When I first picked up the Requiem Dark series as an ARC reader back in 2021 I absolutely fell in love with the world, the characters and the story. So when I finished the first book thinking it was a standalone it was a sad moment, however the incredible Claire Winn has done it again with this sequel!!

This book is everything I could have wanted for the sequel, from trials and sacrifice, to friendship and romance it was the perfect mix of everything. Also give some hope for continuation of the series!!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC. I really enjoyed reading this sequel. It picks up where we left off in the last book. It's fast-paced and follows the 3 POVs of Riven, Asa and Ty. They and the Boomslang Faction must navigate their lives and try to stop Asa's Dad from his evil plans. I really enjoyed reading this book.

Rating: 3.75
So first of all, I want to thank NetGalley and Flux, for allowing me to read this book. It was in fact one of my most anticipated books of the year, I even had the opportunity to do a cover reveal, and it was so great.

So I liked this book, it is a good sequel and ending to this story. I was so happy to go back to this found family and see the relationship between Ava and Riven evolve, because of the pining and the fact that they can’t get their shit together. I love messy characters. Also, let’s be honest, Ty… I love this character. But I also liked that we learned more about Diego, Samir (and their beautiful and messy love story), and even Morphett. Like, clearly, this girl is scary and can kill me so quickly, I love girls that can kill. And to be honest, Kaya was a good character, she’s funny, bisexual, and hates the authorities. Another thing that I like was Redline, the mystery surrounding them, and the trials. Also, the ending, to be honest, yes I liked the ending, even if I kind of see it coming at some point (for Ava at least).

But… I found that the story was too fast-paced, a lot of things were happening in this book, and I think 456 pages were not enough, or maybe it could have been two books. Because some events felt almost rushed sometimes. I would have loved that every event, and character, got the time they deserved. And another thing that I really did not like, well I found it “meh”, was the love story between Kaya and Ty. Like, yes they are linked, but it would have been great to see a platonic relationship between the two youngest team members.

So yes, it’s a good book and a good sequel. I will probably read the next one, but it is not the best (for me).

I always love a good found family story and this is exactly what that is!! Asa and Riven are back and more chaotic than ever! I was fortunate enough to be a part of the cover reveal for this book and receive a physical copy as well. When I tell you I love this duology so much!! It has everything: disaster bisexuals, heists, deadly trials, romantic tension and so much more. I can’t wait to see what Claire Winn does next.

This was such an exciting read! It was so much fun to dive back into the world of Asa and Riven, and to find out what happened next. I’d forgotten how tense the story could get, and found my self stuck reading it way past when I was meant to be asleep!

I love the way Winn writes. She can really bring a scene into my head, so I can see it play out as well as read it. This can make for some rather intense reading, but with this genre that’s what you want.

The plot moves along steadily, but with some faster paced chapters that break it up nicely. Though I did find that there was quite a bit to keep track of with the different pov chapters, though this didn’t always cause an issue.

I recommend this to anyone who is looking for an exciting and well written novel. Especially if you love stories with kick-ass characters and themes of found family. Just make sure you read ‘City of Shattered Light’ first!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for sending me this free eARC (eAdvanced Reader Copy). I am leaving this review voluntarily. This title was published 23rd May 2023.

I wish I had looked more closely at this, and known it was a book 2! Given I hadn't read the first book, I still thoroughly enjoyed this one. I could tell there were bits that would have made this read more enjoyable had I read Book 1 ( so I don't recommend skipping it!) but it wasn't strictly necessary to enjoy this read! I am a huge fan of LGBTQ literature and the was no exception. I appreciated the sci-fi aspects and futuristic feel, and can't wait to pick up book one soon!

I cannot tell you enough how much I liked this book. Again, I must have been off in LaLa land when I requested this book (the same as an Heir of Uncertain Magic) because it is also a sequel! Jeeze, I need to focus more when I'm requesting books. Anyways, I feel like I didn't NEED to read the first book to really understand things. I assume there are world building and character developments that I have completely missed. But that's okay because Claire did just that in this book as well. I appreciate the author ending this with an open ending, like maybe there could more another book, maybe there couldn't. Although, I think that I have read that there will be a novella out in the near future and I'd like to read that as well. I also think one day I would like to go back and read the first book and then re-read this book to get the full experience.

Enjoyable, great pacing, exciting settings kept me hooked. Intriguing novel that will be the perfect to lose yourself in. Thank you Net Galley for ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

This one is a 4. We rejoin the crew from book 1 who are still dealing with the fallout of losing one of their own. Riven and Asa are taking things slow as Riven's mystery illness gets worse, Kaya is trying very hard to resist the temptation of leaving her human body in favour of living on the net, and Samir is thinking about his future.

The plot moves along at a steady pace but there's just a lot going on. We've got Redline hunting the crew down, Asa's father is experimenting on Ty, there's a competition to become the next Matriarch on Requiem, there's a lot of going back and forth between Requiem and Cortellion for some reason, there are a lot of side characters that aren't needed and I really don't remember... The main driving force for me with this book was the main characters and finding out what happens to them because the plot itself was frustratingly complicated. It almost felt as though it was supposed to be a trilogy but there wasn't quite enough plot to spread out over 3 books, however there was too much plot to cram into 2.

Overall, a satisfying ending to the duology and I'd definitely read more books by this author.

great addition to the story loved seenig the crew again and hearing about more of their antics. I can't wait for for my physical copy to get here so I can annotate it to my hears desire

Because they are now facing so many threats, Asa, Riven and her crew need to find a way to earn protection fast. The best way to do so, according to Riven, would be to participate in the upcoming competition to become a matriarch. If they win their spot, they would be protected and the bounty on their head wouldn’t mean anything anymore.

Honestly, I found this book boring. I remember enjoying the first one, the pace was good, the setting was refreshing, and the plot was engaging enough to keep me hooked, even though I do not read that many sci-fi books in general. This sequel was just bland.

There was some politics, as Asa and Riven’s crew are still trying to hide from Asa’s father, and basically everyone else as there is now a bounty on their head, but I can’t say that I was engaged in the plot. I skimmed some parts near the middle because it just got tedious and I struggled to remain focused on the story. The ideas were mostly good, but the execution in general was lacking. Some aspects of the story just seemed inconsequential too, and I kept on hoping that it would make more sense, or that I would finally understand how they were relevant, but there are still some parts of the story that seem pointless. I just wanted it to end so I can move on and read something more interesting.

Riven was also very frustrating in this book. She was impulsive, to begin with in the first book, but in this sequel, she just does whatever she wants to, without thinking about the consequences or how it affects others. She ended up putting her whole crew at risk many times, and still, she never got the results she wanted with her half-baked plans. She also seemed to be pretty self-centered at times, except of course when it came to romance. When it came to Asa, Riven decided to be a martyr and to stay away from her to protect her, although I fail to see how that will change anything, seeing as they are still living and traveling together as a crew. It was most probably a way for the author to add some drama to the story, but considering how little I cared about Riven, I was not involved in her romance with Asa. That being said, the romance did feel less forced than in the first book, so that’s good at least.

One relationship that I enjoyed more is Asa and Kaya’s. They get closer in this book, and I liked seeing their sisterly bond get stronger. Honestly, I don’t really know what else to say about this book. I had to force myself to continue reading it, not because it was bad, but because I didn’t care about the characters and the plot.

This book marks the end of this duology, but the ending is open enough for the author to continue this series with a new adventure if she chooses to do so. I do not think I will read any other book that might be released linked to this universe though, because I was disappointed and bored with this one. I am not the biggest fan of sci-fi (meaning that I am very picky when it comes to it), so maybe part of the problem here is me.

I enjoyed that City of Vicious Night has some interesting themes it plays with as the book progresses. I think the primary focus is certainly the action, then followed by the characters, but the themes it introduces are intriguing. This idea of wondering how responsible we are for our inaction. For our family and past mistakes. And how can we fix them? If you love the idea of an ever evolving SF world, deadly competitions, and explosions, City of Vicious Night is your book!
Full review to come on YouTube

The Boomslang crew is closer than ever but still in danger. In the hopes of finally being safe, Riven suggests entering the trial to become the matriarch of the Rio Oscuro syndicate (read City of Shattered Light to find out why the syndicate needs a new boss). The trial has a cyberpunk Hunger Games feel. The gang has more enemies than just the other pretenders to the throne and if City of Vicious Night was a movie, there would be a lot of pew pew pew.

I love the energy and the worldbuilding in this series. The characters are growing, together and individually. Riven is more consistent than in the first book but hasn’t evolved much, whereas Asa is a much more complex and fascinating character. I still have the same issue as in book 1 with the characters’ age, they all feel a few years older than they’re written, if only because they’ve already had so many experiences in their shortish lives. But okay, it doesn’t matter too much. The many twists – some I saw coming, others were complete surprises – all make the story captivating and the pacing will keep you on your toes. The addition of Asa’s technomancer sister Kaya to the group gives it bonus nerd points and I hope we’ll get more of her in future books. There’s a novella coming out in the fall, titled One Last Midnight, that seems to centre on her and on the mystifying bounty hunter Morphett, and I’m looking forward to it.

Overall, I enjoyed this second book in the duology, slightly less than the first book – I find Riven frustrating – but enough that I hope there will be more books. The author kept the ending to this one open enough to allow for all sorts of adventures in the future.

Four months after runaway heiress Asa managed to get her sister’s consciousness placed back inside her body, the two of them are firmly established members of Riven’s crew. When a hacker starts telling the people of city-moon Requiem that they were the ones responsible for the chaos from around then, and starts trying very hard to kill them, the crew decide that their best option for survival is to have Riven become the new matriarch of one of the Requiem’s five factions, as matriarchs are nigh-untouchable. To do that they’ll need to succeed at a series of trials, and deal with new opponents, all while still fending off the murderous hacker and uncovering a conspiracy involving Asa’s father with horrifying implications for all of Requiem.

I came away from the first book wanting the girls to be friends rather than girlfriends, which feels deeply weird to me as a queer person who’s used to thinking the complete opposite. The four month time skip means that the majority of development between Asa and Riven happened off-screen between books. If you take their feelings for each other as a given then this book works. I didn’t finish this one thinking they should just be friends. I would’ve much preferred it if we actually got to see them get from A to B, though, especially considering how little focus their relationship in any capacity got in the first book. We could’ve gotten a slow burn out of this, and Riven’s tendency for self-sabotage could’ve remained intact in that version of the story, but instead we got none of the development and barely any of the payoff because having a strong established relationship for most of the book is also apparently too much to ask for.

When I read the first book, I was neutral on Riven. There were times when I liked her and there were times when I really didn’t like her. This, unfortunately, did not change in this book. She’s for some reason taken it upon herself to protect poor innocent little Asa who clearly can’t handle herself in any situation at all, but then she constantly makes reckless decisions that puts everyone in even more danger than they were in before. Riven’s view of herself as a protector and view of Asa (and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the crew) as someone who she specifically must protect is just not true to reality, and this is something that never quite clicks in her head through the whole book. I think this is the source of my issues with her. Asa can handle herself and Riven’s assumption otherwise came off as condescending. Leroy Jenkins’ing your way through life doesn’t just put you in danger, but the people around you as well. It’s hypocritical, and therefore irritating.

Why four stars, then? Well, there is still a lot about this book that I did enjoy!

Riven was a lot more bearable in the final act! She hadn’t fully understood what she’d been doing wrong, but she did refrain from doing any of it again, and I can take a win when I get one.

I loved every other member of the crew! Asa is just as fab in this book as in the first. She’s more used to Requiem and more secure in her life and identity away from her father, now firmly a part of the crew and an indispensable part of it. Samir and Diego were just as great in this book as they were in the first, and I enjoyed getting to learn more about Diego’s past and reasons for being here. Asa’s sister, Kaya, was a highlight for me from the first book despite not actually being in it very much, so I was really happy to see her playing a much larger part in this book. She’s so fun! Her consciousness having been transferred to an alien brain means she’s now effectively a technomancer, and seeing her put those skills to use was really cool. The upcoming novella is going to be featuring her as a main character and I’m genuinely really excited for it!

And then there’s Ty! Ty gets his own pov in this book, and I love him. He’s the team healer and he really embodies that. It was great seeing the contrast between characters who have no problem with killing people, and Ty who wants to save as many people as possible even if it’s maybe not the most efficient approach to a problem. Ty has never killed anyone before, and a big part of his arc is about reckoning with that. He goes from being scared at the thought of hurting someone to being entirely prepared to do so but choosing to be merciful anyway, and I loved that.

Two characters having a psychic link where they can directly communicate with one another and even hear each other’s thoughts is a trope I really enjoy, especially when it leads to the characters becoming closer with each other.

I enjoyed the competition aspect of the plot! However, I wouldn’t describe this entirely as a ‘competition book’, because it takes up a much smaller part of the story than is probably expected. Things go off the rails very quickly thanks to two opposing antagonistic forces. There’s Luca Almeida, Asa and Kaya’s father and the one responsible for a host of suffering and death, and there’s Redline, a hacker saboteur who holds Asa responsible for her father’s factions and is trying to exact revenge on her. There are a lot of questions surrounding Redline, and not all of them are answered by the end, which isn’t a bad thing. It leaves room for there to potentially be more set in this universe.

So many books have their big climactic moment and then just end right away, as if once the confrontation has happened and the big bad has been dealt with there’s nothing of value anymore so it might as well not continue. This book didn’t do that!! The final chapters are a proper denouement, where the characters now finally have a chance to recover and breathe and be okay. Winning the battle isn’t all there is and I really appreciated that we got to see some of what comes after!

This is in all a fun cyberpunk duology that I’m happy to recommend to people looking for something fast paced and cinematic.

Actual Rating: 2.5⭐

I really like the characters, although it takes me a long while to warm up to Riven’s character. I love the growing relationship between Ty and Kaya, also the sister bonding between Asa and Kaya.

The futuristic world building is great and the plot sounds very interesting, the group fights in a competition in order to protect themselves from their enemy that's threatening them.
However the plot feels all over the place cause there are other things happening along the way that confuses me.

It’s been a while since I read the first book and to be honest I forgot most of what happened in the first book. That's one of the reason why I’m having difficulties getting hooked into this story since most of the times I just felt confused.

I remember enjoying the first book (cause I gave it a 4 star) but this one doesn’t live up to my expectation. I really like the characters but other things prevent me from fully enjoying this book.
I would highly recommend re-reading the 1st book before reading this one (if you’ve read the 1st book a long time ago…)

I received an advanced review copy through Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Huge thank you to the author and publisher!

- I am so happy to be back in the vibrant cyberpunk world of this series. CITY OF VICIOUS NIGHT picks up shortly after the end CITY OF SHATTERED LIGHT, and right away our crew is fighting for their lives and their loves again.
- I won't talk too much plot since I don't want to give away the first book. But if you love queer found families, prickly women, edge of your seat battles, and new love, these books are a must.
- It was also great to get a wider view of the world in this installment, as we learn more about the matriarch system on Requiem as well as more about characters who weren't central in the first book. There's space at the end for more sequels, so this is me begging Flux for more of this ragtag crew!

“It hit her how small and desperate they were, fighting to survive in the belly of a beast made of circuits and concrete. Where nothing was certain except the road beneath her and the tech at her command.”

Plot: 3/5
The premise of this sequel is loosely based around a competition where Riven is competing to become a matriarch. If she can do this, they’ll have protection from a new threat, Red Line, and Asa’s father. I think there was a lot going on and several different threats, it was hard to stay too invested in any plot line because none of them felt fully developed.

Characters: 3.5/5
TLDR; I like basically everyone except Riven.
Asa and her sister get a lot of depth added to their relationship. I loved the burgeoning interest between Ty and Kaya too, I think they made a really good match for each other. The other members of their crew are fairly strong as well. Though Samir kinda needed to make a decision and stick to it.

But ultimately Riven kept annoying me, she was absolutely thickheaded and really never EVER thought before doing anything. It constantly put everyone else at risk and never succeeded the way she wanted. I would have really liked to see some more character growth from her in this sequel.

Writing: 4/5
Claire Winn’s writing is neon. It’s sharp, easy to fall into, and filled with an eclectic energy that fits the sci-if genre really well. I think her style is very distinct and her handles multiple POV’s really well.

Overall: 3.5/5

It’s a bit of a bummer to come back to this series a year and a half later and realize I might not have loved it as much as I originally did. I still remember the original fondly but this sequel doesn’t totally hold up. I think this is because I’ve gotten very particular with my sci-if and this doesn’t quite have what I’m looking for anymore.

I received an eARC of this book through Netgalley and here is my honest review.

I would say that this book is characterized by big character growth by all of them. The way the previous book ended had a lot to do with each their own flaws. During this sequel all of them are forced to acknowledge that that behavior is doing more harm than anything good and are forced to grow from that.

The book was split between the story of the crew and Ty who was taken far away. As said in my previous books review I absolutely love Ty as a character and it was so so sad for me to see where he ended up. The way he kept being strong though, gave me so much warmth, it was the best.

The crew themselves take on this new quest aiming to potentially become a matriarch in the city of Requiem. This brings a lot of awesome high tension action scenes and kept me on the edge of my seat for about the whole book.
This wasn't the only plot point going against them and this plot around their saboteur was so so great. It gave me plot twists I never saw coming and blew my mind multiple times.
With Asa's father not standing down either and making things even more difficult for them, it really felt like the whole world was against the crew I loved so much. This altogether made it so that there was always something happening without them having a moment to rest. This maybe sounds like there was way too much going on in the book but it absolutely never felt like that at all. All the threats wove together really well and made for a great story.

Someone who was a threat before but shifted their allegiance was Banshee or better Yllath, which was a story I greatly enjoyed a lot too. I totally understand their anger, but from the previous book already I hoped them and the crew might get on to work together. In the end for both of them one of their biggest enemies is Asa's father. In this book a lot already happened, and I'm very excited to see where this continues in the next book.

A return to Requiem to follow along with Riven and Asa and the crew of the Boomslang.

I loved this one, this is just as good as the first book, if not a little better. The characters show growth and adaptation as they face new challenges and you get a surprise POV that had me all sorts of excited.

Highly recommend, 4.5 out of 5 stars with a .5 out of 5 for spice (one fade to black non-detailed sapphic scene). Romance is NOT a priority and what is there is organic and makes sense for the characters and the situations.

Thank you to NorthStar and NetGalley for the opportunity to review the advance reader copy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This was an enjoyable, action packed read, that kept me entertained. I liked to see how the romance developed and how Tys situation was resolves. Unfortunatly, I didn't see a lot of character growth, and some of the plot lines were confusing. Neverthaless if you're looking for a fast-paced sapphic sci-fi book - try this one!