Thank you to Harlequin Australia and Netgalley for a copy of this book for my honest review
Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show.
But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.
Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all of her loved ones disappear
Review:
I purely picked this book for the cover and I was glad I did. This is one of those cases where you can actually judge a book by its cover and if you don’t believe me then you clearly haven’t seen the cover for this book. I will be buying a printed copy of this book to add to my rainbow shelves at home.
The plot of the story was fascinating, there is no doubt about that. There are a lot of great stories written by brilliant minds but I always love stumbling across a story that is in a field of its own and nothing can really compare to that. Sorina is part of the Gomarrah which is a travelling circus as well as a city full of comfortable homes, bustling market places as well as the highlighted and mystical Freak Show. Sorina, known as a jinx worker but also has the ability to create illusions of people, that she cares for and they have become her family and friends. That was until they suddenly get murdered, one by one the family she had created and grown to love get mysteriously killed. Nothing gets you more hooked to a story than urge to find out who the killer is, let’s face it we all have that need to know.
One of the major things I love about Daughter of the Burning City is there not a real love interest. To be able to pick up a story and not have to worry about getting revolted by the typical girl/boy romance that makes up a majority of the novel or even worse the sad typical twilight triangle romance. However, that could be because I am one of the more unromantic person on the face of the Earth but saying that the lack of romance forced the strong plot and intriguing characters to light. The characters are wildly diverse and Amanda Foody gave such great depth to them. You were able to relate to the characters and grew fond of them easily which makes it horrendous when they get killed.
There was only a few things that annoyed me about this beautiful book and that was there wasn’t much of the LBGT theme as advertised which, honestly, was a bit of a letdown. The only other bit of the story I found annoying was the fact she refers to herself as the ‘Girl Who Sees Without Eyes,’ but yet could see without eyes? I felt this wasn’t really explained well and was pretty much left to ‘well that’s just how the story goes.’ I don’t know if this was a massive thing for anyone else but through the book it frustrated me a fair bit.
Over all this is a brilliant read and you won’t find anything like this around From the characters to Foody’s wonderful and captivate style of writing this is a book that needs to be on your bookshelf that you will love again and again no matter how many years down the track you pick it up.
Rating: 4/5
Publisher: Harlequin Australia
Published: 2017
Blue Fairy Tales 
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