City of Light (Outcast Novel Book 1)

This is a secret-agent romance novel with a sci-fi spin. And vampires, of course.It has one main character, who acts like a hundred-year-old teenager. In addition, you get the obligatory ex with two emotional states (horny, angry), as well as the obligatory object of forbidden desire, neither of whom develop much in terms of personality. The action sequences start well but devolve into a series of, "she had no strength to go on... but did anyway".I'd give it three stars for an interesting plot, but the book description doesn't drop any hints that this is a romance novel; you have to read the author bio to figure that out. So -1 for attempting to pass it off as something it isn't.

A delightful read, City of Light, brings to life into the dystopian sector of fiction. It starts off as many others do: the world has suffered through war and the like. However, here’s what’s different: it was not a war between humankind, it was a war between humans and creatures like shifters and vampires. What’s also so impressive is the fact that the vampires, they are not the central villains here. For the most part, they are unthinking hunters, very unlike previous interpretations. Nothing is alluring or sexual about them, they are very animalistic, thoughtless, mindless hunters. So it was nice to see them put on the backburner for other creatures of the dark to flourish and terrorize the characters of the novel.The uniqueness of the story is alluring because it has these mysterious creatures, it has this dark and haunting element to it that lures the reader into the story and the journey. Readers get to meet Tiger, a déchet, genetically created by the humans at the height of the war to be used as fodder. She has survived so much, including the survival of a gas bombing that killed all the children made as she had been. It was a brutal war, lending to the world building of the novel. This world is so different from any other dystopian novels, and again, that is part of what makes the novel so compelling. The synopsis offers a taste of what the reader can expect, but it is so unlike anything else out there that the reader ends up entering this adventure blindly, which is good! The plot keeps the reader on their toes, Tiger’s skills and power, they are unique to her, and again, keep the reader on their toes.What also serves to make Tiger so likable is the fact that the other characters, well, they are not likable. They live by the mentality that the ends justify the means, which is fine, but how they treat Tiger, the way they abuse her trust, bend her arm behind her to get her to help, it is ultimately crappy. It is easy for the reader to understand where they are coming from, making them very real, and very human, characters, but that does not mean they have to be likable. Moreover, they are. Some of them grow, and Tiger grows, but, for the most part, the other characters are so wrapped up in the grand scheme of things that they forget how to treat people. Tiger does not forget. That works to create incredible tension in the story and an excellent understanding of this world. Tiger is not without her flaws, but, like with the other characters, she is a genuine character on the page with a bright persona.All in all, this novel, running at about 343 pages, still seems too short. It leaves the reader aching for more. That is not to say it dragged because it did not. City of Light moved at such a fantastic pace but still ended up feeling too short, only because there is so much more that must happen. However, that is what sequels are for right, and let me tell you, I’m so ready to devour Winter Halo. (★★★★☆ | A)

I downloaded the sample and it seemed interesting, so I bit the bullet and got the book. Definitely wish I'd chosen something else...Tiger is invincible. She's a beautiful sex spy who can fight, run a 6.5 minute mile without training, is immune to all poisons, can turn into a smoke-shadow thing to remain unseen at night AND bend sunshine during the day. Most of those have explanations, but not good ones. She heals in minutes from the worst wounds, including broken ribs which cease to bother her less than half an hour after she was injured, but she doesn't eat more than maybe three meals in the entire book. When I'm reading fantasy I expect the sounds of reality to be stretched, but if you're going to have a super strong, fast, quick healing sex ninja, she should probably have a metabolism that sustains her bodily functions. Every good hero has weaknesses; Tiger does not.Unless you count her willingness to risk her life, time and time again, helping some very dangerous people (including the character clearly meant to be her long term romantic interest, which is a whole other can of crud I won't even bother to criticize) rescue a bunch of kids. They have a decent explanation for why she is so attached to kids, but putting her own life and that of her little ones in danger for the sake of some strangers? Yeah, kind of hard to swallow.Also, she spends probably 3/4 of the book alone. Huge chunks of it were either her thoughts as she was doing stuff, long descriptions of her doing stuff, or her SOMEHOW (she never knows how) finding the strength to do the impossible despite not having eaten, yet again. My eyes glossed over a lot.Yet despite most of the story being descriptions, when she goes to rescue a group of children we're given the number of children and the approximate age of the youngest so we can be outraged at how they've been treated. You know what inspires emotional connection? Getting a sense of the children as actual people- ages, genders, maybe race or hair color, height, whatever. Even Cat and Bear are left as blank slates, which is pretty disappointing considering they're her main companions for most of the book.Spoilers...Loved the way she killed Sal. Didn't love that a sex spy is somehow more tolerant to poisons than an assassin- that makes no sense.

This story, for me, was a very slow start but I have loved this author's other stories so I stuck with it. I am very glad that I did. It has turned out to be an amazing start to what I think will be a hit series.Ms. Arthur has created a what she call Dechet, test tube humans mixed with Vampire and Shifter blood. Most of them were created as soldiers but our Heroine Tiger was created as a lure for male shifters. But that is all behind Tiger as the war has been over for 100 years and she has lived alone and hidden with her little ones, who are actually ghosts, for all that time. On one of her forays she hears a child crying and loving children as she does goes to investigate. She discovers an unconscious shifter and a child in an area filled with some really bad vampires and of course she rescues them and takes them back to her bunker. From that point she is unwillingly dragged into their drama and for them the war is not really over as they have a real hatred of Dechet.I am eagerly looking forward to the next book in this series to see what further trouble Tiger gets into.

A welcome surprise.I'd come across Keri Arthur many times while browsing for something to read and had mentally shoved her into the romantic fiction genre. I bought this book almost by chance, having read the blurb and pressed the buy button before noticing the author.Boy, am I glad I did. This is a proper, original, urban fantasy and it's great.We are introduced to a futuristic earth a few hundred years after a war between shifters and humans. The humans, being outclassed on the battlefield, resorted to genetic manipulation, creating a 'slave race' of modified humans (dechet) to fight the shifters. The shifters then dropped some heavy duty munitions and won the war. Unfortunately, the bombs tore the fabric of the world and all sorts of nasties came through, making anywhere dark a very bad place to be.That's the backstory ; the novel begins a couple hundred years after the war with our heroine who is one the few remaining dechet. Since the shifters won the war that's something she is keen to keep quiet but saving the life of a child along with her shifter guardian starts the ball rolling on a thoroughly entertaining adventure.I was totally engrossed from start to finish. Brilliant storytelling.

I was so glad I got to read this one so quickly after I picked up the first because of the brutally cruel cliffhanger Keri Arthur put at the end....but dammit she's done it again. You know that feeling when you keep flipping pages forward and backwards thinking you've missed something or maybe that pages have fallen out (even though you're reading it on a Kindle).....that. I don't even want to know how long till the next one, but i'm loving that feeling of desperation because I NEED to have the answers to the questions these two books have raised. This author knows how to keep me reading, even if I dislike her just a little bit for it.I smashed through this in a few hours. It felt so much more lived in than the first, we knew the people and the background- no more lengthy explanations about time and place were necessary. For this reason, the characters were allowed to be more themselves, to grow and become even more formed. This was especially evident in the relationship between Tiger and Jonas. It's complicated and therefore more fascinating, not one of these jump to the sex and see what s*** happens afterwards kind of storylines. Even better, the little ghosts have a much more central role in this book and that alone is enough to make the reader smile. I think that you could dislike the whole rest of the cast and still be charmed by Cat and Bear.A truly enjoyable UF/FF read.

A whole new world for me to discover. Think mad max landscape and living conditions. Throw in shifters, humans and vampires that survived the great war and you have the basics for this tale. Dechets were created in labs by humans, they came in different grades and types from soldiers and assassins to whores in a brothel. Amenable and trainable to anything you require until the last days of the war when the shifters destroyed them all.Loved it, off to read book 2.

This is such a good story. I won't describe the plot because it wouldn't do the book justice. Keri Arthur creates believable characters in unbelievable settings, she can make the most bizarre characters seem real.There are only three books to this series, my advice is buy them all now, it's cheaper!

I enjoyed this. The world-building was convincing, the characters were interesting and plot moved at a pace. It was good to read about such strong female characters. A good, shocking ending and I can't wait to read the next in the series.