Review: Black City by Elizabeth Richards

Title: Black City (Black City #1)

Author: Elizabeth Richards

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons BYR

Release Date: November 13, 2012

Format/Source: Hardcover- Publisher via Giveaway

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

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.

My Review:

The book itself really wasn't that bad. It was the romance that killed this book for me. The romance was beyond annoying. Anything that was interesting in this book was overshadowed by the horrible romance between Ash and Natalie. It's unfortunate because what the romance is hiding is some really good stuff.

Following Purian Rose is like being in a cult, only on a much larger scale. It's supposed to be religion but it doesn't really come off that way. We see someone Natalie knows fall under Purian Rose's thrall and it definitely gives off a cult vibe to me. Humans and Darklings are executed on crosses, crucifixion if you will, in the name of "religion" I suppose. Though again I don't really see it as religion here.

Segregation and cleansing themes are always ones that I love in books. We have a history of it and we have yet to learn from our mistakes. It's a very realistic theme and it's easy to see how something like this could happen, if Darklings happened to be real of course.

Natalie's mother is a piece of work, is she not? Beetle and Day are okay. Sebastian is an ass. When Natalie wasn't completely lost in Ash she is actually a decent MC. I don't understand the Ash love. I think he's horrible. He has some nice moments, yes, but that doesn't make up for the fact that he's just horrible.

There are some things that we find out in the second half of the book, buried beneath all that ridiculous romance, that are actually really interesting. I won't talk about them here though because I'd like to keep this spoiler free. They don't necessarily make the book worth reading, because the romance really is that awful, but they at least kept me reading.

Not a book I would recommend but I will be reading the next book anyway. I'm curios to see where this goes. I just hope the romance isn't as awful.