Thanks for dropping by my stop for the Black City Philippine Tour, hosted by Kate at The Bookaholic Blurbs!
Title: Black City (Black City #1)
Author: Elizabeth Richards
Release Date: November 13th 2012
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons BYR
A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war.
In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.
When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.Wow. Black City has left me speechless. I knew it was dystopian paranormal romance - genres I've read quite a lot of times already, but this book is just so unique, it totally surprised me.
Ash is a twin-blood Darkling, the son of a human and a Darkling, who lives in the human side of the wall in Black City. He's an outcast among men who torment him and treat him with nothing but distaste. Meanwhile, Natalie Buchanan is the daughter of the Emissary, leader of the humans, and her past experiences with Darklings have been nothing but excruciating. They meet one fateful night and, like the blurb above says, fall in love.
Before I get into the characters, I'd just like to say how much I love the version of the future that Richards' has created. It was strict and terrifying for both humans and Darklings as they pushed against each other's supremacy. Also, I love the idea of Darklings and how different yet similar they are to the vampires we know of. And there were various types of Darklings, too!
Now, the characters. Natalie was likable enough for me. She was spoiled (but not the mean kind of spoiled) and a little bit naive, but that was because of her being the Emissary's daughter. She had bad experiences with both Darklings and the human tyrant who led their government, so her loyalty was often questioned, mostly by herself, even. Ash, on the other hand, was brooding and harsh but again, it was to be expected from the tough life he'd been living. He was bullied and shunned, but he had to control himself and not hurt anyone. He helped support his family by dealing Haze, which was like drugs that came from Darkling venom, and that showed his good side. I really loved his character - and that's not just because he was so swoon-worthy, I swear. There were also a whole lot of interesting secondary characters, but my favorites would have to be Ash and Natalie's schoolmates.
Black City is one of those books where there was both insta-love and insta-hate. The insta-hate was because of Ash and Natalie's different races; it was fun to see them bantering and antagonizing one another. I'm glad the insta-love was justified by a sensible reason, and I really enjoyed it. Their romance had me raising the sails of my ship because their whole world just went against them.
With all the positive reviews I've seen all over the Internet, I'd have been surprised if I ended up not liking this book. But how could I not? Aside from the compelling romance, there was also political intrigue and conspiracy and just a whole bunch of layers to this book, so it's really not just a love story. I'd recommend this to everyone!
MY FAVORITE PART was their first Tracker training, hihi.
RATING:
(cover and summary from Goodreads.com)
About the author:
Elizabeth Richards is an award-winning journalist, who spent her early
career reviewing videogames before making the bold (or crazy) move into
travel writing, despite suffering from terrible travel sickness.
In her spare time, she ran a successful lifestyle website aimed at
teenage girls, where she got to interview many of her favourite bands,
go to gigs and basically blag loads of free swag all in the name of
‘research’.
Elizabeth lives in Buckinghamshire, England, with her husband. Black City is her debut novel.
I'm sure you'll love Black City so why not pre-order the sequel that will be coming out on June 4th 2013, Phoenix? :D
Oh my gosh! Awesome review!! :) Thanks you Kazhy for joining! :DDD
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kate! My pleasure :D
DeleteHappy you enjoyed it so much! :D I The Tracker training scene! Hee. :">
ReplyDeleteThat scene almost made me lose my wits :)) Ash! <3
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