Mystery Royale by Kaitlyn Cavalancia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
Mystery Royale is a game. More specifically, an inheritance game for the large estate of Xavier Stoutmire, a wealthy and powerful magician without a direct heir.
Of course everyone in the Stoutmire Family had assumed that Xavier would end up leaving his vast fortune and captivating powers to his youngest nephew. However, tricky old Uncle Xavier had something else in mind.
The invitations are sent, but not just to those within the Stoutmire family eligible to receive the inheritance, but also to two outsiders: Mullory Prudence and Mateo Cruz.
These two seem to be completely random strangers. They’re the wild cards of the whole affair.
The goal of the game is simple. To be the first to solve the mystery. What mystery, you may ask? Well, who killed Xavier Stoutmire, of course.
Mystery Royale was definitely a lot of fun. This is like if The Inheritance Games was set around the LeStrange Family from Harry Potter, instead of the boring-ole, non-magical Hawthorne Family.
I enjoyed Cavalancia’s writing. It was fluid and kept my attention, however, I did feel at times it was hard to track whose perspective you were in at any given moment. Nevertheless, I loved the mystery and set-up behind it all.
I think ride-or-die fans of The Inheritance Games may feel this is a bit of a rip off, but for us folks who enjoyed that series, but didn’t necessarily shout from the rooftops about its glory, this can still be an entertaining romp.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys stories involving magical games, with riddles and puzzles aplenty. The setting of this is also fabulous, the private enchanted mansion. What’s not to love about that?
The audiobook had fantastic narration, and although that’s not an option here on Goodreads yet, it’s definitely available, because I listened to it. I would absolutely chose that format if you have access to it.
Thank you to the publisher, Disney Audiobooks, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m looking forward to more from this author!