Review--Black City by Christina Henry

FORMER AGENT MADELINE BLACK MAY HAVE BEEN STRIPPED OF HER WINGS--BUT SHE HASN'T LOST HER PURPOSE...

When Maddy finally killed her father, Azazel, she thought his depraved experiment died with him. But now Chicago has been infested with vampires immune to the effects of the sun, and the bloodbath is worse than she could have ever imagined. While the Agency refuses to interfere with other supernatural courts, Maddy is determined to do everything within her power to save her city—wings or no wings.

But when the leader of the vampires requests that she turn herself in or risk more deaths, Maddy becomes a target for the very people she’s trying to save. Left with no other choice, she turns to Lucifer, the one creature who has the power to help her. But her grandfather’s aid has always come at a price…

Seriously, I think Christina Henry is taking great pleasure in tormenting me...and the rest of her readers. Once again she has written this incredibly, tremendous read and yet again, the ending has left me reeling! Near screaming territory...but since I am in public I had to refrain from doing so!! Very, very hard!

Black City picks up where we left off in Black Lament and yeah, I am still in tears by Gabriel's death. I remember asking her about that at RT 2012! I was in public and the book was still fairly new, so I was like WHY?! And she said it was necessary for Maddy. Well, we're still early in Maddy's grief and her trying to move on, so we'll have to see how Maddy continues to handle it and what else may befall her. And she's definitely in for a doozie worth of crapola!

Nathaniel is still hanging around Maddy and her friends. He's almost become one of the gang, yet he's still not completely a changed man. But he's getting there. I am no longer repulsed by his presence on the page. I briefly recall feeling a little less hatred towards him last time around, and that feeling is definitely increasing. He seems to understand Maddy and what she's going through more than anyone. He doesn't try to coddle her, he lets her be herself and still does what he can to help keep her safe. A bit contradictory I suppose, but a definite improvement!

We last saw a hoard of vampires acting Chicago...during daylight. Azael's experiment to allow vampires to walk during the day has come into the mainstream and Chicago is the first hit. Maddy and her friends race to the city streets and try to take out as many vamps as possible, but it's a futile task. There are just too many. Add to that, Maddy doesn't have her Agent abilities anymore. She's not completely all human, but her skills are still definitely not up to par, her wings are still missing and she she misses them as well.

During a rescue attempt at the hospital, Maddy and Nathaniel have a moment. More than just romantic feelings and all that hubbub, but they work together to place a veil over the hospital to protect the patients from the vampires and in that act, they ended up connecting a deeper level. It's hard to put to words exactly what happened, but needless to say, it changed them both. Really and truly!

Maddy notices a startling change to Nathaniel that reveals something about him that even he didn't know and oh wow was that a whopper of a surprise!!

But the city of Chicago and the problem of the vampires attacking...and Therion calling for her head and asking the citizens of Chicago to deliver her to him, will have to wait when Maddy learns that Tatiana has kidnapped J.B. Maddy and her friends race to get to faery and rescue him but there are always dangers awaiting over in that particular world.

Black City was definitely a rush! Not to say it was a hurried read, but you know what I mean! It was exhilarating! The constant danger Maddy was in and how it seemed solving one problem ended up throwing another one in front of her. The poor girl, and she's pregnant on top of all this battling! It's a good thing she's not your average human or who knows what would happen to her baby! She has many battles and tasks to overcome in this one and it never seems to end for her. There's barely a break!

As I mentioned before, things between Nathaniel and Maddy start to get a little intense! It's hard to imagine hat Nathaniel used to be like in the early books, although I still remember the disgust. And what I like about this is, that Maddy isn't instantly falling in love with him. Nathaniel still seems to love her and is willing to wait for her to come to a decision, but he tells her he won't be her dirty little secret and I gotta admit that I like that about him. He's a changing man and I like what I am seeing! I am definitely eager to see where these two might take things romantically!

Overall this was a fan-tab-u-ously wonderful read! Love that word...fantabulously! It's not even a word, but I love it because it so perfectly describes a read like this!! Kind of glad I waited til now to get to this one, because the ending was quite the cliffhanger, not anything like Black Howl, but still the kind that makes you go...oh sh*t, what's Maddy going to do now?! Besides panic! And luckily, there's only a month to wait and find out!


Overall Rating 5/5 stars