Diamond City

"⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5 Astrid, thank you so much for introducing me to your book and this fantastic world you created! My gosh, the covers for this series are beautiful!! 😍 ‼️If you love‼️ ✨Dystopian societies ✨Sci-fi with a fantasy flare ✨Strong FMC ✨Plenty of emotional and physical Spice🌶️ ✨Found family ✨Morally grey men ✨”I can change him” 👀 ✨LGBTQ+ representation ✨Mental Health Representation This book is for you! Synopsis: This book is set in a dystopian world post Unification Wars. It follows pizza-loving Sage who just wants a life of peace for herself and others! Peace is out of the question when people know her true secret: Sage is a powerful warrior who is part Human and part ancient warrior race called Lolligo aka Squids. In a society where being “enhanced” with special powers is key to power and control, Sage is viewed as a weapon to those who know her real identity. Sage is forced to leave her peaceful life running a pizza shop when she’s blackmailed to help the Allsear against the infamous warlord. Not everything is as it seems. She’s always avoided taking sides and is now forced to make a decision. Choose the rough around edges but oddly endearing Warlord or choose the government that’s been experimenting on their loyal citizens. Trigger warnings: suicide, attempted rape, murders, addiction, overdosing I LOVE when books intentionally tell you little pieces of the full truth to later reveal the grand plans at the perfect moment. The relationships in this book, the themes, the careful approaches to difficult topics were all beautifully done! I loved the flirty banter and quips between Sage and Damian. Damian’s extravagance and care added another level of depth to the regular morally grey men. My mind couldn’t help but compare his love for fashion and makeup to David Bowie in Labyrinth. Damian would be all 👀over his outfits! Also the fact that Damian was so big on permission 👨🏻‍🍳💋 I can’t wait to see where the story unfolds in Emerald City!"

"{3.25/5}<br/><br/>CW: violence, some gore, reference to attempted assault/drugging, addiction/overdose, transphobia, some spice, reference to suicide/attempted suicide, some others<br/><br/><br/>A confusing, slightly chaotic beginning eventually led into an interesting story. Also, how pretty is that cover??<br/><br/>Diamond City has been a seemingly idyllic place to live for the last hundred years, ever since the Optimum led Enhanced troops to victory over the monstrous Lolligo hiding in the shadows. But things are not always as they appear, and Sage is about to be thrust back into a battlefield she never intended to set foot on ever again.<br/><br/>I have absolutely no idea how to classify this book. Is it sci-if? Fantasy? Dystopian? I think I’ll have to settle for ‘all of the above,’ though it still feels like I’m missing a classification somewhere. Maybe it’s the unexpected genre blend, but this conglomeration of classifications seems to have spilled some of its convolutions into the story along the way. <br/><br/>Let’s start with the characters. The only character we get a solid look into is our MC, Sage. My biggest issue with Sage is that her portrayal is inconsistent. A huge part of her character in the first part of the book, even in the official blurb for the book, is that she has a huge crush on the prince…whom she’s never met. It’s significant enough to be leveraged against her, she’s got her room decorated with all of his memorabilia, it’s a whole thing, and it feels very middle school. And then suddenly, it’s not an issue. Just *poof* miraculously adult Sage. Beyond just that, I found it difficult to connect with the character overall. Aside from physically being very strong and having a lot of baggage (which we never really get to unpack), she just doesn’t have anything that stands out for me. The other characters all seem to have a similar issue; even characters we get to see more than a couple of times don’t really seem to have a lot of strong qualities in general, and even fewer of those are likable. <br/><br/>Next, let’s talk plot. To be totally frank, I had an absolutely hellish time trying to get into this book, or at least the first 50% of it. It really felt like I had tried to pick up a series at book 2 without knowing anything about book 1. There were references to backstory (that we don’t have) everywhere, and it made for a very confusing time. Even the conversations and interactions felt off-kilter. There were also a significant number of instances where things that were occurring just weren’t fully explained. Most, if not all, of these instances become clearer as you go along in the story, but in the moment it’s really confusing and made it difficult to keep track of what was going on. If you can bear with it and make it to the end of the book, almost everything becomes a lot more apparent, the backstory has enough info dropped in for the reader to know what’s going on (ish), and the actual storyline becomes a lot more intriguing. It’s just the build up that makes it almost frustratingly murky getting to that point.<br/><br/>Having seemingly dragged this whole book through the mud, you may be wondering if there were any redeeming qualities about it. This is the problem with reviews—it becomes very easy to lose sight of what you enjoyed in a book. And what did I enjoy the most about this book? The details. Remember how I said I couldn’t determine what genre to classify this book? Partially that’s the story, but a large part of that also comes down to the details. It very much gives off a very lux, ‘neon lights shining on wet pavement,’ noir detective vibe that soon gives way to a dystopian/urban fantasy blend with a backdrop of sci-fi. The writing itself, once you make it far enough in to have the relevant information, is good. The problems I encountered are absolutely not because this author can’t handle language; it’s just structural. <br/><br/>When all is said and done, I think a significant number of my personal issues with the book can be chalked up to one thing in two parts: Sci-Fi is not one of my go-to genre choices, and I absolutely *despise* (most) politically-oriented stories. And this book has a lot of both of those elements. Combine these with a running leap to get the story started, and it’s no wonder I had a hard time getting into it. By the end of things, though, I found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next. It’s the sort of story that keeps surprising you with little things along the way to draw you back in. So if you like a book with a lot of elements, if you’re okay with learning all the information along the way instead of rapidly up front, and if you like watching a majorly OP FMC continuously surprise everybody she encounters, this might be a good fit for you!"