This is such a gripping Nordic noir with a fantasy setting.

In the oppressive Red Kingdom, society is organized along strict caste lines, and Thora knows her place: at the bottom. As a Dust Caste slave belonging to Investigation House, she can expect her days to be filled with laundry, cleaning floors, chopping vegetables, and similar chores. But Thora knows she is capable of much more and when she’s chosen to accompany an investigator looking into the disappearance of a Sun Noble girl, she’s determined to use this opportunity to prove herself, no matter the cost, even as it becomes clear that there is far more wrong in Death City than a single girl gone missing.

The world building and writing on the society within the Red Kingdom was so brilliantly done, and Thora is such a great main character. She's very relatable as she makes mistakes, but you still find yourself rooting for her

Received arc from Small Heart Press and Netgalley for honest read and review,this review is my own.
I am beginning to really like Poppy's work and this first book in Red Kingdom was utterly absorbing,the characters are all flawed in some way , but make the story more enjoyable.The wording and interaction between the characters is amazing and this helps this big story along.It was also quite hard sometimes to figure where story was heading.
Centering around Diem and Thora as the investigate some goings on in another land.
This is a big book and it took me a while to get through it.

DNF 20%. I really liked the premise of the book, the idea that a religion surrounding death controls all aspects of life and two investigators trying to solve a crime under these circumstances. But the world building just made it all confusing before the plot even began. A reader shouldn't be spoon fed world building and should discover as they read, but the initial building just made me really uninterested in finding out more.

Oh gosh, the world building in this novel was incredible!! Like seriously!! The author built this richly detailed world with so much depth, and I feel like we only scratched the surface of what’s coming. It can be hard sometimes to translate an author’s vision for a world into the reader experience, but this was so well done that I had no problem imagining the world the story took place in.

I loved the characters and was either excited or anxious about what would happen to them next! I found turned the pages and holding on for the ride. They all had real and flawed personalities and they interacted in realistic and relatable ways.

The plot itself was engaging and all the puzzle pieces slotted into place as I made my way through the novel. I can’t wait to see where the series goes next! Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author, for a chance to read and review this novel.

Okay, so I really wanted to like this book. And I did... kinda

The storyline and characters were good, but I did get a little confused at times. maybe it was me, but idk.

2.5/5 stars

thank you NetGalley for the arc

Dreams of Death City has some incredible things going for it. The world itself, the magic system, the use of themes, colors and cast of characters are richly detailed and vibrant. Its the execution that I find the most fault in.
The writing is so repetitive that I struggled to not DNF this on many occasions and actually dreaded picking it up. The way the characters are described (goals, motives) do not seem to match the way they’re presented. For me there was a disconnect in the conflict of the story. The characters don't seem to have any sense of urgency for all that were told they’re running on borrowed time. While I get that there is a particular reader that will very much enjoy this, I was not one of them.

I dnf'd this book at less than 1/3. I just was not engaged at all and consistently dreaded picking it up. I hesitate to give a star rating at all since it was a dnf, but its required here.

There's a lot of potential, a lov of intriguing aspects and I loved them. I could have a higher rate but I also found it quite slow.
Be patient and you'll be rewarded.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Many Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the digital review copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
This, this right here! I absolutely loved this book, there is so much going on, it’s brutal, and compassionate, with a strong class divide, female empowerment, and a simmering romance, on top of mysteries unsolved and a string of murders.
The characters have so much depth, flawed with dark pasts, in a place where nearly everything is punishable by death, they dream of something better in a better place. The setting is brutal, I felt cold just reading it, but it had such a good pace that I devoured it in a few days. There are so many unanswered questions in the book that I can’t wait to see if there are more from this world.

(Thank you to NetGalley and Small Heart Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review)

Marketed as a dark fantasy mixed with a Sherlock Homes-style mystery, Dream Of Death City had me invested from the beginning. The world has so much depth and lore including unique speech patterns, a religion focused on death and all the political intrigue you could want. The fantasy aspects were really interesting to learn and read about, as well as the history of the Red Kingdom. You can tell the author has put so much thought into every single aspect of the world which has resulted in a rich yet dark and strange setting. The writing style is also brilliant and everything is described so vividly that it feels as though you are exploring Death City alongside Thora and Diem.

Speaking of, the characters are well written and Thora and Diem were really interesting main characters to follow. They weren’t your typical heroes but instead were compelling characters with flaws and dark pasts just trying to survive. I was rooting for them from the beginning and admired their courage to dream of a better life in a tough world where even dreaming is punishable. The mystery aspect worked really well and was the perfect fit for this type of setting. There were lots of twists and turns and I also appreciated how the ending wasn’t rushed at all, as this is often a flaw many mystery novels suffer with.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The dark and strange setting mixed with a great mystery and immersive writing resulted in a fantastic read

I guess it is time to face the music… DNF at 80%

I believe I stopped reading this weeks ago but I thought if I could just push myself to read it, I could finish it. I turned out to be wrong. A disclaimer though, this book did not work for me. I believe it will be loved by many, it just wasn't my cup of tea. (I know it sounds like that classic “You will make someone very happy one day, it’s just not me.” break-up line but bear with me.)

To start on a more positive note, this book had an amazing world with its unique magic system. I’ve never read anything quite like this and I almost only read fantasy so kudos to the author for being able to surprise me. The writing style was hard to get into at first but once you get used to it, it flows pretty easily. I can count so many good things about this book so why didn’t it work for me? Well, let's get right into it.

First things first, the rhythm of the story. More like the lack of it. It started off pretty slow. Way too slow. So slow that even though I found the world to be intriguing, I fell asleep a few times trying to get through it. Don’t let the prequel chapter fool you, the rest is definitely not like that. Once you get to the 60% mark, it picks up and you finally get into the exciting part. Only for that part to end at 80% mark hence why I DNF’ed there.

It also failed to meet my expectations with many things. The biggest of them being the magic system. It was and I can’t stress this enough, very original but the author failed to use it. It was hardly a part of the main plot and it wasn’t executed very well. I honestly would like to know more about the crooked beat just not in this book.

I also thought the traumatic event Thora apparently went through would be important and not something that gets mentioned in a few chapters without affecting the way Thora feels or reacts. She didn’t care, so as the reader I could not care which made the constant mention of it without proper explanation annoying.

And the final thing that didn’t work for me was, and this could be a minor spoiler, Thora and Diem’s love. Throughout the book, I always felt like they had this brother/sister kind of relationship instead of a romantic one so once they got together, it was extremely weird for me. I honestly couldn’t support them or even read their romance without cringing. I think it was the biggest letdown for me.

To finish this review off, I’d say you all should give this one a chance and judge for yourself.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What a fab fantasy. I loved the way the writing style goes hand in hand with the story and world- building, and I always enjoy character-focused novels. It was great to see such a variety of characters with different paths and agendas, facing challenges and tough choices every day. What particularly resonated for me was a storyline of women fighting for more for themselves. Great novel for all fantasy-lovers and beyond!

It is a tale of ambitious spies entangled on a journey of hardships, betrayals, and adventure. I like how the story opened with an ambush to another great house and I was totally immersed by how the story pulled me into a cinematic experience. There are some parts where I find it slow and dragging, but the detailed and luscious writing kept me in the loop.

Massive thank you to Netgalley and Small Heart Press for approving me of this eARC!

Thank you to the publisher Small Heart Press and to NetGalley for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

"Dream of Death City" is a fascinating, complex beginning to a series that I hope will continue for a long time. This dark fantasy, set in a place called the Red Kingdom, follows Thora (a woman of the lowest caste system) and Diem (the investigator she works with) as they finish up on the worst case of their lives. It's here that Thora sees a side to Diem that terrifies her, but that's the least of the problem. After a Sun Noble (the highest caste) reports his daughter missing, Thora and Diem are sent to Death City, an island all but cut off from the rest of the Red Kingdom. Here people like Thora walk free and the old religion of the past still echoes as death gods walk the seas.

While in Death City, seeking this missing woman and trying to solve the murder of another, Thora comes to realise that she doesn't want to go back to her old life. Diem doesn't either, what he did on their last case has followed him and he knows there is no happy endings in the Red Kingdom. As time runs out, and the pressure grows, they're pushed to incredible limits. I adored this book from the first page! It's dark and gory, with excellent twists and grey characters throughout. Diem and Thora are perfectly matched with each other and I loved how things changed around them. The pacing was tight and kept me gripped to the last page.
I so hope there's a sequel. I hope even more that I get to read more with these characters in this world.

Fun in a way a lot of books aren't I loved the pacing and characters. Enough action to be fun and thought -provoking enough to make the story entertaining.

Really enjoyed this debut novel. The world building was really interesting and the characters were intriguing. Loved the first chapter, it was a really good way to pull you in. At times, it becomes a little repetitive, but overall a really interesting read.
Thank you (netgalley and publisher) for the arc. I will be following this series.

As much as I wanted to love this book, it was not the one for me. I was trudging through the story, filled with too many descriptions that didn't really immerse me into it, but pulled me away. There were a few times where I got completely lost in what was happening (which is a very rare occasion for me usually). The other thing was that I didn't quite connect with our main characters. It seemed that and author made Thora this "yeah, so what if I'm a slave, I will achieve something great regardless" type of girl, but the way it was described did not convince me she was like that, and you needed that to believe into the whole scenario our main characters went to.

There were good sides to the story though. The author did take time to master the writing style. It has a very visual metaphorical quality to it, plus the story is grim, but not disgusting. The book has a map at the beginning of it (always nice to have it when you are being introduced to a new fantasy world), and interesting illustrations at the beginning of each chapter.

The other thing is that I might have gotten into a reading slump after reading this, so maybe that is a me thing, not the book thing. Maybe I will give it a second chance later and try to read it again with a "fresh" mind, so I definitely implore you to check it if you think that might be something for you.

Honestly I dnf'ed this book. I didn't like it maybe it wasn't my cup of tea. Although the premise was really interesting I didn't continue reading it.

Good overall book. I've read others in this world, and not bad. About average in this series.

Ok to he a stand alone, or read with others in the series.

Fantasy but without all your standard tropes.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Sadly, I realized early on that I’m not the right audience for this book.
It is described as dark fantasy but felt a lot more dystopian to me, which is a genre I don’t like.

I tried to get into the story but the setting made it hard for me, and the extensive descriptions didn’t help.

I’m sure this is a great book if this is your thing, but it just wasn’t my thing. I’m giving it 3 stars because I don’t want to negatively affect the rating for a book that’s just not for me.