Review: The City Without End by Kelly Jensen

The City without End (To See the Sun #2)
by Kelly Jensen

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/m

Blurb:
In the City Without End, level is everything.

The overcity is bright and glittering, the realm of the First Families. As a dutiful son and heir, Cato spends his days crafting the contracts that bind citizens together—but by night, he works to undermine the corrupt system. When his activities come under question, he scrambles to cover his tracks. Then his family arranges a new marriage for him, and Cato must look deeper than he ever has into the society into which he was born.

Price, the hidden son of a First Family, took refuge in the dark undercity twenty years ago after leaving his family under a shroud of mystery. The only thing that could draw him back is the disappearance of his sister, and the fact that his family has betrothed him to the Prince of Contracts in her place. This so-called prince represents everything that’s wrong with the city. But if he wants to keep his place and find his sister, he has to go along with his family’s plans.

What begins as duty becomes more as Cato and Price realize they’re not so different—and that someone wants them dead. Between dodging attempts on their lives and trying to find Price’s sister, they must work together if they want a chance at humanizing the City Without End.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

After re-reading To See the Sun, the first book in this series, late last year I was super excited for this book. The City Without End follows the point of view of Price, who was a minor side character who played a crucial role in To See the Sun. I was excited to learn more about him and the arranged marriage trope for this one made me curious as well to see how that would bring the couple together.

I liked both characters from the start, Price was even easier to like than Cato, but the more I read the more I liked both of them and the more I could appreciate the depth and complexities of both characters. Price was so apologetically himself and didn’t follow the rules of his upper class family. Where Cato seemed like the dutiful son, but then was actually working against the system in secret. I also liked the slow burn romance and seeing them be forced together first through the arranged marriage and then the mystery as they team up to solve the mystery of Price’s missing sister and Cato’s contact who went missing as well. Their liking of the other slowly grows into deeper caring and eventually loving and I liked seeing that.

I really liked the romance between the two of them and seeing the other from their point of view. I thought they made for a great couple. I really felt the romance and feelings between them, but I just wanted more of those. It felt like there was a lot of focus on the plot and the mystery and I just wasn’t as invested in that as their romance. Although I did actually like seeing the mystery play out and results of that.

While I enjoyed this book I also struggled a bit at times, not quite sure if it it was because of certain scenes or parts not quite working for or my mood or the timing when reading it. It could feel a bit slow at times or not gripping enough somehow. Part of it definitely was how much I love To See the Sun even more after I re-read it last year and this book just didn’t quite hit that same enjoyment for me. Or maybe I just have to re-read this eventually too to appreciate it even more.

The world building was really interesting in this book, from the first families who lived above the city to the lower city levels were life was harsh and very different. I liked seeing the characters move between the different levels and experience the differences. I also liked how they both wanted to do better for the people and help them.

To summarize: The City Without End was an enjoyable scifi romance. I liked the slow burn romance and seeing Price and Cato get to know each other as an arranged marriage and the investigation of two missing people force them together. While I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book, it was a great read. There were some parts I struggled through a bit that just felt a bit slow and didn’t fully catch my attention. I really liked both main characters and how the further I got the more I got to know them and their personalities and history. I liked seeing them grow closer slowly and it really was a slow building romance. I really liked those moments were I could feel their connection deepening. While I wasn’t as invested in the mystery plot line and would’ve liked more romance instead, I did like how that got wrapped up. The world building was well done and I liked reading more about the City Without End from the different levels and how different life was to how the main characters wanted to help and improve things.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.