**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: http://bookbriefs.net** 

City in Embers is the first book in a new paranormal action series, called the Collectors. As you may know, Stacey Marie Brown's Darkness series is one of my favorite New Adult paranormal series. The Collectors is set in the same world as that one and the electrical storm caused by the Dae in the Darkness series is what has rocked Seattle, where the main characters are on the run in City of Embers. Which I thought was the perfect crossover between the two worlds. It really added to the atmosphere throughout the story, and it was a cool throwback that fans of the Darkness Series would get. But you absolutely do not need to read the darkness series to get this one. They are very separate, with all new characters. I thought this book had a very different feel than the Darkness series. One that I ended up really enjoying. (But the Darkness Series is still my favorite.)

Zoey grew up really bad off in the foster system. I didn't particularly love how stereo typically cruel her foster parents were but you get over it because so many other things start to happen that they fade into the background very quickly. There is a lot of fast paced action once you got into the book a little ways. I had a really hard time getting  into this book. It took me maybe 18-20% mark on my kindle before I really started to like the story. It was all up hill from there, but I took me a while to get interested. So if that happens to you, don't give up on the book! It gets so so much better!

Ryker and Zoey had an interesting relationship. I liked that they really disliked each other for most of the book, and only later on did they come to realize that they cared for the other person. And even so, this thing they had (I don't even want to call it a romance, not yet.) was never anything close to warm and mushy. They are two tough cookies that don't like opening up to other people. So when they tell each other something from their past, that is about as mushy and romantic as they get. And it works for them. I liked that the focus was much more on the running and the action than it was on these two and their romance. Now, that is not to say that I don't want to see more of them together in the future, because I do. But for the first book this worked.

I loved that the fae and creatures were consistent with Stacey's darkness series. And I loved how much action there was this book. I have no idea where the next book is going to take us because there was one heck of a cliffhanger at the end of this one. But most of all, I am glad that I didn't give up on this book, like I wanted to more than once, because I ended up really liking it a lot.

 This review was originally posted on Book Briefs