A refreshing twist on the magical tale! I really enjoy the creativity, the excellent writing,the twists and turns and the storyline.

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

Allison Saft’s debut Down Comes the Night was a read entwined with magic, darkness, secrets, and betrayals. It was a captivating sort of read, yet at times I did feel my attention drifting. I went into this one almost blind, except being deeply intrigued with the description. Sadly, it wasn’t a read that was 100% me, but did have its high points.

Wren is a healer who has never been able to live up to the standards of her aunt Isabel, who is also her queen. Her dearest friend, Una, and her fiercest love does her best to look out for her, but even Una’s rank won’t be able to save her when Wren makes the mistake of letting an enemy of the kingdom escape their grasp.
When Wren decides to secretly take a job to heal someone from their neighboring and enemy kingdom, she will have to hurt the one she loves most in order to save their kingdom and bring honor back to her name. Though, not so much in a Mulan sense.

Right away, I was not digging the relationship between Una and Wren. Namely because Una was just so cold and emotionless. It was amazing that she and Wren shared a night together off page of the story. Una is girl very much married to her job and rank. She’s all about the rules and when Wren starts breaking them, she turns her back on her. It almost felt like she just wanted Wren to be her little pet or something by the way she goes on about her always having to take care of her. I was just not feeling the love, Wren was crazy in love with Una, but it just didn’t feel like Una felt the same.

Then of course, we get a bit of a love triangle when the person Wren is sent to heal is the Reaper of Vesria. Of course, Lord Lowry, her employer does not seem to know that his newest servant is the famed assassin who kills without remorse. Wren saw him once upon a time a few years ago and managed to live to tell the tale. Wren feels a conundrum when she sees her patient. Should she heal him as she was hired to do? Or should she let the murderer rot?

Well, as you might guess, she takes the healing path, if only to turn him over to her queen to regain her favor. But naturally, things start to change between them as they spend more time together. And it soon becomes apparent that someone inside the household of Lord Lowry wanted Hal, as the Reaper is truly known by, dead.
I think one issue I had with this book was the pacing. It was a little slower than I would’ve liked. I was doing fine with it for the first half but when I thought I had to be nearly done with the book, I discovered I was only halfway through. I did some skimming through the chapters just to get through them and caught onto most of the story. But I was just feeling a disconnect from the characters and the story in front of me. It wasn’t turning out to be the story I was hoping for in the long run.

I did enjoy it in some sense, I can honestly say I don’t really know what I was hoping for. I was with the story for the first half, but somewhere down the line I felt disconnected from everything happening. It wasn’t overly predictable but some things were and I guess the motives were just so bland that I was struggling to even finish the book. But I did.

The ending was a good one. I liked where the characters ended up and that it was a standalone was refreshing. I love a good standalone every now and then! While this wasn’t the 5 star read I was hoping for, it still made for an entertaining time. I guess I was just expecting a little something more and a little bit of a faster and more enticing pace.

But if Down Comes the Night sounds like a captivating read for you, I would highly recommend checking it out for yourself. While it wasn’t a favorite read for me, it could be your next all time favorite!


Overall Rating 3/5 stars

Down Comes the Night releases March 2, 2021

I couldn’t really get into the characters on this one and it sucks but I did like the atmosphere presented to the reader.

4/5

There's something about being trapped inside a crumbling mansion with your sworn enemy that can actually be so personal. After Wren Southerland is suspended from the queen's guard for her reckless actions, she travels to the estate of an enigmatic lord who's sought out her healing services for one of his servants. Upon her arrival, she discovers that the very person she's been tasked with healing is none other than Hal Cavendish, an enemy of the kingdom and of Wren herself. As the two grow closer, they uncover a sinister plot at work within the dilapidated estate connected to the very fate of their respective kingdoms.

This truly is a rich, gothic fantasy, that seemingly pulls you into its gravity from Wrens arrival at Colwick Hall. The setting is eerie and atmospheric, and an air of mystery is present that is palpable from the very start. To say this book felt like a dream would be putting it lightly. Maybe it's because I read this all in one sitting, but there is truly no way to describe the feeling of reading this from start to finish. The characters were witty and utterly hilarious, and the slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance kept me going during moments where things needed a spark. I think the magic system that the author presents is really fascinating, but there needed to be more explored within the world since it played such an integral part to the plot. The same could be said for the character background of Wren. You don't get the whole picture of who she is as a person or what drives her to do what she does beyond the events in the book. There are some key moments mentioned, but not thoroughly examined for my liking. A blanket statement for this book: it just needed more. I loved what was given, but if you look beyond the surface, it's clear that it's lacking something. The plot is altogether imaginative and I thoroughly enjoyed where everything ended up though. If you came here for enemies trapped in a mansion together and solving a mystery, look no further. This one doesn't disappoint.

I adored this book.

Wren is a strong lead who is kind, brave, and we get to see her grow a lot in the story. Hal is sad and misunderstood.

I loved seeing their relationship and personalities develop as they learned to trust and love each other.

If you love a good enemies to lovers trope, this book is for you!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Hardened hearts were breakable. But hers had endured again and again."

The only pitch you have to give me for a book is "gothic" and "romance", and I'll immediately pick it up and settle in. So when NetGalley provided me with and ARC of DOWN COMES THE NIGHT by Allison Saft, a book I'd been hearing rave reviews about all over and in every sphere of the internet, I was very VERY eager to try it. A mix of political intrigue fantasy with a complex yet easy to understand magic system and a dark, moody atmosphere, it gave me exactly what I expected and so much more. The characters and their strong personalities, the theme of forgiveness in the face of expectation, the snow-covered setting that I fell in love with, it all was perfectly interwoven into a well written blend that kept me reading. Wren was a character to connect to, her flaws and strengths so deliciously human. And Hal.... what can I say other than I love him so much, his whole character was reminiscent of some of the greatest "villains" in YA. I'm the most impatient slow burn reader, I hate waiting for *anything*, yet DOWN COMES THE NIGHT's central romance was extremely enjoyable and palatable. My only complaint was the beginning was a tad bit slow, but it didn't detract much from my personal reading experience. A lovely debut from Allison! I give it 4.5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the chance to read an advance copy of Down Comes the Night. I just finished reading and am casting about for words to describe the journey of this book - certainly it's an exciting debut work!

I haven't read too many gothic novels aside from the classics, but I think Down Comes the Night embodies those dark and ominous vibes well. Most of the novel is set in a haunting estate tucked far away in the mountains while a dangerous and impassable snowstorm rages outside. Wren Southerland, our protagonist, hails from the kingdom of Danu, and is the most capable Healer mage in the Queen's Guard as well as the Queen's neice (though she has been cast aside by her stoic aunt.) The Danubians have always been at war with their neighbors, the Vestrians, though this novel begins during a shaky, tenuous armistice that threatens to blow into all out war when mages from both armies go missing. Wren embodies a healer's oath of Do No Harm to the utmost - even to her detriment when it comes to prisoners who might have information on their missing friends.

When her prisoner escapes, Wren loses her position in the Guard and loses what minuscule favor she had from the Queen. Desperate, she answers a summons from the mysterious and flamboyantly dramatic Lord Lowry from the neutral kingdom of Cernos. He seeks her help to heal his servant in exchange for Cernos' aid to Danu to prevent war and return Wren to a position of respect.

Lowry's estate is grim, dark, seemingly marked by unimaginable tragedy, and full of surprises. Without getting too much further into the plot (I wished the jacket and descriptions hadn't revealed the identity of the servant/patient!), I will say that I enjoyed seeing Wren's unassailable compassion and compulsion to Heal and her ensuing interactions with her patient. They went from guarded and untrusting to risking everything to save each others' lives and I found it believable and engaging. I really liked the patient a lot, he was mysterious and full of depth. I did not however care for Una, Wren's best friend and commanding officer in the Guard (and allegedly her first love). I wanted to be invested in them, and I think a bisexual MC is pretty exciting, but I was unconvinced by most of their interactions and the resolution of where they ended up at the end. It seemed to me that Una gaslit and silenced Wren at every turn and did not really ever appreciate her. I did however get the sense that Wren was simply unable to see the truth (like Stockholm Syndrome) and that she wasn't an impartial narrator. I also felt that the first... maybe quarter of the book was slow to start, mired in Wren's feelings of inadequacy and the mistreatment she was receiving from Una and the Queen with stretches about the theology of the region which wasn't fully fleshed out (nor did I want to see more of it). Things really picked up when Wren was engaged in trying to treat her patient, and from then on the rest was a really interesting and exciting read! All of the events that take place at Colwick Hall were well written and engaging.

As someone in the medical field I also really appreciated the snippets of real medical facts interspersed through Wren's narration!!
In sum: 3.5/5

Wren Sutherland is a member of the Queen’s Guard who uses her magical abilities combined with her medical knowledge to assist her best friend, and first love, Una. When Wren’s recklessness and unrelenting kindness lands her in trouble with the Queen, she accepts an offer from Lord Lowry to take care of one of his ailing servants. Wren quickly realizes that something is amiss in Lowry’s manor and teams up with Hal Cavendish in a race against a time bomb that threatens both of their kingdoms.

This book was a bit of a let down. I was exceedingly excited to read this novel as I had heard that the main character was bisexual and was interested in medicine. The storyline, however fell a bit flat and it often felt like characters acted abnormally from their established character traits just to further the plot. The romance between Hal and Wren was also very boring to me and I really couldn’t find a reason to be attached to Hal which lead to many of the “twists” of the book feeling very anticlimactic.

Overall, it’s a decent novel. It definitely didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat and I predicted most of the case before I was halfway through the novel but it’s a simple, light read.

This is a riveting, gothic-style tale that successfully blends elements of mystery, fantasy, and romance. The plot is multi-layered and intriguing, the characters are relatable and beautifully drawn-out, and the writing is masterful. The first few chapters started off a little slow but once the major plot lines were underway, I was highly invested in the story because of how deeply I connected with the characters. This genre-blending debut delivers a satisfying punch as the characters uncover mysteries, form and dismantle alliances, and ultimately discover what they stand for.

Author Allison Saft offers wonderful world building, an interesting magic system, and a slow-burn, forbidden romance in this debut YA fantasy tale. There is much to like here!

I really enjoyed my read of Down Comes the Night. It was an easy escape into the chilly halls of a spooky mansion set during what appears to be the turn of the century, but with magic.

The magic rules and world building are a bit meager and sort of iffy, and the author tries to tie it in with medical science as much as she can. This was interesting and I can overlook any weak points of the magical society.

At its core, this is a murder mystery with gothic elements. The mystery isn’t that mysterious, in my opinion, but I still enjoyed the romance and plot overall. It is a simple fluff read.

What I loved the most is Wren. I loved her relationship with Una. I loved the dynamics of Una’s cold, strong personality contrasted against Wren’s empathetic heart. Oh how 16 year old me needed a Wren protagonist to show the value of an empathetic heart.

Wren is the reason I want to purchase this book for my classroom library. She is a fantastic female lead who is both strong, and emotional.

I could not wait to get my hands on this book, so first, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this one early!

I loved the premise of this book. It was definitely different than I thought it would be. It was less gothic and more mystery and romance, which I love, so I wasn't too upset. It was a little hard for me to get into, but if you stick it out until the castle, I think you won't be disappointed.

A valiant attempt at a Gothic Horror, that doesn't quite make it.
As a whole, it is enjoyable. Broken down, I really struggled getting through some sections due to pacing, little character development, and plot changes.
The story can't seem to decide where it wants to go. Do we focus on the war-torn countries, the murder mystery, the lovers, or the magic? I have seen these all work together, unfortunately not in this book. The Main characters lacked a strong enough development for me to care about them, and the rest of the characters seem to hold a place only in the moment and then are never brought up again. There were just too many loose strings that led nowhere.
2.5/5

First of all, thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

"I do not care to believe that the sum of us is what we do."

The premise of this book is thrilling, a Gothic fantasy love story. The execution, less so. It's like the author tried to make this book many different things but couldn't find a way to do so cohesively. Down Comes the Night starts off apparently being a war fantasy dystopia, it moves on to being a Gothic horror, a quest, a murder mystery, a forbidden romance/enemies to lovers. It's not that books can only be one thing, it's that this particular book felt disjointed when it tried to do it all.

Pacing was another issue. The first fourth of the book meanders and drags; our heroine, healer Gwen, is too scared and her world is small and dark. She feels useless and everyone treats her as disposable, from her love, commanding officer, and best friend Una to her aunt the Queen of their little warring nation of Danu. Once she gets the mysterious letter asking her to heal someone in a neighboring nation, things pick up a bit, especially once she realizes the dying man is Hal Cavendish, her country's mortal enemy.

But even then, Gwen's ambivalence keeps making the pace feel dragging. She begins to trust Hal, but then she doesn't. The she does again. It's over and over the same thing. She betrays him, only to realize she's been very stupid and fallen into a trap. She falls in love with him, but doesn't tell him even after he repeatedly saves her life. She's not the easiest protagonist to root for.

The middle sags again, after a miraculous discovery of the antidote to save Hal. The duo is incredibly slow on the uptake as to who is carrying out the gruesome experiments/murders they're investigating to keep their warring nations from going on full out war again. The villain could be seen from the first time they're physically on the page. The fact that the villain returns later on and continuous to be villainous surprises no one, other than Gwen...

The last fourth, on the contrary, is rushed. Everything happens and everything is, again, miraculously resolved in a couple of paragraphs. It feels anticlimactic.

As to why I gave this 3 stars, I'm a sucker for an enemies to lovers/forbidden romance storyline and this one was it. It had lots of tension and build up and I did get the sense that these two made each other better people.

I also enjoyed the theme running through the book, exemplified by the quote I cited above. Are we just what we do, our actions? Or are we more? Can we be loved, or hated, for more than what we do? It was well done and it fit well in the overall YA coming-of-age genre.

Wren is one of the most gifted magical healers in the kingdom, but her insubordination gets her in trouble and kicked out of the Queen's guard, right on the brink of war. She receives a letter from a distant lord requesting her to heal his most prized servant in exchange for help getting back into the Queen's good graces, and help in the oncoming war for her kingdom. Once Wren arrives at the lord's manor, she realizes it is not what she signed up, finding that instead of a servant, it is her kingdom's greatest enemy, Hal Cavendish, that needs healing. Committing treason and working to heal his mysterious illness, she finds he is also not quite what he seems.

This book was just not for me. Wren annoyed me to no end. She was constantly going against her better judgement and breaking the rules for no reason other to break the rules. And Hal seemed like a half thought character. I believe the author meant to make him mysterious, but you really do not see much personality from him at all. And their love story is a very slow burn, filled with lots of hesitation and regret, but it just didn't work for me. And Wren kept making these terrible remarks to him, and breaking his trust, but he still falls in love with her which just made no sense to me. The world building was just okay, it wasn't fantastic and didn't really pull me in the way I expected it to. I wanted to love this book, I gave it a full chance to redeem itself, and there were definitely parts that held me intrigued, but it just was not for me at all.

I thought I would love this book when I started reading it. Sold as a dark, gothic fantasy with romance and intrigue made it alluring. However, I felt like it missed the mark to communicate the gothic genre fully and droned on in some parts; the story became obfuscated by the lovelorn perspective of one of the main characters for the majority of the first portion of the book.

I did thoroughly enjoy the slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance and the story after she arrives at the castle. The ending was also satisfying.

Down Comes the Night is rich in detail and accessible. I would recommend a read, even though it won't sit on my favorites shelf.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

4.50/5.00

I truly, truly loved Down Comes the Night. Set in a magical world that’s suffered under a centuries-old war, and featuring a wonderfully complex protagonist, torn between her duty and her feelings, I can say without a doubt that this is a new favourite book of mine. It’s such a wonderful fantasy standalone and reading it reminded me of being younger and staying up all night to finish a favourite book, all in one breathless sitting.

I loved Wren as a protagonist (Allison Saft’s dedication, “For all the girls who feel too much,” made my heart ache for her from the start). Filled with too much empathy, too much kindness, her feelings were seen as a weakness in a war-torn world that praised cruelty and ruthlessness. Her pain broke my heart, but following her on her journey to accepting herself—to realising that, maybe, kindness can be worth more than cruelty—made me so unbelievably happy.

I also loved the character dynamics, all the difficulties, hurt feelings and broken promises; because relationships are messy, but sometimes it’s worth it to work through the hurt, so something better can come out of it. I cannot put into words how happy it made me to see a bisexual MC in the middle of such an adventure-filled story! I have so much love for the way Allison Saft always made clear that Wren loved Una and Hal equally, albeit in different ways; there’s so much trust and love between her and Una, years and years of friendship, but there’s also something bitter, something unspoken that carries the feeling of a broken heart and promises. Her feelings for Hal were complicated, too—they’re on different sides of a centuries-old war—but through their relationship, the both of them learned that mercy, kindness and forgiveness are the most precious and most difficult things to hold onto, when cruelty has reigned your life from the start.

This was an incredibly immersive read from beginning to end—half murder mystery, half fantasy, and so, so many emotions—and I recommend it with my whole heart and soul! I can’t wait for March 2021 to come, and for the world to discover this gem of a book 💫

(The full review will be posted on my blog, Ink & Myths, closer to the release date.)

This YA fantasy follows Wren, a healer, that is demoted from her position in the queen's guard as a result from not following orders and in trying to get back her position, accepts a request to heal a patient. Only to discover it's her kingdom's #1 enemy.

I really enjoyed this story, it's a murder mystery in which these 2 natural enemies have to work together to stop a looming war. Even through you have the mystery and the fantasy aspect, in particular the magic that allows you to be a healer, the romance takes the main stage throughout the book. While I wasn't put off by it, it certainly was way more influential to the plot that I thought at first. Their relationship was one in which there were a lot of preconceived notions that they had to work through to come to terms with the truth. Towards the last half of the book it got very cute as they had to interact more and had some obstacles to overcome.

Wren's friendship to Una, her ex lover, was also very interesting to read about because it's a friendship that very quickly becomes toxic for both parties but which is still vital to both. It was so beautiful to see their relationship evolve through the book and I highly enjoyed it.

The tone of the book is more juvenile than expected which isn't bad since it is a YA. The confrontation with the antagonist was very... Movie villain like? And it wasn't much of a mystery after about 60% into the book.

Wren as a character was relatable in her trying to make things better but ultimately making them worse due to her empathetic nature, which got her in here in the first place. It was nice to see how she tries to work with herself to understand it's not necessarily bad to have a lot of empathy.
Now, Hal - the enemy- as a character was very...interesting, I enjoyed him in relation to Wren as a love interest but in general both characters weren't the most compelling to me.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It's a promising debut and very easy to keep on reading until the end. Even though the plot and fantasy aspect gets overshadowed by the romance, I still felt it wasn't too much for it to bother me. Highly recommend!

I became originally interested in this book months ago when I saw it on a list of 2021 releases with f/f romance. When I started reading, I was confused about Wren’s relationship since her relationship with Una in the beginning is not the one described in the synopsis. BUT that’s a minor snag because I LOVED everything else about this book!

It’s packed full of the best tropes: enemies-to-lovers (like the epitome of it), grumpy hero who’s soft for the sunshine heroine, the one bed trope!! There’s magic, a murder mystery, and a big creepy house. I think it’s so incredibly impressive that the author’s writing style remained so beautifully descriptive during moments of cliche YA tropes and also during both action-packed and slow scenes.

The characterization was also so well done. I was surprised every time Wren didn’t take advantage of opportunities to finally get revenge, but her decisions make sense for her since she’s a healer. I was very satisfied with the relationship between Wren and Hal. The connection between them was tested by many different trials—the magical tether from healing, working against a common enemy, testing each other’s trust, and being brought back together again and again—so that it felt really developed. I was probably too invested in them being together, so I really enjoyed the end (and maybe cried a little.)

5 star read! Definitely recommend for anyone interested in reading an underdog story about a strong bisexual female protagonist whose power comes from her empathy rather than ruthlessness 🖤

Enemies turned to friends (or lovers) is a trope that I tend to enjoy, just because it is mostly realistic and very believable. This trope was tied into a fantasy world, and that made it all the more interesting. Truly a wonderful fantasy read.