Tara Sim's The City of Dusk starts slowly, but once it does, watch out. I get the need for an intense amount of world-building. Most fantasies require it, after all, because the author needs to explain the world to readers. In the case of The City of Dusk, we also have to meet the characters and families and understand their powers and their histories. That part took just a bit too long for me, and I did consider not finishing it. I'm glad I didn't, especially given what we learn about one of the characters, but know that even I struggled with how slowly the story builds.

This book sounded like it would be great but unfortunately, it was just boring to me. I did enjoy the characters though.

I can't recommend

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The City of Dusk was one of my most anticipated released of the year! I have enjoyed every book I have read by Tara Sim so when I saw the description of this book, I was beyond excited! I am happy to say that this book was definitely great and I am interested to see how the rest of the series goes from here.

The only problem I had with this book, which caused it to be 4 stars instead of 5 stars, was the beginning made it very hard to stay focused. There are many POVs in this book and at the beginning, you are jumping from character to character. As someone who reads adult fantasy often, this usually doesn't bother me but it felt jarring whenever one of the POVs changed. As the book went on, I got more used to it. It was just a rough beginning.

This book is full of wonderful Queer representation. It follows the heirs to four houses who each have their own unique powers gifted from the gods themselves. Betrayals, secret plots, and forbidden romance at just some of the things you can expect from this book. The end will have you begging for the next book.

Dark and rich, this epic fantasy has so much of what I love in fantasy. There are powers divined by the Gods granted to a complex set of characters in a world where the powers alone will not determine the next ruler. Everyone has their own motivations, but the goal is the same. To succeed, each character must use their wits, cunning, relationships, and even physical strength to get closer to the throne. I loved it and can’t wait to see what happens next!

The writing was good, and what I’ve come to expect from Tara, but I just wasn’t interested in the plot. I knew going in this probably wasn’t for me as I don’t usually like this type of fantasy, but I wanted to give it a chance because I'm a big fan of Tara’s other books.

Where to begin! This story follows handfuls of characters, each interwoven through the various magic systems and claims to power within their city.

I definitely felt connected to a number of the characters, and even those that were of less interest to me were still locked in with the overall plot well enough that I was always captivated by what was happening.

It did feel a little young in its dialogue and character interactions at times, though I feel a great deal of that is due to the age of the characters. I am hopeful that we gain some additional maturity in book two from our cast.

I almost gave up on the book because of how much is packed in at the beginning, specifically in regards to the culture, the intrigue, the multiple different magic systems, and the connections to the gods, but I'm glad I continued on, as the entirety of the reading experience was quite enjoyable.

I wasn't super sure how I would like this book but I am happy to say it was fantastic. It was dark and gritty and I loved the heirs to the houses. I can't wait to read more

***Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher, who provided me with an electronic copy of this book in return for an honest review.***

I love how so many things happened in the book. I could not keep myself from the book because it was so good

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I found there were a lot of things to like about this book. The first thing that pulled me in was the world and how it was described. It added to the story and did not way it down. There were a lot of characters and I have to go back and re-read a little bit to keep track of them all. The magic system was well thought out and made sense. There is one number that came up a lot in this book and that is the number 4. There are four realms, four houses, four gods, and four heirs. They are vying for the throne but they want to keep their homes alive and with a loose-knit friendship they set out to follow the king's orders. I don't want to tell too much for this is a book that should be experienced. I had to force myself to put the book down I did not want to finish it too quickly before I can get the next one.

I haven't read fantasy in a while and this book... really amazed me! the mythical aspect of the four gods and everything, i was really hooked!!!! give it a try and lmk your thoughts

This book was amazing. I coudn't put it down. It was magical. Higly recommended! The characters, the plots, the writting: wonderful and perfect.

I received this book from NetGalley in return for a honest review.

Four houses, all vying for the throne, must come together to solve a spooky and threatening problem. Conjurers have begun animating corpses and attacking civilians. The heirs of the four major houses are intertwined in different ways, and all have different gifts. While the premise of this book was appealing, I found myself absolutely slogging through it. It took me ten days to read 40%, because j found myself not interested in picking it up and very easily distracted when I did manage to read. The first four chapters were slow, very long introductions to each of the main characters. While things picked up a little after these chapters, it just wasn’t enough to hold my interest, and I stopped reading the book at 40%. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more at a different time, but when I find myself dreading picking up my book, I know it’s time to move on.

This one didn't work for me - I got through about 25% of the book and was too confused 9which is rare for me as a fantasy reader, I can normally just stick with it and get the payoff at the end) to keep going and just didn't care about any of the characters.

Loved this book and hope to continue.

I was lucky enough to get the fairyloot adult version and it's absolutely stunning. Look forward to other works.

THE CITY OF DUSK kicks off with an explosion of immersive writing, gorgeously detailed world-building, complex magic, and deliciously queer characters you can't help but root for. The story follows four houses who possess four distinct abilities, each with their own blessings/curses to contend with. There are vengeful gods - each sealed away in their own holy spaces - and shifting alliances as a member from each house - Angelica, Nik, Teasia, and Risha - fight for the throne in their kingless realm. The stakes were quite high as everyone stood to lose on both a personal and cosmic level. Loved all the melancholic, grim vibes and the way the book's decadence felt realistic.

Though I absolutely loved the story, the one thing I would say is this reads more like YA than adult fiction to me. There are ways the characters perceive the world that still have that YA perspective to it, but this didn't take away from the story. Just something that won't appeal to some.

This book was marketed as Adult, but I didn't feel like there were many parts that would have pushed it into the Adult category. All of the main characters were described as being between 20-25 and none of them seemed to act their age. I also felt like this book was trying to do too much. There were 4 different magic systems, 4 gods, 6+ POVs and it felt like all of them were only done half way.

this was such an interesting book!! i felt the plot was great and i could connect to the characters. it did take me a little while to get through the book but it was definitely worth it !

I started this book three times, but I could not get into it. There are several narrators and it feels like the Game of Thrones series, so those who enjoyed the format of the latter (or any epic fantasy) may enjoy this one. Each time I started it, the story didn't hook me - I did not finish it.