Thank you to #NetGalley and #NineStarPress for the free copy of #Dark City by Sarah Kay Moll for my honest review.

Honestly, it took a while to get into this book because the main characters got a little confusing. Once I got them sorted out, I was hooked. Jude has a multiple secrets. There is not one person that knows everything about him. He is the son of a mob boss and he is supposed to be ruthless and tough at all times. Jude does not prescribe himself to what his father and his associates think what he should be. He is gentle, he loves to cook, loves school, and loves to love.

Even though he’s supposed to be ruthless and tough, there is another side to Jude. The other side is tough and ruthless. He doesn’t care if he murders, he has no feelings. He doesn’t love and he can take over his father’s syndicate no problem. This story is about how Jude navigates both of his sides and how eventually he figures out that he can be both.

While reading this book, I definitely understood where Jude was coming from. Pretending to be someone you’re not. Wanting people to know the real you but afraid of the consequences that may come of it.

This book was extremely well written and there were so many twists and turns. I saw many people say how incredibly violent the book is. I really didn’t think it was too violent but I may be a little desensitized.
I recommend this book for those who love thrillers, don’t mind highly sexualized text, don’t mind violence, and like crime/mob books.

What a thrilling read!!?? I went into this with only a vague understanding of the premise (I took a cursory glance) and I recommend everyone do this. I loved the pacing, the characters, and the dark themes. A great book!

This was so interesting. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I did, maybe because it was a new, to me, author and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was really captivated by the book. It was the second personality described in the blurb what made me choose to read this book, I’m glad I did.

It is a dark book, read the warnings before start reading. I like dark books and I didn’t have a problem with its content, but not all readers would feel the same, so beware. I like a main character who can also be seen as a villain and Jude was perfect in that sense. I loved or, at least got to care for, all the characters. Jude and Ras were so great. Scarlet was so intriguing, there were things about her that I didn’t liked, but in general she was a good character. I felt also very intrigued my Vance’s attitude, no wonder why Jude had so much issues. I loved Ash as well, but I think he had too little on page time.

I had a lot of trouble at the beginning of the book. I felt distracted, confused and it get me a lot of time to get to a point when I wanted to keep reading, but when I got there, I just couldn’t put the book down. One of the things that attracted me from the book, was also one of things that I didn’t liked that much. I struggle a lot with the way the split personality was portray at times. The interactions between Jude and Ras seem unrealistic, but I guess it did worked well for the way the story was told. I got used to it and I was even fine with it at the end.

There were a few surprises. I really wasn’t sure what to expect and that was so good. It wasn’t a predictable book, at least not to me, and I loved that. Overall it was a great book. I find it hard to put down. I would recommend, again, to consider the warning before reading it, but it you are fine with dark, this one was great.

This is probably more of a 2.5 but I rounded up because it was well-written but just not really what I was expecting / wanting at this point in time. My first complaint is that it felt more like a soap opera at times than a mafia story. I guess you can argue that organized crime and family / relationship drama go hand in hand and you would probably even be right to an extent, but it still wasn't really what I wanted to be reading about.

My other complaint is that I felt like the female love interest got a LOT more page time than the male one. I guess on the one hand this is kind of good because she was one of I think only three women in the entire book and definitely the one that got the most done, but on the other hand I definitely wanted to see more M/M stuff here so it was definitely disappointing on that front. Overall it was okay but I just wasn't feeling it all that much.

I recieved this electronic arc in exchange for an honest review.

So this is about a young man who is part of the mob... As such... In a un-named City. It focuses and Jude and how he developed a split personality type condition. We see story both through sides of the personality Jude and Ras, as well as a couple of other characters. And how Ras was made and how they join together.

Honestly this is not really my type of read I didn't enjoy the story much, and Jude was the only character I liked and honestly I didn't even like him that much.

The minute details for the City were spectacular but there wasn't a lot of a wider view of the country or a name for city, which I find strange that they all just call it 'the City'

The topic was fascinating and I did love finding how Ras came into being, I would have liked more detail about how they came back together.

I hated Scarlett she was conniving b***h even when she professes not to be, to simply be a loving person. She also says she loves Jude and Ras at least once and yet at the end she doesn't know how to say it... I just don't like her.

Ash just seemed like a plot twist and poorly executed one. It could be brilliant but it doesn't feel right. If the union of Jude and Ras is complete then surely he should love them both the same but he doesn't he favours Ash when that seems wrong.

Also at the end he calls himself Ras although he is apparently neither Jude nor Ras and yet he's who he was always supposed to be... Which would mean that he was Jude... Surely?

Overall I enjoyed the book the plot was really fascinating and I loved the interaction between Jude and Ras

Dark City is just unnecessarily dark. I mean, I get that the world has a lot of rotters out there, but seriously it’s impossible to go through a book that seems to revel in the salacious atrocities committed by men in power on those without.

In the 50 pages that I managed to get through the female characters were all victims of violence - sexual or otherwise - irrespective of age or creed. It’s bad enough the mother of the protagonist deals with domestic violence, which the protagonist witnesses and excuses, but we have another woman who is selling herself to make quotas and the female interest who was sold to her own stepfather when she was a child! Also, the stepfather was the mayor, just great. I could not read any more lurid details about gender-based violence. Too many books and media focus on gender-based crimes, only so far as attempting to make the work edgy, they rarely delve into the psychological aspects or the impact and resilience of the victims themselves. The victims are nothing plot devices, and I was afraid this book was likely to go down the same route.

Perhaps a more polished book may have held my interest, but when you’re championing evil mafia bosses killing and terrorizing innocent people in the book and combining that with subpar writing and expository text, it’s not a reading experience I look forward to.

Perhaps the book gets better, but it did not pass the Richard and Judy test of a gripping first 50 pages, so I gave up. I just couldn’t bare the thought of reading anymore sexist takes on women’s character arcs. I almost feel like some women authors try and make their books as leery and lascivious as possible - there are plenty of reasons why they might feel it is necessary. But this boys’ club mentality in books is unpleasant reading.

This book was all over the place! The premise was interesting, but it was hard to get invested with so much going on.

ARC Reciew for Netgalley. 2.5 Stars

I found the beginning of this story captured my attention, I was immidiately drawn in. Interesting characters, complex, twisted and dark.- I enjoy this type of story when the writing is well thought out. I did enjoy the premise of the story going into it, yet once I was well into the story I felt there were holes that just didn’t add up. From my perspective it felt the author took on too many conflicts for me the plot was a bit everywhere, I left me with questions at the end.