As part of Self-Published Fantasy Month and the #SPFMChallenge, I will be posting reviews all month long.
Today’s review is Fortune’s Fool, by Angela Boord.
The blurb:
A secret affair. A disfiguring punishment. A burning need for revenge.
Kyrra d’Aliente has a bad reputation and an arm made of metal.
Cast out of the safe and luxurious world of silk to which she was born, played as a pawn in a game of feuding Houses, Kyrra navigates a dangerous world of mercenaries, spies, and smugglers while disguising herself as a man.
War destroyed her family and the man she loved.
Vengeance is within her grasp.
But is she willing to pay its price?
The review:
With its Renaissance-inspired setting, large cast of characters and feuding Houses, and a slow-burning romance that builds over two separate timelines, Fortune’s Fool is in a class of its own when it comes to fantasy books. The book clocks in at just over 700 pages, but its length doesn’t detract from its compelling plot buoyed by two intersecting storylines.
We follow Kyrra in the present as she seeks out revenge against those who wronged her and also in the not-so-distant past, where we follow a young Kyrra before her epic fall and the loss of her arm. These past sections are written in past tense while the present sections are written in present tense, so it’s never hard to follow where, when, and what is going. And Boord does a masterful job crafting these storylines in a way where both stories could serve as their own complete books but when weaved together, it creates something that is more than the sum of its parts.
The heart of this story (no pun intended) is the romance between Kyrra and the gavarro (sword-for-hire) Arsenault. I don’t normally seek out romance in my fantasy books, but enjoyed watching Kyrra and Arsenault’s relationship develop in both timelines.
The magic system in Fortune’s Fool is soft; you’re not going to get intricate explanations of the ins and outs of Shaping, Fixing, and Seeing, but rather we gradually see how these powers are used and abused by both the main characters and meddlesome deities.
With a second book on the way and a standalone novel that connects Kyrra’s timelines, I’m look forward to returning to this world soon.
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