Book Review: Cards of Fate is fated to underwhelm
Cards of Fate by A.R. Kingston is a new adult romantic fantasy featuring witch Morgana, Knight Leopold, and Duke Leighton as they seek to recover the kidnapped Princess Lafreya from the evil Demon King. Described as “part thrilling adventure, part erotic romance,” this novel does contain those elements, but in the least satisfying way possible.
Content warning: sexual abuse. And major spoilers to come.
In the beginning of this novel, we learn that Princess Lafreya is in love with the ruler of a bordering dukedom, who himself is the subject of a curse due to his grandfather thwarting the Demon King’s first attempt at world domination. In order to lure the Duke to his demise, the Demon King kidnaps Lafreya. Our heroine Morgana is Lafreya’s cousin and political advisor, so she immediately volunteers to go after Lafreya with Duke Leighton and they are joined by Morgana’s lover Leopold, the Captain of the Guard. The majority of the novel covers their long journey across multiple countries and a sea in order to reach the Demon King’s lair in a land heavily coded as the Middle East. Their goal is to kill the Demon King to save Lafreya’s life and the Duke from his curse.
The three main characters have the maturity of sixteen-year-olds despite being in their mid-20s, and their speech alternates between contemporary surly teenagers and formal Middle Age nobles. The writing style indicates a reading level suitable for middle grade, and yet the frequent mention of sex and sexual abuse precludes the novel from being targeted towards anyone except adults. But even for an adult novel, I was shocked by the flippancy given towards the sexual abuse against Morgana, who is suggested to be a slut for her ongoing sexual activity after being raped by a trusted professor as a teenager. Rather than helping her work through her trauma in a healthy way, her lover Leopold waves away her trauma like an event to be forgotten and even shares her story with Leighton behind her back with no consequences. Additionally, Leopold is constantly horny for Morgana throughout the entire novel no matter how dire their circumstances, which comes across as wholly misplaced attention rather than affection.
The importance of tarot cards waxes and wanes throughout the novel. According to lore, everyone has a particular tarot reading fated for them from birth, which they cannot change. The three main characters plus Lafreya all hold “major arcana cards,” which indicates that they will be important forces for change and have a better chance of not dying in their personal quests. But the tarot cards are largely forgotten for the majority of the novel and they’re waved away as unimportant in the last chapter, so their use is inconsistent and confusing. Morgana’s magical abilities also seem to vary wildly throughout the book according to the needs of the plot. A tick that sucks out magical energy is conveniently used when the plot demands that she be weak, and in the final battle after being totally drained of energy, she springs back up completely renewed within five minutes.
Morgana talks about hiding her identity as a witch her entire life, and yet she openly keeps her natural purple hair and pink eyes- common signs of a predilection for some form of magic; so it doesn’t seem as if she was ever actually in any danger of being persecuted as a witch. She hides her witch heritage from her lover Leopold until past the halfway point in the novel despite them both being fiercely in love for years, which undercuts the strength of their bond. Her reasoning is to shield Leopold from persecution himself as Captain of the Guard, and yet the way he immediately forsakes his position in order to go on their rescue mission should have signaled to Morgana that he was trustworthy much sooner. It’s also unclear how a man in his mid-20s earned the distinction of Captain of the Guard.
The big reveal at the end of the novel is extremely predictable. Throughout the novel, the trio is thwarted by the Demon King’s minions trying to prevent them from rescuing Lafreya, and yet the Demon King personally rescues Morgana multiple times and is somehow able to visit her dreams to warn her to stop her quest. I’ll let you guess the connection between the two. Her memory of him had been magically obscured from her, so when she finally finds out the truth, she has to decide between killing him for the greater good or letting him live and destroy the world. But there was no great emotional connection with him built over the course of the novel, so the great reveal doesn’t leave much of an impression. And when it comes to actually killing him, the fight is over surprisingly quickly and with very little fanfare.
I had high hopes for a fantasy novel that combined adventure and romance with a dash of mystery via tarot cards, but unfortunately I can only warn readers away from picking up this book.
Cards of Fate is out February 14, 2023. Special thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy for review purposes.
