A Captivating Adventure with a Unique Twist – 4/5 Stars

Charlie Holmberg’s The Hanging City is a thrilling, imaginative tale set in a world that blends mystery, magic, and adventure. The novel draws readers into a steampunk-inspired city suspended high above the ground, where strange technologies and eerie secrets await. Holmberg's world-building is exceptional; the setting feels alive and richly detailed, making it easy to get lost in the city’s labyrinthine streets and towering structures.

The main characters, led by a determined and resourceful protagonist, are well-developed, and their dynamics provide a solid foundation for the story. The relationships feel genuine, with moments of humor and tension that keep the narrative moving at a brisk pace. Holmberg’s writing style is engaging, weaving together moments of suspense and heart in a way that makes you want to turn the pages quickly.

While the pacing of the story is generally strong, there are moments when the plot slows down a bit, which may leave readers wishing for a bit more action. Some of the twists and revelations are predictable, but Holmberg does a great job of adding enough surprises to keep things interesting.

Overall, The Hanging City is a compelling read with a well-thought-out plot, engaging characters, and an unforgettable setting. It’s perfect for fans of fantasy and steampunk, though it may not fully blow you away with its surprises. Still, it’s a solid, enjoyable read that leaves you looking forward to more.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. After I finished with this book, I searched for every other Charlie N. Holmberg book I could find and read it too! This book was captivating, with so much thought about such a magical place. HIGHLY RECOMMEND

This book was super promising conceptually. The setting and the set-up were richly imagined and I was excited to see where the book would take us & how the character Lark would grow (considering this felt very coming-of-age coded in the beginning). I found that it kind of fizzled, and never really went anywhere. There were some neat little slices of life, but the backstory being rehashed became very repetitive and bland. The romance was fun and a little different to what I'm used to but I could get behind it. I just found I wanted so much more from this. It was like being a kid in a huge playground but your mom only lets you play on the swings. I'm tempted to read more from this author just to see if this was a one-off, I want to know if they *can* go the distance and be daring in their writing.

Overall a little disappointing and a bit of a slog that had SO MUCH potential. Still a different and mildly entertaining read. Thanks for the ARC!

I actually really liked this! I wasn’t fully sure what to expect based on the synopsis, which was kind of vague and wordy. But this was such a unique concept and I liked it a lot. The world building was incredible, and learning about hierarchy of the troll society was fascinating. I thought this was really interesting and definitely worth checking out!

I love Charlie Holmberg so much. Her arcs were some of the first I was ever approved for. Her books are my addiction and this was no exception. Please excuse me while I fall in LOVE with yet another book by her. This just makes me want to reread all of my favorites again. Theres a reason shes in my top 10 authors.

I realized I don’t care for trolls/ogres. Sadly this book is mostly descriptions and I just didn't really get into it

I've been wanting to read one of Charlie N. Holmberg's books for a while, and The Hanging City was a great start. The worldbuilding was comprehensive without being redundant, and the relationships realistic in their slow, gradual build. I loved the main character for her determined nature and emotional intelligence. Despite all the setbacks and challenges she faced, she still had an enduring confidence that was admirable. I think I'll be checking out more of Holmberg's work!

I am not sure if I was just emotional or if this book just managed to get to me, but I cried reading this book. I think this was the first time I read a book that was supposed to be one thing and was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't. I went into The Hanging City thinking it was just fantasy and feeling confident I would at least enjoy the writing having previously read Charlie N. Holmberg. However, this was more of a romantasy. I kept feeling like I was reading a Nicholas Sparks romance but it was set entirely in a fantasy realm. I enjoyed the characters and their personalities and how a different culture was intoduced both as part of the plot line and as part of character development.

Overall I would recommend this to romantasy fans who aren't necessarily looking for something spicy. I also feel like fans of Bookshops & Bonedust and Legends & Lattes (Travis Baldree) would enjoy this book.

I’ve meant to read a Charlie Holmberg book for a while now because her works seem like they could be right up my alley. In the first half or so of The Hanging City, I was really, really enjoying myself and sure that I’d be eagerly reading more of her stuff soon. Unfortunately, the book went seriously downhill for me in the second half, and it ended up being a pretty mediocre read by the end.

In the first half, the focus is mostly on Lark acclimating to life in Cagmar, the strange trollis city, in what I found to be a very enjoyable slice-of-life plot. She starts to learn about a unique new place, make friends, and develop hopes for the future. In the second half, the focus narrows in on her romance with Azmar to the book’s overall detriment. I’m no monsterf*cker, but neither am I inherently opposed to the idea of a Lark/Azmar romance. It just ends up moving incredibly quickly to the point that they are exchanging life-bond stones and declaring their love in what feels like no time at all. A lot of the stakes involve the romance after this point, and I just wasn’t totally convinced or onboard for it.

The other big problem is that there are SO many plot points that feel quite dubious and shaky in the second half. Sometimes a plot point or two will feel a bit contrived to me, but it’s rare to encounter so many one after another. Here is my list:
-While she is a prisoner, Lark flirts with a guard so that he won’t tie her rope bonds well, and this works
-While sneaking around the enemy camp, she finds all of the army’s strategic plans and diagrams in a random drawer that isn’t even in the general’s tent - it's just the first random empty tent that she sneaks into by chance
-Azmar is able to save Lark from the soldiers trying to kill her because he sees her running away from her father from across a battlefield while he is fighting for his life
-Lark uses her powers to terrify Azmar so much that he gets up from dying after being impaled and runs back to the trollis healers
-She makes herself bait to summon a legion of monsters and is able to corral and herd them all with her powers before any of them attack her
-Azmar gets over his intense fear of Lark (after she’s used her powers on him) after one occasion of seeing her
-He convinces her that he still loves her by showing her old military papers demonstrating that his usual fear response is to fight instead of flee, so she was able to convince him to flee when she saved his life by terrifying him. I’m not really sure why this is important at all. (Side note: it’s a bit strange that fear/trauma responses are dichotomized into fight and flee in this book since I feel like the most common version you hear these days is fight/flight/freeze and most of the trauma research I’m familiar with now typically includes “fawn” and “flop” the other primary responses.)

So, yes. A lot of things had me raising my eyebrows towards the end. Charlie Holmberg wrote in her acknowledgements that she had to stop working on the book while struggling during COVID and was only able to return to it and finish it recently. I can’t help but wonder if this fact has something to do with how much the book changes as I described.

The other main thing that feels strange about The Hanging City to me is that it introduces an element of hatred between the humans and trollis in a very superficial way, and this conflict drives most of the plot…but I just don’t feel like the book goes beyond that to have much to say about it. An example is the way that Lark takes on the role of Unach and Azmar’s servant who has to do everything for them (and does it all eagerly) to “earn her place” and “deserve to stay in Cagmar” and be protected from the trollis who is stalking and trying to kill her. It’s a troubling dynamic given the fraught history between the species, the discrimination against humans (who are hated and treated as second-class citizens) in Cagmar, and the romance that develops between Lark and Azmar. Yet it’s never explored beyond this surface level understanding that discrimination is bad but this is just what Lark needs to do to get by and it's good that Unach and Azmar are protecting her.

Despite these problems, I did enjoy the unique setting, slice-of-life first half, and sweet, optimistic protagonist enough to be interested in reading more books by this author. It’s just a shame that I wasn’t as enamored as I thought I would be starting out.

Lark has spent the last seven years of her life on the run from her father, an abusive tyrant who uses his daughter's special power for his own purposes: she can thrust fear onto others, leaving all threats fleeing in terror. A gift or a curse? The reader will have to decide.
Lark's last hope is in Cagmar, the legendary city of trolls. However, Lark must earn the right to seek asylum in the fantastical lost hanging city.
If the author plans to write a continuation of this story, she can count on me to read it! Like the other Charlie Holmberg stories I've read, this one is well written, with strong characters and very well designed and described situations and locations. Highly recommended!
I thank the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.
The opinion I have expressed above is based solely on what I think and feel about this book.

This book started off in a fantastic way - cool magic power for our main characters, trolls as a main character class in the book, and the idea of our main character having to fight with her evil father towards the end of the book. However, once this book hit the midway point, I started to lose interest.

For the entire first half, I was rooting for her to fall in love with Asmar, just because we never see a human/troll (or trollis) romance in books and I didn't want them to chicken out and have her end up with a human or half-troll. And we got that!... but then it got cringey. And then the whole rest of the book revolved around their romance, when initially it felt like it would be just the perfect mix of 80% plot with 20% romance; now, those numbers had switched.

And the ultimate end fight with her father and his troops? Anti-climactic, and she didn't even get to deal any of the final blows with her awesome powers that then... felt WAY too Mary Sue-like.

Just read somewhere that Holmberg wrote the first half or 2/3 of this book before 2019 and then took a break to finish two other books before coming back to finish it, and I can definitely see that in her writing. I can see that there was potential here, it just didn't live up to it.

So, I didn't know Holmberg was a notable/popular(?) author until I was looking through her GR page while I was reading. To be honest, if I didn't have that background, I would've assumed this was a debut or something.

Bare bones world-building, bland romance, weird dynamics between human/trollis relations that aren't really questioned beyond the surface, an ending that dropped in on itself, this book was just - a mess.

I feel like if this was further developed, it could easily be a trilogy, maybe a duology; anything but one book. But, as it is, this felt like such a nothing burger of a book. Just a raw patty slapped between two slices of bread. It was just so unfulfilling.

Overall, I don't think I'll read anything more from Holmberg. I don't know if this should represent the quality of her other works, but unless I'm convinced otherwise, I live not having read more than one of her books.

I loved 'Keeper of Enchanted Rooms' by Charlie N Holmberg earlier this year- its was a hidden gem that I ADORED, so I was so excited to see this- a little bit more fantasy with the same engaging writing!

This unfortunately didn't hit the same for me. I saw a review that called it 'Shrek fanfiction' which made me laugh out loud.

The plot was not my favorite, but not problematic. I just wasnt the perfect audience.

I will definitely continue to read from this author though!

3.5 stars
A grounded fantasy romance novel with a magic-wielding woman seeking shelter in a troll society!

A strict caste system rules the trolls, and the small human population in their city is the lowest of the low. Lark however has hidden magical talents - she can project fear into any living creature - and so the troll council places her with a pair of brother and sister trolls belonging to higher castes. The sister is a monster hunter whom Lark is tasked to help keep large critters away from the population.

Lines are blurred when Lark finds herself falling for the stoic but kind brother - a situation neither of them know how to navigate without dire consequences. Meanwhile, the politics of the trolls clash with outside dangers as human forces close in on their stronghold.

I enjoyed this novel and how the matter-of-fact way it was told blended with a romanticized fantasy based on troll mythology. Since I’m from northern Sweden, I grew up on stories about trolls and feel a connection to that particular blend of myth and fairytales. Going out in the woods as a kid, I truly believed they were in the mountains. So this novel got me excited, reading a well-written story about how it would be for a human to end up living with them. I’m now looking forward to exploring this subgenre of fantasy further!

The cave city setting and troll culture described were strong points of the book, but the worldbuilding felt a bit flat outside of the troll city. We learned of sparse human settlements but this was only briefly touched upon, not described in much detail. I also felt that the villain of the story was one-dimensional and the ramped up situation in the third act a bit rushed. But how it was all tied together was still satisfying! All in all an entertaining, enthralling read with a romance I enjoyed (in this case with no spice/fade to black).

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC for review consideration!

Somehow Charlie Holmberg books are all identifiable as being Charlie Holmberg books. They are kind of cozy fantasy with sometimes a bit of low stress sex thrown in. This book is no different. The book blurb tells the whole story. Lark joins the Ogres. Learns from them. They learn from her. She overcomes hardships and wins the heart of a gentle, kind, young ogre and they walk off into the sunset together. Nice book. No stress.

After years spent fleeing her abusive father and travelling from town to town in a world of scarcity, Lark decides to try her chances at Cagmar. This is a troll, or rather, trollis, town, and there are some humans who live and work here, though they occupy the lowest rung of trollis society. Lark is refused entry till she reveals her spacial power — she can force intense fear into another being. Her father used her superpower to accumulate wealth and status, and treated her badly and beat her to ensure she stayed by his side.

Lark is housed with a pair of siblings, Unach and Azmar. Unach fights the various megafauna that threaten the trollis town, while Azmar, an engineer, works on shoring up and expanding the town, which is situated on the underside of a bridge and skillfully hidden from human eyes.

Lark is not accepted by anyone initially, but her positive personality and kindness change people's minds, and she also finds somewhat unconventional romance in Cagmar, before her past catches up with her.

I really enjoyed Charlie N. Holmberg's "Spellbreaker"series, but this book just never really clicked with me. I never warmed to Lark, or cared all that much about her experiences trying to make friends while evading certain violent members of Cagmar. And though I appreciated how much this book was about kindness, I kept bouncing off this story. I did love one character in this book: Unach, the elder of the siblings Lark was housed with. She's dangerous, funny, warm, open, and just basically fabulous.

Thank you to Netgalley and to 47North for this ARC in exchange for my review.

The beginning is rough. We get dropped into this world very abruptly, kinda just haphazardly given a little bit of information without getting to know Lark quickly enough and I really struggled to get into the story for the first 20%. World-building had the potential to be fascinating but ultimately left me wanting more. Cagmar and the canyon and the trollis community got a good amount of development, as they should, but the world outside, religions, and even her past could have used just a little more depth and explanation.

I liked the relationships between Lark and Ulach and Perg and even Azmar (when it wasn't sexual). Honestly the trollis romance was kinda a turn-off. It's not that it was badly-written, they actually were rather sweet and I loved Azmar as a character to boot. I just don't know how much I personally can get behind a troll/human romance. I think in books it's even harder for me, because I'm not 100% sure what I should be visualizing. And when you throw sex into the mix, it just gets worse.

Overall, good, but not great. I'll probably remember it well though, for the trollis world.

I admire Holmberg for her many different approaches to fantasy romance. The Hanging City might not be as heavy on the romance aspect as some of her other works, but beautifully blends in with her backlog of well-crafted standalone tales with unique premises.

The worldbuilding with a post- or at least close-to-apocalyptic backdrop hits close to home, considering we are living through the record year of climate change 2023. In this land of draughts, where human settlements are scarce and scattered across a desert wasteland, Lark is running from her warlord father, who exploited the unexplained ability she was born with. Driven from one township to the next, her last hope for refuge is the eponymous hanging city of Cagmar, suspended from an ancient bridge of world wonder proportions.

The few humans tolerated within troll-founded Cagmar's caste society are treated little better than slaves, living outside the troll law. When Lark is allowed to stay in exchange for her service defending the city with her magical gift of instilling fear in others, she is sent to live with a ferocious female troll warrior and her engineer brother. (Whoooooooooooooo ends up being the soft boy love interest.) Lark, trying everything she can to make herself useful, remains hopeful that she might finally create a family for herself. But not everyone living under the bridge might be as accepting of her presence there.

If the recent trend of messy orc romances is up your alley, this closed-door love story is probably not for you. As I said, it might not even be for the heavy-duty romance readers. But the character work is brilliant, and Lark might just be my favourite Holmberg heroine so far. So soft, and loveable, and brave... you really gotta love her. This author puts so much thought behind every dialogue and every action, it makes me go feral with longing for her fantasy realms. The love of detail stands out.

The Hanging City keeps up with Holmberg's tradition of incorporating deceptively discreet darker fantasy themes into her plots. Those bits are especially delicious, and mark her work as definitive adult speculative fiction. This is an instant-buy author for me.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

This book was such a fun introduction to fantasy novels where trolls (or trollis) are the good guys. Lark’s flight into Cagmar left her desperate and the initial arrival was not pleasant. Her journey to finding acceptance despite her ability that Lark knows makes her hard to trust was a fun read. I liked the other Trollis characters especially Perg a half human/half trollis she meets in the city.

I did struggle a bit with how much of the book is expanding on the trollis society and culture before the action really began. The world building was exciting and I enjoyed the design of the city and all the work our main character and her friends do there to work toward acceptance that the ending of leaving because they weren’t welcome anymore fell a little flat.