City of Shattered Light by Claire Winn - Restarting September 16th 2021

[Saar The Book owl]

As darkness closes in on the city of shattered light, an heiress and an outlaw must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other.

As heiress to a powerful tech empire, seventeen-year-old Asa Almeida strives to prove she's more than her manipulative father's shadow. But when he uploads her rebellious sister’s mind to an experimental brain, Asa will do anything to save her sister from reprogramming—including fleeing her predetermined future with her sister’s digitized mind in tow. With a bounty on her head and a rogue A.I. hunting her, Asa’s getaway ship crash-lands in the worst possible place: the neon-drenched outlaw paradise, Requiem.

Gun-slinging smuggler Riven Hawthorne is determined to claw her way up Requiem’s underworld hierarchy. A runaway rich girl is exactly the bounty Riven needs—until a nasty computer virus spreads in Asa’s wake, causing a citywide blackout and tech quarantine. To get the payout for Asa and save Requiem from the monster in its circuits, Riven must team up with her captive.

Riven breaks skulls the way Asa breaks circuits, but their opponent is unlike anything they’ve ever seen. The A.I. exploits the girls’ darkest memories and deepest secrets, threatening to shatter the fragile alliance they’re both depending on. As one of Requiem’s 154-hour nights grows darker, the girls must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other before Riven’s city and Asa’s sister are snuffed out forever.

[Ritz]

Hi everyone, do you mind if I join this BR?

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

Ritz wrote: "Hi everyone, do you mind if I join this BR?"

Hey Ritz, welcome!

[Ritz]

How many chapters are we reading a day? I’m fine with anything :)

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

I was just going to read at our own pace? Do you want to do some chapters a day?

[Ritz]

I think it would be better if we had a number of chapters to read, but we can read at our own pace if you want

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

Ritz wrote: "I think it would be better if we had a number of chapters to read, but we can read at our own pace if you want"

I'd prefer my own pace, if that's okay with you!

[Ritz]

Sure, that's fine!

[Shay ☆]

hiii <3 excited to BR this with y'all!

[Ritz]

Hi Shay! Nice to meet you :)

[Shay ☆]

Ritz wrote: "Hi Shay! Nice to meet you :)"

HIII nice to meet you too <3

[Shay ☆]

btw do y'all mind if i start first AHHA ive already started on the first chapter

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

Shay ☆ wrote: "btw do y'all mind if i start first AHHA ive already started on the first chapter"

No problem at all! I wanted to start a bit early as well :)

[Shay ☆]

Chapter 1 : (view spoiler)[THAT WAS INTENSE WOW. epic first chapter. we jumped right into the action!! my expectations has been raised a little i must admit. (hide spoiler)]

[Shay ☆]

Chapter 2 : (view spoiler)[ whoa that was intense. i'm surprised at the lack of info-dumping. it's spread out so evenly and i dont feel overwhelmed. the technical terms are a little strange to me lol but its probably because i dont read a lot of sci-fi but damn i feel so bad for Kaya. im rooting for the sisters! also there are more characters than i thought oof, this is getting trickyyy. i normally find that authors cant really juggle too many characters at once. lets see (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 3 : (view spoiler)[OOO THIS IS GETTING GOOD LETS GOOOO (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 5 : (view spoiler)[what in the world. ok this is getting a little confusing. too many names and too many terms are getting thrown at me. im so confused about the Kaya & Etri brain thing. human minds cant be reprogrammed so they developed an etri brain for this, so why do they need Kaya for? is kaya's brain being reprogrammed? what is her role in all this? im so confused (hide spoiler)]

[Shay ☆]

hii have any of y'all started?

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

I was going to start in a while!

[Shay ☆]

Trisha wrote: "I was going to start in a while!"

yay okay! no rush though i was just asking! i know youre super busy :/ but cant wait to hear ur thoughts!!

[Shay ☆]

chapter 15 : (view spoiler)[ OMG EEKS FINALLY SOME ROMANTIC TENSION OMG IVE BEEN WAITING. MORE MORE MORE. i kinda ship Ty & Asa though. and i ship Riven with Morphett, they would hv the perfect angsty tension. but i wonder where morphett is. shes supposedly so awesome & amazing & unbeatable but shes suddenly gone now & how did they defeat her??? we didnt even see how the little fight on the ship ended, & how Riven ended up with BOTH Asa & her backpack + Riven was perfectly fine & wasnt hurt at all. isnt morphett supposed to be rlly good at her job. also i love galanteo, i love it when inanimate objects are sassy its so funny. (hide spoiler)]

general thought (not a plot spoiler) : (view spoiler)[ i think some sections are a little too confusing bc there isn't enough scene-setting. so a lot of the time it becomes hard to imagine the setting? idk if its just me (hide spoiler)]

[Ritz]

chapter 1: (view spoiler)[So, I definitely agree with Shay on how it just jumped right into the action, I really loved that. And I also really like the writing style, it's simple but really nice. (hide spoiler)]

chapter 2: (view spoiler)[I love how Asa wants to make a name for herself, apart from her father. And again, I agree, there isn't much info-dumping. I found it really interesting the way the author slowly expanded the world. And also, poor Kaya. (hide spoiler)]

[Ritz]

Chapter 8: (view spoiler)[Oh wow. So much happened in this chapter. But I'm really liking it so far. (hide spoiler)]

[Shay ☆]

Ritz wrote: "chapter 1: [spoilers removed]

chapter 2: [spoilers removed]"

reply to chapter 2 : (view spoiler)[right?! poor Kaya!! thats so evil of the father to do that. also i was kinda confused about the Etri brain thing & why they needed Kaya's brain to do that. don't they just reprogram the Etri brain? why do they need Kaya's brain? (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

16%
(view spoiler)[I don't trust Josiah, I think he has an ulterior motive. (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

Shay ☆ wrote: "Chapter 1 : [spoilers removed]"

Yes, same!!!

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

Shay ☆ wrote: "Chapter 2 : [spoilers removed]

Chapter 3 : [spoilers removed]

Chapter 5 : [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[I think it's that since human brains can't be reprogrammed, he's transferring their consciousness to an Etri brain, which can be reprogrammed? (hide spoiler)]

[Shay ☆]

@Trisha

(view spoiler)[ OHH, i guess that makes sense. so he can control her using technology. yikes (hide spoiler)]

[Shay ☆]

Trisha wrote: "16%
[spoilers removed]"

ooo really? (view spoiler)[ i trust josiah though ahaha but you might be right. hes still hiding some details from her (hide spoiler)]

[Shay ☆]

chapter 24 (72%) : (view spoiler)[ omg wtf that was a crazy intense chapter. it was really good but it was kinda hard to imagine the arena? im not sure if the setting is them in one sphere or multiple spheres? or are they stepping on spheres? its a little confusing. and the switching POVs kinda blended tgt a little confusingly at the end of this chapter. it was an AWESOME fight scene tho but is it just me or is Yllath's dialogue a little corny? kinda like smth a cartoon villain would say? idk maybe its just me. im also feeling a little detached from the characters lol like emotionally, maybe i'm not in my best state. are you all feeling emotionally attached to the characters? the character im currently most attached to is probably Ty or Asa

also Riven is giving me whiplash. one moment Asa is her favourite person and rescuer and they were hugging and pressing foreheads tgt and the next shes ready to sacrifice her & HER ENTIRE PLANET to Yllath without a second thought. & is mad at Samir for butting in, not even secretly glad that he did. idk....Riven is frikin awesome but im finding her not v emotionally appealing at the moment. a little inconsistent (hide spoiler)]

[Ritz]

Trisha wrote: "16%
[spoilers removed]"

ahh I agree

[Shay ☆]

ngl though the lgbtqia+ representation in this book is amazing i love it

[Ritz]

chapter 17: (view spoiler)[ahh holy crap so much happened. I'm loving the book so far, but I feel like the author should explain the setting a little bit more. I'm loving all the characters though. (hide spoiler)]

[Ritz]

Shay ☆ wrote: "ngl though the lgbtqia+ representation in this book is amazing i love it"

yayy I'm glad you liked it! I'm still reading it lol

[Shay ☆]

Ritz wrote: "chapter 17: [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[i absolutely agree. sometimes i forget where we are and where the characters are supposed to be. like if theyre talking through their comms or the character's actually there. and when did this character suddenly show up. bc the action is so explosive & fast its like rlly hard when things are not being explicitly stated or described enough (hide spoiler)]

[Shay ☆]

Ritz wrote: "Shay ☆ wrote: "ngl though the lgbtqia+ representation in this book is amazing i love it"

yayy I'm glad you liked it! I'm still reading it lol"

HAHAH me too its okay im almost done, i really wanna finish it by today! im gonna have so much fun writing the review !

[Ritz]

ahh that’s great!! I’m in part 3 right now!

[Shay ☆]

Ritz wrote: "ahh that’s great!! I’m in part 3 right now!"

things get even more intense from here on out HAHAH

[Shay ☆]

82% : (view spoiler)[ ok so a big flaw for this book is how many characters there are & the lack of description of the location of the characters at any given time. i dont mind many characters. i just need to know where there are, like u gotta remind me!! Diego just showed up after they allied with Banshee outta nowhere !!!!!! where the hell did Diego come from? why was he quiet the entire time? i forgot in which scene was he present and in which scene he left. its rlly throwing me off AHHH (hide spoiler)]

okay so i had to go back and re -read it and (view spoiler)[ Diego WAS there and he has the literal most useless lines ever. hes so useless like his reputation was built up to be so high & mighty & know-it-all but when it came down to the action, hes like barely there! hes always somewhere waiting for someone to send him something!!!! isnt supposed to be a damn good mechanic too, & is supposed to be witty & flirty?? where did all that go? his personality literally faded to becoming a little forgettable to me at about 82% in which is arnd page 250 out of 307 pages....is it just me? idk maybe my minds just empty idk (hide spoiler)]

[Ritz]

Shay ☆ wrote: "Ritz wrote: "ahh that’s great!! I’m in part 3 right now!"

things get even more intense from here on out HAHAH"

I'm excited!!

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

100%
(view spoiler)[I really loved this! I didn't enjoy the decision to kill of Ty to get resolve the love triangle, but then he wasn't dead, so...it's all okay now. I also really really hope this is a series, because I don't know how else I will be able to survive. And this isn't even out yet. *crying* (hide spoiler)]

[Shay ☆]

Trisha wrote: "100%
[spoilers removed]"

AHH i finished it too (view spoiler)[ SO AMAZING im giving it 4.75 stars!!! i think this book is going to blow up if they market it right. its SO good. and im still crying about ty, but strangely i cried more about Galateo omg. i was so attached to him. but the scream i let out when ty was still alive. that frikin cliffhanger. this is a series for sure. and i cant wait for the next book BUT THIS ONE ISNT EVEN OUT YET WTF (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

Shay ☆ wrote: "chapter 24 (72%) : \.."

(view spoiler)[The POV switching was a bit irritating, sometimes we would get lines that seemed to be form another POV but were from a different one...in the beginning it was easy to differentiate because she was going by Tripp, but it progressively got harder...it wasn't a lot, but it was definitely there. I feel the same about attachment, I like Asa's POV better than Riven. (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

Shay ☆ wrote: "Ritz wrote: "chapter 17: [spoilers removed]"

[spoilers removed]"

I feel the same(view spoiler)[Sometimes I would think they were all together, but it would turn out that they'd split up. (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

Shay ☆ wrote: "Trisha wrote: "100%
[spoilers removed]"

AHH i finished it too [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[Yes, this is for sure going to be one of the must-have books this year, it ticks all the boxes! Same, I didn't completely believe Ty was dead, but I was very much hoping that Galateo would still be alive.
EXACTLY HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GO ON WITH LIFE NOW (hide spoiler)]

[Shay ☆]

ahhh i finished my review!! here it is : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Shay ☆]

@Trisha

I KNWO RIGHT IMSJDNKN I NEED TH E SEQUEL RIGHT THIS SECOND

[Shay ☆]

Trisha wrote: "Shay ☆ wrote: "chapter 24 (72%) : \.."

[spoilers removed]"

right right. i often got confused about the switching POVs too

[Shay ☆]

Trisha wrote: "Shay ☆ wrote: "Ritz wrote: "chapter 17: [spoilers removed]"

[spoilers removed]"

I feel the same[spoilers removed]"

exactly!!

[Trisha (semi-hiatus)]

Shay ☆ wrote: "ahhh i finished my review!! here it is : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

Great review!

[Ritz]

Shay ☆ wrote: "ahhh i finished my review!! here it is : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

amazing review!!

[Ritz]

HOLY CRAP I JUST FINISHED THE BOOK