ARC Review: Mystic City

Title: Mystic City
Author: Theo Lawrence
Genre: YA, Dystopian, Fantasy
Release Date: October 9th

See it at Goodreads

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.


It’s been a few weeks since I’ve finished Mystic City and I’m struggling to remember some of the small details. That’s not exactly a good thing. It’s a definite sign when I love (sometimes the same things goes for when I just absolutely can’t stand it too) a book, I remember everything about it. When it’s good, but still flawed or I had nitpicks, I do forget some of the smaller things from the story. It happens though. And I’m partially to blame because I have a system for the way I write and post my reviews--I don’t just write and post immediately after I finish a book.

Moving on, then. Mystic City has this unique story that builds around what I felt was almost a Romeo and Juliet inspiration. There are a lot of clues that led me to this: rival families, politics, forbidden romance, running away, fighting, more forbidden romance. But you know what? It’s not bad. I cringed in the beginning when I started picking up this storyline and realizing what the inspiration felt like and the idea. I worried it was going to backfire and be an extreme miss. It wasn’t. I liked this idea of a post-apocalyptic/dystopian and almost magical type of Romeo and Juliet. My real interest though was in the world building, which was absolutely fantastic. I liked where Lawrence created this world, our world, and showed a future that didn’t seem too far from this day and age. It was realistic at times. Lawrence crafted a new world that had been devastated from our already growing climate crisis, and THIS was amazingly detailed.

The characters didn’t always grab my attention. I wasn’t particularly fond of most of them at times, even the romantic aspects of the story, because I just didn’t feel the personality during the scenes when I wanted. The story starts off with a bang, and I’m serious, it’s with a bang. When you do read it, you’ll see my reference. I really enjoyed that it was an easy page-turner and held my attention. I was fascinated in the world created, the Mystics, and wish I could have learned a bit more about them. The ending was solid and action-packed. I’m not sure if this is going to be a series, but if it is, I’d be willing to pick up the second book and see where it goes.