Riven and Asa are still taking up space in my mind long after reading this story. I'm completely on board with all the YA Sci-Fi I can find and this story did not let me down. The only thing I'd change is the cliffhanger ending.

Queers in space + a rogue A.I. + spine chilling matriarchs - what could possibly go wrong?

First of all, look at this gorgeous cover!!! I'd be lying if I said this beauty had nothing to do with me requesting this book.

I am a big fan of sci-fi books and the sapphic touch of the blurb did me in. This book was filled with beautiful futuristic descriptions and I loved how easily it flowed with the plot. Glass bridges, neon lights, skyways - i truly loved the setting of this book.

As for characters, my favourite was badass and knock-your-breath-out Riven. She was the fire to put it nicely. Asa Almeida, the protagonist of our story, was the damsel in distress turned hidden saviour turned - well you'll have to read the book to find out :)

The found family trope was well written and I loved how all of them worked together. Everything was very well stitched within the plot and within the character traits. The only place where I found the book lacking was the romance. This could be biased as I am not a big fan of love triangles. There was chemistry, yes! But the execution of it felt rather absent in the first half of the book, later impeded by the love traingle, and eventually rushed towards the end.

However, the ending was great! And I have great hopes from the next book. I give this sapphic space opera four smiling (but not yet smitten) stars!

Thank you to Flux books for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

City of Shattered Light was a pretty enjoyable story. I really liked Asa as a main character. I loved the way she tried to help and protect her sister. While there was a lot of action and adventure in the story, I still found it to be a little slow for me. The plot of the story was interesting enough. It was well thought out and well written. I'm happy with how things ended off and curious to see if there ends up being a second book. With the way this one ended off I'm really hoping there is.

If you are looking for a sci-fi with family ties, found family and lots of adventure then give this a shot.

~Thank you NetGalley and North Star Editions/Flux for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.~

4.5⭐️ (rounded up)

Okay I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this book!! I saw the gorgeous cover and the words ‘sapphic’ and immediately requested it - I have zero regrets. This book is YA sci-fi with great lgbtq+ rep. It focuses on two main characters Asa and Riven, who are both bisexual. Oh and did I mention it’s enemies to lovers?

I really enjoyed the world building and found it easy to follow and the plot was super engaging, I was always trying to anticipate what would happen next.

THIS BOOK IS FOR ALL OF THE FOUND FAMILY TROPE LOVERS OUT THERE! I really liked how well the whole crew worked together. I quickly became really attached to the characters (especially Riven) and I can’t wait to read about them some more.

This book also has a love triangle. Now, I know you’re probably cringing already but there’s no need, this is one of the very few good love triangles. It was really well written and for once I don’t have a bias as to who the main character should end up with (although I’m a sucker for sapphic relationships). I do want to make it clear though that the romance is just a side plot.

I would have loved to see more of the side characters but I understand that this is only the first book in the series so I’m hoping their characters will be explored more in future books.

my final thoughts: THE EPILOGUE. GIVE ME THE SEQUEL RIGHT NOW.

CONTENT WARNINGS for the book: strong language, gun violence, death, blood, mild gore, emotional abuse/manipulation, mild body horror, terminal illness, suicide (referenced), drug and alcohol references

City of Shattered Light is a YA Science Fiction novel by debut author Claire Winn. When Asa’s father uploads her sister’s mind to an experimental brain to reprogram her personality, Asa runs away with her sister’s mind to a faraway planet, Requiem. While there she is kidnapped by bounty hunters and is kidnapped/saved by Riven’s crew. Riven is a thief who wants to increase her standing in Requiem’s underworld. A virus spreading through Requiem causes a blackout and quarantine and both girls must work together to get what they both want.
I really enjoyed the second half of this book. Not to say the first half was bad, but it does take me a while to immerse myself in a new world. I really liked all the characters, Asa being my favourite as she struggles to get the acceptance she deserves from her father and the loneliness she felt at home to forming a solid friendship with Riven’s crew and Riven herself. I often find love triangles to be annoying and overplayed however, I liked how this one has been handled between Ty, Asa and Riven.
Clearly, a sequel is planned and I am excited to see what happens next after the cliff-hanger ending. I would love to learn more about Luca, Asa’s father, and his motivations behind his controversial projects. I would also love to see more interaction between the main crew, such as Diego and Samir with Asa.
My one real criticism is that I didn’t really feel too much romantic tension between the F/F couple. It felt it was “told” to me, rather than “shown.” I imagine this will be more focused on in a sequel.
I would recommend this book to someone who enjoyed the Adaption series by Malinda Lo or The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie.

City of Shattered Light by Claire Winn was such a greatly paced story! I loved the characters and the setting was so unique.

Thank you Flux and Netgalley for sending me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

4/5 stars

Trigger warnings: death, gore, manipulation, emotional abuse, body horror.

I have no words for how spectacular this book was, or how it made me feel while reading it. I was hooked. It’s been a long time since I truly enjoyed a YA novel, let alone sat down and ignored everyone for the sole purpose of finishing. It’s unputdownable and action-packed. It's full of chaos and heists. It has a found family! a queer found family! <3 It was utterly fantastic and everything I was hoping for.

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Riven and her crew want nothing more than to have enough money to get by in Requiem's sprawling city. On the other hand, Asa is heiress to Alameda Industries, a techie corporation in Cortellion: an elite planet, quite the contrary to Requiem, which is brimming with crime syndicates and ruthless matriarchs. As heiress, Asa must decide whether the Industry and the progress it claims to be doing is worth it, or if she should give it up and run away.

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Asa is such an amazing character. However, even though Asa was the most relatable (to me) I gotta applaud the author's development of Riven: she is ruthless and unapologetically ambitious. She considers paths other characters probably wouldn't take and is not afraid to use her guns. She is the very definition of hard on the outside and soft on the inside.

That being said, I did relate to Asa much more than Riven: her struggle to stand up to her father, the desire of being validated, her talent being acknowledged. She has a tremendous development throughout the course of the book. She misses the privileges she had:a warm bed, knowing her only preoccupation was failing her exams, etc. and yet, she is willing to do everything for her sister. She is looked down upon, but she is one of the most intelligent characters out there.

I loved the crew. I think that, whilst being a bit underdeveloped, they were written well. Ty is pretty much an antithesis to Riven: he refuses to use a gun, kill or hurt other people and trained to become a medic. (Can we also just take a moment to appreciate the fact that he is afraid of germs, Whilst being a medic?) I loved Samir and Diego (and their little puppy). But most importantly: I loved the crew's banter. It was immaculate. I can't say much about it, but Riven and Samir's interactions were gold.

The world-building is clear and precise. Requiem: a city full of violent syndicates, run by ruthless matriarchs and Duchesses. Cortellion an elite planet full of technological advances (and evil AIs) and Earth. It's a rich book, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to go to Requiem's nightclubs and hangars with the sole purpose of creating my own little gang and annoying some matriarchs. I'd be killed in less than a day, but I think it would be worth it.

Besides its incredible world building and wonderful, witty and ambitious characters, the book is full of
excitement. As I said before, I really did ignore everyone. There was not a singular moment in which I was bored, no unnecessary moments. Towards the end, I was gripping my Kindle with such force that I'm surprised it didn't break. It truly was remarkable.

After all that was stated, my only complaint is its predictability. I cannot say much without spoiling, but I can say I knew what would go down from the start. However, it did not take the fun or the excitement away.

Overall, I truly recommend City of Shattered Light: its action packed, it has incredible banter, interactions, romance and rep. I cannot wait for the reactions and most importantly, I'm dying to know what happens next!

This book was amazing. I’m not good at reviewing books, so i’m not going to try to sound professional here, but oh my god. this book was so good??? it was definitely a lot better than what i had expected. this can be one book i will definitely be buying and will be reading again once it’s published.

Date finished: 18/09/2021
Publish date: October 19, 2021

4.5⭐
📱

Thank you to Netgalley for approving this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, I didn't even finish reading the description for this one. Got as far down as 'rogue A.I.' and immediately requested it.

I was hooked from the get-go. A high stakes, action packed book with kickass characters.

I was expecting more from the rogue A.I. Maybe more interaction from it, witty banter, typical rogue A.I. things I've come to love from the trope. What interaction was there, I found to be a little underwhelming. I'd have to say that this is probably my only negative about this book.

I absolutely loved the characters and was rooting for them the whole time. They were just so damn badass. Also having one of my absolute favourite tropes, found family, how could I not fall in love with these characters.

The suspense and action in this one was so good. I found I was holding my breath for a large part of this book and couldn't stop from turning the pages, I just needed to know what happened next.

This one definitely sets up for a sequel, of which, damn it I need it right now. Omg it just can't end like that.

I would sum up the book with this short list:
> Found family
> Chaotic space heist
> “It was just supposed to be another job”

What an amazing novel, especially from a first-time-novel-writer! This book was everything it promised and more. To be honest with you I didn’t even read the whole description. I saw fantasy/sci-fi in combination with LGBT+ and I ran with it, and I’m so glad I did. This book is going to be the next big thing, mark my words. I just know it’s going to be all over social media and bookstores won’t be able to keep these in stock for very long.

The story is written from two badass women’s POV. The stories are perfectly intertwined and the POV switches seamlessly. The LGBT+ representation was actually just that: representation. It wasn’t mainly used for the plot, traumatic experiences being the main “entertainment”. It was just LGBT+ people existing. Like it should be.

The only thing that slightly put me off was the world building where a lot of specific sci-fi terms were used. After a couple of pages I got used to it, though. So definitely nothing too bad!

In conclusion: absolutely amazing. I’m very excited to see what masterpieces might follow!! (And I will never forget the three most iconic words ever uttered: “Gutter cowgirl bitch”.)

Thank you to to NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted a good sci-fi, and this one hit the spot. It was queer, and had an A.I. Honestly, the whole bag of stuff I want in a futuristic book. I enjoyed it, even if it was a bit of an easy read and felt a bit rushed at times.

Really fun setting and characters plus a very original concept. Winn's prose is sharp and well structured, and her characters are well fleshed out.

Thank you, NetGalley for an eARC of this book!

First off, the book cover is gorgeous. It represented the book and the main characters so well. I enjoyed this book so much because of its world building. This was action packed and got me hooked from start to finish. The author's writing style was good for me. I really liked the main characters, but I felt like the secondary characters needed more improvement. Really fast paced, and I love the diversity and creativity on this book.

First of all: the book is as good as the beautiful cover. This is a great sapphic book! Heist, found family and six-fi, what more do you need? The writing style is fast and the chapters are short which makes you want to keep reading this book!

I am someone who has only ever enjoyed one sci fi book up to this point…I can now add a second book to that list.

I loved this book!! The characters were so much fun and I was invested from the very beginning. I was sucked into this unexpected amazing book.

The only reason I removed a star is because I wish the author had made this a series to allow for more development of the characters. It felt like we don’t get to know the characters stories as much. Only snippets that are important to the plot but honestly get a little confusing and feel a little rushed. Like “this little piece of backstory is important to understand this little section of the plot but you will only get a brief description because the plot is more important and we need to get back to it” kind of way.
So I wish each characters story was developed more and a series would have allowed the author to do exactly that.

I still really enjoyed the story though! So much that it has become the second sci fi story for me to ever have actually liked. And I am very interested to see what else this author comes out with!

This felt slow to start but it picked up pretty quickly. It was very intense and i love how tech filled it was being futuristic. I loved the slight love triangle and the twists throughout. I loved the Bi rep in this and it was an overall good read.

Thank you, NetGalley, Books Forward, and Stars Edition/Flux for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I first heard about this book, I was super excited to read it, after all it has all the things I love: It's cyberpunk themed, action-packed, has a gorgeous cover, strong female leads, incredible storyline, found family, sapphic, diversity, and the cliffhangers.

It took me longer than I wanted to actually start reading it (because of college and life in general) but once I started, I was immediately HOOKED!! Everything about this book is so incredible that I already want a sequel!

I had high hopes for this story which seemed to promise two strong female leads, but once again, as they so often do, the book blurb failed to give an honest description of the story, so it was more of a lose than a Winn for me. It was slow to start and seemed very repetitive. I was ready to ditch it after chapter one, and I would have, except this was a review book, so I felt I had to give it a chance. It did pick up somewhat in chapter two, but even so, it never got going. It was such a long, repetitive slog that I grew bored with it.

It was a very pedantic 2-Person PoV story tick-tocking tediously like a metronome between the two main female characters' perspectives that it was putting me to sleep. At least it wasn't first person PoV, but the tedium was strong with this one and by 52% I'd had enough of the repetitive antics of supposed hero "Riven" and her hi-tech non-love-interest "Asa" that I could stand to read no more. I cared nothing for either of the characters or for their fate, and their supposed love story was dead in the water from the very start.

Asa Almeida is the 17-year-old heir to a hi-tech empire. Riven Hawthorne - which is a thoroughly stupid name, is a lowlife street crook who talks big, but consistently achieves nothing. She's supposed to be a no-nonsense girl who is a dead-shot with her antique pistols, but despite having two clear-cut chances to kill her arch-rival (in the half that I read) she fails both times and one failure leads to another. Riven is thoroughly incompetent: all talk and no traction, and she has no spine. Asa, who is supposed to be smart, is a complete dumb-ass and she persistently proves it.

The 'winterdark' MacGuffin in the story appeared to be a direct rip-off of William Gibson's 'wintermute' which is an artificial intelligence character in his novel Neuromancer but since in this story it really is just a name without, apparently, anything behind it (not in the part I read anyway), I guess it doesn't matter what it was.

The story quickly became bogged down in Riven's tedious, endless, and leaden-footed non-attempts to escape the absurdly one-dimensional criminal city, where every single thing is rotten to the core, and every single person is evil and amazingly good at finding and defeating Riven, that the novel was truly boring. I can't commend this at all.

*4.5 stars*

I have to say it: I think this could be the next big Six of Crows. This contained a heist and I actually enjoyed the journey! This series also has so much potential!!

This is a sci-fi, cyberpunk story about a spoiled, tech-savvy heiress on a mission (Ara), and the outlaw (Riven) who intends to stop her and turn her in for ransom. It blossoms from there into a bit of a heist mission with Riven and her gang of misfits.

Things I Loved:
-The worldbuilding was UH-may-zing. I could picture everything, and we were on three different moons/planets . The worldbuilding was vibrant and engaging. I am so enthralled by these solar systems and worlds we get to explore. I would love to see this adapted to the silver screen, but I hope it can do this world justice.
-The representation is so well done. FINALLY, some accurate bisexual representation!! Not to mention, we have a nonbinary character referred to as they/them, and we also have an offscreen M/M romance. Plus, the main characters are in a sort of love triangle, so we have a F/F romance and both had/have a romance that’s M/F. We also have some POC in the novel as well.
-The pacing was excellent. This was always moving forward, and there were no scenes that were superfluous. It’s rare to find a book so perfectly paced that there was no lull in the middle. I was engaged the whole time.
-The character development. This was especially noticed in Asa who really grew throughout the novel, but overall a few of the characters had good arcs and had to learn to trust and make a found family.
-The plot twists! The plot points/twists were interesting and some quite unexpected in a good way.

Things I Didn’t Love:
-The romance. I didn’t really feel the love between Riven and Ara, unfortunately. Even though their relationship builds naturally, I feel like they are better friends than lovers. I just don’t feel their chemistry. (But I did feel the romance between Ty and Ara)
-The characters could have used more depth. Even the main characters could have used a little more depth, but especially the side characters. They felt a bit flat.
-The action scenes could be confusing. There were too many characters in the action scenes and it could be a bit confusing at times, especially trying to piece together where everyone was to make the action happen.
-The found family aspect. I could feel the vibes at times, and at other times it didn’t seem like they were family/friends - they almost seemed paid to be on their heist instead of in it for each other.

Regardless, I cannot wait for the sequel!! Sign me up.

TW: Blood, Body Horror (Cybernetics), Death, Emotional Abuse, Illness, Violence (Gun)

**Thanks to NetGalley and North Star Editions/Flux books for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review**

City of Shattered Light review~
4/5 rating
Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Huge thank you to NetGalley and Flux/North Stars Editions!

Claire Winn’s debut novel is a cyberpunk action packed adventure!
Thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end, Winn's writing is immersive and filled to the brim with captivating imagery. The highlight of this book for me definitely had to be the beautiful worldbuilding. The setting felt electric and filled with vibrant colors making it a very fun read!

That being said, I do have a few small issues with this book. My main critique would be that while our main characters were very well written and felt fleshed out, the side characters unfortunately fell flat for me. But I am still holding out hope that we get more character development in the sequel. The other issue I had was the love triangle. I’ve never been a fan of this trope and sadly this book did not change my mind. Like other stories that include this trope, I felt a bigger connection with one of the love interests and felt bored whenever we had scenes with the other. But what Claire does better than others who have used this trope, is that she doesn’t make it a huge part of the plot so it didn’t take much out of the overall enjoyment of the book.

Altogether this was a very fun and fast paced read and I’m excited to read more of Claire’s books in the future!