**Thank you to Titan Book and NetGalley for the eARC of this title!**

I absolutely loved Langmead’s poetic novel, Calypso, last year so I can’t wait to dive into this one. As it has gotten pretty far past publication I am dropping 5 stars as a placeholder and will update with review and posts once I get my life together. Thank you!!

"City of All Seasons" offered an interesting premise and some decent world-building, creating a setting that had potential. I appreciated the imaginative elements introduced and the overall concept behind the city itself. However, I found it difficult to fully connect with the characters, and their motivations sometimes felt a bit murky. The pacing also felt inconsistent, leading to moments where the narrative dragged, preventing me from becoming truly immersed. While it had its moments, it ultimately felt like it didn't quite live up to its full potential for me.

Started ok with lots of info dump. The best part for me was the way the setting was described--took me right inside the book. But it's a DNF, it didn't interest me enough to push through although the mystery is still gnawing at me.

DNF at 20%

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honerst review

It's me, I'm the problem. This book has an incredibly interesting synopsis, and the small amount that I read was a good foundation in terms of character work and world building. However, I just keep not picking this book up. I read the entirety of The Sword of Kaigen, and I'm not even in a reading slump. In fact, I want to read so badly, I just never make an effort to pick this book up. With exam season approaching, I know for a fact I'm not going to pick this book up right now. So I'm making the executive decision to DNF it, and who knows, maybe I will pick it up sometime later.

2.5 stars

Living in a divided mystical world proved for an interesting premise, but that’s where it blurred into foggy world-building, heavy with dreamy flashbacks interrupting the story. The two main characters were bland, lacking distinct personalities, and I could barely keep them straight. The first-person present tense made for a monotonous narrative.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

The premise of this book is very cool, dual perspective written by two different authors of cousins separated into two different versions of a city, one in an eternal scorching summer, and another in an eternal freezing winter. The problem is that the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

The main issue is how incredibly slow-paced this book feels. I had a very hard time getting through it, which is alarming considering this book is under 300 pages. In a good chunk of the book it feels like nothing is happening outside of our protagonists wandering their respective city, going to talk to a person, hiding some object for the other POV to find and getting a memory of some member of their family, which sounds fine, until it's repeated over and over again.

Now, the lack of plot can sometimes work in a story, but if you're doing a more slow-paced, character-focused, introspective story, then the characters need to be interesting enough to carry the weight of a lack of plot. This is not the case here. Our main characters were both....Fine, I guess, but I couldn't tell you much about them, except they both love making things. The supporting characters were likewise fine, Bea, Pawel, and the Grandma were vaguely interesting to me, but not enough to carry the weight of the entire story on their backs.

The one positive thing I can say is that the actual moment-to-moment writing, especially the description, was well written on a technical level from both authors; there was just entirely too much of that and not enough of anything else.

It's a shame because I did think the premise had so much going for it, but this book felt so incredibly slow-paced without anything to make up for that.

An incredibly interesting premise but unfortunately I did not feel that the full potential was reached in this. I enjoyed the distinctive two cities and enjoyed the mystery surrounding our MCs grandmother and the rivalry of the uncles. This story would likely translate well to a short mini-series or movie because everything was incredibly visual. They would need to find more differences between Jamie and Esther because they were a bit too similar to each other that the POVs sometimes got confusing until it said snow or heat.

My first read from these authors but definitely not my last. Full of intrigue, intensity and mystery, this was a truly fascinating read and has made me want to read more from these authors in future.

Very interesting concept but overall execution was just dull and boring.

Throughout the book we get the POV of the two main characters, cousins, one who lives in the summer city and the other in the winter city. However, they felt very bland and underdeveloped and the majority of the time, I could barely distinguish between the two and would always forget whose chapter I was reading.

There was also just a lack of world building or explanation for anything. Given that the two cities were split, I thought magic or something fantastical would be involved but I think it was more science fiction than anything. But even that wasn’t really fully explained? I don’t really understand how the science works in this book and the authors never bothered to try and explain it.

Also, the actual reason why the city was split was so ridiculous and underwhelming and I was just hoping for something more.

2.5
This is one of those books where the premise is really intriguing, but the execution just wasn't for me at all. The concept of a single city/small island that got split by a mysterious event into two different versions, simultaneously existing independently of each other, is one of the cooler and more original premises in a sci-fi novel that I've read recently. But the execution just feels so messy. Things happening for seemingly no reason, which is a result of the book's lack of foreshadowings/long term setups, preferring to set up many important things right before they become important, making it feel as if the author(s) just made these plot points up as they go along, without actually fixing them at the end. Ultimately, while the characters are interesting, it doesn't mean much when the story and plot themselves feel so lifeless, even more so than the book's depiction of the city with everlasting winter.

Super disappointed in this one. I was excited for this book based on the description of the premise, however it wasn't executed. The plot had holes, the characters were pretty bland, and I felt very disconnected from the story.

unfortunately, this was one of those books that was a great premise but was so poorly executed. a lot of the issue stemmed from the pacing of this book: its inherently introspective, but to the point where we barely get to know our main characters nor the side characters in any meaningful way. huge amounts of the book covered past familial history, which made the present plot move at a snail's pace. this also led to neither narrator having a distinct voice, and both came across bland & uninteresting. the split winter/summer town was such a neat idea, but even the "twist" at the end (if you can even call it that, because i saw it coming) didn't make up for the lack of strong narrative voice.

While I did manage to finish this book and can appreciate the skilled writing of both authors, I believe the storytelling may have suffered somewhat from this collaboration. The premise and characters easily pulled my attention, but the plot let them down a little. I don't know that I would recommend this book to anyone but a very avid reader of anything SFF.

This was a book that I enjoyed throughout and loved the idea of it however the ending felt like it was built up for something more and just didn’t make it

DNF @ 65%. I was actually going to put this book on hold but I don't really want to go back to this book. It's such a great plot and amazing writing, but I'm not feeling it at all. The lack of distinction between the MCs blurred the two perspectives despite living in two different climates really doesn't help. I feel like the plot is so focused on the past, it forgets the present, which in turn makes this really boring to read.

I was really intrigued by the premise of the story but the execution fell really flat. You can tell this is written by two separate authors, the different writing and tone translates. I'm not sure if each author wrote Esther and Jaime separately but I wouldn't be surprised. I also did not jive with the 2 main characters, the world is interesting but the story is sooo slow. I read over 20% and nothing has happened. The very slow story with no connection to the characters and the irritation from the writing made me decide to stop reading it. I'm disappointed because the synopsis sounds cool but the execution did not work for me.

I found City of All Seasons to be a fresh. thoughtful premises that suffered from some wonky pacing issues.

Readers follow two cousins, each trapped in a unique mirror world. One suffers from a harsh ans endless winter while the other lives under the oppressive sun. The two cities don't just diverge in weather, their politics and world views are night and day. They do have one thing in common though, an oppressive and dangerous foe. Can the cousins reunite the cities and work to settle the differences for the greater good? You'll have to read to find out!!

I truley did find this story to be unique and interesting at it's bones. The atmosphere of the opposing cities, with their unique weather predicaments, felt evocative and transportation. The Characters were likable enough but I never felt truly invested in their mission. My main issue with the story was the pacing. There were many moments where I wanted more and the author breezed passed what felt like important details. Moments that felt of lesser importance to me felt drawn out and overdeveloped.

At the end of the day, I am happy to have read this but felt as though the pacing could use some more finessing.
Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for providing me with this eARC!

I really enjoyed a City of All Seasons and I just know that if this had been out when I was younger it would have instantly been a favourite of mine. The plot and pacing were great and I adored the main characters. The writing flowed well and it made for a quick and enjoyable read with enough to keep you engaged but not too much that you became bogged down in lots of world building.

Overall I really enjoyed this one that was a quick and enjoyable read. If you enjoy fantasy this is one for you.

Well, this was rather unusual. Two very different voices, more slow-burn than action-packed, but really interesting. Longer review to come.

Once upon a time Fairharbour was a city with a more ordinary kind of ‘magical’ status: mostly keeping itself apart from the mainland, perhaps a little behind on technology, but with families and neighbours living largely harmonious kinds of lives.

And then one day something changes. No one is sure who would have attacked them, or why, but it seems like a ‘weatherbomb’ – a way of providing instant drought relief, or preventing a damaging late frost, for example – has been weaponized and used against Fairharbour. Ever since that day, it’s been permanently winter. Everyone lost friends and family in the suddenness of it all, or during the aftermath. And into the void of leadership came the ‘Doormen’ – supposedly protecting Fairharbour, but also bully-boys enjoying their power, and following weird orders that include bricking up every doorway.

In this unending cold and harsh regime, Jamie Pike scraps a living by making things to trade. He’s got clever hands, and a vivid imagination. And one day, he makes a kaleidoscope through which he sees…

Esther Pike lost so much in the weatherbomb that decimated her city, and she now scrapes a living fixing things. The power stopped working soon after the event, making it even more difficult to deal with the oppressive, never-ending summer heat. And then one day she discovers what looks like a small patch of snow, in which is buried a kaleidoscope that seems to show…

There’s a lot of intrigue here. What really happened to Fairweather, to its residents? Who is pulling all the strings behind the scenes? What happened to Carmen Pike, famous movie director, and her last film? Can Jamie and Esther – cousins and grandchildren of Carmen – convince themselves of the truth, and find a way to communicate? And, is it better to live in forever winter, or eternal summer?

I’m sad to see this is getting poor or mixed reviews elsewhere, because I really enjoyed it. The tone is a very dark whimsy, with streaks of magic alongside tragedy. It reminded me a lot of Secret Passages in a Hillside Town, in feel and that sense of a small town filled with old mysteries, and dark family secrets. I also could picture it as an episode of the excellent tv show, Haven, with a little bit of Legion – probably the diving suit-wearing mayor on that last one.

It is perhaps true that the plot can’t hold all of its mysteries – things are often foreshadowed a little too strongly, making it easy to see where things are heading. And yet, the specifics are still there to be sorted through, and the ended is satisfying if ever so slightly abrupt.

Character-wise, and I liked both Jamie and Esther as leads. They drive the plot more through curiosity than cleverness, although they both have a lot of that. I hugely appreciated the fact that they were family, not some ‘lost romance across the city divided’ – it didn’t need that, at all.

The supporting cast felt quite ‘real’ to me, even if lightly sketched. Mixes of pleasant and nasty in most, all struggling to get by in difficult situations. Overall, there was perhaps a bit too much of a sense of ‘settling’ – so many people just trudging through life and awful or ridiculous happenings. But, that also kind of felt ‘real’. Sometimes just surviving takes it all out of you.

Overall, this is a definite recommendation from me. It’s a bit different, tonally mostly, and I wonder if that threw people. It’s got whimsy – compasses that point to love, the mayor in his old-school diving suit – but the undercurrent is very dark. People will get hurt and die. And yet the blend is really well balanced, as far as I’m concerned.

I believe that the two authors wrote a character each, although I don’t think that feels overly apparent – a good thing, as it doesn’t jar in any way.

And me? I’d choose winter. Either option sounds bad, either would leave you longing for the other, but I’d say it’s easier to wrap up than try to cool down, and I’m just not made for warm weather! Which way would you go?