Mystic City by Theo Lawrence

A Manhattan where magic is real and true love can change the world.

In this Manhattan, also known as Mystic City, the rich and powerful live in skyscrapers called the Aeries. The poor live far below, in the squalor of the Depths, alongside magic-wielding mystics who provide the energy that keeps the city pulsing. 

High in the Aeries, Aria Rose is madly in love with Thomas Foster. Or so she's been told.

Aria wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. She doesn't remember carrying on a secret romance with Thomas, the son of her father's sworn enemy, much less falling in love with him. And now she and Thomas are engaged, pledged to a union that promises to end the bitter political rivalry between their families once and for all. 

Then Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic who holds the key to her past. But as she begins to unlock the dark secrets behind her memory loss, she risks losing her one true love forever. 

This was one of those books that took me a while to find and I was very happy to see that I did. I bought this a few days ago after I suddenly ran out of books to read on my nook, so I took a good time to search through the Barnes and Noble website to find something new. I purchased this simply because at first the cover photo looked gorgeous (keeping in mind I bought this in e-book format). Very much sci-fi fantasy type novel which was something that I very much wanted to read. Also, the idea behind the novel is very interesting. The rich live high above in the sky? The rest of the civilization lives down below? But why do those with magical powers live below and those without run the city? Hmm? 

General questions of intrigue brought me to purchase this book.

After finishing the book in one sitting I was very glad to see that it was exactly what I wanted. Keeping in mind I did have one itty bitty problem with the overall story.

It's interesting to take the point of view of Aria who has no idea what's going on or how things came to happen. She's told everything and she seems to follow because honestly, why would she have reason to believe otherwise? Although we the reader know different and can't help but see it, Aria stays ignorant to the deceitfulness of those around her, even as she begins to understand more and more of what happened to her in the first place. I was so heated that she couldn't see what I could plainly see. But after consideration, it's easy to understand why she would think otherwise.

The progression of the story builds well and keeps you hooked from the beginning unto the end. Certain instances within the book pleasantly surprised me when I thought that it would go in a completely different direction.

The one problem I had was with the introduction of Hunter. I understand how it works and I see it now as a very plausible event, but I just felt at the time of reading it that it should have happened differently. But of course, this is my personal opinion, but I would have liked to see him act differently to provide that overall new interest that Aria has of him. **SPOILER!!!** Pretty much as the reader, once you meet Hunter you already know that he's in love with Aria and is saddened by her memory loss of him FOR WHATEVER REASON wink wink wink.

I really enjoyed this book, and I'm excited for the next one to come out in July of this year!