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Mystic City by Theo Lawrence Review

 Hello Friends :)

I pray today finds you all doing well, and I'm so thankful you chose to stop on by The Preppy Book Princess today.

I'm Kirby, and I always enjoy getting to share my love of fiction with you all.

Today I've got another book review to share with you all, and I hope you'll all keep reading down below to see what I thought of this new to me author.


Mystic City by Theo Lawrence:


Source: Gift From my Hubby

Publisher: Delacorte

Publication Date: October 9th, 2012

Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian

Series: Mystic City


Synopsis:


For fans of  Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided, a political rebellion ignited, and a love that was meant to last forever. Book One of the Mystic City Novels.

Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud - and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths.

But Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can't conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place.

Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection - and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city - including herself.

(synopsis from goodreads)


My Review:

I've embarked on a mission this year to finally start reading some of the many titles that have been tying up precious bookshelf space for quite some time. Mystic City is one of those books, and this one has been hanging around on my shelves for quite a few years. I received this one as a gift during my obsession with dystopians quite awhile back, and I was interested to find out what I'd end up thinking about it.

I will preface this by saying that Romeo and Juliet is not my cup of tea, so I wasn't sure if I'd end up liking a book that was supposed to be a slight retelling of it. While I did think the world building was original and fantastically descriptive, I found the characters and the plot both to be lacking, and that I personally ended up enjoying the first half of the story much more than the second.

The romance was rushed and insta lovey, and as such, it wasn't truly believable to me. I know there were background details obviously, but the reader wasn't given enough interactions between the two characters for it to be plausible that they'd come to care about each other as much as they claimed.

Overall, I thought this one had great potential, but it didn't quite live up to it, and I thought certain parts of the content were much more graphic and dark than they needed to be. Maybe if I'd read this back during the days of being obsessed with this genre I would have enjoyed it more, but as of now, it didn't end up being what I was either expecting or hoping for. 

I'm still giving it a higher rating than I'd initially thought I would, because I did genuinely enjoy the world building and the writing style, and I hope that the second book will build on the great potential this one had.

Final Rating: 3/5.

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)

This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.



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