The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman

The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Librarian-spy Irene is working undercover in an alternative London when her assistant Kai goes missing. She discovers he's been kidnapped by the fae faction and the repercussions could be fatal. Not just for Kai, but for whole worlds.

Kai's dragon heritage means he has powerful allies, but also powerful enemies in the form of the fae. With this act of aggression, the fae are determined to trigger a war between their people - and the forces of order and chaos themselves.

Irene's mission to save Kai and avert Armageddon will take her to a dark, alternate Venice where it's always Carnival. Here Irene will be forced to blackmail, fast talk, and fight. Or face death.

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After reading and loving the first and third book in this series was I thrilled to get my hands on book two. After reading book three, The Burning Page, did I know the outcome of this book, but I still really wanted to read more about the kidnapping of Kai. And, yes, this book was good, but I also felt that I had some serious problem with really getting into the story. The whole, it's not you, it's me kind of situation that one can have with books now and then. I really wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't. It's not a badly written book, it's just that the story was not to my liking completely.

Now, this can be because I knew the storyline and some of the things that happened in the book in advance. However, I do not think that the whole problem because I have read books in different order before and that has been OK. I'm pretty sure that the story in this book just didn't work out for in the same way as the other because the villains in this book just didn't rock my boat. I loved to once again read about Irene, Vale, and Kai, but my heart wasn't really in this story. But, I often felt that I lost the focus while I read, it got a bit better when Vale was introduced into the story again after being left behind when Irene traveled to Venice to find Kai.

I do think the best part of the book was in the beginning when Irene wasn't sure of whom had kidnapped Kai and had to visit his (very dangerous) relatives. Also, the other books I have read in this series was funnier (and more engrossing) than this was. The whole Venice part of the story, well it just didn't really work for me. I didn't feel it interested me, and as I wrote before did I missed Vale and thankfully the story got better when I showed up, at least a little better...

Still, The Masked City is not a bad book, it has its moments. I especially liked the last chapter where Irene listed her five favorite book-heist tales.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through Edelweiss for an honest review!