Diamond City by Astrid Cole follows Sage, an ancient warrior, now settled and running a small pizza shop, fangirling over the prince. When the king is killed through a challenge with the Warlord – known for his brutality, she must choose a side and fight again for peace. But the one she had to fight is the one she is falling for.
Diamond City Book Review
Thank you to NetGalley and Astrid Cole Books, who provided me with an e-ARC to read it!
The cover looks amazing, and the synopsis interested me in the book because of an ancient fighter fangirling over a prince. For sure! Running a pizza shop? Absolutely!
As far as I know, some parts of the book were already edited by now, and I read it beforehand, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt since it’s still a week until the release.
In the beginning, I struggled to get into the book because it was so slow-paced, but after a while, it got better.
Sage initially feels like a stranger, making it different to understand her somewhat, but she is an interesting character. The relationship between her and her nieces is just charming! I liked her very much and would love to read the second book!
Many things about the story are not entirely explained, and I’d love to get some answers on a few things.
Because it gets better here, which is a big pro, a lot would have been good to know at a rather earlier stage than a later one. For spoiler reasons, I can’t go too much into that here. It might have made some things less confusing, tho.
The second part felt much better to read. As the story develops, characters get introduced, and they all have their place, as the Warlord used to say. The action and fighting scenes are fascinating to read. Sage’s having so much experience in battle makes her a badass character with almost no weaknesses.
However, Sage is saying one thing but doing another, which wasn’t the greatest. Honestly, when are we always doing what we say? So, I let that one count here.
But I don’t get the stages Sage went through. First, she’s fangirling over the prince, but her mood changes rather quickly for him.
And sometimes, the characters don’t even feel like they are over 100 years old. I guess one doesn’t always feel like their age in general either, and might sometimes feel similar to teens in their actions, but not too much to go that way.
But I love how Sage goes for reasons to trust someone. She’s somewhat observing and overthinking(?) some situations, but in the end, she gets her reasons for trust.
Final Thoughts
As I struggled first to get into it, after a while, it got me, and I finished it in a couple of hours because I just couldn’t put it away anymore.
I loved the main couple in the end. Maybe a certain character puts his soft side out too much, despite his nickname, but that might depend on the taste.
A thing I appreciate is that deaths get – somewhat – thought of. A lot of times, they don’t get a second thought, but I like that here.
It has quite some epic-read battles going on, which I enjoyed.
I can recommend fans of the sci-fi/ fantasy genre to give the book a try.
The book will be released on May 30 but can already be pre-ordered.
What do you think? Have you heard of Diamond City? Do you plan to read it? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
