I recently finished reading Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody. It’s not a cookbook. When I was in the Navy I worked with a person named Army; our last names don’t always match our job title. At any rate, it was a very enjoyable book, and I look forward to the sequel whenever it comes out. I got this when it was on sale for $1.99 the other day. I figured I couldn’t pass it up.
Our story takes place in a place called New Reynes, which is also known as the City of Sin. Our first protagonist, Enne, is supposed to be a debutante in about a year, and she knows how to behave like a proper lady. Her (adoptive) mother, however, is missing, and she is entering this den of iniquity in an attempt to find her. Almost immediately after stepping off the boat, she loses her luggage, is chased by the cops, and ends up running into a gang lord (which is the person her adoptive mother wants her to seek out).
Levi, our other protagonist, is the gang lord. He is in desperate need of getting his hands on 10,000 volts (volts are their form of currency). Enne just happens to promise him that amount of money if he will help her find her mother. Our story follows the two protagonists as they get themselves into trouble and change the city forever. Along the way, Enne finds out some dangerous family secrets, and discovers that she might not be cut out to be a proper lady after all: she might be much more instead.
The Characters
Ace of Shades is told in the third person point of view from the perspective of our two main protagonists. I enjoyed the characters. Levi was a gang lord, but he was still fairly young. He’s also, for the most part, not an evil guy. He might cheat at cards, but he’s not a murderer, for example. Enne begins her journey to New Reynes as a very naïve lady, but she is quickly changed by the city. While I do like the characters, the rapid transformation of Enne stretches reality a little. It doesn’t keep me from enjoying the book, but it may bother some people. The same holds true for Levi and Enne’s relationship. They start to develop an attraction to each other almost immediately (although they don’t act on it). Levi and Enne are so completely different that it’s difficult at first to see themselves falling for each other.
The World
The World of Ace of Shades seems to be pretty unique. It seems to have a basis in Las Vegas, but there is a magic system in place that obviously doesn’t exist in the real world. Everybody has talents that they are born with; your two last names tell other people what your talents are. People bind themselves to each other with oaths. There are more magical forces in this world as well, but I won’t mention them in order to not give out spoilers.
The city is also a city of dirty politics. It has faced war in the past. It is crawling with street gangs, although that doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t associate with one another. Some of the police are also corrupt. The world is well done and enjoyable.
Overall, Ace of Shades was enjoyable and well worth the time I spent reading it. It may not be the best book I read this year, but I liked it nonetheless.
