City of Lies by Sam Hawke

Title: City of Lies
Author: Sam Hawke
Page Count: 560
Rating: B
Format Read: Paperback
Genre: Fantasy
Keywords: Poison, Family, War
Kid Appropriate: Teens and older

Synopsis from Goodreads:

I was seven years old the first time my uncle poisoned me...

Outwardly, Jovan is the lifelong friend of the Chancellor’s charming, irresponsible Heir. Quiet. Forgettable. In secret, he's a master of poisons and chemicals, trained to protect the Chancellor’s family from treachery. When the Chancellor succumbs to an unknown poison and an army lays siege to the city, Jovan and his sister Kalina must protect the Heir and save their city-state.

But treachery lurks in every corner, and the ancient spirits of the land are rising...and angry.

My Review:

This book is Sam Hawke's debut novel and the beginning to her Poison War series. I was super excited to see this announced as the September pick for The Name of the Book. Poisoners are always fascinating and high fantasy is my favorite genre so I figured that I couldn't go wrong with this one.

Be warned if you do pick this one up that the first two chapters are long and very slow. They are necessary for setting up the rest of the book but they dragged for sure. Once you get to the end of the second chapter/the beginning of the third the tempo picks up a little bit with some more action and strategy to snag your attention. Unfortunately, this book never reached a point where I found myself flipping through as fast as I could. If anything I ended up skimming large sections of the book simply because they were so slow.

The events that occur early on in the book and certain scenes throughout do give me similar feelings to R.F Kuang's The Poppy War. Certainly don't go in expecting it to be the same but something about the writing style rings similar to me. And of course because of the theme of poison I am reminded in bits of Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder.

Each chapter switches perspectives between the brother, Jovan, and the sister, Kalina. While the two sound similar and are not easily distinguished from one another I do find myself preferring Kalina's chapters. What she experiences was just more interesting to me than Jovan's more political storyline.

Also, I was not a huge fan of the romance in this book. It felt a bit stiff and forced rather than like it was something I was hoping would happen.

Overall, I did like this book and remember my reading experience fondly. However, I do not know if I will continue on with the series as this one wrapped up nicely on its own.

If you enjoy slower reads that focus more on politics and scheming than any form of action or intense scenes of warfare, then this is actually a really good book. You will be disappointed if you go in expecting a high fantasy filled with intrigue and amazing fight scenes.