The Black City by Elizabeth Richards

I read this book pretty quickly since it was a holiday weekend.  I started two nights ago, read throughout my Memorial Day and finished it last night.  I stayed up a little too late finishing it just because I was so close to the end!

So here is the book description from Goodreads: 


"A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war

In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable--they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash's long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they're caught, they'll be executed--but their feelings are too strong.When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths."

I have to tell you, I was a little surprised by this one.  I basically decided to read it on a whim and the reviews weren't awesome so I was a little worried, but I absolutely loved it!  I'm going to try not to give away any spoilers in this one, but I can't promise that I always will in future reviews.

The book is about two races, humans and Darklings that have fought a war against each other that recently ended.  A darkling from what I gathered was basically a vampire-like creature that has fangs and survives on blood. Also, whenever a darkling bites, the venom in their fangs has a drug-like effect which becomes addictive and adds an interesting note to the story line  There are several different types of darklings which are discussed briefly in the book. The two races have been completely separated except for Ash, who is half-blood, and has been allowed to live with the humans and ends up going to school with Natalie.  Natalie's mother works for the human government and is causing all kinds of problems for the darklings throughout the story. There is still some serious turmoil between the races and we follow the story from the human perspective (Natalie) and the half-blood perspective (Ash) throughout the book.  There is a fight for power between the two races and a forbidden romance develops between Natalie and Ash.  Their love story is cute and I found myself rooting for them!  I know some people mentioned being frustrated by the love story aspect, but I thought Elizabeth Richards handled this well.

The book is pretty dark and I pictured it kind of "gritty" in my mind while I was reading.  I enjoyed all of the characters and felt like most characters were developed well.  Of course, as is the case with ever good trilogy, we end on a slight open end.  However, the Elizabeth Richards could have made it MUCH worse if she had ended it any sooner so kudos to her for not leaving things where she could have!  All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I am excited to continue the story in the next installment, Phoenix, which is due out June 4th!

I'm going to apologize now for my book review.  I'll get the hang of this and hopefully get better at it over time!