REVIEW: Black City by Elizabeth Richards

Black City  by Elizabeth Richards
Series: Black City #1
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Publication Date: November 13th 2012
Source: Bought

In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-old Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.

When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.

Oh my god! What an amazing book! I was so excited to read this book after all the amazing things I'd heard about it and I wasn't let down.

The book is told from two perspectives: Ash -  who is a half-blood Darkling (half human/half vampire) and Natalie who is a human  and is the Emissary's daughter (very important and powerful family).

The story revolves around Ash and Natalie's romantic relationship which is forbidden and it also focuses on the government of this world.

The main characters in this book were really interesting. I'm only going to talk about a few of them that I though were extremely important to the book.
Natalie - Determined & strong young woman, naive at the start but she soon begins to catch on to what's happening. I really admire Natalie's strength. She had to watch her father being murdered by a darkling and her sister being tortured and I really don't know how she's managed to stay so strong. I admire her for that.
Ash - Sweet, scared & dangerous (well, he is half vampire).
Ash doesn't feel welcome in the human community because he's half vampire, most people hate his kind. 
Sebastian - Just die. Please? If you've read this, you'll understand why I hate him so much.
Evangeline - Well, she comes and drops a massive bombshell about Natalie and Ash's relationship, so I consider he to be an important character. (Plus, she's a half-darkling as well).

In this world, there is a massive wall separating the humans and the darklings and the government are doing everything in their power to keep the wall up. They pretend that they want the wall down to keep the darkling's from fighting, but really, they just want to kill them all.

The government use some EXTREME tactics to kill the darklings, even going so far as to kill a few humans. The humans they killed were addicted to a drug called Haze (which is produced by vampires and they can give you the drug by biting you). The government developed a special type of Haze that contain a disease that would kill darklings if they bit the humans that had taken it. 

The death of these people was put on Ash to start with and he managed to get out of that situation. Natalie and Ash soon discovered that it was the government (and her own mother) killing humans and darklings.

The whole story line was gripping from the corrupted government to Ash & Natalie's secret, forbidden relationship.

And then, Evangaline (another half-darkling) comes out with this massive twist about Natalie & Ash's relationship and how it might not actually be real. I was so shocked! I never saw it coming! It was such an amazing twist and it definitely added some conflict to the novel.

The ending was full of action with a big fight scene which ended with Natalie & Ash being tried for murder. The part after that was really sad and I was nearly in tears!

I completely loved Black City and it's definitely a book I'd highly recommend!