City News

Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody is a relatively new book, and I absolutely loved reading it. The author shows a lot of promise; the world and the characters she created were unique and fun to read about. I am looking forward to seeing how the story develops as the series continues.

                The two protagonists are Enne Salta and Levi Glaisyer, and each chapter is told through one of their perspectives. The story begins when Enne leaves her home and proper lifestyle to search for her mother, who was last seen in the dangerous and corrupt City of Sin. Her mother has left her Levi’s name, and so she begins her search by finding him. She is alone and scared of the city and all its inhabitants, and she quickly realizes her mother had kept a lot of secrets from her. 

                Levi is the street lord of a gang called the Irons, but he is barely holding onto his title. He can barely afford to pay his gang members for their work, and some are challenging his legitimacy as their ruler. Levi is unable to pay the Irons because he is tied up in a dangerous investment scam that was orchestrated by a powerful Mafia donna, who controls him, and he needs to collect a substantial sum to finish the deal.

                Enne offers ten thousand volts to Levi for help in finding her mother, which happens to be exactly the amount Levi needs to pay off his debt. As a result, the two begin their quest to find out what happened to Enne’s mother. Their adventures lead them through the most dangerous parts of the city, and Enne slowly becomes corrupted during the week that the story takes place. As they discover more and more of the truth, Levi’s enemies become more and more impatient. The threat of the shadow game is held over Levi, and it is a dangerous game where no one wins, they only survive. Levi’s enemies want their volts back, and in the City of Sin, they’re willing to do whatever it takes. They eventually force Enne and Levi into playing the Shadow Game, which is when the book reaches its climax.

                Something I really enjoyed in this book was how Enne showed a lot of character growth throughout the book. She was introduced as a rather uptight, formal lady, and slowly evolved to become more casual and realistic. However, I feel that all of the other characters were a bit flat, and I felt this especially with Levi. He does fall from power, so he has to work through that, but at the end of the book, he hasn’t changed nearly as much as Enne has.

                My only complaints about the book was that I felt it was a bit difficult to understand the world the characters were in at times, and the multiple typos I encountered. Both of these things made it hard to stay immersed in the story when they came up. To give an example, I don’t think the concept of volts (the currency of the book’s world) was explained well enough. I wish I knew more about the City of Sin because it is so interesting and I want to know more of how it (and the general world of Ace of Shades) functions. I noticed three typos in the book, and while that certainly is a small number for a full-length novel, books usually have none, or at the very most, one. I am an avid reader, and I have never encountered more than one typo in a book before. When they come up, they really stick out like a sore thumb to me, and distract me from the story. I hope that in the next books of the series, these issues are solved, because I think the series shows a lot of promise.

                Ultimately, I would recommend Ace of Shades to anyone looking for a quick and easy book to read. The characters grow on the reader quickly, and it really feels like you are on this adventure with them. I sincerely hope the later installments of this series are just as good as the first book was!

Check out Ace of Shades at the Newport Beach Public Library.