I loved reading the characters and there was a part near the end that nearly made me cry, which is impressive since I rarely feel like crying at books. The mystery was intriguing but the story was wrapped up a little bit quickly after the full picture was revealed.

Although I would have liked the reveal of the main bad guy to have been earlier just to have a little bit more of that part of the story. I adore their relationship with Tain and this book introduces Jovan’s new apprentice, Dija, who manages to avoid the trap of being an obnoxious teenage girl character and is actually a good character. Yes, most of the nobles are insufferable morons but Jovan and Kalina make excellent protagonists and they work well with the other characters. The characters are just as good as City of Lies. There’s barely a dull moment in the story and I was frequently on the edge of my seat as I wanted to know what happened next and who exactly was behind the plot. There’s fighting, explosions, lots of death and political intrigue for days. At times it reads almost like a political thriller as Jovan and Kalina race against the clock to stop whatever bad thing is going to happen. Hollow Empire weaves its story excellently. Much like the first book, the country’s ignorance of its own history comes back to bite it in the backside which leads Jovan and Kalina into a veritable spider’s web of political intrigue, murder and an oncoming war while everyone else remains seemingly wilfully ignorant and even wanting to blame Jovan for the troubles that have befallen them.

There’s still a whole load of infighting between the various nobles who seem completely oblivious to the fact that there’s someone out there who is trying to kill them. Hollow Empire picks up a couple of years after City of Lies but things are no less dangerous than they were in the first book. The deadly siege of Silasta woke the ancient spirits, and the city-state must find its place in this new world of magic.īut people and politics are always treacherous, and it will take all of Jovan and Kalina’s skills to save the city-state when witches and assassins set their sights to domination. Summary: It started with poison and rebellion. It worked well as a standalone story but it was left open enough for there to be a continuation if there was a good story to tell. I thought that City of Lies, the first book in this series, was a very good book.

Sam hawke city of lies