Lucie V.'s Reviews > A Vicious Game

✅ Gorgeous cover
✅ Strong, but flawed and morally grey MC
✅ LGBTQ and disability rep
✅ More smut
✅ Lies and a shocking twist
✅ Found family
✅ Magic, faes, and elves
✅(🆗) Romance
✅(🆗) Pace and repetitive plot
✅(🆗) Politics
✅(🆗) Riven (WTF happened to the badass Shadow?!)
❗️❗️Trigger warnings: death of loved ones, alcoholism, mention of torture, and some suicidal ideation (brief)

3 or maybe 3.5 stars?

The last part was very engaging, but the first half felt a lot like a filler book. Also, I thought this was a trilogy?! Now I have to wait for the next book... 😮‍💨

This book picks up a few weeks after the end of A Shadow Crown, as Keera is trying to cope with the aftermath of Damien’s rise to power. The rebellion is in shamble, and hope seems to be lost for Keera as she spirals down into her alcohol addiction once more. After a few weeks of wallowing, her friends have had enough, and force Keera to help them open the seals, so they can free the land's magic and have a fighting chance once again.

As always, the author did a fantastic job of including representation of various ethnicities, sexualities, and disabilities in her cast, and it needs to be mentioned because it is so well done. The characters are well fleshed-out and their sexuality or disability truly feels like a part of them, and not a detail added on second thought, simply to have more diversity in the book.

Keera is still a flawed character, but she tries her best to improve and do the right thing. She struggled a lot in the first half of this book because she was overwhelmed with the guilt of letting down the Shades and being responsible for her mentor’s death. Still, she managed to find the strength to overcome her relapse and become stronger once again to be able to help those who relied on her. The way her addiction was portrayed seems to be pretty accurate, even the fact that she tries to push people away and get them to hate her so they would leave her alone rang true and was heartbreaking to witness.

That being said, she relies more and more on newly acquired powers that she doesn’t yet understand, and less on her training as a super-efficient assassin, and it saddens me to see this transformation. I would have loved for her to combine both, not rely only on her powers now that she is super-powerful. (view spoiler)[It annoys me that every time Keera opened a seal (without much difficulty might I add) she gained new powers that she just innately knew how to use. In the first book, this series was all about hard work, grit, and determination to push through no matter the hardships, but in this one, it felt all too easy for Keera. It was just a repetition of finding a seal, opening it while fighting a few bad guys, gaining more powers, and instantly knowing how to use them. (hide spoiler)]

Riven was a little disappointing in this book because I feel that he was toned down so much since the first book. He started the series as The Shadow terrorizing everyone in the Kingdom, thwarting the king, and being uncatchable, but in this book, he was simply Keera’s sidekick. He was there to act as her bodyguard, but overall, he served no purpose besides creating more drama for Keera because her actions affected him and she felt guilty and bad about it. He had so much potential in the first book, but I feel that it was all wasted in this one. Riven felt useless and pointless, like he was a pretty accessory to Keera as she was only becoming stronger.

I think the biggest surprise for me in this book was Gerarda. We saw hints of her in the first two books, and she was always a rival and even a threat to Keera. This book allowed her to shine and show that she has emotions and a backstory that affects her too and that she is much more than simply a Dagger (or ex-Dagger now I guess) wanting glory and recognition.

There is a big twist near the end, and while I love that I was surprised by it, I am not sure yet if I like it or not. I also feel that overall, it was underwhelming. The character kept this big secret for three books, it was a huge revelation to Keera, but she had one meaningful conversation with a friend and she was ready to forgive everything and go back to normal after that… I would have thought that it would at least create more angst and tension, but instead, it was all resolved pretty quickly. While I enjoyed the maturity shown by Keera, I also find it unrealistic that she would “go back to normal” that easily.
What I got from this twist? Feron = Dumbledore.

I will read the next book for sure because I want to know how things will end for Keera and her friends, but I hope that it will be more similar to the first 2 books of the series, which I greatly enjoyed.


1. Broken Blade ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
2. A Shadow Crown ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5


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