Review: Mystic City by Theo Lawrence

Mystic City by Theo Lawrence
Series: Mystic City #1
Publisher: Delacorte Books FYR (Random House)
First published: October 9th, 2012
Source: NetGalley
Format: eARC
Pages: 416

Goodreads Summary:

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.

My Rating: 4.5 / 5

First thoughts:

Inspired by one of the most tragic love stories in literature, Mystic City pulled me into its dystopian world of betrayal, mixed with paranormal elements, and didn't let me go until I finished it. And even now, while writing this review, I'm still hoping that its sequel will pop up next to me magically, so I can continue reading and find out what will happen after that explosive last chapter and only slightly calming epilogue.

More detailed:

I loved reading Romeo and Juliet back in school even though I'm not the biggest fan of starcrossed lovers as heartbreak is an inevitable part of these stories. And today I'm still looking forward to every Romeo and Juliet inspired story that takes this tragic drama and twists it into something beautiful and heartbreaking in a new setting and with new but recognizable characters.

Mystic City definitely exceeded my expectations, turning out to be more addicting than I could have possibly hoped for. Aria is, despite her naivety, a very interesting protagonist whose lack of memory of certain aspects of her past make it incredibly hard to put this book down. While I soon began to suspect correctly that some characters' ambitions weren't exactly what they pretended to be, I still ended up surprised by some others.

Of course the love story is the most vital part of Mystic City. Starcrossed lovers tend to break my heart and it's no exception with this book. But the positive moments these two get to share with each other definitely make up for the lovesickness and all those parts that will make you wish you hadn't picked up a book that is so closely related to Rome and Juliet.

Only the dialogue and a few certain characters sometimes made it hard to find certain story developments believable. Some were too one-dimensional and others betrayed their intentions a little bit too easily for my taste - their choice of words in that moments felt too artificial to me, too. But keep in mind that this just happened only a few times and could be a very subjective point of view - you might not even recognize these scenes as I can be quite picky with my characters and dialogues.

All in all, Mystic City is a very well written novel set in a dystopian world that is very easy to imagine thanks to the descriptions we get. I can't wait to find out where Aria's journey will take her and what will happen to her. If you've been considering to give this book a chance, I'd recommend you to do so as soon as possible.

Challenge(s):

Debut Author Challenge 2012

Buy this book:

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Have you read Mystic City? If yes, what did you think about it?
If no, do you plan to read it?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Carina

Fictional Distractions of the Week #48

Welcome to Fictional Distractions of the Week. It is inspired by Book Journey's It's Monday! What are you reading? and Fiktshun's My Reading Pile and it will show you what I'm planning to read during the next week.

The books I plan to read this week:

Since I'm a terribly slow reader at the moment, I have yet to read Mystic City by Theo Lawrence, which had already been on my reading pile for the last week. I have only read a couple of pages so far, but I'm definitely intrigued and am looking forward to find out more about this story - especially since so many others have loved it.

After that I really need to read Ember by Carol Oates, which I've been craving to read for a long, long time and since I'm participating in this series' blog tour next week, it's time for me to finally read Ember. Really hope that my expectations will be met.

And maybe, just maybe, I might get to start The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski, which sounds like a very unique YA read, which initially made me sooo curious about it. I didn't have the chance yet to check out some reviews for it, but I think that quite a few people already read and liked it, so I'm looking forward to find out more about it myself.

What are your Fictional Distractions of the Week?

Also be sure to enter my current international giveaway:

Fictional Distractions of the Week #47

Welcome to Fictional Distractions of the Week. It is inspired by Book Journey's It's Monday! What are you reading? and Fiktshun's My Reading Pile and it will show you what I'm planning to read during the next week.

The books I plan to read this week:

My first read for my first week of regaining back my freedom is Poison Princess by Kresley Cole. I received this last week for review and cannot wait to really delve into it. It just sounds so mysterious and captivating and I hope that it'll live up to my pretty high expectations. 

After that I'll read Mystic City by Theo Lawrence which has been on my to-read list ever since I first read its summary. It seems to be a very unique story as well and I'm crossing my fingers that I'll like it - especially because I hadn't had the chance to read many reviews for it yet. But sometimes it's nice to just go into something without knowing what to expect.

And my last read will be Embrace by Jessica Shirvington. This is actually a copy I bought for myself, which I have to read very soon so I can get to my review copy of its sequel Entice. I've heard so many fabulous things about this series and I'm glad the books are now being published in other countries than Australia, because therefore it's a lot easier to access them. Very excited to start reading this!

What are your Fictional Distractions of the Week?

And a huge YAY! for Carina being back in the land of reading, blogging and living. The last weeks have been awful, but my paper's finished and I'll hand it in tomorrow and then I'm officially free. It's a great feeling to slowly get back into blogging and since I'm terribly sorry for being a bad blogger and commentor during the last weeks, I have lots of catching up to do! Feel free to leave links to any important / entertaining / must-read posts down below to make the catching-up-thingy a bit easier for me. ;)

Carina

New Distractions #07

New Distractions is a weekly feature on Fictional Distraction, inspired by various memes that make us share the new books we got during a week, e.g. In My Mailbox by The Story Siren, This Week in Books by Pop Culture Junkie and Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews.

The books I received this week:

For review:

A Witch in Love | Confessions of an Angry Girl | Mystic City

+ Lonely Souls swag

Huge thanks to Hachette Children's UK, Harlequin Teen, Random House, and Karice Bolton.

I'm extremely excited for all three of these books. A Witch in Love is actually the next book on my tbr-pile once I'm finished with Lonely Souls, whose blog tour is stopping by on Tuesday. Also love the sound of Mystic City (which was my WoW pick a few weeks ago) and Confessions of an Angry Girl. 

Which books did you get last week?

Carina

Waiting on Wednesday #59

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Mystic City by Theo Lawrence
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Expected Publication: October 9th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 352

Goodreads Summary:
For fans of Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided. A political rebellion ignited. A love that was meant to last forever.

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.

I found out about this one during last week's Waiting on Wednesday and had to add this to my to-read list immediately. It sounds absolutely fantastic and it makes me wish it were October already.

What do you think about Mystic City?
What are you waiting for this Wednesday?

Leave links to your posts in the comment section!
Carina