Labyrinth's Heart

By: M. A. Carrick

Narrated by: Nikki Massoud

Length: 23 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

“Lush, engrossing and full of mystery and dark magic" (BookPage), Labyrinth's Heart is the thrilling conclusion to M. A. Carrick's Rook & Rose trilogy, in which a con artist, a vigilante, and a crime lord become reluctant allies in the quest to save their city from a dangerous ancient magic.

May you see the face and not the mask.

Ren came to Nadežra with a plan. She would pose as the long-lost daughter of the noble house Traementis. She would secure a fortune for herself and her sister. And she would vanish without a backward glance. She ought to have known that in the city of dreams, nothing is ever so simple.

Now, she is Ren, con-artist and thief. But she is also Renata, the celebrated Traementis heir. She is Arenza, the mysterious pattern-reader and political rebel. And she is the Black Rose, a vigilante who fights alongside the legendary Rook.

Even with the help of Grey Serrado and Derossi Vargo, it is too many masks for one person to wear. And as the dark magic the three of them helped unleash builds to storm that could tear the very fabric of the city apart, it's only a matter of time before one of the masks slips—and everything comes crashing down around them.

The Rook & Rose trilogy

The Mask of Mirrors

The Liar's Knot

Labyrinth's Heart

©2023 M. A. Carrick (P)2023 Orbit

Critic reviews

"Immersive…a feast to savor slowly."—BuzzFeed

"Utterly captivating. Carrick spins an exciting web of mystery, magic, and political treachery in a richly drawn and innovative world."—S. A. Chakraborty

"The Mask of Mirrors kept me up reading way past my bedtime. A web of intrigue, magic, and the art of the con this novel will catch hold of your dreams and keep you from sleeping."—Mary Robinette Kowal

Great story & performance

Great story with many, many surprises. Worth a re-listen, and precious few books have fallen into this category for me. Definitely worth the credit.

Gahd, I love these books

This is the last in the trilogy and does it mean that. Every. single. plot thread gets woven into a neat knot by the end. And that includes ones I wasn't even aware were there.

It took awhile for me to finish because so much happens. This is an incredibly dense book and I bet the Author could have split it between 2, but I'm glad they didn't.

My only complaint is that the character Sedge never actually gets to do anything, and I think that applies to the whole trilogy.

A Fantastic Series

Absolutely love this series! I love the twists and turns and how complex the lies get, I love knowing things that the characters don't and waiting for them to put it together. I loved watching as the lies started to fall apart and character's worlds came crashing down around them. I loved the narrator and how she does such a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life with different accents. It made Ren's character feel more real and her ability to fool people into thinking she's someone else more believable. I don't think that just reading this book would have the same magic as the narrator is able to bring to it - Nikki Massoud does a fantastic job.

I hope that M.A. Carrick are able to come together to write some more in the future! I love all of the details they are able to slide in and make the world feel so immersive.

Definitely worth listening to!

This series was amazing and this book did not disappoint! Engaging story and performance. Loved the accents!

Love this series!

I’m an avid listener always looking for something fresh. I listen to all the mainstream books everyone loves and raves about. This series is better, great world building with complex characters who grow SO much throughout the series. I’m going to miss these characters like I’d miss a dear friend. I don’t write reviews, this series was worth writing a review.

great narration!

I loved the character arcs and interactions in this series but the fantasy aspect of the story was just not my cup of tea. I didn't really understand it or care for it. Also some of the political subplots and side characters were too hard to keep track of. This might be worsened because of the audio format and the use of foreign words in the story. I couldn't tell for the life of me what each of the foreign vocabulary meant by the end of the book. Anyway, I think my favorite book in the story was book 1, where most of the story line was about human interaction and the con aspect of the story, before all the fantasy started. I really wanted this to be a 5 star for me, but I just wanted to get through and finish the book.

amazing

An amazing finish to an excellent series. I have over 300+ audio books in my library and this trilogy will be getting the honor of an additional physical purchase, to go on my book shelf with the other knock out 10/10 books I've displayed there.

One of my new all time favorite series

I'd give it more than 5 stars in every category if I could.
Don't know where to start - everything about this series is awesome!
The world building is masterful - such detail about so many different groups and belief systems.
The characters are deep and conflicted, along with being caring and courageous.
And the narrator - Nikki Massoud... She is incredibly talented! She does at least 30 different voices and they are SO good! I can't imagine the time she must have spent figuring them all out and keeping them straight. She the best I've ever heard and I have been listening to Audio books for over 10 years.
This is a new twist on fantasy, magic and challenges.
I highly recommend this series.

I love this series

Wonderful world building. Characters I cared about and enjoyed. I really enjoyed both the writing style and the reader’s voice and portrayals of the characters.
Each book is good. I’m pleased with how satisfying the ending is.

Captivating series!

I picked up this series after seeing a random book tok post which recommended it, and wow am I glad that I did! So glad that I happened to see that random post at that moment or I may never have had the amazing listening experience that I just had. Nikki Massoud, I am in awe of your linguistic ability and how deftly you slide between dialects, Infusing warmth, character and personality into every one of them. I’m a dialect coach myself and know the level of skill that went into that performance.

Aside from the stellar narration, the story itself was an immersive, complicated, political, sociocultural, interpersonal joyride that I never wanted to end. But when the ending came it was immensely satisfying. I’ll be thinking about this book and these characters for a long time afterwards. And probably I’ll fill the void by listening to it again.