WARNING: This book is DARK. There is more than one straight-up murder committed by a main character. Cannibalism is seen/done by a POV character. There is no shortage of violent gore, either.

Not going to lie to you, it took me about thirty percent of the way into this book to really start vibing with how things were going. At first, everything is just deeply confusing — there’s so much going on and very little explanation of everything. There’s four main characters, plus two others who have POV chapters as the book goes on. That’s a LOT of characters to keep track of in a first book of a series. Thankfully, it does get easier to follow.

The City of Dusk takes place in world that USED to be four worlds layered on top of each other. Travel between the worlds used to flow freely, but then the gods fought amongst each other, and the worlds were sealed off from one another. I’m simplifying this for the review because there’s a helluva lot more going on. Since the world was sealed off, power and life has slowly been leeching away. The world is dying, and it’s left to the heirs of the four houses to figure out how to bring the world back to life. Again, that’s an extremely simplified version of events. I don’t want to spoil everything, especially the ending of the book which is SO WELL DONE.

The four houses have four different powers, because they all are derived from four different gods. House Lastrider has power over shadows. House Mardova has elemental powers. House Vakara has necromancy. House Cyr has light powers. The descriptions of the powers, and the way the characters use their powers throughout the book is just so cool. One of my favorite parts of this book, really.

Another review I saw of this book describes the worldbuilding as a hot mess, and yeah, unfortunately, I agree. There’s a hodgepodge of familiar fantasy tropes, and real world cultures all thrown on top of one another with very little explanation of how things work or are expected to work. If there had been a little more book-specific culture building, I think it would have read easier. This does not really detract from my enjoyment of the book too much, however. Just something to note.

Overall, The City of Dusk is an enjoyable first book in a fantasy series. I look forward to reading the rest when they come out!

The City of Dusk by Tara Sims follows the four noble houses. Angelica Mardova an elementalist, Nikolas Cyr a light-wielder, Risha Vakara a necromancer and Taesia Lastrider a shadow-wielder. The City of Dusk, also know as Vitae is where the four realms meet and connect to each other. Vitae has lost its favor with the gods and has been sealed from the four realms and is slowly dying. The four noble houses have been raised with duty to the Holy King Ferdinand in mind and not to interact with each other. They must come together in a reluctant alliance to save their realm.
This book builds a beautiful world of magic, politics and mystery. The author does an amazing job at weaving each character's story and blending each of the character's stories together. Some of what might have been meant to be twists were obvious to me, however I did not get everything I thought correct, which is a big deal for me. I also, loved how the gods are not ones that a typically in books, at least the ones I have read.
Taesia Lastrider was my favorite character. She was the one I related to the most. Her power to wield the shadows with how powerful she is overall makes her terrifying yet exciting. She clearly wants to do the right thing, but she definitely has a temper and does not see herself as a good person. She wants freedom from her duties and struggles with if she wants to save Vitae because she wants the freedom or because she actually wants to save her people.
For me this book was fantastic. It was the perfect blend of world-building and entertainment. The magic is written in detail and gives the reader a beautiful picture. If you read as if you are a character in the book then you may have a hard time as this has many characters to follow. Unless you can pick one to be. If you read as if you are watching a movie then this is perfect. The detail allows you to be immersed in the city completely with all the senses. The author makes great use of the five main senses.
Again, for me this book is five stars and what I look for in a fantasy world-building book. It is very rare for me to not correctly guess everything that will happen in a book. So, the fact that I could not get everything correct is what put this book over the edge for me to make it five stars. I will be waiting for the release date of the next book.

NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It comes out on March 22, and I’m going to need everyone to pre-order it so we can get a second one because I NEED IT.

Taesia Lastrider. My badass morally gray queen, I may die for you. When she wasn’t on page, I was sad. She was by far my very favorite character of the entire book. Most of the characters are morally gray and if they weren’t, I wasn’t as interested in their storyline. The story is broken up into four parts and has something like seven POVs. There were surprises everywhere and I did not see them coming.

I think what I loved most is the quick pace. Sometimes fantasy can take a while to build because of world building. Not the case with this one. It started out strong and stayed there for 500+ pages. Sure there were slower times but the writing was so good that I didn’t mind at all. Honestly, I was grateful for the chance to breathe because there is A LOT to keep track of.

The magic system was fascinating and complex but easy to comprehend. I’m pretty sure almost every character is queer so combine that with the are they good, are they evil aspect and you’ve got one hell of a ride. I will say there’s a cliffhanger ending but of course there is! And for once, I’m not mad about it. I knew I wanted more from very early on in the story.

I really enjoyed this book, it was fun, heartbreaking and kept me guessing the entire time. The City of Dusk comes out March 22, 2022 and you definitely want to pre-order this one.

3.5 stars rounded up

I enjoyed this! It was my first work from Tara Sims and it won't be my last. This did feel a little closer to YA to me but towards the end it was starting to become more adult. The ending was fantastic and it's definitely made me curious to pick up the second book. Hopefully there's some more worldbuilding in the next book.

The prologue was enough to convince me to read the entire book. Amazing writing, amazing ideas and nearly flawless execution! Loved it!

DNF @ 20%.

I just couldn't connect with the characters and felt like the story wasn't going anywhere. I really tried, but just couldn't force myself to read anymore.

Thanks Netgalley for the ACR.

DNF @25%
I tried really hard to get into this book but I think it was just too many perspectives and details without enough for me to grasp onto. I was very excited for the LGBTQ+ representation, but didn't find it by the point I stopped in the book which was disappointing. I might give this another try eventually but I think it was just too slow paced and information heavy for me.

4.5*, rounded up

I really enjoyed this new fantasy novel! I’ve never read the author’s other books, but this was beautifully built. The world felt very real and full of details. The city, the gods and the heirs were nicely characterized and didn’t feel flat. Some of their motivations were suspect, but that’s to be expected when you don’t learn the identity of the villain until the end.

The pacing was perfect for me. It was action-packed and didn’t drag, but it wasn’t so rushed that it felt like the author was trying to cram in too much detail too fast. I was very engaged right through the ending and a little disappointed that the teaser for volume 2 wasn’t included in my eARC. I will absolutely be picking up the second novel. I liked that the novel didn’t end on a cliffhanger, but still very much led to a sequel. There is still so much more to learn!

I definitely recommend this to anyone that likes adventure-fantasy. This wasn’t terribly adult but it didn’t feel particularly YA either. As someone who reads both, I’m not bothered by the genre. There’re weren’t any overt sex scenes that I can recall but there were definite allusions to them. Lots of representation for different gender identities and sexual preferences. I liked that it felt inclusive without shoving it in your face. It was normal in the world the author created to be something other than cis-gendered and straight, so the author didn’t shine massive flashlights on gender identities. In fact, it was so passive, I totally missed that one heir’s mother is married to a woman now that her father has passed until it was mentioned later. (This is not a spoiler). It was no big deal and that’s how I prefer to read about character’s identities and preferences, unless its central to the story and it wasn’t here.

Solid start to the series. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley. I really enjoyed this read!

Is this a book that I could get lost in the world, absolutely. Was it filled with dark and twist-ies—also yes.
It’s told through multiple points of view which I both loved and hated, well hate is far too strong of a word. I appreciated being able to see not only how a person viewed themselves but how the other characters also viewed them. But at points I found myself getting angry at the characters for just not talking to one another. Though I completely understand their internal generational trauma. It made for wonderfully morally grey characters which you equally rooted for and wanted them to do better.
This book was the type of fantasy that would happen if Odin and hacate wrote it, and made it metal as hell.
It was deliciously dark. And had me coming back for more.

I was immediately drawn into this story with the introduction of the main characters. Their personalities were distinct to me, and the writing was immersive and cloying. With multiple POV’s such as this, it can be easy to have a POV that is less interesting to me than others, but I found myself happily following each of the main characters, ready to know more and more about them. It was easy to tell the characters apart and not get my feet tangled up in the dance of pov switching.

The world building was good. So much thought and details went into the creation of this world and its dark magic system. From the jump there was an element of gothic vibes, and I enjoyed the themes of shadow magic (a fav form of magic of mine) and dealing with the gods. That being said, it was a lot of information to retain in the beginning, and a few info-dumps that stalled me. The political aspects were at times confusing, keeping track of what everyone was aiming for, and their motivations.

As someone who’s drawn to darker magic systems, I really enjoyed this. An added bonus is how queer normative it was, which I hope to see more often in books.

Overall, a well executed first installment in a fantasy series that I will continue reading.

Thank you to Netgalley as well as Orbit Books, for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book is set in a fantasy world of four different realms: Vitae (life), Mortri (death), Solara (light), and Noctus (dark) but where walls have been closed between these worlds. Due to this Sealing, Vitae, where the book takes place, is fading away, stoppered up from the power of the other realms that it needs to continue. In Vitae, there are four houses, each descended from a god of the four realms, and gifted with special abilities correlating to those gods. It is up to the young heirs of the Houses to save Vitae from destruction by reopening the portals between worlds and ending the Sealing.

The premise of this book is really creative and intriguing. I thought going in that it would easily be a 5 star read, but the book didn’t hit that mark for me.

This was in large part because the pacing felt a little off. 90% of the book is build up to the climax which then happens quite quickly. Given, this is a series, and things will definitely continue to develop for the Heirs in the next book. Still, I wish there was more meat to the first half of this book, which spends a lot of time dancing around hints and foreshadowing instead of moving the main plot along. Some of these hints are never fully addressed before being leaned on at the end. I expect all of this will be fleshed out in the rest of the trilogy.

That said, this was a really unique and interesting fantasy with very complex characters who still have a lot to handle in the rest of the trilogy. There were many aspects of the book that I would give five stars. I loved the Indian influence on the culture of Vitae, the casual existence of queer characters without homophobia or hatred, the development of the individual characters as flawed but mostly well-meaning people, and the emphasis on many different types of family relationships, good and bad. I will look forward to seeing how things develop in Book 2, and I would definitely recommend City of Dusk to fantasy readers, especially if you are looking for more diverse worlds!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an ARC!

I actually got what I came for with this. I was promised a queer dark fantasy with a headstrong group of main characters, and it??? actually??? delivered??? I’m shook.

The storyline was actually kind of fully summarized by the synopsis, which is interesting because the synopsis was pretty vague. But still - this book is about four heirs of godly Houses, each of them struggling to find their place in their city, which has been abandoned by the gods.

The aesthetic vibes are present and the plot is set up so perfectly with this. There’s hints of rebellion, romance and danger immediately, just from the beginning concept.

It took me a long time to read this - partly because it’s way longer than I expected it to be, but also because it took me a hot second to really understand what was going on. I’m horrible at comprehending the beginnings of books, if you didn’t know that already. Also, I had finals the week after I started this. I had no time to read.

The world-building was really not that complex in its concept, but for some reason I still couldn’t really understand it. I couldn’t tell if Realms were supposed to be more like different worlds or different continents, and I didn’t understand the explanation of the Solar Plane.

That might just be my fault for having low comprehension skills. Because aside from the questions I had, the rest of the setting was written beautifully. It was very aesthetic, in-depth without being overly complicated, and integrated into the world perfectly.

I loved the different cultures that were included, and the whole setup of Nexus. It allowed a lot of diversity and so much more variety in the settings and clothing. The politics and intrigue were woven in so nicely.

The characters were all unique and interesting in their own rights, though it felt like Tara Sim was kind of playing favorites in her narratives.

Taesia felt like she got a lot more attention and hype than any other character. I mean, this queen deserved it, but I did want to point that out. She was fierce, stubborn and rebellious. She was very morally-gray, very impulsive, and an absolute icon.

Taesia was the middle child of House Lastrider, the House descended from Nyx, the god of darkness. She had the ability to control shadows and was pretty powerful in doing that. But she was also the middle child and therefore didn’t care for her responsibilities as a child of a House.

I loved her compassionate and protective side, and the way it fit into her personality as a reckless fiend. She was easily riled but cared for people, protective of the people she cared about but not exactly prone to making great decisions. In short, a complex queen of a character with very cool powers.

Risha was determined, strong and family-oriented. She was passionate but pragmatic about her decisions. I loved the way her Parithvian culture (based on Indian culture) was included so seamlessly in her perspective.

She was definitely the dutiful mom-friend, but she still had a very captivating POV that isn’t usually associated with the “boring” responsible characters like her. Mainly because her development was so steady and immersive.

Risha was the eldest daughter of House Vakara, descended from Thana, the goddess of death. She had the ability to summon, control and release spirits. I didn’t really understand how she used her ability, which was kind of unfortunate, because it was really cool. I was just confused about the fact that she needed to use string to form spells while all the other Houses could just…use their abilities.

Nikolas was a quiet, caring force who didn’t want to deal with the expectations and society of Nexus and the Houses. He was more busy dealing with his grief and home life, and honestly, I loved his internal conflict and the fact that he was just so secretly insecure. He was outwardly stoic, inwardly struggling, and the balance his character struck was unique despite the fact that he could have easily fit into multiple tropes.

Nikolas was the heir of House Cyr, descendants of Phos, the god of light. He had the ability to manipulate light and, as the heir, had the responsibility of measuring up to what everyone thought he should be.

Angelica was my least favorite, even though I was really hoping to like her. I related to her a lot, actually. But for some reason, I didn’t care about her as much as I did everyone else - which is why I mentioned earlier that it felt like some characters got more love than others.

Angelica, the heir to House Mardova, had been raised by her mother to aspire to the crown. She was an elemental with an ability impediment, unable to access her magic properly without the use of musical instruments. She doubted herself and her strength a lot, but also held herself to such high standards that she came across as stiff and condescending to everyone else.

I had such high hopes for her character, but I felt like so much of her narrative was repeated and her emotional side wasn’t really touched on as much as it could have been. She had a lot of potential, and what was there was strong, but I think she could have been developed more.

Julian was very interesting, and I loved reading his POV, but I didn’t really connect to him. He was stubborn, had secrets, and did his best to stick to his own set principles. He added a lot to the story, especially his scenes with Taesia, but I found it hard to really relate to him emotionally.

Dante was Taesia’s older brother and the heir to House Lastrider. He wasn’t as important as the others, but I loved his characterization and the role he played in the story. His perspective and his actions were what really rolled the plot into action and he was very major to the book.

The romance also delivered. Each ship had something to cheer for, even if they were rival ships (though there wasn’t exactly a love triangle, just one character transitioning between partners and the interesting dynamics that you would expect from that). But still.

All the banter, tropes and characterization that I love (and the angst, because I am a sucker for it) were included somehow? And yet the romance didn’t detract from the plot. None of it felt forced or unnecessary.

The writing was beautiful and suited the book exactly. It was very aesthetic and lyrical, but still direct. It represented each character and POV in its own unique terms, which is something that’s kind of underrated. Making the writing suit each character is important in multiple-POV books. And this book did it.

The social commentary was also really well done. The world of Nexus was constructed into a clearly unfair society that very much reminded me of the one we currently live in (which I would assume is the point?) and the character narratives on this were perfect.

The diversity, representation, and writing of oppression and politics was so good and it really got the message across.

Overall, this book (and consequently this review) were way too long. Not gonna lie about that. But I enjoyed that length and I enjoyed the book, so I can’t complain. It was so compelling, so complex, but still so fun and powerful. It’s definitely the kind of dark fantasy experience that I live for.

I knew I was going to enjoy this book when I read the synopsis, but I didn’t realize it would be to this level. With most ARCs, I can usually tell if it’s an ARC. There’s just that vibe. But somehow, this felt like a whole published book.

The first time I read the premise for The City of Dusk I knew it was something I needed to read. I am a big fan of Fantasy novels with gods who are active in the story. On top of that, I had seen someone compare it to the Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab and I freaking love those books. So count me in.

There were a few things this book did really well. The premise was incredible! I read it and instantly wanted more because it was an absolute vibe. The City of Dusk has many POV characters and I never once felt bogged down by them. I think it's easy to lose yourself as a reader when we get a lot of perspectives in a book, but I was always able to keep the POV straight. Also, the four main characters did have distinction between their voices which is very commendable to the author.

My greatest struggle with The City of Dusk is that it is being marketed as an Adult novel but it reads like a Young Adult novel. I know the author generally writes YA so maybe it's because this is what they know, but it gave me a hard time because I generally don't read YA these days. (If this was sold as a YA book, I think it would be beneficial since there's so much in that genre that it would tie in to).

While I enjoyed the world building, I felt like some of it was a little lazy in the creativity department. There are words used to describe things like clothes that exist in our world because it's attached to a religion or culture. So having things like this used in a fictional world doesn't make sense to me. Also I struggled with the realms and some of the plot involving them. They are said to have been closed off from each other 500 years ago but the refugees from the other realms are still actively segregated. 500 years and there's this much hostility and segregation for these people? I struggled with that greatly. Also, there is discussion about goods from other realms and how they are dwindling but it seems unlikely there would be any left at all because the Sealing wasn't expected.

The pacing had it's ups and downs. The beginning was interesting and I was enjoying the buildup, but then the middle dragged horribly. I kept checking the percentage on my kindle because it felt like I should've been much farther in than I was. That being said, the ending picked up and the last 20% was very interesting.

I think the novel could have benefited from getting combed through by a metaphorical fine tooth comb by the writer and editor just to make sure these things were ironed out more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The City of Dusk follows four powerful families as a once in a century opportunity presents itself. Wielders of light, darkness, necromancy, and elemental magic, the families within this book are the descendants of gods who have withdrawn their favor. As forbidden conjuration magic begins to inflate the city, each heir sees a different path forward for their people and themselves.

I enjoyed so much of this book, though nothing quiet as much as the very present and very brutal gods of this universe. The reflection of humanity and godhood that blurred between the heirs and their gods was fascinating. As was the balance the book took between ambition for self and ambition for a wider society. Sim took a lot of interesting narrative choice in the approach for this book that paid off really well for me. I loved the approach to time and point of view that challenged and altered the way I read different characters through out the book. both were handled well and the pay off was well worth moments of confusion that I had while reading.

The City of Dusk is a diversity-fronted fantasy with multiple main characters, a plot that weaves as much as it diverts, and a thrilling conclusion; it’s worth the rather slow start!

Like an old car on a cold winter’s morning, this book takes a while to heat up, but when it does, it goes full-on Grand National.

To get the critique out of the way, yes, the book starts off really slow. Around 30% I was looking at the percentage left and I confess I was a bit bored and debated setting it aside. But, I am very glad I powered through because the second half is completely enthralling and I couldn’t put the last 40% down.

The reason for the slow start is because there are five main characters and several supporting ones, as well as a new world, magic, and political system to explain. Because I was reading an e-book I couldn’t easily flip to the character list at the start, so I found I couldn’t remember everyone’s name/house/magic power, etc. Eventually, I started to retain the information and by that point, the action picked up. In the end, it wasn’t too many characters at all, as each of them has a distinct yet interwoven story to tell.

Unfortunately, I also had trouble with the world-building itself. We aren’t really shown the day-to-day workings of the city. The four main characters just seem to run around all day, but given their ages (early to mid-twenties), I would assume they would do more governing or learning to govern or … something? I just wasn’t sure how the government functioned. I also didn’t understand the climate they were in or how this one city was still thriving when the rest of the world is supposedly breaking down?

This might also be why I had trouble getting into the novel in the first place, though these details mattered less the more I read.

This is a political fantasy novel without the politics (if that makes any sense), but what it lacks in political intricacy it, in turn, throws away all the annoying backstabbing that often takes place in books with a heavy focus on rule. In this novel, the older generation is involved in maneuvering, but the younger people are friends. They don’t want to backstab one another and most of them aren’t really interested in becoming ruler. This gave the story an interesting dynamic that also helped make the characters more relatable and likeable. The motivations for each character felt personal on a deeper level than “I want to rule,” so the stakes were adequately high.

All the characters were interesting albeit I felt they acted a bit young for their ages at times. We have Nic, the emotionally abused and grieving boy who isn’t good enough for his dad; Risha, the competent and loyal necromancer; Angelica, who can’t control her powers and feels like a failure; and Taesia, the badass. There’s also a hunter/cop named Julien who is the classic tough guy with the heart of gold and ailing mother, but I liked him. I liked all the characters, actually. They had enough depth I understood their motivations and served their purpose in the story.

All of them have magic derived from their Gods. There are creatures in this book, but not dragons or anything, and there are horn-headed people taking refuge in the city, though they exist more on the periphery. Magic, while it is a major part of the story, isn’t the main focus (we aren’t really told how it functions or what the rules are for using it - this didn’t really bug me as I never really care how magic works in fantasy).

I will say, I didn’t realize going into this that it was part 1 of a trilogy, so it ends in a way that doesn’t feel entirely satisfactory. While the main conflict was resolved, it clearly sets up for more. I don't know why I always assume fantasy is a one-off when it rarely is.

Overall, The City of Dusk was a dark but not grisly fantasy that started off as a bit of an arduous uphill race, but the second half was a thrilling rush to the finish line. (Though, I guess it’s more of a triathlon). I really enjoyed it and recommend it to those who love dark fantasy.

This book was a great read with a lot of creativity and uniqueness to it. I did find a few things too convenient that didn’t quite have the worldbuilding to back it up, but since this is the first in a series, there’s plenty of room for the series as a whole to get even better.

The City of Dusk wasn’t for me, but it might be for you if you’re a fan of slow-over books that focus more on war. The City of Dusk has a very interesting world-building with spiteful gods and headstrong chosen ones.

This was very, very hard title to rate for me.

The premise is this: their are four heirs to four houses who were descended from the gods— darkness, light, death and the elements. There were once 4 worlds to represent them, each of which was ruled by their god, but all of which worked in tandem to survive. Generations ago, there was the “sealing” in which the gods shut down the connections between worlds, leaving each world dying without the rest, and without reason as to why. As their world is dying, the four heirs are left to discover how to save it while also under the pressure of navigating a power hungry king’s upcoming decision of which heir to elect as his predecessor. On top of this: a strange and deadly magic has risen from the past and stands to level their world as they know it.

I will be the first to say, I didn’t ever really *get into* this book, and not for lack of trying. I found myself reflecting on the positives: cool magic system! Lush writing style! Immersive world building! Lots of action scenes! And yes somehow… I didn’t feel attached to this story. It took a while, but I finally realized it: I don’t know or care about these characters at all.

There was so much potential here, and I will say that each heir has some sort of singular personality trait: Angelica is power hungry, Nik is loyal, Risha is level headed, and Taesia is impulsive. This is about all I could tell you about any of them. Additionally, it seemed to be about all they knew about each other, despite the author constantly telling the reader about their long history’s with one another. Taesia was undoubtedly the most interesting, and her scenes pulled me in the most.

Let’s talk about the rest of this story. There’s so much action, enough so that I felt confused about what else was missing there. That was when I finally realized that despite the action, none of the battles or duels ever amounted to anything meaningful for the plot. It all kept ending with a “welp! This is bad! It happened again!” And no new information.

The absolute highest point of this story was the last 20%. Let me tell you, the ending was AMAZING. If the entire book was written this way (and I don’t know, about 200 pages shorter) we would have had a five star read on our hands.

Maybe the points about the characters is a personal preference, but I missed the banter, the connection, the depth, the history, all of it that could have been achieved with more character and relationship development between the heirs. I don’t see myself picking up the next book, which is a shame as the ending did leave some good potential for a killer sequel. If you’re interested in this book, just know that it is NOT a character driven novel. And that’s okay! If plot is 80% of what you care about, that might be just fine. I like a healthy balance of these things, and it just didn’t do it for me.

Thank you Orbit Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title before publishing!

The City of Dusk is the first book in The Dark Gods series. I have mixed feelings about this book because there were some aspects that I really liked and others that fell a bit flat for me. The premise is so intriguing, and the story has a creepy, dark mood, which I really liked. I also loved the world-building. It is immersive, intricate, and detailed, and the author does a great job of creating vivid images of the world, magic system, culture, political machinations, social dynamics, and the four different noble houses.

I also like that the story is told from many points of view. All of the characters are layered and complex, and each has such a unique story to tell. As they are members of the four different houses, they have complex relationships with each other – sometimes friends, other times enemies- and the exploration of these connections throughout the story is really intriguing. They are all so compelling and interesting, and each voice is distinct and strong. I like that you get to understand all of their different goals and motivations and how they work with and against each other to achieve their respective goals.

I did feel like the pacing was inconsistent. The story felt very slow at times, and I had a hard time getting into the story. It did pick up for a while but then became rather slow-paced again. I prefer stories with more even pacing, so this was a frustration for me. I struggled to stay focused on the story until closer to the end where the pacing and action picked up a lot. That being said, the battle scenes are epic, and the last 20% of the story is great.

The story has political intrigue, a little bit of romance, secrets, betrayals, and several shocking revelations, which I enjoyed. I think readers who enjoy dark, epic fantasy with excellent world-building and characters might enjoy the story, especially if they don’t mind slow-paced, slow-burning novels. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing me with an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Tara Sim returns with the ambitious first book of an epic fantasy series, The City of Dusk. Sim has created a world of multiple coinciding realms and those realms are accompanied by an incredible amount of species, cultural, and magical diversity. Sim utilizes multiple POVs, one for each of the heirs of their magical Houses, plus a couple bonus POVs every now and again. When politics of the humans, politics of the gods, and individual motivations all enter the playing field at once, we get one enormous clash of powers.

I will first say that I have mixed feelings about this novel. If all of that in the overview paragraph sounds like a lot, it's because it absolutely is. The beginning is slow. There is a lot of info-dumping about the magic systems, the world, the Houses and their members and the politics of it all. It's a whole lot. It's all very interesting and cleverly designed, but learning about it was dense. Every time we established an interesting plot point, we switched perspective where we had an entire new set of info-dumping for THAT character. The sheer density made me want to soft DNF and come back later when I had more mental spoons to process the information, despite the fact that nothing that was happening was bad. It just was too slow for what I wanted.The plot and the pacing and the rhythm of the book didn't really set in until 50%.

Once the plot set in, everything was great. Good pacing from there, good reveals of information, good progress along the various interweaving plot lines. Tons of intrigue. The various queer identities were woven in seamlessly and every single character was both representative of their gender identity, sexuality, cultural identity, but also much more than that. Every single character including side characters were fully realized with motivations, histories, and experiences of their own which drove their personalities and behaviors.

So how did a book that started out as a shaky 3 star read wind up 4 stars? In the end, I like the characters, I like the world, I like the magic, and I want to read the next book. And it is my most sincere hope that we do not have to wade through the information about the world again in book two.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read this book early, and am excited for the potential for something great as this series unfolds.