**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

I typically try to stay away from spoilers, but I don't think I can avoid them for this review.

Francesca Flores puts forth a solid debut in Diamond City. Readers follow Aina, a former drug-addicted orphan who was homeless after her parents were murdered, only to be taken in by a street gang and trained as an assassin. Aina has been part of the gang for most of her life, and is now one of the top assassins as well. She is given one last job before she can open her own business without being beholden to the gang. Nothing goes smoothly, everything's falling apart, and Aina has to be quick on her feet to survive.

Flores combines a lot of different themes that are common in current YA. You have assassins, thieves, a black market, spies, political intrigue, but you also have a magic system in place in the background and a heist-like plot. Admittedly, this is not a true heist novel, but it has the fast-paced action, the infiltration of impenetrable mansions, and ragtag team of unlikely allies that really is reminiscent of heist books.

Flores managed those common themes well, but she also included some very important things that I don't see often in these types of YA books. Aina is perpetually at risk of relapse into her drug-addiction and there is commentary on the effects of poverty on the people living in the Stacks.

Aina is involved in an abusive relationship with her boss (Kohl), though not romantic or sexual in nature. Aina struggles with her feelings surrounding Kohl throughout the novel, and Teo provides an excellent device to show her that she deserves more than what Kohl offers. Aina's reflections on Kohl's treatment of her are often powerful thoughts, even in her weakest moments. I was so grateful that Flores steered things away from the love triangle or quadrilateral that I initially thought was happening. Particularly when it was clear that her reasons for doing so surrounded Aina standing up for her own mental health needs. Bless an author that knows when to leave romance out.

Kohl and Teo are undoubtedly two of my favorite characters from this novel, as they have a lot of depth to them and are pretty solid foils for each other.

Aina, after coming to the conclusion that Kohl is, in fact, not good for her chooses not to rely on Teo (her male best friend and maybe love interest), not on Ryuu (another possible male love interest), but on Tannis. Tannis is a female assassin who has oftentimes been Aina's rival as much as friend, but they choose to support each other and lift each other up in the face of Kohl's crappy behavior. Honestly, we need more women supporting women in life and business, and I was happy to see it here. AND both men offered support and space to process as Aina needed it.

I would have liked to see more of the magic system that Flores introduced, but didn't really focus on. I would also really like it if that was shown through Raurie's lens.

There were overall just a lot of good things happening in Diamond City. I look forward to seeing how Flores grows as an author, and to how this world grows with her.

It’s a very interesting concept – diamonds being used in magic, but not just any magic – blood magic. Which does have darker connotations. And I think (one of the reasons why) I became so disinterested in this book is because I thought there would be a much bigger emphasis on the whole blood magic thing, then it was barely touched on.

I actually had this whole paragraph about how Kohl takes in people that are like nearly dead or who don’t have many prospects, and then I finished the book and realised ‘oh no he’s actually really bad.’ Like he’s absolutely awful. A terrible, terrible person. I like that we’re told that he’s awful, but we’re also shown a little goodness, just enough to make us think he could be good. He is very good at manipulating people – which isn’t a good thing of course, but he thinks he’s a good guy and actually helping people – which makes him an even more complex written character – because we’re fooled into thinking he can be a good character.

I liked most of the other characters. Tannis was my favourite side character – I wish we saw more of her, but maybe she’s a bigger character in the sequel. As for the others, yeah, I actually wish they had given Tannis more page time rather than those that had. I’m not saying I didn’t like or care for Teo or Ryuu, or the others, (okay, I am a bit) they didn’t really hold much interest for me.

One of the aspects of the book I really liked was all the crime mentioned in the book. Aina being an assassin, the city basically thriving on crime and forcing the people to take on lives of crime to live and then blaming them for the crime. That was interesting to see because it mirrors real life in a way – people being forced to do what needs to be done in order to survive and then being blamed for that exact thing.

I liked the plot, until it made me very confused. There kept being another plot point behind a trap door, because that’s what it felt like to me – I turn the page and boom, there’s a new area of the plot I didn’t know or didn’t see happening. Sure, a part of that was because I wasn’t paying as much attention as usual, so that’s probably my fault.

The more I write this review the more I get so annoyed because I know I should be into this book and loving it, and honestly, I will probably read the sequel; but this book just made me so frustrated with dragging me along, promising me a good time, and basically, failing to provide that.