The City of Dusk

2.5 STARS: I was so excited for this book. Morally grey, queer, political intrigue? I thought I would adore this! But it just fell very flat for me. For one thing, the pacing was... not good, let's say. It moved at a snail's pace, which I would not have minded if it had used those slow moments to build up the characters. The Atlas Six was incredibly slow, but I was never bored because I was always diving deep into some very twisted minds. This book didn't do that. The plot is pretty nonexistent. I literally cannot tell you what the different points of the story were. It was just a bunch of random events that didn't seem to have anything to do with each other. Which brings us to the characters. I'm going to be honest, the only character I looked forward to seeing was Angelica. I love a power-hungry woman. Especially one that has a hidden vulnerability. But even she was not enough to get me to like this book. Nikolas was like a wet paper towel. He had no backbone. Risha was just... there? I guess? And Taesia, oh my Taesia: she made me angry. She never considered everyone else. She continuously lied and never took any responsibility. I liked Angelica because she understood the price of power, and while selfish, she was shown to be able to care for others. Taesia was just an egotistical, selfish jerk. The worldbuilding felt very bare-bones. We got some interesting details about the different realms and history, but then it would never explore them. What do the other realms look like? Why were the gods worshipped? It just left me with too many questions and not enough answers. Plus, the book had a habit of telling the information instead of showing. Sometimes it felt like reading a textbook. I just really didn't like this one. It felt like a debut novel that really needed more time to cook. I own another book by this author, but I was so bored by this one that I might unhaul both. We'll see, I suppose. For now, I'm going to read some other books I will enjoy more.

Recieven this E-Arc from Netgalley in return for my honest opinion. Honestly, I liked this book. It was slow at the beginning and I had trouble getting into the story. I stopped reading halfway for about two weeks, but I'm glad I picked the book up again. I have the special edition from Fairyloot and it's absolutely gorgeous. I generally don't like multiple p.o.v books but this one was doable. The ending was pretty good, will pick up the second book when it comes out.

“Starfell,” she said. A promise forged into the bones, into her own flesh and blood. 🌘 Gritty, Thrilling, Queer, Magical, deadly. This book is one that’s so enthralling it sends you into a book slump afterwards. We follow a few different POVs most cantering around the heirs of the four major families in Nexus - each control a different magic, gifted by gods that have now sealed them off from the other worlds ( of which there are many ) as their world, people and city start to die. Taesia Lastrider - resident badass, rule breaker, queen of shadows Nicolas Cyr - soft boi with a sword, grapples with morality like nothing else Angelica Mordova - perfect girl on the war path, will slap you and look perfect whilst doing it. Risha Vakara - the actual sensible one, will kill if she has to but is more likely to offer a hot drink. This book will fulfil all your morally grey protagonist dreams, there’s battles in ballgowns - daggers, stolen kisses, wars of succession, and a murder… plus plot twists that left me dizzy.

I honestly have some pretty mixed feelings about this one. I liked it, I definitely enjoyed it, but I also was really frustrated with a lot of it. I’ll start with the good. The plot was fascinating. I was really invested in the dynamics between the four houses and the four heirs, and especially in the intersections of their powers. It’s definitely a slow-burn in terms of the plot, but I thought the build up was great and I can’t wait for the story to continue in book 2. I liked the characters a lot, Angelica being my favorite. I thought they were all very interesting with families I also loved to read about. They’re all queer, too, which is amazing. They’re very different from one another and have distinct voices. The magic was mesmerizing. Tara Sim got really creative with these magic systems and I loved to learn about it alongside the characters. The gods as well as the different realms were all very cool as well. And now, the bad! I really really really hate when author’s have an obvious bias in their own story. Tara Sim CLEARLY favors Taesia of all the characters, and it was incredibly frustrating. I wanted to be able to read about Risha, Nikolas, and ESPECIALLY ANGELICA, without feeling like I’m being told that they’re lesser than Taesia. It honestly made it really difficult for me to even somewhat like Taesia. It was always implied that Taesia was stronger, smarter, more interesting, and just generally more worthy of a story. And let me tell you, this was not the case and therefore it made Sim’s bias not only frustrating but an inconsistent writing choice as well. It was demonstrated time and time again that of the 4 heirs, Angelica was the strongest. Risha was the smartest. Nik was the most diplomatic. There are SEVERAL examples throughout the book proving this, yet there would be instances where Taesia would somehow best one of them? She’d be able to dodge an attack from Angelica, outsmart all of the heirs, and be this super suave political figure. It just doesn’t make sense, because it’s been proven time and time again that these are the strong suits of the other heirs. I got so sick of reading Taesia be this ultimate girl-boss. She’s reckless, but also a rebel. She doesn’t do anything to learn about her surroundings, but she’s also clever. She doesn’t want to be a soldier, but she’s also really good with a sword. She hates politics, but is also a master manipulator. Like, give me a break. Why could all of the heirs have flaws and things they’re just not good at, but Taesia had to somehow be good at everything? It’s obvious. Sim thinks Taesia is the best and decided to often diverge from her own canon in order to make the other characters inferior to her favorite. And let’s talk about Angelica. BY FAR the most interesting character in this story with the most depth, but also severely underused and abused by Sim herself. She had the least amount of chapters despite having some of the most significance on the overall plot. She was CONSTANTLY figuring things about before the other heirs did, they would never trust her, and she was right EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. And, Angelica is a very angry girl. But I wish authors would just start letting angry women be angry. I’m really over this idea that women can’t be angry because it’s a bad look. Angelica had a horrific and very mentally abusive upbringing. Obviously she’s fucking angry. But Sim had to keep putting Angelica through these ridiculous “lessons” to essentially be a message that says “Hey, even though you were manipulated and abused your whole life, don’t be angry, it’s a bad look!” LET. ANGELICA. BE. ANGRY. And Sim basically taking Angelica’s power away at the end, yeah, not fucking cool. Worst trope ever, especially when used to punish characters who’ve really done nothing wrong. Also, though all the MCs are queer, Angelica was the ONLY one in an (implied) queer romantic pairing. I say implied because I’m assuming Cosima and Angelica are meant to be love interests. But guess what, I have to assume, because of all the romantic subplots, the ONLY queer one was the one that was severely underdeveloped and hardly there. Speaking of romance, that plot between Nik and Taesia was barf. No chemistry whatsoever. I’m really hoping for Taesia x Julian and Nik x Fin. I know it sounds like I hated this book because of my ranting, but truthfully, I really did like it. I just think Tara Sim has A LOT that she needs to work on as an author, because I don’t think I’ll end up reading book 3 if book 2 is as frustrating as this one was, no matter how much I enjoy the plot and the characters. Mostly, Sim needs to let her biases go and just tell the damn story. Also, she needs to start showing and not telling. The City of Dusk - 3.75 Stars

My only regret with this book is that I should have waited until 2024 to read it because the fact that I now have to wait a whole year to get booked too it's fucking up my vibe

incredibly dense Really intense Not the best thing to read when you are stressed and sick (unless it becomes a comfort read over time etc etc) Politics! Magic! Everyone is queer! I do not read enough fantasy to deal with this Risha is my favorite for the record, thank you This is SO LONG Four stars. I Do Recommend It.

This book just didn’t do it for me. I never felt engaged by the plot, never really got to know the main characters, and things just happened at what seemed to be random. 540 pages later and I still don’t understand what happened and why.

This book is set in a fantasy world of four different realms: Vitae (life), Mortri (death), Solara (light), and Noctus (dark) but where walls have been closed between these worlds. Due to this Sealing, Vitae, where the book takes place, is fading away, stoppered up from the power of the other realms that it needs to continue. In Vitae, there are four houses, each descended from a god of the four realms, and gifted with special abilities correlating to those gods. It is up to the young heirs of the Houses to save Vitae from destruction by reopening the portals between worlds and ending the Sealing. The premise of this book is really creative and intriguing. I thought going in that it would easily be a 5 star read, but the book didn’t hit that mark for me. This was in large part because the pacing felt a little off. 90% of the book is build up to the climax which then happens quite quickly. Given, this is a series, and things will definitely continue to develop for the Heirs in the next book. Still, I wish there was more meat to the first half of this book, which spends a lot of time dancing around hints and foreshadowing instead of moving the main plot along. Some of these hints are never fully addressed before being leaned on at the end. I expect all of this will be fleshed out in the rest of the trilogy. That said, this was a really unique and interesting fantasy with very complex characters who still have a lot to handle in the rest of the trilogy. There were many aspects of the book that I would give five stars. I loved the Indian influence on the culture of Vitae, the casual existence of queer characters without homophobia or hatred, the development of the individual characters as flawed but mostly well-meaning people, and the emphasis on many different types of family relationships, good and bad. I will look forward to seeing how things develop in Book 2, and I would definitely recommend City of Dusk to fantasy readers, especially if you are looking for more diverse worlds!