Ailyanna is a master thief. She has scammed royalty, robbed the nobility, and eluded capture every step of the way. Kresta is a legendary war hero. Now appointed as the captain of the King’s constables, she will stop at nothing to bring any threats to her city to justice. This makes Ailyanna public enemy number one, after she successfully scams one of the King’s sons. The two play a prolonged game of cat and mouse, which comes to and end at the beginning of our story, when Kresta finally captures her target and throws her in a dungeon for good. At least, that’s what she hoped.
With a hostile invasion on the horizon and the threat of civil war looming, the kingdom has never been in a more precarious spot. And when the King orders Kresta to investigate and put a stop to the plans of a treacherous duke, she finds that she will require the skills of her old nemesis. Ailyanna has little interest in serving the King or preserving his kingdom, but taking this job might just be her ticket to freedom.
The first thing worth mentioning about The Honorable Con by Michele C. Shaw is that, for better or worse, it absolutely feels like the first book in a series. On a positive note, this means that the book has a great energy to it as we are constantly being introduced to interesting to elements of the world, including its characters, its politics, its magic, and its locations. On the other hand, it also means that it sets up far more than it could ever possibly pay off in one book, leaving many plot lines open ended. I won’t spoil anything here, but while the books final action set piece is very engaging, I couldn’t help but feel like the story kind of just stopped instead of reaching any kind of satisfying conclusion. Of course, this might not necessarily be an issue for you if you have any interest in reading the sequel that is already confirmed to be on the way. However, if you are looking for any kind of resolution to what’s being set up here, you won’t really get much.
With all of this being said, I found The Honorable Con to be a very enjoyable action/heist story set in a very interesting fantasy world. The two main viewpoint characters have very distinct voices and are consistently engaging to read. The worldbuilding is very strong, and the ideas the book presents, particularly in regards to its magic system were very unique. It doesn’t really hold the readers hand as it introduces its fantasy concepts. Rather, the audience basically just witnesses events as they happen and is expected to figure things out from there. Key details are provided where necessary, but there are never really any big exposition dumps to explain things to you. I appreciate this style of worldbuilding when the author is able to pull it off and Michele C. Shaw is up to the task. This style, combined with the heist-like plot make Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn an obvious comparison, and yes, I would say fans of Mistborn will find things to appreciate in this book.
The Honorable Con is an engaging, briskly paced fantasy novel with strong characters, interesting worldbuilding, and a compelling heist-like plot at its core. I would absolutely recommend it to fantasy fans.
Reviewed by Michael Realmuto
September 3, 2025
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