Rinse, repeat.ĭuring the last quarter or so, the book was at it’s most engaging and its imagery and emotions strongest. At some point during or after, Levi and Enne will linger too long in each other’s personal space, overcome with both tenderness and the desire to bone. For the most part, the gang will head out after some vague clue, head to the location, get some non-answers and more questions and another vague clue, and then head home. There are so many secrets, and so elements are juggled-the Mizers, blood talents, the Shadow Game, the Pseudonyms-and the information we receive about them so offhand and unbalanced, the plot seems more convoluted than it actually is. But part of the problem was the characters-I simply never warmed up to them.Īs there’s no real conflict and it’s so formulaic during the middle section, the plot is rather disappointing. Most of the time I pushed forward because I was curious about what happened to Lourdes-Enne’s mother-and even then, the garbled stream of information twists the plot into something more convoluted than it actually is, and the non-answers to questions with uncertain purpose frustrated more often than intrigued. The investigation into the disappearance of Enne’s mother is broken down to a formulaic “go to X-Strange Place, Meet Y-Dodgy Person and get another Z-Non-answer.” Pertinent information for the many, many plot elements comes in uneven and unnatural gushes and trickles. The author’s colourful, confident prose is littered with filter words, stealing the life from them. It was hard to pin down exactly why Ace of Shades doesn’t work, but it’s no one thing, it’s a dozen smaller things weakening every attempt at a solid structure. – The setting is both conceptually cool and portrayed with vibrant imageryĭespite an interesting concept, Ace of Shades is… lacking. Genre-typical descriptions of blood and violence, drug use, alluded parental abuse, inferred pedophilia.

Published by Harlequin Enterprises / Inkyard Press Imprint

Ace of shades book review