Rook & Rose #1
“Now we see whether you, like our local nobility, will break the rules when it suits you.”
The Rook
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in return for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
This book was a mixed bag for me. The opening story was engaging, and the authors clearly put a lot of effort into building this vibrant world. Still, lacking background information, crazy tonal shifts, and shoehorned in extraneous details made it very hard to follow all the way through.
The book starts as a very intriguing tale of cons and corruption as Ren works to worm her way into a noble family. It is fun to watch her use her street smarts and skills to work her way into society’s upper tiers, which are thoroughly corrupt. The secondary plotlines’ culmination suddenly twists the story into a horror novel throwing out all of the early chapters’ careful political plotting for a supernatural-fueled suspense arc. While the characters are the same, the latter part of the book feels like a completely different book.
Information about the world is given out in a way that thoroughly frustrated me. Most of it is treated like a recap of details you should already know. I actually looked for a previous book set in this world because nothing from the date/time to titles and social structures made sense. Giving me a month’s name and day without reference points means absolutely nothing, and I ultimately gave up on figuring out how the dates and times were recorded. This piecemeal world-building drove me nuts because you can tell that the authors know all of the backstory, rankings, and social structure; they just won’t tell you.
With how dramatically different they tried to make the world feel, it felt strange that they didn’t create unique methods of cursing. F-bombs and more liberally sprinkle the pages when the characters are in the poor districts or out of sight of high society.
The society is very hedonistic, and LGBT relations are shown more prevalently than straight, including sex scenes. If the authors were pushing inclusiveness, they missed the mark because none of the relationships focused on are healthy. One of these relationships is so toxic, every member of the weaker partner’s family states at some point that their family member seems to be merely a toy for their partner. The authors also stressed that they had secondary characters that were trans, even though it had no effect on the plot and felt entirely unnecessary to point out.
When the Rook yanked their mask off in a stereotypical heroic identity reveal, it was a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things. However, the ending did give me hope for returning to the early part of the book’s political maneuvering, so I would be willing to give the second book a try. Hopefully, that one will at least keep a more consistent tone.
Affiliate Links
