RoXXie
City of Storms (Nightmarked, #1) ♦ Kat Ross | Review
A tarot reader who is hiding a sinister secret. A priest whose damaged heart prevents him from falling asleep. A fallen angel determined to destroy them both.
City of Storms by Kat Ross captured me whole.
When I first started reading City of Storms, I had some hiccups with the story. Because there was a lot of information presented initially that was confusing. But after reading a few pages, and with the aid of the glossary, a mystical world brimming with magic became clear to me.
Opinion
The setting is incredibly immersive and dark, and the characters are quite well-developed and very interesting. Kat Ross does a brilliant job of capturing the reader in a world that is both very different from our own and appears to be so very similar to it. Furthermore, her perspective on magic and how everything is interconnected is magnificent.
City of Storms is the first installment of a quadrology called Nightmarked. The story comes around with a lot of unexpected twists, which drew me deeper and deeper into the plot. I was very intrigued by the whole of it. The world building and the three main characters excited me, that I could hardly put my Kindle down.
Fra Alexei Bryce reacts to the Markhounds (special bred dogs) alarm about someone turning insane and Kasia Novak, a cardomancer (tarot reader), who ran for her life because of the mad one. That’s how Ross threw me into the action as the novel begins. Although the rapid-fire introduction of new vocabulary and terms initially makes reading difficult due to the absence of prior context, it was a strong and enthralling beginning. Given that the world building seems to draw extensively from both Latin and the Catholic Church, some knowledge with both would come handy. But as I stated already, the glossary helps a lot as well.
The pace of the story was perfect. I never felt like I had to rush through the pages to keep up. Also, there weren’t any boring sections that contained too many explanations or described unimportant dialogues and actions.
City of Storms is really well written, and I didn’t even lose touch with the characters. They did take a little time before I took a liking to them, including the antihero.
Conclusion
★★★★★
I really did enjoy reading City of Storms, and I am really excited to dive right into the next installment. I can’t really say why I am excited, because I am not willing to leave any spoilers. But I can recommend this book for readers who enjoy Dark Fantasy paired with Mystery, Magic and Paranormal.
I received an advance review copy for free at BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This review was first published at The Art of Reading.