City of Gods and Monsters by Kayla Edwards

Characters

• Loren Calla: Our main girl, who is an ordinary human. She loves her simple life. She loves plants, and is studying to go into that. Works part time at a plant store. Also has an interesting medical past - has a tattoo that tells her when something is wrong. 

• Darien Cassel: The head leader of the Seven Devils, has a city wide reputation for being ruthless and brutal. Has a reputation in the fighting ring as well. While he has a reputation, he, and many other influential people in the city, all work for a man named Randal - who really runs the city. 

• Sabrine: Loren’s best friend, whose kidnapping initiates the story’s conflict. 

• Dallas: Loren’s adoptive sister with witch abilities,Dallas and Loren have the classic sibling love. They are joined at the hip, but have their fights. .

• Ivyana: Another member of the Seven Devils; Also a twin sister to Darien. 

The book takes place in the modern city of Angelthene. This city, filled with supernatural beings: vampires, warlocks, witches, and so  much more. Loren is a human, who has a traumatizing night out. Darkslayers come to take Loren, but instead end up taking her best friend Sabrine. Loren has no idea why Darkslayers are after her; and the police don’t believe her as well. 

Meanwhile, we meet Darian, head of the Seven Devils. Someone offers him a job, to find someone (he is given little information). But he is quickly able to find her, and it is Loren. While going to go collect her, others are also after, trying to kidnap her. Darain doesn’t know why, but he decides he wants to try and protect her instead of handing her over. Loren realizes this is the perfect chance: she should align herself with Darain and together they can work on finding her friend Sabrine. Darien agree’s, and takes Loren to his home to live there during the weekends so they can work together on the case. 

For weeks the two work together. There are lots of ups and downs, we meet a lot of people in the city (mostly shady people). The tension between Loren and Darien rises throughout the whole book (he makes her jealous, he tries to push her away). We learn that Darien has a dark past, whose mother died of depression when he was 15, and a father who abused him. Whenever he has high emotions, he likes to go to the fighting pit and work through his emotions. Turns out that Loren can help with this as well, her voice has some impact on him. 

Randal, the man who runs the city, finds out that the Devils have been harboring a human girl. Loren is summoned to go visit him, along with Darien. We then learn that Randal is Darien’s abusive father. Randal gives quite a bit of information, that he believes Loren is the girl that everyone in the city is looking for. They are looking for her because she could be the key to unlocking a magical well - a well that can cure, give power, and do so much more. They leave Randal with Darien making a blood pact, that he will continue to help Randal and help with the well. 

More women continue to disappear in the city - many look just like Loren. But then, they get a phone call. Someone has found Sabrine. They go find her, and she is alive, but different. Tanner, a vampire, was the one to find her, and she was almost dead. He had to change her into a vampire in order for her to continue to live. Tanner has some repercussions for his decision, but everyone in the friend group is glad that Sabrine is alive. 

Darien finally comes to terms with his feelings towards Loren. He takes her on their first date, and things go well until the end when he gets shot. He is furious, because the people were after him, not her, but her safety was in jeopardy because of him. They later go on a second date, outside of the city. They kiss, but then he stops, saying he doesn’t want that to continue because people will always use Loren as a way to get to him. Loren’s pissed, and she breaks everything off. They don’t talk for a good week. 

At the end of the week, Loren is walking on the streets with her dog, and is attacked. She is able to shoot the monster down (thanks to Darien’s gun and his training), but the monster kills her dog. Loren calls the only person she trusts, Darien, who of course is willing to help. Loren goes into a depression, and goes as far as to go to a goddess to bargain to get her dog back. However, Loren is a human, and has nothing of value to give - but she does learn some info about her heritage. Darien finds out that Loren went, and Darien decides he will go visit the goddess. He bargains away years of his life to bring the dog back - but the dog is now attached to Loren’s shadow. 

Darien and Loren finally hit their stride, but Loren ends up getting kidnapped by Randal. They force her to call Darien and break up with him - trying to make sure he won’t come after her. Darien is devastated, until he realizes exactly what happened. Darien and the devils go to rescue her, she is in bad shape. They also find out that Loren was made by the Well, and Darien’s powers come from the Well. Darien is able to give some fake info to Randal, and get Loren out. With Loren safe, Darien takes his dad to a house where he says there is info - there isn’t, it is a real devil there, and the devil kills Randal and all his men. 

Even with Randal gone, there is still the Well to deal with. The Well gets destroyed, and there are minutes left before it destroys the whole city. Loren and Darien finally say they love each other, and Darien gives Lorren a ring that is going to protect her from the blast. And it does. And it literally kills everyone else in the central city. Loren, in her grief, comes to a conclusion - part of the Well is in herself. She uses it to her advantage to bring Darien back to life. Then continues to use it to restore the city and the lives taken during the blast. 

Everything seems great. Loren and Darien are finally together. And it turns out that the person who hired Darien in the beginning was actually Loren’s father - who wanted her protected. In an epilogue Darien watches Loren meet her father.