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A review by peneloperea
Diamond City by Francesca Flores
3.0
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing this book in exchange for my honest review.
I love me a female assassin and was super excited about the premise of Diamond City by Francesca Flores. Sadly, it didn’t live up to the expectations for me. Although I enjoyed the world building, the intense depictions of class inequality and religious persecution, I had a tough time with some of the character development and pacing.
Diamond City is a YA urban fantasy about a young kid-turned assassin after her parents are murdered when she was 8 years old. She is taken in by a wealthy young man who is building his own empire. He trains her to not only be the best assassin but to be smart. We meet Aina, the assassin, at age 18. Her boss has tasked her with the hardest assassination every attempted and when things go wrong, she is forced to team up with her enemy to fight her boss…
I found Aina difficult to get behind. I love a morally grey character who is struggling to do what’s best for her but as a highly trained assassin I found some of her decision to not only be stupid but flat out ridiculous. She’s supposed to be intelligent enough to have survived in this war-torn world, but she makes some reckless decisions that I just found frustrating. Which led me to think, how has this girl survived.
My other problem was not so much with the MC but with the love square that is introduced. Aina is in love with her boss but she doesn’t realize is. He is abusive and toxic which is as old as time and I’d love to meet a female character who falls for the bad boy who doesn’t abuse her. Find me those characters please. On top of her boss, she also has feelings for a couple other characters. She’s young and still figuring herself out but in a book I want a better idea of who the love interest is. That can change but give me more than a tease of three different people.
In the end the premise interested me and although I enjoyed the idea of an assassination going wrong and the MC having to find new allies to survive, the story overall fell flat for me. I’m sure many will love the world that Francesca Flores build and Aina but sadly I may not be one of them.
I love me a female assassin and was super excited about the premise of Diamond City by Francesca Flores. Sadly, it didn’t live up to the expectations for me. Although I enjoyed the world building, the intense depictions of class inequality and religious persecution, I had a tough time with some of the character development and pacing.
Diamond City is a YA urban fantasy about a young kid-turned assassin after her parents are murdered when she was 8 years old. She is taken in by a wealthy young man who is building his own empire. He trains her to not only be the best assassin but to be smart. We meet Aina, the assassin, at age 18. Her boss has tasked her with the hardest assassination every attempted and when things go wrong, she is forced to team up with her enemy to fight her boss…
I found Aina difficult to get behind. I love a morally grey character who is struggling to do what’s best for her but as a highly trained assassin I found some of her decision to not only be stupid but flat out ridiculous. She’s supposed to be intelligent enough to have survived in this war-torn world, but she makes some reckless decisions that I just found frustrating. Which led me to think, how has this girl survived.
My other problem was not so much with the MC but with the love square that is introduced. Aina is in love with her boss but she doesn’t realize is. He is abusive and toxic which is as old as time and I’d love to meet a female character who falls for the bad boy who doesn’t abuse her. Find me those characters please. On top of her boss, she also has feelings for a couple other characters. She’s young and still figuring herself out but in a book I want a better idea of who the love interest is. That can change but give me more than a tease of three different people.
In the end the premise interested me and although I enjoyed the idea of an assassination going wrong and the MC having to find new allies to survive, the story overall fell flat for me. I’m sure many will love the world that Francesca Flores build and Aina but sadly I may not be one of them.