Welcome to Book Bar's official Fantasy Book Club. For April, the selected book is Red City by Marie Lu
(book description is located at the bottom of this listing).
So come out, grab a drink at our beverage bar, and join us for a lively book discussion! When you purchase this book club pick from us, your support will help us be here for a long time and put on more events! Purchasing options are below:
In Store: Stop by our location at 50 N. Railroad St. in Palmyra, PA!
Shipped: To purchase from Bookshop.org and get it delivered straight to your door, order from the following link (we will receive a percentage of this sale):
https://bookshop.org/a/98905/9781250885678
Ebook: Bookshop now offers ebooks. You can purchase the ebook here (we will receive a percentage of this sale): https://bookshop.org/a/98905/9781250885685
Audiobook: You can purchase audiobooks from us on Libro.fm. This audiobook can be easily found on our Apr 2026 Book Club Picks playlist here (we will receive a percentage of this sale): https://libro.fm/playlists/11529?bookstore=bookbarus
We look forward to seeing you!
Book Description:
The Godfather meets The Magicians in the sweeping adult debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu. Perfect for fans of V.E. Schwab, Red City is a dark and deadly contemporary fantasy of magical warfare, star-crossed ambition, and the pursuit of perfection at any cost, set in a glittering alternate Los Angeles.
Alchemy is the hidden art of transformation. An exclusive power wielded by crime syndicates that market it to the world’s elites in the form of sand, a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more.
Among the gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills of Angel City, alchemy is controlled by two rival syndicates. For years, Grand Central and Lumines have been balanced on a razor’s edge between polite negotiation and outright violence. But when two childhood friends step into that delicate equation, the city—and the paths of their lives—will be irrevocably transformed.
The daughter of a poor single mother, Sam would do anything to claw her way into the ranks of Grand Central in search of a better life. Plucked away from his family as a boy to become a Lumines apprentice, Ari is one of the syndicates' brightest rising stars. Once, they might have loved each other. But as the two alchemists face off across opposite sides of an ever-escalating conflict, ambition becomes power, loyalty becomes lies, and no transformation may be perfect enough for them both to survive the coming war.