City of Fae by Pippa DaCosta - 3/5
Summary from Goodreads:
From the moment Alina touches London's hottest fae superstar, breaking one of the laws founded to protect all of her kind, her fate – and the fae – close in. Below ground, the fae High Queen plots to claim the city as her own and places her pawns, ready for the battle to come. A battle she cannot lose, but for one small problem – Alina. There are four ancient keepers powerful enough to keep the queen in her prison. Three are dead. One remains … And to fight back, Alina risks sacrificing everything she has come to love.
Review:
“Don’t you see? You’re different. She’s created life in you.”
Pippa DaCosta, City of Fae
City of Fae, a new adult, urban fantasy from Pippa DaCosta follows Alina, an American girl living in London, who has recently been let go from her job as a reporter. In this alternate universe, Fae live among humans and are monitored by the FA to make sure that they stay in line and behave themselves.
One day, Alina runs into Reign, a fae rockstar, and her life changes forever. When humans touch fae, the fae have the ability to absorb their life-force and bespell them and, basically, it never ends well. Humans become addicted to the touch and then they become crazy and lives are ruined.
As soon as Alina is thrust into Reign’s world, she learns that she might not actually be human and, in fact, she might not even really BE. She’s chased around by a horrible spider queen and there are a ton of spiders following her EVERYWHERE, and the whole things is just kind of uncomfortable and creepy-crawly.
I didn’t hate this book, but I didn’t love it either. I couldn’t connect with Alina. She seemed like a bit of a ghost to me, and maybe that was the point, but if it was, I don’t get it. She made many questionable decisions and whined a lot and went back and forth in her decisions about Reign. Does she love him? Does she hate him? Nobody knows. Not even Alina.
That being said, it’s clear pretty early on that Alina is in love with this rockstar fae she’s only just met, and there’s not a whole lot I like reading less than insta-love. Considering this book only spans a few days, I just can’t get behind the connection. Doesn’t really seem like Reign can, either. He’s already in love with somebody else. And he’s kind of a monster, which prevents him from being in a relationship with Alina.
To end on a high note, the story doesn’t feel OVERDONE. I’m not sure I’ve ever read one quite like it. I’m going to continue with the series to see if it gets better because I can see the potential. Here’s to hoping I don’t have to read about any more spiders in the next book.
