Amaya has spent the last seven years on a ship working off her families’ debt, and on the eve of her release she saves a man from drowning, threatening her own freedom. What almost ends in death offers Amaya a better opportunity, the chance to avenge the death of her father and the slander of his name. Cayo has squandered his inheritance at the gaming tables and been put on a short leash by his merchant father, attempting to take over the family business. But when his sister falls ill, and the facade of their position is stripped away, Cayo must do everything he can to save the sister who saved him. This puts him in the path of the mysterious Countess Yamaa, who appeared overnight and now hosts extravagant events for the wealthiest and most powerful in the city. Amaya and Cayo are thrown together as both find themselves caught up in revenge and survival–even as they may not always be on the same side, or even know what side they’re on.

This markets itself as a gender-bent Count of Monte Cristo retelling. Now, it has been five- seven years or so since I read the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo. Still, don’t go into this expecting a beat for beat retelling. I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what moments were transposed from the original, and, while it takes the essence of revenge, especially set amidst the merchant class, there is not a wise old man in a jail cell. There are moments where the intent is the same. For instance, Amaya leaves the boat that has been her prison with a moment that will leave everyone on board to believe she is dead, much like the escape of Edmond from prison, but Sim makes the narrative her own. I don’t make any judgement on this. I think an author that can take such a well-known source material and shape their own narrative in a play on the original, in conversation with the original, is good. Things do not necessarily need to be a beat by beat retelling. After all, where is the creative freedom in that?

The pacing here was interesting. At 327 pages, it’s arguably an average or even shorter YA fantasy. Count of Monte Cristo is a honker. Even as a duopoly, if the second is around the same length, this will end up being half the length. Still, around third of the book was set-up. It was engaging and I was enjoying myself, but it was clearly set up. Still, this set-up is often cleverly done in terms of the chapters switching back and forth. The ending did feel a little rushed and there were moments that could feel little rushed, but, overall, Sim packed a lot into a compact book while still exploring her characters in a way that felt well-formed and engaging.

Like Ruthless Gods, this book uses snippets from histories, plays, treaties, letters, books, of this fictional world to introduce chapters. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I’m not rooted enough in the world for it to feel significant, but it does set up the tone of the chapter. I think the most dissonance I had was attempting to understand the politics of this made up world while getting caught up in the politics of the original novel. That’s on me not the narrative. Still, I don’t understand the other countries introduced here, though I do believe this is something that will be explored in the sequel as it appears we’ll get to see a little more of the world.

The most engaging bits of this book come from the conflicting wants of its two leads–Cayo and Amaya. There’s a tension and charge that comes from legitimate conflicting stakes, and that works, maybe because we do get so much setup with each on their own. We’re invested in their individual journeys even as they are so compelling playing off the other. I would have liked to see a little more of this play off of each other. Their journeys intertwined, but were still largely separate beyond the other’s existence complicating their motivations. I think the second book in the duopoly will offer some compelling opportunities to explore this further.