Review: 3 1/2 stars.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 19, 2013
I'd like to thank the author and Promotional Book Tours for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.When I signed up for this review, I was a little leery, as it is the second book in a series, and I never do well with jumping into the middle of a series.However, the author promised that it could easily be a stand-alone. It sounded like an awesome book, so I jumped on the chance to read it.I got burned again. If you can get past all the back story that you're missing that's hinted at or not having the world and culture explained to you, then, yes, its a wonderful stand-alone book. For the first 50 pages, I was utterly and completely lost. Why does this psycho queen have this person? What the heck is a Knight and why is it so important? What are the Tarot, or the Hands? And who is this guy, in charge of an entire people or something?Once we got past that however, the book got better. It got significantly better. It was almost completely understandable. There was a lot of the culture I didn't understand, though I think I picked up on a bunch of it along the way.So if you're going to read this book, go for it. Its wonderfully written, and a great world. However, do both of us a favor and read the first book first.