey
for his overtly toxic relationship with Bryce was by far my least
favorite. Especially since Bryce is causing all the chaos. Since I mentioned Arabella, Foody also adds yet another element to the story called The Bargainer aka Arabella. One of New Reynes darkest legends steps onto the board, and her
target is Enne over a grudge that spans back to the Revolution and the killing of all Mizers and Orb makers. Levi, as you are aware from reading this series, is the last Orb maker alive. The Bargainer makes bargains with people and then takes one of their blood talents. For reasons of spoilers, I won't say why she holds Enne personally responsible for past actions of her family.
The story really revolves around the Shadow Game where 22 players of somewhat importance in the City of Sin were given cards. These cards have who the characters are in order of importance, as well as the person they are supposed to kill, or give their cards away to the person thus tying their lives with the person who they gave card to. For the game to end, one player must collect a series of 5 cards. For example, if Enne has the Empress card and her target is The Moon,
she needs to find the person who has The Moon card. If the game ends and
the person does not have their target's card, they die.
To make things really interesting, the author breaks each chapter into dividers: Each divider was one of twenty-two arcana or shadow cards (Strength, The
Magician, The World, Death, The Hanged Man, The Sun, Temperance, The
Hierophant, The Star, The High Priestess, The Lovers, Judgement, The
Chariot, The Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Devil, The Moon, The Hermit,
The Tower, The Emperor, The Fool, and The Empress). On page 350, you will find a list of all the characters and their cards. I thank the author for putting this list together for us readers.
Overall, I think the pacing of this story was once again slow. However, I would absolutely recommend this series to future readers and encourage you to read them back to back if you are able to avoid the pesky cliffhangers and having to wait a year in-between books. Thank you to the publisher for sharing a copy of this advanced copy with me. The review is based on my opinions, and not subject to any monetary compensation.
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