Francesca Flores

We've all heard the adage 'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.' After reading the author's notes at the beginning and then reading the story that follows, it's clear that this book is Francesca's lemonade. And what a good refreshment it is. Prime dystopian with a completely flawed, but relatable protagonist, more obstacles that you can throw a dagger at, two classes of citizens, one downtrodden primarily due to a giant fear hangover after a king went nuts, with the other in fear much show more of the time because of a corrupt soul, and rough diamonds that play a most unique role in how the action unfolds. There's blood and violence, but they're completely relevant to the story. It ends, as many dystopian tales do, with scars, both emotional and physical, resolution in some instances, but no happy dancing and the potential for more and I'll be eager to read what comes next. show less

I always try to give an author a fair shake and search for positives in any book I read, but sometimes, that proves to be too difficult a task. And that sums up my feelings about THE WITCH AND THE VAMPIRE by Francesca Flores. The characters are one-note with no development. The world-building is minimal, and the story is too simple and predictable. The prose is both overwrought and amateurish; it reads as if a teenager wrote it without any training or guidance. While I finished THE WITCH AND show more THE VAMPIRE, I wish I had stopped myself from doing so because it really is not a very good story, and I will never get back that time spent angry reading it to its end. show less

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.

The premise of Francesca Flores' The Witch and the Vampire is undoubtedly interesting, and if handled better, probably would've called for a better review. However, I didn't think the book was as good as it could've been.
The beginning is incredibly info-dump-y. The entire first couple of chapters are so overtly there just to explain to the audience the world building instead of jumping right into the plot. show more I found it to be a slow start that never really picks up at any point in the book. The next hundred pages or so are entirely chronicling a forest journey, which I usually enjoy, but at this point in time I was just bored.
Kaye and Ava are, as I already said, good characters in theory, but not in execution. They're just okay; they're not really fleshed-out enough for me to consider them truly good characters, and unfortunately, none of the side characters really make up for it. Tristan, for example, is one of the most lifeless characters, and he purely exists to help Kaye and Ava at the end.
Finally, I would've been able to give this book a full three-star rating, because I thought it was a pretty generic young adult fantasy, if not for the actually baffling ending. Spoilers ahead.
Ava climbs into the mines underneath the forest, and tries to convince Casiopea, the vampire queen, to stand with her against Ava's mother, Eugenia, and stop her from tearing the Heart Tree and the Bone Wall down, the magical barrier that keeps the vampires in the forest and the mortals safe from the vampires. Casiopea refuses to listen to Ava, and goes to trap her in vines, but then... she just... changes her mind, I guess? It's never really explained why Casiopea suddenly decides to join her other Arkane gods and die, and, even more puzzlingly, pass her powers onto Ava, a girl she was going to kill a mere 20 seconds ago. This felt lazy to me.
If that wasn't perplexing enough, at the end, Kaye is turned into a vampire, and Ava and Kaye come together to guide their new vampire family into "coexisting with mortals." Which sounds great as a concept, until Kaye and Ava straight up just kill a mortal guy and drain his blood. To be fair, the guy was terrible, but both girls before this point had expressed that they were never willing to kill anyone and drink their blood, no matter how terrible that person may be. Literally one of the driving reasons why Kaye got Ava locked up earlier in the book was because she saw her draining a guy of his blood, who was a Flame witch who was trying to kill Ava and wasn't innocent, and was so disgusted by this behavior that she betrayed Ava and turned her in. Ava herself expresses guilt about drinking from the man. You could argue that this ending was just character development for the two characters, but if the author wanted to go the full I'm-a-monster-and-I'm-proud route, I don't understand why Ava and Kaye were so wishy-washy with it-- Ava would flip back and forth between only drinking from animals to exclusively from humans through the entire book. It was so jarring to read about Ava and Kaye drinking from this guy at the end without remorse, it was like I was reading a whole different book. It made me wonder how Ava and Kaye are going to "coexist with mortals"-- are they going to drink just animal blood, like Ava had suggested before, or are they going to drain only bad people, or are they going to just roam free and drain whoever? It was so confusing.

All in all, I think this book could benefit from some more rounds of heavy editing and a lot of plot and character work. I think it has potential from its interesting premise, but it won't reach it, in my opinion, without some major changes.
2.5/5 stars show less

DIAMOND CITY, by Francesca Flores, is set in a gloomy dystopian world called Sumerand,where society revolves around industry and money and little else. Aina Solis is an assassin, called a "Blade", who works for a gang leader by the name of Kohl. When Kohl gives her the biggest job she has ever had and she fails at it and her failure is exposed to all of Sumerand, Aina has to go on the run until she can finish the job she failed at. Hiding in the shadows and through some new acquaintances, show more Aina discovers a deep-seeded conspiracy and she along with some new and old friends, decide to reveal and disassemble the hidden secrets of Sumerand.
Flores has created a uniquely fascinating world in DIAMOND CITY. It's a little bit steampunk with a bit of magic thrown in, with a haze of gloom and despair cast over it all. Aina is at a crossroads in her life and the reader is immediately drawn into Aina's search for who she is and what she wants and how to get what she wants. The rest of the team supporting her are an intriguing group and Flores spends some time letting the reader get to know them as well. Teo, her often teammate on her assassin jobs, is the most likable and engrossing character in the group. The plot is complex, layered, with some good surprises along the way. I found myself wanting the way to traverse across Sumerand, which the group has to do several times, to vary a little from always dark tunnels, alleyways, and long hallways. There is a difficulty in that because of how the world of this book is setup, but I found a certain staleness and apathy to a lack of variety in traveling throughout the book. The climax of the book, though, did not disappoint and some really good twists were thrown in. I enjoyed DIAMOND CITY and I look forward to the next story in the series.
I received this book as part of the Goodreads Giveaway program. show less