This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend. Read the full disclosure here.
Book: “Fallen City” by Adrienne Young
Publishing Info: Saturday Books, November 2025
Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: 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.
Review: I’m a big fan of Adrienne Young and have read most of her books by this point. And now, having read so many of her stories, I’ve noticed something particular about her approach to love stories and romance (all the books I’ve read by her have some form of romance): she seems to gravitate toward “second chance” style love stories where characters have an established history and relationship but have been separated or estranged for some reason and must now come together again within this story. And I think the strengths and weaknesses of this book directly parallel this specific preference of Young’s.
So, the story roughly alternates between both POV characters in the past and then them both now in the present. The strengths of Young’s approach to romance and the story as a whole are definitely seen best in the portions of the story that take place in the present. Our two characters are separated through much of this, but this makes all of the tension and yearning and slow hints as to the full extent of their past all the better. It was easy enough to guess at some of the twists that took place in the past, making all of these hints all the more enjoyable in the present. While the few scenes with the characters together are, of course, bangers, it’s always impressive how well some of the moments when they are separated and reflecting on the other are the most romantic. Young knows well how to write unfulfilled yearning and two characters whose relationship is deep but strained by external factors.
I also enjoyed the storyline of the present more than that of the past. Events take place over only a few days in the present timeline, but that was more than enough time to fully depict a city in the middle of tearing itself apart, full of fear of the future and dread of the past. There was a lot of politics explored in this story, and I appreciated the honest look at the harsh realities of revolution. Tolerating corruption is, of course, impossible, but the book doesn’t shy away from the fact that revolution doesn’t automatically guarantee something better—and can often be much, much worse in the meantime.
I also really liked the history and magic of this world. It took a bit for me to fully grasp how this was all linking together, but by the end, it was clear that Young had been carefully laying the groundwork for her ultimate twist. Readers may have to be patient to see it all come together, but come together it definitely does.
Now, the weaknesses of the story definitely come into play in the portions of the book that take place in the past. Here, we see our two main characters meet and fall in love. And this is where we see the weaker side of Young’s ability to write romances. She’s absolutely excellent at the “second chance” portion, but the initial development of the relationship left something to be desired. Indeed, this was very close to insta-love in a lot of ways. Because the author is such a strong writer, it was easier to read through this quick progression of a relationship (even more so because it was broken up with jumps back to the present), but things still evolved very quickly and with very little development given on the page. These two pretty much just meet each other’s eyes and fall deeply in love, fully trusting one another fairly quickly when they really have zero reason to and much personal history on both sides that should instead make them incredibly wary. The story is definitely a retelling, of sorts, of Romeo and Juliet, so I get how this depiction of the timeline and plot beats of their relationship lines up, but it was still a bit frustrating to get so little actual development of the early portions of their relationship.
However, the strengths of the present timeline, the lovely depictions of our main characters’ relationship at this point, and the increasing conflict that leads to an explosive twist at the end were still more than enough to leave me happy with this book. I’m all the more excited for the next one, which presumably will take place fully in the present time period, doing away with the weaker plotline of this book entirely. Fans of Adrienne Young and political, romantic fantasy should definitely give this one a shot!
Rating 8: Full of pining and romantic tension, this book nicely blends political fantasy with a heart-wrenching love story.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Fallen City” can be found on these Goodreads lists: 2025 Romance Duets and High/epic Fantasy by female authors.
The Library Ladies 