I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

At sixteen, Honora "Nora" Holtzfall is the daughter of the most powerful heiress in all of Walstad. Her family controls all the money—and all the magic—in the entire country. But despite being the center of attention, Nora has always felt like an outsider. When her mother is found dead in an alley, the family throne and fortune are suddenly up for grabs, and Nora will be pitted against her cousins in the Veritaz, the ultimate magical competition for power that determines the one family heir.

But there's a surprise contestant this time: Lotte, the illegitimate daughter of Nora's aunt. When Lotte's absent mother retrieves her from the rural convent she'd abandoned her to, Lotte goes from being an orphan to surrounded by family. Unfortunately, most of them want her dead.

And soon, Nora discovers that her mother's death wasn't random—it was murder. And the only person she can trust to uncover the truth of what happened is a rakish young reporter who despises everything Nora and her family stand for.

While the dangers of the Veritaz competition threaten each of the Holtzfall girls, and the stark class differences turns political outrage to terrifing violence—the new cousins must fight to stay alive, no matter what.

Incredible tests, impossible choices, and deadly odds await both girls. But there can only be one winner.

Short and Sweet Review

The Holtzfall family is a high ranking family and they have control over all of the money and magic in the entire country. Nora Holtzfall has it all and she knows one day she’ll be the heir, but one day comes sooner than she expects when her mother is murdered and the throne and fortune are up for grabs. The only problem is Nora has to compete against her three other cousins and out of the blue her aunt’s illegitimate daughter, Lotte is brought to the city to compete too. Not only does Nora want to be the heir but she wants to solve her mother’s murder and the only person who can help her is a reporter. The Veritaz competition can be deadly and there can only be one winner in the end.

The Notorious Virtues was a book that will keep you hooked it has a lot of entertaining elements. There’s competition, magic, murder. The competition has different trials and the winner of the trial wins a ring and the final trial to win all of the magic includes going into the woods and finding the ax that all of the competitors put their magic into. Nora is one of our main characters and her power is being able to change her appearance, from the get go we learn that she’s most likely to become the next heir but when she starts looking into the murder of her mother she starts to loose sight of the competition and fall behind. Although Nora seems very vain to the outside world she’s actually pretty smart and willing to get to the bottom of things. Nora is mostly with August because he’s the reporter who covered the story on her mother’s murder so they work together and I liked seeing their relationship develop throughout the book. We also have Lotte who grew up at a convent and didn’t even know she was a Holtzfall, she’s suddenly thrown into this world of glitz and glam and also the competition. I also liked Lotte’s POV she’s not too concerned with the competition but she now has a family and that’s one of the things she’s trying to be in the moment for, I did like her interactions with Nora, they did some good sleuthing together. We also have Theo, who’s one of the guards and he’s looking for information about his brother who was with Nora’s mom at the time, his sleuthing leads him to a revolutionary group who’s ready to take down the Holtzfall family. I enjoyed the competition and seeing the different trials and how they all had something to do with a virtue. My favorite thing was Nora’s POV and finding out more about her mother’s murder and not only did she learn about that but other family secrets. The ending was good it left off on a cliffhanger and I have so many questions and want to know what happens next.

Overall, this book was worth the read! It has a lot of different elements that people would love so if you want a competition, mystery, or magic this book has it all and it’s very well written and the world building is great. I’m glad it seems this book is going to be a trilogy because the way this book ends I wanted answers and more of Nora and Lotte’s story. Pick this book up and enjoy the twists and turns.