Das Konzept und die Grundstory fand ich super spannend! Auch der Einstieg in die Geschichte war sehr gelungen, gut geschrieben und ich war total gefesselt. Leider wurde es nach den ersten 100 Seiten immer schlechter….der Plot war überall und nirgendwo, die Szenen wirkten aneinandergereiht und als würde der Autor eine „To Do“ Liste abhaken. Dadurch hat es sich extrem gezogen. Die an sich sehr spannenden Charaktere boten leider wenig Tiefgang, ich konnte überhaupt nicht mit ihnen relaten und ihre Motivation nachvollziehen. Die Liebesgeschichte zwischen drei Charakteren hätte so schön gemacht sein können, aber wirkte auf mich leider auch nur sehr konstruiert. Auch die Regeln der Welt und des „Blood Workings“ wurden kaum bis gar nicht erklärt. Die Plottwists haben mich emotional irgendwie total kalt gelassen, weil ich eben keinen Zugang zu den Charakteren hatte. Das Ende war ok und es kam endlich mal etwas Spannung auf, aber auch sehr verwirrend und hinterlässt bei mir wenig Motivation auf Band 2. Wirklich schade, weil das Potenzial grundsätzlich da war, aber für mich leider nicht verwirklicht wurde.

This book started off so good: great atmosphere and vibes, interesting characters, promising plot. And then, after the first 50 pages, it went gradually downhill. Why. The author tried to balance the murder mystery plot and character development and, in my opinion, failed at it. At some point, the characters and their relationship with each other (MMF romance) took over the book more and more until the plot was abandoned until like the last 30%. And I could be forgiving of that, if the characters had any chemistry. Which they didn't. The more the book progressed, the less recognisable the main characters were compared to how they were introduced. And this was not due actual character development. They weren't really fleshed out and felt like changed personality every other chapter. It's like they suddenly did a 180. The author also constantly tried to sell me Shan as this scheming mastermind. The LeClaire heir, who has this great big revenge plan that she has been plotting for years. When in fact, she was anything but. Especially, because it was a lot of "tell" and "no show". At all. The pacing was absolutely wild. The writing got more confusing and somewhat exhausting the more the book progressed. I cannot tell you how many times I read the words "blood and steel", but it was about 50 times too many. Around the 50% mark, I made the unfortunate mistake of not touching the book for about two days and when I finally picked it up again, I couldn't remember anything that had happened. I have a book I haven't touched since March and I still know what happened yet here ???? I guess my second mistake was not to DNF at this point or at any point during the second half. I just pushed through and I don't think I would have missed anything if I would have DNFed. I have absolutely no idea what happened in the last 50 pages. And 400 pages later, I still don't know what a Blood Worker is and what they do. Needless to say that I won't be continuing this series. I tried. I really did. But nope. The Illumicrate edition is very pretty though.

The book has a really strong start, setting up a cruel world of blood magic and power abuse, and a trio of wonderfully morally grey characters. Shan, Issac and Samuel get woven into each other in this game of lies, power and attraction - so much even that it becomes hard to tell who is playing whom.

It has a poly and trans rep that from my understanding is developed and portrayed greatly. However, about 50% into the book I got the feeling that the plot basically vanished. Things get muddled and the pacing is weird, so much even that I lost trust that the book knows what story it really wants to tell. There's the politics, but then somehow it became less important. There's the magic system, but there's not enough information to really get a grip on it. There's the murder investigation, which seems more like an excuse for our MCs to work together. And there's the romance, but I didn't care enough for the characters for me to matter. I would have loved to love this book, but sadly this one wasn't for me. 3/5 stars Thank you @netgalley and @littlebrownbookgroup_uk for the eARC! #MistressOfLies #Netgalley #Bookstagram