Review: MASK OF SHADOWS by Linsey Miller

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As soon as I started this book, I knew I was going to love it. Well, I mean, before I started it I was sure I’d love it too—an epic story of assassins, set in a fantasy world, and with a Gender-fluid main character? What’s not to love?! And this book really delivered.

From the first page, I love Sal. They’re confident and independent, and their goal was so, so clear. Their motivations for their actions felt so, so real. And the best thing? This isn’t a story *about* being gender-fluid. It’s an epic fantasy story of revenge where the main character is gender-fluid. But it’s not their only defining character trait. And their gender-fluidity is accepted in this fantasy world and not made a huge thing of.

The book follows Sal as they compete with other auditioners to become Opal, one of the queen’s assassins. I love assassin stories. And I loved this one. There are definite Hunger Game vibes as all the auditioners are set tests and are allowed to kill each other at times. I love stories with tests like these. This is one hell of a job interview, and Sal’s building romance with Elise is so believable and well done. I also love how it was just part of the story, and not a main focus. The plot stays centred on Sal’s determination to be the last auditioner and become Opal, their desire for revenge on the Erlend lords who destroyed Nacea (where Sal comes from), and their determination to stay alive.

The worldbuilding for this fantasy kingdom is also great. It’s believable and there’s a lot of politics wrapped up in it and that just seems so realistic. While we get a sense of the politics as the auditions are taking place, it’s only once the audition has finished that we understand just how politic this book is in its exploration of these fantasy kingdoms.

Halfway through reading this I learned it was book 1 of a duology and I immediately went and bought the second book so I’d have it ready upon finishing. (Plus I bought Linsey Miller’s other book as well, which I’ve heard has an ace MC, making me very happy!)

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