{Review} City of Fae by Pippa DaCosta

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: May 7th, 2015
Finished Date: April 25th, 2015

Publishers: Bloomsbury Spark
Genre: New Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Source: For Review
Format: eARC

Pages: 336
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US

From the moment Alina touches London's hottest fae superstar, breaking one of the laws founded to protect all of her kind, her fate – and the fae – close in. 

Below ground, the fae High Queen plots to claim the city as her own and places her pawns, ready for the battle to come. A battle she cannot lose, but for one small problem – Alina. There are four ancient keepers powerful enough to keep the queen in her prison. Three are dead. One remains … And to fight back, Alina risks sacrificing everything she has come to love. 

This New Adult urban fantasy is packed with action and suspense and will have you yearning for more forbidden fae romance.

The Review: City of Fae was a unique read to me, set in a different version of London that has been populated by Fae.
In this London, Fae have been revealed to the world and are treat like stars. One such Fae is Sovereign or Reign to his ‘friends’, he is the hottest rock star around and people flock to him so when Alina finds him slumped over on a train platform – her reporting persona sees a story and her way back into her job that she was recently fired from. There are laws to be followed when dealing with Fae - Look, but don't touch. Touch, but don't feel. Feel, but never ever love. – and humans are meant to stick to these or risk ending up like drug addicts to the fae.
Little does Alina know but she is about to break those rules, sending everything she thought she knew into disarray. She comes to find that there is an uprising about to happen, the Fae she had rescued is a wanted man, she becomes a wanted woman from both the human & Fae laws and that’s not to mention the hidden underground Fae, the murders of important Fae….and the spiders….never forget the spiders. When it all comes down to Sovereign & Alina against an insane High Queen….who will win?
I really enjoyed this book and found that it was unique and quite refreshing for a book about Fae. I liked the setting and especially liked the idea of hidden tunnels underneath London that inhabit fae. It’s unusual to read a book where the Fae aren’t the ones in power and for all they are revered here, they hold no power and live like homeless people. The only real threat to humans they possess is the ability to bespell them and use them to feed on, making them addicted to the fae that is using them. There is a story behind how the Fae find themselves in their predicament but that doesn’t come until later.
I really liked the characters of Alina & Sovereign, we don’t know much about Alina to start with but we know that she is attracted to Reign. We also don’t know much about Reign to start with and it takes a while for his story to be revealed, I don’t know that I found it easy to trust him, he always seemed so aloof where Alina seemed quite genuine. Their identities are a major plot piece which definitely brought on some ‘huh?’ moments. I did enjoy the relationship they carved out for themselves, there was something about how they were drawn to each other that keeps the reader enthralled, waiting for them to get close and have a moment. Those moments really get your heart racing too as Reign layers on the charm and Alina thinks she is bespelled, what they share is hot! And I could just imagine Reign seducing her.
The storyline was full of action as our two MCs are hunted down by various people. Alina saves Reign, Reign save Alina & so on. There are some fabulous fight scenes throughout bringing loads of action to the plot that has Alina & Reign on the run for most of the story. There are some huge secrets that have to be revealed and some change the way you view the story (in a good way) as all of the threads are intricately wound together so that it creates an all action finale. The world created by the author and its characters were great, the pacing was fast, loads of action, plenty of romance and a nice dash of forbidden love – what more could you want? 

Thank you to Bloomsbury Spark for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.