Title: Mystic City (Mystic City #1)
Author: Theo Lawrence
Publication Date: October 11th 2012
Publisher: Corgi
Format: Paperback
Pages: 397
Rating: 4.5/5
Blurb: For fans of Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided, a political rebellion ignited, and a love that was meant to last forever. Book One of the Mystic City Novels.
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.
Blurb: For fans of Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided, a political rebellion ignited, and a love that was meant to last forever. Book One of the Mystic City Novels.
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.
Review: The first thing I have to say
about this book is the fact that the cover is absolutely spectacular, and to be
honest it is the main reason that I bought this book in the first place (the
other reason being that one version was actually published on my birthday- a
perfectly sound reason to buy a book right?). Therefore it probably won’t
surprise you that I had absolutely no idea what this book was about going into
it.
I’ve seen
a few of reviews on Goodreads describing this book as ‘boring’, ‘predictable’
etc. though you might have guessed from that 4.5 star rating that those aren’t
the words that I’ll be describing this book with. In a way I can see where the ‘predictable’
is coming from, there were some aspects at the beginning of the book that were
slightly obvious as to where they were going to go, but the book wasn’t without
twists and turns.
Addressing
that ‘boring’ note that some reviewers have made, I didn’t ever really find
large parts of the book to be boring. There were a few chapters that lacked
action or were slower than other parts, but usually they were followed with
enough action to make up for it. So for me, I found the pacing quite good.
Character-wise,
I liked the main character, Aria- I liked that she had this doubt inside her
head as to whether everyone was lying to her or not, but the best thing was
that it grew over time- she wasn’t completely sure of it from the moment the
book started. I also really liked both Hunter and Thomas, though for different
reasons. Another thing I enjoyed was the fact that although Hunter was the ‘rebel
mystic’, he wasn’t really a bad boy and neither was Thomas- a refreshing little
aspect there.
Plot-wise, I enjoyed it. It definitely had parallels
with other young adult novels, but I mean how many books do you find nowadays
that don’t? I liked how the smaller characters and all the details of Aria’s
world all connected together with the plot.
And finally, the world. Probably one of my favourite
things about this book overall. I liked the descriptions and the details and
the contrast to our world both in Aria’s glamourous lifestyle and Hunter’s not
so glamourous one. Another thing I really enjoyed were the ‘mystics’, I really
enjoyed learning about them and seeing all of them through the innocent eyes of
Aria.
So needless to say, I really enjoyed Mystic City and
words could not even begin to explain how excited I am about the second book!
