Nick Medea is the Guardian of the Gate. It is his duty to protect the gateway to faerie, and has been ever since he slew the dragon.

He fights against fae incursions in prohibition era Chicago – but something far more powerful and sinister than mob bosses is manipulating the warring gangs. Not all old enemies are defeated – and he risks losing the woman he loves, again, and his soul to the very beast he once destroyed in his battle to protect the city – and the world.

The concept of this book is… pretty amazing

St. George, the dragon slayer, is possessed by the very dragon he slew. And haunted by Diocletin, the Roman Emperor who ordered him (hey that’s some cannon research there!) executed for not turning his back on his Christianity. And fighting to protect the gateway

All of this is against a backdrop of 1920s mob-torn film noir Chicago.

And the King of the Fairies is manipulating the mobs. Who is pretty much at war against the Queen of the Fairies – who also can’t be trusted. Both of whole are epicly creepy and powerful

You’re still reading this review? How can you not read that concept and not make grabby hands for the book right away? I know I did!

Shall I throw in faerie exiles including a werewolf trying out Chicagoan 20s slang?

I also really do like the plot – I love that these ancient, mighty, incredible fae lords who are 10,000 steps ahead of you at all times. I love the complexity of their plan. I love the craftiness of it.

I love Nick’s constant battle and worry about the beast inside him.

I love the concept of the very very creepy fae that inhabit this world. I love how they’re presented and Nick’s duty related to them – I even love lord of the fae’s end game and what it implies for the whole world. I love its twists.

The main problem I have with this book’s writing is it’s well over 300 pages long and it could be very easily cut down to about 200 and not have changed the story over much. There’s a big waffle in the middle of the book where not much seems to be happening. Oberon hangs around and taunts them a bit but they don’t seem to actually do much or advance the story. It’s just a bit waffly.

In terms of women we have Claryce. And I like her – she’s skilled, she’s powerful, she’s determined not to be mushroomed and curious and intelligent and insightful. Which is all excellent. And it would have all still being excellent if she weren’t a reincarnation of Nick’s previous love interest who is apparently doomed to die. This was so unnecessary. We didn’t need this plot line to justify her involvement. We didn’t need the sexual tension. We didn’t need the doomed future to justify Nick trying to keep her in the dark and constantly send her away. She was an awesome character – she didn’t need this.

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I know I'm late with this, but better late than never right? I was having computer issues and still am but I really wanted to post something today because I'm not doing a t5w today. So I'm doing this instead. 

2014 was a great reading year for me. I didn't read many...bad...books last year. My problem was that I read too many over hyped books. Over hyped books tend to always be a fail for me. I always end up not liking them. 

Without further ado, here are the books I wasn't a fan of!

1) Black City by Elizabeth Richards.

So I actually have a blog post on this so go check it out so read my thoughts. In short though, I wasn't a fan of the writing and I hated the characters. 

2) Divergent & Insurgent by Veronica Roth

I literally only read the first one because the movie was coming out. (Spoiler alert: I didn't like the movie either.) I thought Divergent was okay enough to read Insurgent but I won't be reading Allegiant. I don't like dystopians so that was my first mistake. The second was finding out the ending of the series, which I thought was pretty dumb. I also thought the books were boring and uneventful. Took me forever to read these two too. 

3) City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Like everyone else, I think this series should have only been the first three. There really was no need to add three more books. Really. The plot to this book was overshadowed by the dumb romance. The characters got progressively whinier as the book went on. I thought I was reading a typical ya high school book....even though I guess I kind of was. 

4) The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey 

This book put me off alien books. I can't remember my problem with this book though, I read it literally a year ago. I think it was the overall feel to the book (and not to mention it had a dystopian theme as well) and I just wasn't a fan. I didn't like the jumping of p.o.v's either. That left me confused and I never knew who was who. The idea was good though, but I think it could have been executed better. I'm still on the fence about the second one. Though I heard a booktuber say it wasn't that great. Let me know if I should continue! 

5)Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

This is probably my most hated book ever. And I've read a lot of bad books. Sucks too because I loved The Hunger Games and Catching Fire when I read them in 2013. But this f***** OH MY GOD. When I first started reading it, I didn't understand why people didn't like it. Then a certain character died....and then another one died....and how it ended with that bull**** epilogue made me angry. Things happened that didn't need to and it was way tooooooo rushed. And dumb. 

6) The Warrior by Victoria Scott 

So don't let this be a reflection on the first two books of the series, but I absolutely loved them. The Dante Walker series is one of my absolute favorites. This one wasn't bad, it was just too fast paced. I felt like the ending was rushed and I had a lot of questions that weren't answered. Also, the characters kind of got annoying. Not to mention I shipped Annabelle and Kraven more than Charlie and Dante....I want a book just dedicated on the two of them. And about Max and Valerie. SIGH. I just wanted more with this book and I didn't get it. 

7) Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi 

This book was too hyped and it's also dystopian. 'Nuff said. I have a blog post on this book so go check it out if you're interested. I thought the book was boring and the writing was meh. The characters were cool though. I really liked Aria. Just not the actual book.

(There's a reoccurring theme here. Anyone guess what it is? It's so not obvious.) 

Anyway, that's it! I did read a few other books that weren't worth mentioning just because the books were great it was just that I always end up liking the guy the girl doesn't pick.....anyone else? Let me know what you think! If you agree or disagree with the list. Thanks for reading. :)

Series: Black City #1

Published: November 13th 2012

"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-old 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." -Summary taken from Goodreads.

I think I m going to eat my words.

Yes I have been pretty vocal about the fact that I was not a big fan of the series but that was until I read wings. I wish the author had used the power of plot that was in wings in her previous books as well

Lets go back to the previous books. Black city, the very first book was nothing but a different version of twilight set in dystopian world with pretty much nothing new to offer and I still stand by that. Phoenix, the second book was a cliché romance but somewhat had a little plot in working very discretely in the back.

Now the third and the finale book, Wings was like the author gave the entire series a 360 degree makeover (that or I just came back to the series in the new year with a fresh mind after a long hiatus)

Wings had finer and interesting plot than the previous book. So much that I wish we could escape the first two and jump into the third directly but the fact is that the events in wings had all been a gradual progress from the previous two books. There are whole set of old and new characters that bring so much to the plot that you instantly forgive the author for the lack luster prequels.

I am still miffed about the whole dystopian world that forms the backdrop of the story. The reason being the inability of the author to shed the stark similarities to our present world and making it impossible for me to fully believe that this is a post apocalyptic world. Also by the third bookthere are a whole set of jargons and terminologies meant for the dystopian world which comes without any explanations.The plot halts in between to describe dresses and surroundings which is like stopping your car right in the middle of a heavy traffic because you wanted to stretch your legs … which is something you never do

The romance part still irks me with insta-love syndrome plaguing it

Natalie the female character is still a struggle for me to cope with but hey there are always weird characters in real life too. In fact some are so bad that I quiver with the sight of their mere shadows but still I survive and hence I survived Natalie through the book as well.

Also I felt the narration and scene settings were a bit “movie-ish”. Fit for screen but not a bright idea when it comes to a book. Both have a complete different style of narration

Hold on before you roll your eyes and say that then how come the book is good

The book is good because the series finally has come out of cliché romance and have actual solid plot which is filled with so much thrills and turns that it is nothing less of a roller coaster ride. I love as how towards the end the author completely threw in a new revelation making it so damn good that I was bouncing like a monkey on my chair for having rewarded for sticking with the series.

Yes the book has stuff I hate like an annoying female lead, creepy romance stuff but in spite of that Wings is the best in the entire black city trilogy with a rock solid plot filled with elements that you could not possibly imagine would happen. So many revelations, twists and turns made this book good and I am finally happy that I stayed with the series with a truck load of patience. Wings survive because of its plot. 


how was it?

I know it might be the perfect book for the paranormal romantics, but for someone who has been devouring this genre; this is plain repetition and nothing else. I understand that the book has every element that worked in twilight, hush hush series and every other successful paranormal genre. yet for me it was ….Nah!!!

Let me be honest, this book is not bad but not good as well. There is nothing to the book even if it has managed to shelve out three books (god knows how and why). The book reminded me of Legend series by Marie Lu so much that I actually wanted to go back and read Legend.

The story in the sequel is at least better than Black city but yes the romance crap still irks me to the core but then this is a romance novel so I can’t exactly complain about the book based on that sole reason. While I can still cope with the male lead “ash” it’s the female “Natalie” that irritates me in the book. The girl is a disaster coming from lack of brains or “weepy and fragile heroine” syndrome. Either ways that is not someone that can carry this book very far

The second book comes up with a love triangle
… Bravo!!! For bringing up such a brilliant, stupidest and the lamest trick ever in book writing…

I am amazed at our self sacrificing, altruistic girl getting attracted to the next guy that comes along after prophesying eternal love throughout the first book and using big bold words like “love” only to redefine its meaning in the sequel.

Best part. ?
Barely at 15 or 17 years, our leads are getting married….
Yippie !!! (please excuse me, while I bash my head against a wall)

Once again let me say that “ its not you. but me “. The book per say is not that bad, its just that I could not digest it. The problem with the book was that it was kind of cliché in the romance department and if I may say was totally vomit inducer for me. But other than my obvious hatred to teenage romance and marriage, the book actually has a better story line than the first one and the narration technique and the language is simple and good. Then again like the first book, the dystopian world crumples because of weak foundation. Romance novel fans will definitely swoon over this for obvious reasons. Dystopian and paranormal fans on the other hand will die of prolonged puking.

Basically the book is equally bad as much as it is good… The book died for me because of its predictable story plot and lack of proper background.

How was it?