Friday Reads: ARC Review of The Prophecy Con by Patrick Weekes!!

Hello there guys!

Happy Friday! It is sort of a Monday for me, because I'm back to work after a few days off, but I'm feeling rather rejuvenated and rested! Also did some retail therapy on IKEA, in the shape of new shelves, so things are looking up!

For this week's Friday Reads I have the second book in what seems to be a trilogy (at least for now) heist fantasy series (I think this should be its own genre) that is becoming a quick favourite for me! So glad to have listened to Jessica from Rabid Reads and have started this series!



The Prophecy Con by Patrick Weekes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was so excited to be approved on NetGalley to read all the books in the Rogues of the Republic series so far, and The Prophecy Con didn't disappoint at all!

It starts pretty soon after the ending of The Palace Job, and we see our characters back in the thick of the action, at least Loch and Kail, because after the events of the previous book the diplomatic relationships between Empire and Republic are quite tense. We learn about the changes (Loch as a Justicar) and we see how everyone is dealing with the aftermath of their saving the world, Dairy and Desidora the ones with more issues finding their way after the extraordinary.

The action and the humour in this one are non-stop and perfectly mixed as it was in the first book. I found myself laughing out loud as well as cackling and simply howling with laughter at some points... what can I say, I simply look the humour in this books, it can be subtle, it can be cheeky... and I love it!

And the action... we start with a diplomatic mission that ends up with a battle, Loch getting a new weapon from her foe and starting a new mission to recover/steal a precious artifact, this time in the name of peace and not personal revenge. And this time is not so much a heist but an ongoing mission about stealing/recovering/winning the damned artifact and discovering what else is threatening the precarious peace between the Empire & the Republic.

As the action moves around quite a bit we get to see much more world building and we meet dwarves and elves. These are and aren't the dwarves and elves we've met before. Their societies are similar enough to what we've seen before, but I feel that the author gave them his own unique twist.

The relationships between the characters have shifted a bit, and some of them are paired up, and their interactions can be both a moment of relief from the action as well as some added gravitas, depending on which relationship. I'm quite more partial to one of them two established ones, but the other two just won me over in the end even if their chemistry is not so obvious or maybe well developed.

As a sequel it expands and builds upon what we knew from book 1, but also manages to give a twist to what we thought we knew and add a betrayal to make things even more interesting and unexpected!

The ending was rather horrible and I was ready to scream at my Kindle in rage, but luckily the author decided to take pity on us poor readers and added a epilogue to make sure we didn't end up hating him!

I'm now thoroughly in love with this series and these characters and will say that if you like fantasy books with humour, diversity and twisty action, you NEED to check them out! Very well deserved 4 to 4.5 stars!



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes!!

Hello there guys!

Some days life as an adult sucks! I've been worrying about money and bills and still trying to buy things for the house and sort trips for next year and dammit it's a doozy for the brain! *flops down in bed*

I think that's partly why I've been a bit more unmotivated to blog as of late, I keep on reading and not reviewing and half the time I'm online, I'm only fluffing around...

But today I just realized it's Friday so I managed to crank up a half decent review for this week's Friday Reads for a very cool book that if you're a fantasy lover and you enjoy amazing humour, YOU JUST NEED TO READ!


The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There are some reviews that really make you want to read a book, and when I read Jessica from Rabid Reads review for The Palace Job, it really made me want to read this one ASAP!

So when I saw this one and the next two book of the series up for request on Netgalley, I just had to give them a try, and yet, very wise choice on my part!

The Palace Job is a fantasy heist book, with a very random crew of people trying to steal a very precious something for itself and for revenge.

Fantasy heist in a world with magic, magical floating cities where only the rich live, the Republic is at peace with the Empire but no one seems to be happy about it, and a puppet theater keeps the public informed of the goings-on, political or otherwise!

Our main character is Loch, a prisoner in the bowels of the floating city of Heaven's Spire, former military and with a past that shapes her motivation to get out of there. Loch is a woman, a fighter and a Ursujan, a woman of colour. The Republic is supposed to have equal rights for all, but prejudice for the Ursujan is still rampant.

Then we have Kail, also Ursujan, former military and an uncanny ability to insult someone's mother is probably every known language. Tern is the expert on safes and picking every lock, Icy the Imperial contorsionist and martial arts pacifist expert, a magical unicorn, Hess the magician,a Death Priestess with a talking warhammer and a boy with no apparent ability that was rescued along with the magician.

There's plenty of action and even social commentary here and there, but the thing that this book does brilliantly is mixing amazing sense of humour everywhere! Sometimes a bit some subtly, others a lil more blatantly but always always SO WELL DONE!

Planning and plotting and second guessing and keeping an ace up their sleeve and even confraternizing with the enemy! There is never a dull moment in this book!

The world building was very well done, although I think the bigger strenght was on the social and political climate more than on physical desriptions, but it was done in a way that the Republic felt very real!

The book can be divided, no exactly half and half but nearly so into assembling the team and the actual heist, so keep that in mind when you start to wonder what trolls have to do with anything in the story!

Not much romance to speak of in here, even if there are some bits here and there. One of them was easier to see and root for and the other was more told than shown, so maybe that's what didn't make me give this one a full 5 stars? I'm not sure, I simply go with my gut feeling and this one felt like a 4 to 4.5 stars.

If you like fantasy, this is a book and a series to add to your reading pile ASAP!


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