Heir of Lies is a YA book by Mallory McCartney following a group of teenagers in The Academy, learning to control their powers. 

This is exactly the type of book I love to fall into, and get lost in with the different characters, but ultimately, I ended up not finishing this book for a slew of reasons. The main reason being that by about halfway through the book, I still did not really care about the characters or anything that was happening in the plot. There are at least four main characters, and I should have been able to fall in love with at least one of them, but that was not the case at all. 

As a matter of fact, in relation to the main characters, outside of Adair, they all felt exactly the same. The four main characters were Emory (the only female), her best friends Brokk and Memphis, and then her friend Adair who was an outcast of sorts. If you are guessing that all three of Emory’s friends were in love with her, you would be absolutely correct. Not only are you correct, but she is boring and other than being pretty as well as being the daughter of the two founders of The Academy, she really doesn’t have too many interesting qualities. 

I think my other major problem with this book was Adair himself. He was probably the most interesting character, and he ended up being overshadowed by not only his father, but plot convenience as well. Adair’s father ended up being evil, which I personally don’t care about (if you see what kind of books, I read you are aware I have a type), but what ended up happening is because his father was evil, Adair automatically had to be evil. Which was absolutely infuriating because he had been a good kid, and well liked up to that point. Suddenly, because there is an evil father, he has to be evil. 

While all of the above is happening, Emory, who is supposed to be Adair’s friend, ends up treating him terribly because his father is evil. She is a terrible friend, and about as bland of a character as unseasoned oatmeal.  

The best part of this book happens at the beginning when we as the reader learn of The Academy, and that it is a school that was founded for people that felt lesser, and then the school itself ended up becoming corrupt over the years. I think this was the most interesting plot point of the entire book, and it was one that wasn’t honestly delved into, which was a big disappointment.  

Overall – this is a book that had a ton of potential, but too many different things happening that seemed to happen merely for plot convenience. I wish more time had been given to the characters themselves to differentiate them. Because all of the characters ended up being bland, and the plot itself ended up being predictable, I couldn’t get into the book. 

Heir of Lies (Black Dawn Series Book 1) – Mallory McCartney  

Cost* – eBook is $0.99, Paperback is $19.99 and Hardcover is $22.50.  

*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published