DNF Early Review – Den of Liars (The Devious, Book 1) by Jessica S. Olson (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: ‎ 393 pages
Publisher:‎ Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: July 1, 2025
ASIN: B0D7TDTH2N
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in The Devious series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Lola St. James is the world’s best kept secret. When her father’s loss in the Liar’s Dice Tournament—a high-stakes competition where players are forced to gamble with their deepest secrets—made her a target, she was rescued by the Thief, the notorious leader of the Tentacles. But the Thief’s kindness came with a price: Lola’s heart. In the years that followed, she and the Thief formed a bond like no other, able to feel each other’s emotions because of their shared heart.

Now, living under the pseudonym Astra, she is determined to prove herself and become a full-fledged Tentacle. But when a critical heist goes sideways, the only way forward is for Lola to compete in the Liar’s Dice Tournament herself. Lola is confident in her ability to pull off any heist, but the Thief’s mysterious brother, the Liar, runs the game and he turns out to be more than she bargained for. As her attraction for him grows and illusions run wild, she will be forced to confront the secrets of her past, the truth of the brothers’ shared history, and the lies she tells herself.”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in The Devious series. I got this ebook for review from NetGalley.

Thoughts: Previous to reading this book, I had read both of Olson’s other books (“A Forgery of Rose” and “Sing Me Forgotten”), I liked both of these books. I didn’t love them but they were enjoyable to read, I enjoyed the charaters and the concepts behind them. This book I struggled with and ended up stopping about 25% of the way in. I didn’t like how it was written with a ton of exposition by the characters at inappropriate times in their heads. I also didn’t like the characters and thought they were one-dimensional and boring. Lastly, the plot felt very typical to YA fantasy.

Lola is supposed to be dead and most of the world thinks she is dead. However, she was rescued by the Thief and now shares her heart (literally) with him to combat a curse he has on him. Now Lola is trying to prove herself to join the Thief’s band called the Tentacles but to do so she will have to compete in the Liar’s dice Tournament. The Thief’s brother runs this tournament, and Lola is strangely drawn to him.

So, there was pretty much nothing I liked about this book for the first 25% of it I read. During action scenes we’re subjected to long mental expositions by the characters about their pasts and thoughts, these portions were awkward sounding and really broke the mood of the story. Then there is the fact that I didn’t like any of these characters, they are so stereotypical YA and so one-dimensional. The Thief and Lola obviously have a very harmful relationship that is portrayed as brother/sister-like and I thought this just felt yucky. The Thief very literally bound Lola to him in exchange for saving her life, and now he constantly makes her feel incompetent and less than she is. He overprotects her by not letting her do things and this felt very toxic and controlling to me. Lastly, there is the “love” interest, the Thief’s brother. I think he is supposed to be your typical sympathetic villain, but he seemed so fake and over the top to me.

The story here is a variation of so many other YA stories like this and has been so overdone. Girl gets forced into dangerous high stakes competition to prove her worth to a boy but ends up falling for the bad boy that just happens to be the brother of the boy she’s trying to fight for…ugh…

So, yeah I found this very disappointing and eye-rollingly silly. I just couldn’t keep reading it. As with most books that I don’t get more than 25% through I am giving this 3 stars in the assumption (and hope) that it gets better. To be fair some of this is probably just me, I really have been finding these typical over the top YA romance books a bit nauseating lately. I think I am just sick of them or at least sick of how they portray these toxic relationships between young adults.

My Summary (3/5): Overall I didn’t enjoy this and found it very disappointing. I thought Olson’s last two books were decent but this book missed the mark for me on characters, writing style, world-building, and plot. I don’t have a lot good to say about it aside from maybe it gets better. Again, to be fair, I am sick of these YA books that have such stereotypical characters and young women making poor decisions. Part of not being able to finish this may be just pure exasperation on my part. However, given that I liked but didn’t love Olson’s first two books and how this book went for me I probably won’t be picking up more books by Olson in the future.