Review: City of Dusk by Tara Sim

City of Dusk by Tara Sim

Published by Orbit Books

Set in a gorgeous world of bone and shadow magic, of vengeful gods and defiant chosen ones, The City of Dusk follows the four heirs of four noble houses—each gifted with a divine power—as they form a tenuous alliance to keep their kingdom from descending into a realm-shattering war.

The Four Realms—Life, Death, Light, and Darkness—all converge on the City of Dusk. For each realm there is a god, and for each god there is an heir.

But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the once vibrant and thriving metropolis. And without it, all the realms are dying.

Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction, the four heirs—Angelica, an elementalist with her eyes set on the throne; Risha, a necromancer fighting to keep the peace; Nikolas, a soldier who struggles to see the light; and Taesia, a shadow-wielding rogue with a reckless heart—will become reluctant allies in the quest to save their city.

But their rebellion will cost them dearly.

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Tara Sim wrapped me up in a big gay goth book shaped burrito with the City of Dusk. I feel like I need to dress in all black, gorgeous extravagance just to match up to the absolute magnificent goth vibes in this book. It made me eager to finish work just so I get sink into this good book. If you’ve ever wanted an Adult Percy Jackson with morally grey (and entirely sexy) gay goths with godly powers and set in an epic pre-Raphelite inspired fantasy world this it it. Words are limited, but that is what I’m going with.

The City of Dusk provides a fun and exciting world for readers to read. It pushes you into a slow burn of intimate plots, characterization, and into a world of gothic architecture, dons, living gods, their divine descendants, occult, grimoires, and fancy heirs galavanting in their sexy villas. I’ve missed being able to dive into a fun world, where I really get to spend time knowing and getting a feel for morally grey characters. It follows various characters, the heirs of their houses – Taesia, Nikolas, Risha, Angelica. As their world dies, the young god-touched heirs get wrapped up in the court politics and scandals (other than their own).

Tara Sim made me mourn with Nikolas, and the loss of his brother, the pride of his father, and related the fact that all he wanted from life was a dog. I felt the burning rage of Taesia, as it ripped through the entire novel. I looked in awe as Angelica’s music lit up the scene. Risha and her correct opinion that bones are always in fashion. I’m devastingly interested in the guard meets heir trope, where character A shoves character B against the wall with a knive, competely resisting the hots they have for each other. I will just leave you hanging with that tempting bit of information. So many of the characters are fascinating. The rich gay heirs secretly sleeping with their sexy golden kissed friends will get me every time.

Dig into this for murderous gods, slow burns, secret lovers, celestial weapons, necromancy, the villa lifestyle, messy gay heirs, and the descendants of gods. If you’re like me and you miss those fashionable girlies, those big tomed epics, definitely pick up City of Dusk.

Thank you to Orbit Books for sending me an ARC for review.