For a novella, this was a slow starter for me. I was wary of the setting, with its "exotic" court. The characters didn't pull me in right away either, so I stopped about a third of the way through and didn't pick it up again for months. But once I muddled through a few more pages, the two leads finally started to shine. I wasn't invested in the mystery so much as seeing the Most Astute (snerk) and his partner-in-detecting finding their rhythm and solving the mystery. I'll be looking for more from this author.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from a member giveaway. ( )

Velvet Lies was a very quick read, but it was incredibly slow and hard to keep my interest focused on the book. I found myself at times needing to take breaks from it. The book never picked up the pace, and nothing was exciting in the sense of needing to know what was going to happen next.

I loved the overall idea of the novella and how the author used a 'Scooby-Doo' approach. The character discovered clue after clue, but never revealed who was responsible until the very end. I liked that I was guessing throughout the book, trying to discover who was at fault along with the main character.

This book has so many overwhelming names and titles that ended up giving me a headache. The names didn't really flow and took more thought then I would have ever wanted to have given a name. Quite a few times, I had to reread the names when I got caught up on them.

*Note: I received this book free from L. Shelby in exchange for an honest review. ( )