Thank you to Netgalley & North Star Editions/Flux books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review! 

This cover was love at first sight for me! I was really happy when the book turned out to be my cup of tea as well. The story is written from two POVs: Asa, "crown princess" of a rich and powerful IT company, who'd like to escape from his tyrant father's grasp and save her sister; Riven, the leader of a smuggler team, who'd like to gain more power in the underworld of Requiem. Their paths collide when Asa's ship gets stranded and Riven finds the bounty of her lifetime in Asa.

The story is fast paced and action packed. From a sci-fi angle we got artificial intelligence, combat robots, alien monsters, hacking, augmented humans. There is some romance in the book, but that didn't really feel real to me and I did not feel its absence. We don't really get much on the side characters, I hope there will be a sequel where we can learn more of them. After that epilogue, I need the sequel, like, right now! :)

I'd recommend the book to those who like YA sci-fi with fast paced action scenes. Expected publication date is October 19th 2021. #CityofShatteredLight #NetGalley

*4.5 stars

Super pleasantly surprised! The best way I can describe CITY OF SHATTERED LIGHT is an interstellar adrenaline rush. I loved pretty much everything about this book, from the characters to the action-packed plot to the setting. The cover is gorgeous as well and is part of the reason I believe digitally drawn people on covers are truly superior.

The plot was fast-paced and engaging, with new twists always coming up so you don't get bored. The world-building was done really well, and I didn't find myself confused at all. I was always trying to anticipate what would happen next, and I was left completely shocked during some of the plot twists. Yes, I did cry. The epilogue also got me good - I demand a sequel immediately.

The book also played on many popular YA tropes, including enemies to lovers, love triangle, "the princess and the criminal", and found family. This love triangle I actually ended up enjoying; it was m/f and f/f, and though I definitely wish I saw more moments between the two MCs (aka the sapphic romance), the slow burn was worth it. Every member of the love triangle also genuinely liked one another, so it wasn't toxic.

Speaking of found family, I didn't expect to get as attached to the characters as I did. They're a found family that I love with all my heart. They all grew on me, especially Riven and Asa. I really liked seeing their character development and how they worked with the rest of the crew. I liked RIven's character development the most, and the way we slowly got to unravel the history behind Riven and her motives was very interesting. The side characters (Ty, Samir, and Diego) are all so lovely and have so much potential; I'd love to learn more about their backstories and see more development from them. Also, great representation! I loved seeing Riven and Asa being unapologetically bisexual and other characters being unapologetically queer.

Also, someone said Riven and Asa reminded them of Day and June from LEGEND and I just want to point out the immense amount of parallels that I saw between the characters of this novel and the characters from LEGEND. It was lovely.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading CITY OF SHATTERED LIGHT. One of my few critiques would be the plot - I think it got repetitive after a bit because although the issues the characters faced were different, pretty much every conflict was solved with a big brain lightbulb moment from Asa in one way or another. I love Asa, though, don't get me wrong.

I would definitely recommend everyone get their hands on CITY OF SHATTERED LIGHT when it comes out! Thank you to NetGalley and Flux for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley & North Star Editions/Flux books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is a YA sci-fi debut novel. It starts out with a clever heiress, Asa Alemdia. Riven Hawthrone is a girl trying to find a place for herself in their society even if that means stealing from or cheating others.

Claire Winn's writing was incredibly captivating. The world building was great. I really enjoyed the fast pace of this novel. There was a moment when I wasn't kept interested. Even the imagery was very nice, painting vibrate pictures in my head. The characters dynamics and relationships with each other was definitely a highlight. The queer found family was a lot of fun. Though the secondary characters felt as if they needed more development. I'm hoping for more about them in the sequel. There was a surprise love triangle with a guy which I find a bit odd since it wasn't mentioned in the blurb at all. Love triangles aren't my favorite trope and this didn't change my mind about them.

Overall this was a really fun read and I definitely recommend!

Thanks so much to netgalley and Flux publishing for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a fun sci fi, and an excellent debut. If guardians of the galaxy is one of your favorite marvel movies, I'd definitely recommend checking this one out. The characters are all very fun and lovable, and the interactions between all of them are definitely the highlight of the book. The story is full of twists and turns, and I had so much fun with it.

My main complaint is that I wasn't aware this would have a love triangle element. This was definitely marketed as a sapphic sci-fi, so I was a little confused when the other ship got more page time. That being said, I really liked the relationship between the two main characters and I'm excited and intrigued to see where it goes from here. I was also under the impression that this was a standalone, but the ending of this book definitely set up for a sequel, so I"m interested to see where the story goes from here.

This was an amazing read! The worldbuilding and characters were truly fantastic and I cannot believe that this was a debut novel.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me a review copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.


Action packed and adventurous story about two girls in a futuristic setting. Asa is trying to save her sister while Riven wants to be the at the top of the underground world. Besides them there is also an amazin crew that turns into a found family.

Fast paced and filled with awesome scenes i didnt want to put it down.
Only thing I didn't like was the way the love triangle was introduced but let's see how everything turns out.

<b>this has got to be one of my new favorite sci-fi books of all-time</b>
the cover definitely drew me in with the gorgeous <b>futuristic, neon "warcross" vibes</b> (and SAPPHICS), and there were a lot of aspects in here that reminded me of that book! it also gave major <i>aurora rising</i> vibes, with the <b>ragtag found family and intergalactic heists</b>, but it was SO much better. <b><i>city of shattered light</i> was everything i wanted, and more.</b>
the writing was absolutely perfect for this type of book- the author has this incredible way of sucking you in and keeps you on your toes with every sleek, vivid sentence. all the descriptions were so lush and instantly transported you, from the bright, pulsing core of requim to the brilliantly exhilarating action scenes, where i was literally screaming from both intense dread and excitement.
and now to my favorite part- the characters. <b>asa</b> was your average rich heiress-turned-rebel- <b>except she wasn't</b>. she was a lovably clever, kind, resourceful mechanic, and her determination to save her sister was admirable. <b>riven</b> was a fierce, snarky, gunslinging smuggler, desperate to make her place in the underworld. her bond with both sweet, gentle <b>tyler</b> and strong, honorable <b>samir</b> was lovely, and it was nice to see her soft side around them. the bisexual love triangle was PERFECT, and i loved every little bit of romance. even the villains were enigmatic and yes, very <b>villainous</b>, but they were fascinating. the witty banter and humor thrown in every couple of scenes was perfect, and they helped lighten up what could've been a dark, dull book.
overall, this was an action-packed, wonderfully queer, cyberpunk sci-fi ya book, filled with a thumping, neon cityscape, sharp humor, evil AIs, "bubblegum-smacking cyborgs", nightmarish monsters, and so much more. i absolutely loved it.

<i>thank you so much netgalley and flux for the arc!</I>

I was given an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

So, I don't know what to say about this book. It wasn't bad, but I didn't like it. I just could not connect with the characters or the plot. I'm not typically into sci-fi but this book sounded good so I gave it a try. Some parts were too fast while others were too slow. The characters had decent development but I just didn't feel a connection to any of them. The romance was hinted at and then completely rushed at the end. The plot built up well enough but it didn't draw me in. The one plus in this book was the world. Requiem was fun and interesting and then crime atmosphere did draw me in. The dynamic between Requiem and Cortellion was well done. The world building was the one thing that was not lacking- it saved the book for me. My main issues with the characters was that they were very cliché. Lots of YA books are very similar and YA readers tend tk have certain things they like or even expect so I get that it can be hard for authors to take the tropes and clichés and make it into someone original that stands out, but unfortunately I did not feel like the characters in this book stood out.
While I did not love this book it was still decent and I know there's are others who will enjoy the style and genre. It was an interesting concept and then world was fascinating.

so far i have really enjoyed this book it is everything i could want in a sci-fi book but at the same time my mind isnt into sci-fi now so im putting a pause on it but i will update when i have finished with all my thoughts.

Excellent debut in a sci-fi setting with strong main characters and an interesting plot. Good lgbtq+ representation, nice action and world building. I thoroughly enjoyed the story about Asa, a tech entrepeneurs daughter and heir, and Riven with her ragtag crew consisting of Ty and Samir who cross paths and seeing as they have a similar goal they team up for a while. When trust becomes an issue both girls have tough decisions to make while everyone's life hangs in the balance as they are being chased by a dangerous lifeform.

This books has some bumps, but seeing as it is a debut I can definitely overlook them. Personally the main characters feel more like they are in their 20's than 17/18 as they are supposed to be, but since their age isn't mentioned on every page, in my mind they were around 24.
The main choice I didn't agree with was the 'love triangle', Riven and Asa seem to have an attraction, but even while thinking about that attraction, Asa is kissing someone else who I feel should be more of a friend/brother-like person to her. In my opinion it's inconsistent throughout the book, the way I was reading the thoughts of Ty and Asa it seemed like they would gravitate towards a brother/sister relationship and the shipping of their romanec felt forced and out of place. Maybe she wanted to show Asa as bi too since we got a male ex from Riven as well? Wasn't really necessary if you ask me and it made this is a 4 star book instead of a 5 star for me.

I would have loved to see more of the backgrounds of Samir, Ty and Riven but since I am having my fingers crossed there will be a sequel based on the epilogue I'm hoping more will be addressed in a possible second book.

In short: great debut and hopefully a prelude to more good books by Claire Winn.

An ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. ***

Still in the process of reading this! I opened this review thinking it was another book! Will update this review once I have finished

I really enjoyed this one!

This is an action & adventure filled sci-fi focused on a chaotic crew that are practically family. (If you're thinking Six of Crows, this definitely has a similar vibe!) If any of that sounds like your cup of tea, keep an eye out for City of Shattered Light.

Asa is a runaway heiress determined to save her sister. Riven is a gun-slinger smuggler desperate to be at the top of Requiem’s criminal underworld. There's also a crew: Riven, Ty (a medic who's practically Riven's brother), Samir (a former military instructor), & Diego (a technology whiz who's trade is information). I loved the found family aspect of this novel & the crew's relationship.

The plot was also fun (& often dark). We have a rogue AI in the circuits threatening the planet and a sister in peril. I loved reading this and finding out what was going to happen next!

My only complaint is that I wasn't expecting this to be a love triangle. The blurb made it seem like this would be a straight forward Asa, the heiress, and Riven, the gunslinger smuggler, reluctantly come to trust each other and fall for each other. I wasn't expecting Asa to fall for someone else, too. (Also I felt like that unexpected ship got more page time, and felt like a strange add-in given the Sapphic-centric marketing?) But besides being unprepared for a love triangle, I enjoyed this!

Rep: we have two bi female leads, a gay main character (who's in a ship with another male main character - and they're cute)

Many thanks to NetGalley and North Star Editions/Flux for the e-ARC. I really appreciated the opportunity to read this before its October 19, 2021 release date!

P.S.- Fingers crossed that this gets a sequel. I need it. ESPECIALLY AFTER THAT EPILOGUE.

I feel like I read this book at the wrong time. I was not in a sci-fi mood, so I had a harder time getting into this book. I will hopefully reread this when I am in the mood for a sci-fi book. I really liked the characters and how they interacted with each other in a real way. I also loved the use of technology. I would recommend this book to others.

I received my very first eARC of City of Shattered Light by Claire Winn, provided by Fluxbooks via Netgalley to review. All opinions are my own.

City of Shattered Light is a futuristic sci-fi novel set in a technology based human settlement in Alpha Centauri which is our closest planatery system.

In this (currently) standalone story we follow two main protagonists. Asa, an experimental tech moguls heiress, and Riven, a sort of bounty hunter in a matriarchial crime syndicate, one lives on a planet and the other on its moon.

Certain events take place, and Asa is forced to go on the run, and we follow both characters as they go through a heist like scenario, with a diverse cast of supporting charcters that give the story a nice edge.

I ended up really enjoying this book, it was incredibly fast paced and very dense. The world was rich and easy to imagine. I particularly enjoyed the love triangle, which is the first bi sexual love triangle I have ever read about. I expected this to be a saphic romance, but personally to me it was more bi and should have probably be marketed more as a queer romance although the romance is a sub plot in a fantastic sci-fi debut.

This book also had found family, which is a favorite trope of many. I enjoyed how the author utilised the trope, it felt extremely natural since all the characters were quite well developed and their connections seemed genuine.

I think were this book could have done better is if it wasn’t YA. I kind of forgot the characters were just 17/18 since the story reads very 20-25 to me. If these characters were given the liberty of being older I think this story could really outshine a lot of the space operas on the market.

Overall a solid 4 star read, and I will be impatently waiting to know if there is ever going to be a 2nd book because there is potential to expand after a very intriguing cliff hanger.

When I read that this book was going to be like guardians of the galaxy but sapphic, I was initially thinking that there was no way it could live up to that, but it really did. And I personally would say it surpassed that. By a LOT.

This sci-fi story follows Asa, the heir to a large corporation, and Riven, an outlaw, and their journey to save Asa’s sister. This book is perfect for fans of These broken stars, Guardians of the galaxy, Star Wars, and basically any morally grey sci fi character lovers.

I loved this book so much, and I can no longer say I dislike sci-fi, because I adored this. I loved how there was so much complexity and depth to the characters, and that they were not perfect, but they were still extremely likable. I also loved the relationships between the characters and how they felt so realistic and vulnerable. I also loved the enemies to lovers trope in this, although I wish we could have seen a bit more of the lovers part, but that might just be the romantic in me talking.

Overall, This book is absolutely amazing, and I am never going to stop talking about it. It will be available for purchase on October 19, 2021, so mark your calendars!!

I would say a solid 3.5 stars really.

Starting off, I think the writing style was very good. I loved the voices of the two main characters and how distinct they were. With the povs changing sometimes within chapters it was easy enough to follow along.

The plot I really enjoyed. The idea of one girl doing everything in her power to save her sister and the other to save her home while simultaneously lining up their objectives but not fully trusting each other was played out so well. I think they complimented each other perfectly.

As for the pacing though I’m not too sure. It started off well but then the first part became very Asa centric. The second part I really enjoyed but the third started to lag and by the fourth part I was unfortunately at that stage where I really just wanted the whole thing to end.

The characters were all well written and captivating. Riven had such a tragic backstory but we didn’t dive into it as much which I was kind of disappointed with. Asa was your classic “spoiled rich girl turned rebel” but it wasn’t too cliche and I did like her story. I feel like Ty had a lot more potential than shown and was more reduced to a love interest. Samir and Diego I loved, I just wished we saw more of them and got more of their story as individuals and a “couple” (are they together? were they together? I honestly don’t know).

So there was a love triangle. I personally feel like it was so pointless and added nothing to the plot. Like I was told this book was sapphic, and while it was, it honestly felt like there were more Asa and Ty moments than there were for Asa and Riven. And like not that there’s anything wrong with mlw relationships (especially since like both Asa and Riven are bi/queer) but most of the Asa and Ty moments would have served so much better with Asa and Riven instead (like the club scene where they sneak into a corridor), in my opinion anyway. Like I just was not feeling Asa and Ty as a potential romantic couple at all, they would be better as just friends. Maybe it’s just because this was sold a sapphic story to me but they didn’t really do anything until the last 3 chapters whereas we get told about Asa and Ty, and Riven and her two ex-boyfriends a lot, but I felt extremely underwhelmed.

All in all I think this was a good book and a good story but it started to feel a bit flat and repetitive, and slow but also rushed at the same time. Plus if you’re looking for romance out of this it doesn’t really fulfill (in my point of view anyway). But the ending makes me believe there’s possibly another book or few in the works and I will keep an eye out for that in the future (hopefully).

3.5 stars because wow that ending.

oh my god. so many thoughts, so few words.

I don't usually read sci-fi. most of the time, I find it dreadful and uninteresting because of how serious its tone is. this time, I made an exception (because wlw, duh.) although I found the first part of this novel to seem really long and boring at times when the plot finally started speeding up at around the 60% mark, I loved it.

this book had humor, it wasn't monotone, and the characters were surprisingly well developed, which I adored! although like with most books, I liked some characters more than others (cough, Ty, cough), I was still able to appreciate that none of the characters felt bland or bleak.

I guess what could have made City of Shattered Light better for me, personally, would have been more parts where we got to see the group work together or support each other through vulnerable moments. the "group moments" of cooperation or bonding throughout this book were probably my favorite part. found family is honestly such a beautiful trope; it is absolute chef's kiss. I love to see it.

although there wasn't a lot of humor here, the jokes that were included actually weren't bad. I genuinely think more light-hearted moments could add so much to show the dynamic between the characters and make them seem closer.

I guess the only part I outright didn't like was the romance. (I'm going to try to keep this part as spoiler-free as possible.) I understand how Asa and Riven's relationship was supposed to only start in the first part. I get it. it's going to evolve in the next books, and we'll see it unravel. however, I still feel like the moment when they finally got together, after what felt like years and years of pining, wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped. more than that, I didn't really feel like Asa cared enough about Riven to feel connected to her if that makes sense. (spoiler ahead) I think she worked a lot better with Ty.

in the end, I think I'm definitely going to wait for the next part and see what happens then!

This is basically the smart, feminist, unabashedly bisexual, adventerous space opera of my absolute DREAMS.

I just...holy crap. It's so good. The world-building is top-knotch, the stakes are believably high, every character has a unique and developed relationship with every other character, the found-family vibes are wonderful, the love triangle is believable and emotional and feels totally true to every character in it, and the small individual choices of characters have real consequences within the plot. More than that, it's ALL of those things with two bisexual women at the center - and that's the kind of representation that I've been desperate for in sci-fi (and in everything) for my whole freaking life.

I loved it. I'm so excited for this book to come out, so that I can foist it on absolutely all of my friends.

(And I need this to be a series. Is this a series? Because I would read many more stories about the crew of this delightful spaceship of misfits!)

hey! finally got round to finishing the book. i'd give it 2.5/5 so obviously feel free to round up or down depending on how kind you're feeling.

pros: it's action packed and the plot is actually pretty neat and the world building is also pretty good! it's got a solid foundation, which is great.

cons: suffers GREATLY from being ya, because everyone is like 17/18 which feels... gross in a scene where everyone is being dressed in scanty sexy things for nebulous ~plot reasons. even if it didn't feel gross, besides the beginning, that bit had this gratuitous fanfic shoehorning in quality that I didn't appreciate.

I wanted to love the relationships but couldn't. there's a sorted of hinted bg m/m ship which could've been so cool but is confusingly played out.

there's also technically a love triangle and i did not care for it at all.

Riven could have been a pretty great character, she gave me Gideon vibes in many ways, but her opinion on Asa her love interest swung this way and that confusingly and mostly with 0 to back it up. she also for some reason had TWO exes entangled in the plot which just got bogged down with all this weird petty relationship stuff, which cheapened the actual cool world building imo.

it tries to do a sort of found family thing that falls short unfortunately because Ass (who is new to the crew) only really spends time with her two love interests so the whole "being part of the crew, having somewhere to belong" part falls super short for me.

that said, Asa's relationship with her sister Kaya is one of the best realised parts of the book and since that's what a lot of the plot hinges on, it was great that that was so believable. i did also love the relationships between riven and ty and riven and samir. sadly there's little backing up samir's relationships with ty or diego, presumably bc the author wanted to write relationship drama instead.

it did also take me nearly a third of the book to get into it, because while it starts out with all this action, the stakes feel super low because you don't know or care about the chars yet.

oh! i did also like that it's a matriarchal society, that was pretty neat. lots of it was good bones with bad execution because the author wanted to focus only on developing romantic relationships.
also, if they'd been early twenties a LOT of plot points would have made so, so much more sense.

The best thing about this book is that it was an action-packed, quick read. I liked the unique world building with exciting plot. The faced paced action scenes definitely did not disappoint. But that is all I liked about the book.

Most characters in this book were not fully explored. A little bonding between the crew might have made me care more about the characters and their dynamics. Other than the fast pace and the intense action scenes, nothing in the book worked for me. I wasn't very invested in the characters or the storyline.

I didn't connect with either of the main characters. Riven, especially was hard to like sometimes and she didn't make much sense to me. For instance, she kept changing her opinion on Asa over and over.Like: "Asa didn’t care about anyone but herself.." Then a second later, she is all "Still, the guilt nagged her. Asa had risked herself to save Riven in the GravSpheres.."

I didn't much care about the love triangle or either of the ships, even though I was really hoping to love the sapphic one. But it was just okay for me. On the plus there wasn't any drama but the love triangle didn't feel fully resolved by the end of the book either.

Overall, it was an okay read for me. Not sure if I will read book two.

<i>Copy provided by the publisher, via NetGalley.</i>