This review originally posted at More Than Just Magic 
 The City of a Thousand Dolls is truly an inventive tale. In a world where male children are favoured over females, a city has sprung up in response. The City of a Thousand Dolls trains young, orphaned or abandoned girls with skills that will allow them to be productive members of society later on. A preferable fate (I think) to being left to the elements. Each girl is assigned to a different house and each house trains them for a specific job. Beauty (wives), Combat (warriors and guards), Flowers (nobility), Jade (healers and scholars), Music (musicians, dancers, performers), Pleasure (basically mistresses). I liked that there was a whole range of employment for the girls. Not just the sit there and look pleasing kind. 
 You can tell there's so much to this world, and Miriam Forster is kind of brilliant with all she's dreamed up. If I was ever going to take world building tips from someone - I would go to her first! Houses, castes, political detail, religion. It's all here. But this was both a positive and a negative. Positive because I love when a world has been so fully thought out and is so lush with descriptions and imagery. But I also thought that it could have been explained more. That more detail and explanation could have been presented because at times it could be a little confusing. and I have so many questions! And since this isn't a series (there's one companion book planned) I feel like we as readers are missing out on the full picture. 
 At the centre of City of a Thousand Dolls is Nisha. Not assigned to any of the houses she is the assistant to the Matron. By all accounts she's an ordinary girl. But I live how proactive she is. How involved she is in determining her own fate. I hate when characters simply stand by and wait for someone else to supply them with the answers to their problems. Nisha is a fighter, she knows the risks and she takes them anyway because what else can she do? Plus she's just a fabulous person with a big heart. I think it would be impossible not to like her. 
 And then there's the mystery! Miriam Forster doesn't mess around. Someone is murdered in the first chapter of the book! And the story keeps going from there. Death, blackmail, political intrigue and a forbidden romance. It'll get your heart pounding. I found the pages flew by and I was anxious to find out how everything would all work out. A few of the twists were a little predictable but it was still a lot of fun! 
 Recommendation: Not quite the fantasy I usually fall in love with. I wouldn't compare this to stories like Graceling or Prophecy. But it is a fabulously descriptive, unique world, with a fantastic heroine and a captivating story. Highly recommended.