Review: League of Liars by Astrid Scholte

Title: League of Liars

Series: The League of Liars #1

Author: Astrid Scholte

Genre: YA, high fantasy, mystery, thriller

Publication date: February 2022

Published by: Putnam

Source: Borrowed from library

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Synopsis: In this fantasy thriller, four teens charged with murder and the illegal use of magic band together to devise the ultimate jailbreak.

Ever since his mother was killed, seventeen-year-old Cayder Broduck has had one goal--to see illegal users of magic brought to justice. People who carelessly use extradimensional magic for their own self-interest, without a care to the damage it does to society or those around them, deserve to be punished as far as Cayder is concerned. Because magic always has a price. So when Cayder lands a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to apprentice under a premier public defender, he takes it. If he can learn all the tricks of public defense, the better he'll be able to dismantle defense arguments when he's a prosecutor. Then he'll finally be able to make sure justice is served.

But when he meets the three criminals he's supposed to defend, it no longer seems so black and white. They're teenagers, like him, and their stories are... complicated, like his. Vardean, the prison where Cayder's new clients are incarcerated, also happens to be at the very heart of the horrible tear in the veil between their world and another dimension--where all magic comes from.

My rating: ★★★★★

"They all have a story," Graymond said with a sweep of his arms, raising his voice over the racket. "Are you ready to listen?"

I loved this book more than I thought I would! I’m not much of a high fantasy reader, but there is just something about Astrid Scholte’s world-building that I just love. One thing I loved about Four Dead Queens, which was the first book I read by this author, was the world and how it was divided into four starkly different quadrants. And the world in League of Liars was equally as intriguing. There is this type of magic in this world called edem that lives in the shadows, and when used it can call forth things from the past or future. But the use of this magic is illegal because it’s unpredictable and usually always leads to disaster... of the death variety.

Our protagonist, Cayder, works in an attorney’s office and at the start of the book he is offered the chance to apprentice with one of the top public defenders. To say he’s excited is an understatement. Cayder has always had one goal in life: to put those who use edem illegally behind bars. But when he starts his apprenticeship, he is surprised to learn that he will be defending THREE kids his age who have been accused of using edem. As he meets with them and gets to know their story, he starts to realize that their crimes of using edem may not be as black and white as he once thought.

Each of these character’s stories was SO intriguing. Not only that but they were connected to one another in the most interesting, unexpected ways. The story in this book, and the way it progressed, was SO good! It threw plot twist after plot twist and they got me every single time!

It was great honestly. Lol. I love being surprised. And I also really liked these characters and felt for them and the difficult situations they were in. I really enjoyed Cayder’s character development in particular. All he wanted to do was go into law to do right by victims, but slowly his perspective on these laws and his understanding of edem changed.

I just really loved this book. I liked the mix of fantasy and sci-fi, and the world-building in general was great! It was such an interesting world, edem especially. I have never read anything like this type of magic before, so I really enjoyed that. It was just a really interesting form of time manipulation. And you know I love action in a book, and this one had some really great action at the end! There actually wasn’t much action at the beginning—we had a lot law stuff and trials, but honestly, I found all of that very interesting and quite tense! There was a lot that happened and a lot that was uncovered and I was enjoying every minute of it! I was glued to the pages!

I cannot wait for the sequel and find out what happens next because the way this book ends... omg.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊