Review: The Liar's Knot (Rook and Rose #2) by M.A. Carrick

 

The Liar's Knot (Rook and Rose #2) by M.A. Carrick

Publication Date: December 7, 2021

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I struggled for a while with whether to grade this at 3.5 or 4 stars, because Book 2 of the Rook and Rose series is very much Book 2, with all the attendant issues that middle books so often have. Midway through, I had this pegged as a 3.5: decently entertaining (while not quite at the level of Book 1), but not something I was finding entirely absorbing, especially as there were some plot happenings midway through that I wasn't entirely enthused about. But by the end I was rating this as a solid 4 of 5, as the authors ultimately took the characters in a direction I found myself enjoying, and I find myself very interested to see where everyone finds themselves in Book 3.

It's difficult to describe the plot without spoiling things, other than to say that Ren's long con continues apace as the residents of Nadezra grapple with the events of the previous book, while long-held secrets of the city and her inhabitants threaten to burst forth. (Actually, I wish there'd been more of a recap of the first book because there were plot threads I found myself having to go back and refresh myself on.) There's a lot to like here: Ren's struggle between her three identities, her new superheroine status as the Rose oddly being the least challenging to her; Derossi Vargo's development from selfish crime lord to someone almost noble; the forming of Ren's new knot. I'm someone who loves political maneuverings in fantasy novels and this had surprisingly little of those (unless we count certain secret societies coming to the foreground), but ultimately I thought the choice to focus instead on building the characters' bonds worked well. 

But as I said above, this is also very much a middle book and it suffers from many of the weaknesses we often see in middle books. It was longer than it needed to be, and the pacing dragged at certain places, especially in the beginning and middle. Certain characters get the short-shrift--Donaia being the most egregious, to the point I kept expecting something vile to be happening to her on her 'vacation'--and it was hard to see where the story was going until the story had actually, you know, gotten there.

Overall, I think if you enjoyed the first book, I'd recommend picking this up and sticking with it to the end. 

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.