Blurb: (From Book 1) Tomorrow, on the beach, Baru Cormorant will look up from the sand of her home and see red sails on the horizon.
The Empire of Masks is coming, armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies. They'll conquer Baru’s island, rewrite her culture, criminalize her customs, and dispose of one of her fathers. But Baru is patient. She'll swallow her hate, prove her talent, and join the Masquerade. She will learn the secrets of empire. She’ll be exactly what they need. And she'll claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free.
In a final test of her loyalty, the Masquerade will send Baru to bring order to distant Aurdwynn, a snakepit of rebels, informants, and seditious dukes. Aurdwynn kills everyone who tries to rule it. To survive, Baru will need to untangle this land’s intricate web of treachery - and conceal her attraction to the dangerously fascinating Duchess Tain Hu.
But Baru is a savant in games of power, as ruthless in her tactics as she is fixated on her goals. In the calculus of her schemes, all ledgers must be balanced, and the price of liberation paid in full.
Review: That ending of the first book...... I'm finding this hard to review without spoiling anything to be honest. So I'm just going to put this one in dot points: Baru's a superb main character. The empire set-up with the masquerade behind it is done well. There's plenty of characters you'll have mixed feelings about. There's a-lot of loss in the book. The growing stakes in the series is mapped out well. I also found the sequel to be a bit worse than the first installment, and I'm hoping this doesn't continue through to the third.
Update: The third installment was fantastic, completely in theme with the series, and continued the plot along nicely. My memory was a bit fuzzy from the second book because it didn't really engage me, but this thing brought me right back into loving the series. Absolutely worth reading this series, and I think the first book gives a clear indicator if you'll enjoy the series while providing a potential stopping point.