Book Review: City of Storms by Kat Ross

Author: Kat Ross

Title: City of Storms

Series: Nightmarked #1

Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, 

Format: ebook

Pages: 506

Published: August 23, 2021

Where I Got It: My shelf (Amazon)

Summary: 

A city simmering with repressed urges…

A fallen angel bent on chaos…

And a conspiracy that could destroy them all.

Can one woman harness her own psychic power to stop it?

In a world with three layers of ever darker magic, few dare to wield the most dangerous. And those who try can fall prey to violent madness.

The Church keeps a tight leash on its citizens.

It tests every child for psychological deviancy.

If you pass, you're given a Mark. A tattoo that lets you use the ley power—and shields you from your most primal desires.

For the lucky ones, the world is at their feet. The rest suffer a life of menial jobs and hopelessness.

When tarot reader Kasia crosses paths with a young priest who hunts deviants, her own ugly secret is dragged into the light. Will they learn to trust each other in time to stop a greater evil from corrupting their world?

Review:

The cover caught my eye and then I read the summary and I knew I had to give this a shot. 

Between suppressed urges, a fallen angel, a conspiracy, and the church....this city and the people are on the verge of utter destruction and chaos. Can a single woman harness her own psychic power to stop it? Kasia will cross paths with a young priest whose job is to hunt deviants. Will they learn to trust each other in time to stop a greater evil?

On paper, this sounds like the book for me....magic, love, danger, and a wild world. However, I just could not really get into it. 

I had a hard time really grasping and understanding this world. The details were there, but I just couldn't understand or, to be honest, care. My level of caring for sure went in waves. There would be chapters I would be totally into the story and then other chapters it was a struggle to get through. Near the end I found myself skimming just to be done. 

What kept me going instead of DNFing? The characters and hope. The bones of the story were there and I liked our main heroine so I kept pushing forward in hopes I would fall into the hole of love. I never found it sadly. 

In the end, there are a couple of good things that kept me going, but I struggled big time. I'll give this 2 stars.