In exchange for the opportunity to read this book from Net Galley, I offer a review of Shadow City by Anna Mocikat.
This is a post - apocalyptic, fast paced and exciting thrill of a ride for a good die-hard science fiction fan. If you like mutants, humans, vampires, and other evil creatures that you can only imagine coming from a place you never want to visit, this is a story for you. There is torture, death, friendship and love.
Set in Los Angeles, the story follows four main characters, with many side characters that round this story out nicely. There is a vampire, a cyborg, a human with inhuman abilities, and a creature unknown possessing a human. They fight for the right to live in the horrible aftermath of a cataclysmic event. What kind of a creature could possibly be a threat to all of these characters with their combined skills? The only way to know who wins and who dies, is to read this book.

Shadow City is an intriguing, action-filled post-apocalyptic novel. Set up as a trilogy, this is the first installment and introduction to the battle for the fate of the world. With a mix of regular people, vampires and technically enhanced survivors, the different factions that have survived the Glitch band together against the true horror threatening the world and every being in it.

The plot is well driven and keeps you reading, always wanting to know the next step on the journey. The characters are very well developed and likable, many of them hiding their own secrets and mysteries. Don't expect to have all the answers by the end - this is only the first novel! Despite being kept in the dark about quite a few of the characters, they are still spell-binding and will keep you wanting to know their fate. The society created in this novel is well-balanced and thought out. The only negative (warning: English teacher complaint) is there is some jarring errors in grammar and sentence structure that leads me to believe this was written by a non-native speaker. The errors are much more apparent in the second half of the novel as if a language editor had stopped halfway through doing their job. As this is a pre-published copy, I am hoping the errors will be corrected before publication, as this is a very strong story that deserves to have the reader fully immersed at all times. Regardless, I will definitely be looking forward to the next book and highly recommend this to any fan of post-apocalyptic fiction.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

This book was received as an ARC from Black Rose Writing in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Shadow City in parts reminded me a lot of Mortal Kombat and of The Last Man on Earth which made this book so exciting to read. To hear of scavengers Jean and Louis come across a nameless man that has the fate of their world in his hands and his power feeding on all destruction in the world was definitely something different and mind blowing to read. Even though there were a few parts that were intense when it came to the nuclear ruins and the wasteland it turned to what was Los Angelos. Fantasyland turned survival of the fittest was a new and unique approach to this Novel and I know our book club will sure enjoy this.

We will consider adding this title to our Fantasy collection at the library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Thoroughly enjoyable post apocalyptic future set urban fantasy with vampires, cyborgs and other creatures fighting for survival in a world gone dark. This was tremendous fun. Great characters and an edge-of-your-seat plot. Slight cliff hanger ending but I found I didn’t mind. Highly recommend.

This book started out strong.
I really like Mocikat's writing style, her characters come alive and the worldbuilding is great, too. At the beginning I thought this was going to be a great dystopian story of survivors, mixed with radiation and vampires.
It was a great mix.
There was also the wonderful character of Bombshell who is an absolute highlight.

But, sadly, the author lost me as more and more players started to show up. This isn't something bad, it is written in good style, just... one fraction of said players - enemies - are too much.
While the vampires have a place in this story and their existence is explained in a good way, the big bad enemies of the book sadly ruined it for me.

What they are and how they turned up in the world blew the otherwise great story out of proportion and gave it an overly supernatural turn that it didn't really need.
So while I loved the writing style and the main characters, I will not continue with this book series.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for a honest review.