Mystic City by Theo Lawrence Series: Mystic City #1
Published by Delacorte (8.9.2012)
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 416 pages
Source: Library, NetGalley
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Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud—and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. But Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can't conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place. Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection—and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city—including herself.
My thoughts
The world building was really cool, and I found the idea of Mystics fascinating. Kind of like X-Men, each Mystic has their own individual special power they can use through the means of magic. Uh, how awesome is that? Plus the feud against non-Mystics and the bigotry for Mystics was very believable.
I also like that in the beginning you don’t know very much. Aria has supposedly overdosed on a drug and suffers memory loss, so you know as much as she does – which is to say, nothing at all. It wasn’t confusing, though. The details fell into place fairly quickly and I was able to piece together what REALLY happened to Aria early on. It was a bit predictable, but still a good journey in finding out. I was, however, a bit disappointed that Aria didn’t figure things out faster and pretty much couldn’t think outside the box, even when the facts were staring her right in the face.
And, because I adore forbidden love, the romance was good. It wasn’t spectacular, but it didn’t get on my nerves either (which is not all that hard to do).
There were a couple shocks toward the end, but I couldn’t muster up much feeling for them.
Sadly there’s not much else I can say, other than ‘I liked it.’ This story didn’t wow me, but was definitely worth the read.
Overall Assessment
Plot: 3.5/5
Writing style: 3.5/5
Originality: 4.5/5
Characters: 3/5
World-building: 4.5/5
Pace: 4/5
Cover: 4/5
Overall rating: 3.5/5
Sorry it wasn’t as impressive but it does seem interesting nonetheless. Good review.
I shall definitely have to think about picking this book up since I’ve heard some good things and some bad, I just want to make a decision on my own. Glad you could ‘like’ this book! :)
I like to form my own opinion too! Hopefully you’ll enjoy it, the premise was intriguing :)
It sounds like a really interesting idea, but I don’t like it if the main character is a bit slow. I;ve been on the fence about this one and still am!
Oh I get annoyed if I don’t get to write my review quickly after reading. Since the majority of time for me to write them comes on the weekend…sometimes it is a couple of days since I finished that I write it, but thankfully, that’s not too long. This one sounds pretty interesting, and I do like the X-Men. I will have to look into it…could be my kind of read. Thank you for a great review! Jaclyn @ JC’s Book Haven