Fallen City - Review

Fallen City (Fallen City Duology, # 1)

By: Adrienne Young

Publication: November 4, 2025 by Saturday Books

416 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Mythology

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon )

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Goodreads description--In the great walled city of Isara, political turmoil ignites a rebellion one hundred years in the making. But when a legionnaire falls in love with a Magistrate's daughter, their love will threaten the fate of the city and the will of the gods.

Luca Matius has one purpose—to carry on the family name, maintaining its presence in the Forum once his powerful and cruel uncle dies. But his noviceship with the city's Philosopher places him in the middle of a catastrophe that will alter the destiny of his people.

Maris Casoeria was raised amidst the strategic maneuvers of the Citadel's inner workings, and she knows what her future holds—a lifetime of service to a corrupt city. But her years of serving as a novice to the last Priestess who possesses the stolen magic of the Old War has made her envision a different kind of future for the city. When she meets Luca, a fated chain of events is set into motion that will divinely entangle their lives.

As a secret comes to light and throws the city into chaos, Luca and Maris hatch a plot to create a calculated alliance that could tip the scales of power. But when an execution forces Luca to become the symbol of rebellion, he and Maris are thrown onto opposite sides of a holy war. As their fates diverge, they learn they are at the center of a story the gods are writing. And even if they can find their way back to each other, there may be nothing left.

Fallen City took a little longer for me to get hooked into the story than I wanted. The back and forth in chronology with "Then" and "Now" chapters is one of my least favorite ways to experience a book. I do recognize that there are pros to telling a story this way, but I hate being pulled out of what is happening in either time to be thrust back and forth into the other period.

At the beginning of Fallen City the depth of the relationship between the FMC and MMC is really unknown. Obviously, that is for a reason. But if these two had the debth of the relationship that is described as the story continues, it would make sense that the reader might pick up on some of that beyond this seemingly random boy or girl that the other is concerned about. It felt to me like they had this connection with the other but that it wasn't all that deep. Obviously, the reader is supposed to discover that over the course of the book, but again, this is one of my least favorite methods of storytelling.

All of that being said, once I did get invested in Fallen City, I wanted to keep reading. I am never as fully invested in the political manuevering of any particular fictional world as I am the romantic storylines. And I won't say that the politics took over, but I was always looking for more interaction between the main characters.

Fallen City does end in a slight ciffhanger and there is planned a second book, Chosen Son, that releases in fall 2026. That being said, I will probably read book 2, but I can't say that I'm dying to get my hands on it either. Fallen City gets 3.5 Stars. Have you read Fallen City? What did you think? Let me know!