Series: Five Broken Blades #1
Release date: May 7 2024
Publisher: Zaffre Books
Pages: 474
Find it: Goodreads Waterstones
Source: I bought a copy of this from Waterstones
Rating: 4/5 stars

Synopsis

The king of Yusan must die.

The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.

He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined…or sold.

And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness―from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.

They can agree on murder.

They can agree on treachery.

But for these five killers―each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal―it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other…but only one can take the crown.

Let the best liar win.

Review

Five Broken Blades is the first in a fantasy series that follows a group of five people as they band together in an attempt to kill the King of Yusan. But how do you kill a God King? Each of the five killers have secrets and their own agendas to fulfill, but will they be able to trust each other long enough to succeed in their task?

This was such a fun, entertaining read and I really enjoyed reading this one. It was fast paced and addictive and I cannot wait to see what Corland has in store for book two. The world building was great and Corland’s writing style was easy to get sucked into. The story has plenty of twists and turns that had be on the edge of my seat and overall the ending wrapped up nicely but still left me very much excited to see where the story is going to go next.

I really love a heist story and I thought it was really well executed in this story. Each of our five characters have their own motivations and agendas. I was particularly fascinated with all the scheming as they attempt to work together or double cross each other. There were secrets revealed that I absolutely did not expect and each character had a pretty distinct narrative voice. This book is marketed as adult fantasy but to me it felt more like YA. My one gripe with this book was the romance aspect as it felt a bit over the top for all of the characters to pair off. I don’t mind a bit of romance but it did feel as though the various romances were taking away from the main heist plotline a bit.

Overall this an entertaining and compelling fantasy story. If you’re looking a fan of heist stories with the found family trope or you’re looking for a fast paced fantasy tale with tons of action, you won’t want to miss Five Broken Blades.