City of Angels

De: Kristi Belcamino

Narrado por: Devon Sorvari

Nikki Black finds herself homeless and wandering the streets of Los Angeles, when she begins to uncover a sinister cover-up that endangers herself and others.

©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC

4.5 Stars - Gripping

City of Angels is a young adult book that crosses genres with historical fiction and mystery and has underlying dark themes that may be disturbing to some people (who aren’t me). For those who like trigger warnings, I would caution people with trauma relating to kidnapping, SA, or abuse suffered as a child.

This is not my typical genre, so although I’ve had this book for several months, it took until a couple days ago before I was in the mood to start it. I’m glad I finally did. City of Angels was captivating. I didn’t want to turn it off.

This book is well written and the characters are well developed. The pacing was perfect, and I love that it kept me guessing for most of the book about what was happening and who the “bad guy” would be. The twist was really good too. Aptly named, City of Angels is set in Los Angeles, California. It takes place in the early 1990s, around the time of the Rodney King trial and verdict. I appreciate that the author seemed to have researched the time period well enough that there weren’t any concerns with continuity. The main character is 17-year-old runaway, Veronica “Nikki” Black, who is originally from Chicago. We follow her as she tries to make a place for herself as she deals with her own traumas while trying to save a 12-year-old girl she met along the way.

My favorite part of this book was actually a description that the author wrote of one of the side characters who was illuminated by headlights in the fog as she stood to protect the main character from being mugged. That scene was absolutely perfect to me.

This was my first experience with this author. I can say without doubt that I would read another book by her in the future.

The narrator did a great job. She was easy to listen to and understand. I did speed up the pace a little, though, as I found the narration a bit slow for me.

I recommend this book and will likely listen to it again in the future. 4.5 Stars overall.