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KRISTEN’S REVIEW:
The Honorable Con is the story of Ailyanna, a con artist who gets captured and jailed by Captain Kresta. While Kresta would love for Ailyanna to stay in jail forever, the kingdom needs her help. In order to protect themselves from a looming war coming from the magical empire of Lamore, they will first need to avoid having a civil war on their hands. Kresta needs Ailyanna to con the duke and prevent him from the treasonous plans he has. Kresta puts together a team for this mission, consisting of herself, Ailyanna, a magical pair of Lamorian twins, a locksmith, and one of her constables. Ailyanna usually works alone, but this is her only chance to get away from the impending war, and her past.
I had a bit of trouble getting into this one. I think my main problem was that I was never a fan of Ailyanna or Kresta, and the story is told from their points of view. Every chapter starts with a little clip that shows part of their past, and they did give a bit of backstory for both characters but didn’t do much to make me like them, unfortunately.
It’s a fairly short book, and it reads easily, so despite not really jiving with the characters, I still read it in a couple of days. I didn’t dislike the book by any stretch of the imagination, but I didn’t love it as much as I was hoping to. I was anticipating more conning and less political maneuvering, but we don’t always get what we want I guess, lol.
All told, while I can see why people liked this book, I think it just wasn’t for me. It is my least favorite of the finalists so far, but historically, people have loved some of my least favorite finalists, so I’d recommend this one to people who like political intrigue. 6.5/10 stars.
ESME’S REVIEW:
If you like feisty heisty main characters you might be the right audience for this book. It’s important to note though that this is equal parts heist as it is political back stabbing.
The book opens in a kind of classic way for a story that focuses on a clever thief. Ailyanna got herself captured… again. She’s sitting in jail… again… contemplating how she can escape… again. No jail has held her for more than a week or so, she always manages to find a way out. The constable who caught her has been on her trail for years, it’s been a game of cat and mouse and Ailyanna finally lost.
The constable, Kresta, is the other POV, and she does not want Ailyanna to go free since she’s spent so much time and energy capturing her. However, Ailyanna could be of use to the royal court and so Kresta is forced to release the prisoner she has faught so hard to keep capture. The mission? Help the King hold his kingdom – there’s an invasion coming from the North and there’s a duke that’s supposedly plotting against the King. Since Ailyanna’s two choices are rot in a prison or go help the king, Ailyanna accepts her mission to go get cozy with this treasonous duke to find out what he’s plotting.
I think I liked Kresta more, although it’s not by a lot. I just feel like we’re Ailyanna is she’s smarter than she actually is sometimes. I think I liked the foil between the characters more than the characters themselves on their own if that makes sense.
There’s quite a bit of political stuff going on in this book so if you’re not prepped to learn a ton of characters, their motivations, loyalties, potential reasons to be deceptive, this book may not be for you. I felt like it slowed down a bit because of all the characters I had to keep track of, but your mileage may vary.
I would have liked for the world building to have a little more explanation than it did, but overall I thought the world was intriguing and has a little bit of something for everyone, up to and including pirates (flintlock fantasy).
This reads pretty fast, even though it took a little while for me to get my bearings with the character names and who everyone was, the style of the prose speeds things along, and after the intro, I read the rest of the book quickly in just a sitting or two.
I am personally more into political intrigue than heist books, so I’m giving this one a 7.0/10.