Series: Standalone as of now

Genre: LGBT (f/f, genderqueer character), Fantasy, Romance,

Rating: 4/5 stars

Cover: I love it!

Goodreads: add

Trigger warnings: drugs

Description: Every night the monsters hunt.

A city that is the whole world: Theosophy and her companions in the City militia do their best to protect the civilians from the monsters, but they keep crawling from the Rift and there’s nowhere to run. Theosophy knows she’ll die fighting. It’s the best kind of death she’s seen, and at least she can save lives in the meantime.

They say the Scarred carve you up while you’re still alive.

A village in the shadow of a forest: Refugees from the border whisper about the oncoming Scarred, but Briony can’t convince her brother to relocate his children to safety. Briony will do anything to protect them. She owes them that much, even if it means turning to forbidden magic.

When Theosophy and Briony accidentally make contact across the boundaries of their worlds, they realize that solutions might finally be within reach. A world beyond the City would give Theosophy’s people an escape, and the City’s warriors could help Briony protect her family from the Scarred. Each woman sees in the other a strength she lacks—and maybe something more.

All they need to do is find a way across the dimensions to each other before their enemies close in.

Review: This is a very interesting story idea and as a cherry on top you’ll get a f/f pairing and a genderqueer side character as well. Yay!

City of hope and ruin jumps right into the story and at first I was a little bit confused (there are some magical crystals and they… do stuff?). So more worldbuilding would be great. But I found my way into it and both worlds are really different from each other and really interesting as well.

I came to like both Briony and Theosophy on their own, their relationship? Not so much. It left me cold, because it didn’t really make sense and was very rushed. The ending is rushed as well. I was like ”It’s over? Huh???”

So some minor things could be done better, but it still makes a very interesting read.

Disclaimer: I was provided by the author with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.