City of Gods and Monsters
By Kayla Edwards (2022)
Fantasy Romance
★★☆☆ ☆ 2 Star Review
Description
Loren Calla, a human struggling to survive in the city of Angelthene, which caters to the needs of vampires, werewolves, witches, and other supernatural creatures, always assumed her life would remain simple, predictable, and as safe as her world would allow. Until she barely escapes abduction at the hands of Darkslayers— supernatural bounty hunters that possess the Sight, a magical tracking ability that allows them to see a person’s aura—and one of her friends is taken in her place. The abductors are demanding a ransom: Loren's life in exchange for her friend's safe return. Loren will do whatever it takes to get her friend back—even if it means accepting help from Darien Cassel, the leader of the Seven Devils, the most feared Darkslaying circle in the city. Darien specializes in tracking down demons and criminals that are better off dead than alive. When more women start disappearing, and some of them slowly turn up dead, Loren and Darien's search for answers takes them deep into Angelthene's corrupt underbelly, where they discover a dark secret that threatens to unravel their world. And when tragedy strikes, Loren learns that love can make an ordinary person do extraordinary things.
“I thought there was something wrong with me. But she told me it was the rest of the world that was wrong.”
Thoughts & Review
Loren: definitely not the typical badass who learns to fight and handle her own type of FMC, although not necessarily a great alternative. Loren is a VERY empathetic character. She lives based on emotions and chooses to be selfless even when it's not the smart move for the situation. On more than one occasion I felt as though there was unnecessary conflict created due to Lorens knee-jerk emotional reactions – at the expense of Lorens character's likeability :( …I mean she gave Darien the silent treatment multiple times.
Darien: Darien is dark and complex. There are so many aspects to him and I was happy to get to unfold each of them as the story progressed. He is dark, vicious and violent but not to those that he loves. Beyond the tainted exterior, he struggles to keep his mind together. We were able to see beneath it on multiple occasions, which was the best part of his character's storyline to me. We also learned that he battled addiction and fighting to keep his own personal demons at bay. I appreciate the character development and the fact that his violence and reputation as the leader of the Seven Devils is not his only personality. Darien is probably the best part of this book and the main reason I finished it.
“It was time. Time to lose himself to blood and gore for a while. Violence was his drug. His own personal demon.”
Romance
The romance was good, with great tension… until it wasn’t because it was too slow, absolutely nothing happens (I think they finally kiss for the first time around page 450ish) and there is a lot of back and forth “we can and then we can’t” from our male MC. It felt very insta-lust but they didn’t want to move forward until they thought they were gonna die. Resulting in over half the book there being little to no progress in their relationship. Then at the very end there's multiple steamy scenes crammed in, which I did not feel was necessary and not the place/time I think spiciness should’ve been introduced.
There are many barriers between them and they come from completely different worlds—they are from different races. Loren is a mere mortal and Darien is a Darkslayer marking him as a supernatural gifted with immortality. However, this is NOT enemies to lovers!! Darien meets Loren and chooses to help her basically immediately. They are in no way shape or form enemies beyond the fact that they are different species.
“If they ever progressed from feeling each other up to making love — or fucking, as Darien liked to call it — she might collapse from a death of her heart’s own making.”
Third person dual POV
City of Gods and Monsters follows Loren and Darien's POVs and I appreciate that so much because it offered me a better insight into them as characters who have different layers to them. I think if Darien's POV wasn’t included, I would've had a really hard time staying locked in 100% on Loren.
Way too many time jumps/fade-to-black cuts
There was an impressive amount of time-jumps and fade-to-black cuts where the author left out some of what could have been really juicy scenes or expanded on some situations. I think it was part of the reason the characters felt underdeveloped and there wasn’t enough interactions with substance between anyone other than the FMC and MMC. I felt like the storyline was under plotted where it could have been so lush and multilayered.
Side character fail
Unlocked potential for Lorens relationships with the rest of the devils. They very much felt like background characters. There were too many side characters that we only saw 2-3 times and too many different names. I honestly stopped keeping track and eventually just accepted I didn’t know who the fuck they were.
“You are the kindest thing that has ever happened to me. You are... you are my home.”
Plot hole central
It also felt like there was info dropped or invented when necessary for the story-line, but never elaborated otherwise… if that makes sense. There was universities that held secret cults, demons that hunted humans in the night, hackers but like magical spell hackers (It was never elaborated on so I'm still confused since they still have fucking wands too), drug trafficking, werewolf/vampire treaty laws... the list honestly goes on and on.
Considering this book was over 700 pages, I feel like there was more than enough page space to create a more solid foundation/worldbuilding. I have so many questions. In a world where people live till 600, how is a group of 20 year olds the top of the slayer food chain? How does their government work? Is the whole city run by the dark slayer gang-esque groups? They have an aerial fleet, who are they training to fight and defend against? Idk anything about the world beyond this city. There was also very little depth given to any other species other than hellseers and humans, other than a randomly mentioned werewolf/vampire treaty.
Truthfully, this became a book I had to shut my brain off to enjoy. At times I could really see the potential, but there were definitely times I had to force myself to stick with it.
2.25/5 Spice Scale Rating
Books with a similar vibe I would recommend instead…
