Series: A Game of Malice and Greed #1
Authors: Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti
Version: Ebook (ARC)
Release date: 3 March 2023
Rating: ★★★.5
Synopsis
Once upon a tangled tale of broken hearts and blackened souls, comes this dark fairy tale retelling from the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com #1 bestselling fantasy romance authors of Zodiac Academy.
A twisted heart, a hollow soul.
A broken warrior, lost gods of old.
A thief of shadows, blessed with light,
A single lie which stole their might.
A princess to win, in a brutal game.
A great empire falling to a monster’s claim.
A forbidden love, a curse untold.
The last immortal trapped in a coin of gold.
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti have sold millions of books worldwide and have become known as the ‘Twisted Sisters’ due to their dark and decadent romances full of heart-stopping angst. Step into this world of Fae, gods and curses unlike any retelling you’ve read before.
A twisted heart, a hollow soul.
A broken warrior, lost gods of old.
A thief of shadows, blessed with light,
A single lie which stole their might.
A princess to win, in a brutal game.
A great empire falling to a monster’s claim.
A forbidden love, a curse untold.
The last immortal trapped in a coin of gold.
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti have sold millions of books worldwide and have become known as the ‘Twisted Sisters’ due to their dark and decadent romances full of heart-stopping angst. Step into this world of Fae, gods and curses unlike any retelling you’ve read before.
Review
This book was provided by the authors in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti!
A Game of Malice and Greed is the first book in the A Game of Malice and Greed series and tells the story of Austyn, Cassius, Drake and Kyra.
Let’s start with the cover. The cover of this book is so pretty, and I’m a sucker for a pretty cover! The chapter headers in the ebook edition are also really stunning, and I’ve seen the paperback pages and they’re so beautiful too! I really think that adding beautiful illustrations in a book is an added bonus. Now, let’s talk about the book itself. I’ve read the prequel novella, A Kingdom of Gods and Ruin, and I was really intrigued by the story. The A Game of Malice and Greed books are completely different from the Zodiac Academy books (and the other books set in the same world). It’s not perse a bad thing, but it was a different experience. It took longer to get into the story, and it also felt like some chapters were too long for my liking. But the story itself was still really interesting.
A Game of Malice and Greed is about four people: Austyn, Cassius, Drake and Kyra. We get to read in all four perspectives, but most of the chapters are written in Cassius and Drake’s point of view. From all four characters, my favourite ones are Cassius and Kyra. I really liked Austyn as well, but I’m not the biggest fan of Drake. A Game of Malice and Greed is loosely based on the Aladdin fairy tale, and I really liked that. The sisters gave their own twist to the fairy tale, and I think they did a great job with the story itself. But like I mentioned before, it was a bit slow and the book could’ve been shorter.
Like every book written by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti, A Game of Malice and Greed ended with a cliffhanger. Even though the ending felt a bit rushed, I enjoyed the cliffhanger, and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series. This is the first time that I didn’t love a book by the twisted sisters, but I still really liked it. I’m interested in how the story is going to continue, and what is going to happen to the characters.