The Assassin of Grins and Secrets : The Grinning Assassin Book 1

Picture this: a lifelong assassin hired for the purposes of the court, a court embroiled in deadly intrigue, and a shadowy, unknown magic rising to twist the future.I found myself remembering Sarah J Maas's "Throne of Glass" multiple times throughout this novel because the characters felt similar, the mystery was just as rich, and the pacing was just as stellar. Every scene and conversation drew you toward a brewing storm hovering over the near horizon...and you knew a violent end was coming long before it arrived.If you like court intrigue, if you like assassins, if you like dark magic and gladatorial-esque combat and a fascinating blend of cultures, give this one a try!

4/5 TLDR: The Assassin of Grins and Secrets is an exciting tale full of suspense, action, and plenty of delicious mysteries. The wonderfully executed twists and turns will keep you eager to see where Andrews takes you in this promising start to a potentially epic series.Let's start by briefly touching on the plot. Our story is centered around Serein, a renowned assassin who is currently rotting away in jail after being captured by her enemies. She is quickly transferred to fighting pits, where we get our first taste of her skills as she fights for survival. After her match, she is found by a prince who offers her a life contract to work for him. Serein initially refuses, having suspicions as to his intentions, but eventually accepts and our story kicks off from there.I thought the plot was well executed with little to no drag in the progression of the story. The narrative holds many mysteries, twists and turns, and big revaluations. My only critique is that it posits many more questions than answers, which leaves a sense of unfulfilment upon finishing the novel. It also ends rather abruptly, which I paradoxically love and hate at the same time. I love it because it makes perfect sense given the tone, but I hate that we are given so many plot points and loose ends that don't seem any closer to resolving than they did fifty pages prior. ***HUGE DISCLAIMER: I'd be remiss not to stress that this is the first novel in what seems to be a series, and these minor critiques could be completely washed away in a sequel novel. In fact, I'm fairly confident many of these plot threads will lead to exciting and epic conclusions later on (as I've seen Andrews execute with smaller arcs in this novel), and that their introduction here was done in an effort to "get the ball rolling" with those plot elements.Let's talk a bit about the characters. I enjoyed our cast of characters for the vast majority of the novel. When we meet Serein, she is at possibly the lowest point in her life, emaciated with lice crawling through her hair. It doesn't take much to get us invested in rooting for her, which provides a good start to us getting to know her. The rest of the cast is very likeable and multifaceted, be it the warm, charming prince or his workaholic bodyguard with a troubled past. Andrews gives us plenty of variety in her characterizations, though the previously mentioned 3 have by far the most time devoted to them. I particularly enjoyed the dynamic between the prince and his father, showing how familiar ties can muddy the once clear waters of morality. The only critique I have on the characters lies with Serein. While I thoroughly enjoyed Serein's character and loved learning more of her past and her motivations, those motivations and big reveal moments don't come right away. Andrews takes time to flesh them out, which I enjoy and thought made those secrets/ revelations all the more resonant. The unfortunate side effect of this is that, while I am in Serein's POV feeling her emotions and thoughts, it's hard to connect deeply with her character and understand her actions early on, being that so many aspects of her past that shape her decisions are kept under wraps and only slowly trickled in over time. This becomes less and less of an issue as the novel marches forward, but I had to mention this here. This was solely my experience and other readers may not run into this issue, so take this minor critique with a grain of salt.Though most of this story takes place in one city, I appreciate all the details fed to the reader about the various cultures and locations within this setting. Andrews definitely seems to have a masterful grasp on her world, and she treats us to copious amounts of mythology, history, and culture from it. I'm eager to see where she takes us in future stories within this setting.The action in this novel is beautifully executed. There's no shortage of it, and it always feels intense, as if it's jumping off the page. I LOVE how Serein diagnoses her opponents with razor sharp perception that's reminiscent of the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies. Being able to see her thoughts as she fights was one of the major highlights for me, and I'm sure for many others as well. Expertly done!All in all, I really loved The Assassin of Grins and Secrets. It has everything you'd want in a good "cloak and dagger" style of story: mystery, suspense, action, and tragedy. Andrews clearly has a knack for this style of story and I'm excited to see where she takes it next!!!

The Assassin of Grins and Secrets has quite a lot to say about it. I was first drawn to the book by its beautiful cover, and the introductory back cover blurb that went along with it was intriguing, so I bought it on a whim.I finally got around to it, and it was a fascinating read. I have never had any particular interest in a Middle East / Arabia / etc inspired setting, but the world building and cultures were some of my favorite parts of this book.The characters are very well done, and their relationships develop in realistic and believable ways. The plot is interesting, the mysteries are very well handled, and the action is well done as well. I will give additional kudos for having a main character specialize in something besides swords, even though I will freely admit swords are my favorite weapons and are the go-to for a reason.This book pulled me in from the beginning, and I'm so glad I picked it up. I urge my fellow readers to give it a chance. I don't think you'll be disappointed.An absolute must read.

This book badly needed editing, it was distracting and took me out of the story so many times, spelling, punctuation, grammatical errors, very obvious issues that could have been easily resolved with a re-read. Way too heavy on the descriptive world building making it unnecessarily long, not enough character development, found myself struggling to care about MC. I think the story has potential, but these reasons stated above may cause me to pause before I read the next book in this series. Also the name is kinda of stupid sounding, a bit cringe when asked what book I'm reading:/

This book was an exercise in 'don't judge a book by its title'. This is my least favourite title format and I generally avoid reading things with it. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.It's made clear early on in the book that Serein has synesthesia. It's subtle and adds a different flavour to this book. Kudos.I generally don't enjoy combat scenes, so I liked that they were detailed and short.Of all the characters, I enjoyed Uriah's growth.

This is an excellently written book. K.E. Andrews has mastered the “snarky/sassy assassin who doesn’t like people but secretly has a lot of pain and love in her heart” with Serein. Unlike other assassins I’ve read in previous books, I actually *liked* her. She is witty and not afraid to speak her mind. She is clever and utilises her skills at every possible moment. I also enjoyed the banter between her and Uriah, and how their relationship developed throughout the story. Andrews has a compelling writing style, with excellent worldbuilding and interesting characters. I highly recommend this book.

There is so much I want to say about this book, foremost being that I was so ready to fall in love with it as soon as I saw that gorgeous cover. Indeed, the worldbuilding and the main protagonist absolutely delivered to my hopes. Andrews has crafted an outstandingly and beautifully intricate world that borrows from an unusual combination of real-world cultures. Most prevalent is the colourful and exotic Arabian aesthetic, but other cultures in Andrews world are modeled on Chinese, Norse and Celtic aesthetics. Indeed, Uriah's "Wendish" tongue is literally imported Welsh. So for me - as both a native Welshman and a self-confessing Arabophile - Andrews' world palette could scarcely have been more intriguing.As we move about the world - which, in the scope of the book beyond the first three chapters, is actually really just the city of Oyon - we are generously served with detail about the cultures, histories, geographies, languages and personalities. The author has clearly put a mind-boggling amount of work into bringing this world to life and presenting it to the reader vividly and at length.Serein herself is every bit the protagonist I'd hoped she would be. I loved that her scars and the burdens of her backstory were at the fore, and served to make her even more interesting. She is tough, intelligent and adaptable, but also somewhat empathetic and driven by a much greater motivation than simply "I'm an assassin so I must kill people". Indeed, the revelation of the identity of her "sun and stars" later in the book was one of my favourite moments, and cemented my affection for this character.Another thing that was done very well was the combat action, which was detailed, varied and readily visual. Clearly a great deal of research had gone into this, and we see Serein having to outmatch opponents possessing a variety of different fighting styles. One minor issue I had was the fact that almost all the combat Serein engages in is single combat in some kind of arena. So while Serein is sold to us as an assassin, she is presented as more of a combat duellist. In fact, apart from seeing her sneak into a few places, we see little to evidence Serein's reputation as "the grinning assassin".Where I felt this book let me down was in the strength of the actual story. Essentially, there ISN'T all that much of one. Rising tension is more or less absent, there is no discernible character development, and most of the scenes involve someone going to some place to have a conversation and/or some introspection that provides more information to the reader about a particular place, person or event. It feels more like a tour of the worldbuilding elements than an actual plot or story. Of all the scenes and incidents in the book, the only one which felt like a real 'development' was in chapter 34, which admittedly was extremely exciting and fascinating and I won't spoil any of the details.But of all the other elements of the story that were set up, there wasn't anything that 'paid off'. Serein's meeting with Sethos served only to compound the opinion we already had about the Malik. Her encounters with Il-Makah added nothing and felt far too transparently like a tribute to George R. R. Martin's character Lord Varys. For most of the story, there weren't even any clear stakes aside from Serein serving Rameses in order to gain her freedom and a plot to expose the nasty deeds of Sethos. Though even the latter of those seems a little redundant given the appalling things Sethos is doing publically. In the latter half of the book, the ante is upped somewhat when a new personal threat emerges for Serein, but it is quite clear that this is something she will have to contend with in a subsequent book of the series. Which still leave the present book without much of an arc.Uriah was a rather mediocre character, and Rameses was actually quite irritated, coming across as he did as something of a 'beautiful idiot' whose responses to things seem to consistently miss the point:Sethos: "Did you stop and think about what would happen if she turns on you?"Rameses: "She has served her time, so I am giving her a chance to redeem herself. Is not showing mercy the sign of a wise leader?"The chemistry between the main characters was also a little unconvincing, with most of the tongue-in-cheeks remarks being of the schoolyard "Are you sure it isn't because you fancy her?" or "Are you embarrassed that I saw you undressed" kind.I also have to mention the sounds-as-colours thing which is a major feature of this book. In the first few chapters, I was super excited about this. It was original, intriguing and I wondered what the author would do with it. But further into the book I started to realise that nothing is actually done with it. It's just there. The colours serve as adjectives for sounds. Adjectives should be used sparingly anyway, and these colours are particularly dispensible because a) they don't mean anything to the reader and b) the exactly same adjectives are used for each instance of the same sound. Rameses voice is always "gold". The sound of chain-mail armour is always "orange-red", yet the sound of a metal gate creaking is "teal".Now I understand that there is a condition whereby a person can experience a particular sense in the form of another, such as seeing colours while hearing sounds, and I wonder if Andrews includes this as an attempt at neurodivergent representation. In which case, it's admirable, but nothing interesting culminates out of it, it doesn’t really enhance the way we view Serein and it makes many of the descriptions cumbersome and less useful than they would have been if more familiar adjectives had been used.I've given a lot of criticisms here, but I have to emphasise that I was very excited about this book. The author has created an incredible world, just crying out to have many, many stories told in it. If she can learn to better craft a strong, compelling story to go alongside her amazing worldbuilding, then that would be a book I would shove my way to the front of the crowd to read.

This has a lot going for it. The world building is very good, with a well constructed background. The characters are clear cut and well developed - especially the main character, Serein. Much of the book is centered on exploring her complex character and slowly revealing her dark background. One thing I especially liked about her is that she 'sees' sounds as colours. This not only helps her stand out as a unique individual, but is also used very creatively in the plot. For example, every voice she hears has it's own specific colour: so identifying people by the sound of their voice is easy for her, even if she can't hear it clearly.The plot is complex, but well built, with multiple layers of mystery. The contest between warriors Serein enters is not an uncommon idea in fantasy, but handled well enough and with enough individual characteristics to avoid being a cliche. Backgrounds are vividly described, with a lot of colour and fine detail.Yet, in spite of all this, I found it difficult to get into, and this was largely down to poor editing. As a writer myself, I know very well how difficult it can be to get this right. The occasional typo can slip through multiple edits and escape several different editors. But, unfortunately this was not an occasional typo. There were just too many missed words, missed letters and confusing sentences throughout the book.This may seem pedantic. But one of the most important aspects of writing is the word flow (or writing flow, or just flow). The reader needs to forget that they are reading and become involved in the story. That can't happen if they are continually having to stop and wonder 'What did that sentence mean?' or 'Shouldn't there be another word in there?' And I was finding that happening so often that in the end I was looking out for typos as much as reading the story.Another hinderance to the flow was too many unfamiliar words. I know this is a hard one to get write, because it depends a lot on the vocabulary of the individual reader. And a varied use of words can add a lot to the authenticity of a scene. But when you have to stop three times in one paragraph to look up words unknown to me then you've completely lost touch with the story. For me, the story would have benefited from a better balance in this area.Overall, then, this was a disappointment, because it could have been so much better with a little more attention to the fine detail. The author has a lot of talent and I'm sure they'll get better with time and practice. But I won't be in a hurry to get the next book in the series.