Amanda Foody’s Ace of Shades announces its world immediately and completely. New Reynes is a city run by criminal gangs, soaked in cheap alcohol and dark magic, where almost everything is legal and almost nothing is safe. It is the kind of setting that either works entirely — where every atmospheric detail coheres into something immersive — or collapses into aesthetic without substance. Foody makes it work.

Enne Salta arrives in New Reynes looking for her missing mother, armed with a contact name: Levi Glaisyer, a street lord and card sharp who is in debt to everyone in the city and needs a way out. Their interests align — barely. What they find in New Reynes is something much larger than a missing woman, connected to the city’s political history and to magic that everyone thought was gone.

New Reynes

The city is the book’s greatest achievement. Foody has built a complete world — the three criminal gangs, the city’s political history, the different types of talents (the magic system), the social hierarchy and how people navigate it — with the confidence of someone who understands it before the reader does. The exposition is embedded in action rather than delivered as lecture.

Enne

She arrives in New Reynes as someone out of her depth and becomes someone who is not, and the arc of that transition is credibly written. She is good at things that don’t seem like useful skills in a city of crime, and discovering what she can do with those skills is one of the book’s pleasures.

Levi

The street lord under pressure — in debt, losing his position, making increasingly desperate moves — is a figure Foody handles with sympathy without softening his culpability for where he finds himself.

Why YA Readers Will Love This

For readers who love morally grey urban fantasy settings — cities with their own logic and their own dangers — New Reynes is among the best in recent YA. It feels complete in the way that only works when the author has thought about it from multiple angles.

For readers who love partnership narratives where the two protagonists come from completely different worlds and have to figure out how to trust each other: Enne and Levi’s dynamic is well-constructed and develops at the right pace.

For readers drawn to the aesthetics of a Jazz Age or Art Deco fantasy world with a darker edge: Ace of Shades occupies that space with originality and style.

King of Fools and Queen of Volts complete the trilogy.

Published: April 2018 · Genre: YA fantasy · Series: The Shadow Game, Book 1

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Ace of Shades about? Ace of Shades is set in New Reynes, a city run by criminal gangs where almost everything is legal and almost nothing is safe. Enne Salta arrives looking for her missing mother, armed only with a contact name — Levi Glaisyer, a street lord and card sharp in debt to everyone in the city. What they find together is connected to the city’s political history and to magic everyone believed was gone.

How does the city of New Reynes work as a fantasy setting? New Reynes is described as the book’s greatest achievement — a complete world with three criminal gangs, political history, a magic system based on ’talents,’ and a social hierarchy the characters must navigate. The review praises how Foody embeds exposition in action rather than delivering it as lecture, giving the city the confidence of a world understood before the reader arrives.

What is the dynamic between Enne and Levi? Enne and Levi come from completely different worlds and must figure out how to trust each other — a partnership narrative the review describes as ‘well-constructed’ and developing at the right pace. Enne arrives out of her depth and becomes capable using skills that don’t initially seem suited to a city of crime; Levi is a street lord under pressure, written with sympathy that doesn’t soften his culpability.

What aesthetic does Ace of Shades evoke? The book occupies the space of Jazz Age or Art Deco fantasy with a darker edge — a city setting that the review describes as occupying ’that space with originality and style.’ The Art Deco casino atmosphere and the sense of a city with its own logic and dangers are central to the reading experience.

Is Ace of Shades the start of a series? Yes — Ace of Shades is the first book in The Shadow Game trilogy. King of Fools and Queen of Volts complete the series. The review notes that the world-building in the first volume is constructed with enough care to sustain the full trilogy.

Further Reading from Authoritative Sources

  • Amanda Foody — Wikipedia’s Amanda Foody article provides biographical and bibliographical context for a debut author whose world-building confidence is the central subject of this review’s praise.
  • Art Deco aesthetic — Wikipedia’s Art Deco article contextualizes the visual and cultural aesthetic tradition that underpins New Reynes’s atmosphere, helping readers who may not be familiar with the period understand the specific design language Foody is drawing on.