Series: Black City
Release Date: November 13th, 2012
In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tension 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 dreams.
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
• Oppression
• Torture
• Attempted rape
• Gruesome death
• Violence
– The OW is the true soulmate to the Hero–the Heroine had a heart transplant when she was younger… she received the OW’s heart, which made it seem like the Heroine and Hero were soulmates.
– The Hero is then confused whether he should be with the Hero or Heroine
• Kinda has cheating
– After finding out about the OW being the Hero’s true soulmate, he kisses the OW
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Rating: 4.25/5 stars
Black City started off with a bang! And made me question who exactly is Ash, our male lead of this book. Ash right from the start was the textbook definition of a “bad boy” that seemed to be up to no good, all the time, but like most young adult books, there’s a twist! Every “bad” thing he does is to help his family, specifically his father. What a nice guy… you know when he’s not an ass.
What I loved about Black City was that we were introduced to the fundamentals of each character first, we knew that Ash did questionable things, and we later found out why. We knew that Natalie wasn’t afraid of breaking the rules and stood up for what she believed in. And yes, this was all in the first three (or four?) chapters.
I adore books about soul mates or, in this case, Blood Mates because the couple is a sure thing. But alas, Richards had a trick up her sleeve, and we were dealt a significant plot twist that I did not see coming! And this plot twist, while interesting, pissed me off so much with how Ash handled it (I’m wearing my angry face right now). It just gives me the (really bad) shivers when I think about it, but luckily Black City is a series, and from the synopsis that I’ve read for the second book, Ash is going to get some karma dealt to him (insert *evil scientist laugh*). I’m upset because I don’t think that if I was in someone-who-I-cannot-name’s shoes, I wouldn’t be able to get over it, or at least not that soon.
Black City also proved to be really interesting; for a young adult book, it had a heavy theme of politics that I could relate back to George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Random, right? But cool.
The secondary characters were a laugh, especially Ash’s best friend. My only question is, do you think it’s weird that I sympathized with Natalie’s mom? She wasn’t the total evil shrew that Ash (etc.) made her out to be; her actions were questionable, like really questionable (and evil/bad) but she did everything to protect her two daughters, having already lost her husband.
The only big complaint that I have about Black City (the reason why it didn’t get 5 stars) was that Richards didn’t realistically develop the characters, like Ash and Natalie from going to they hate each other (slight spoiler) to “omg, we’re blood mates so we love each other.” It felt really forced, and unrealistic (especially Natalie’s reaction). There were other scenes that I felt the reactions of the characters were off or delayed but this being her debut novel, I’m expecting her writing will continue to improve from here.
I’m super excited to continue this series, I’m sure Richards will have many more shocking plot twists to come!
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