North is the night is a dual POV fantasy with sapphic elements, and inspiration from Finnish mythology. I went into this novel really excited for fairytale elements and learning more about Finnish mythology, and whereas I did feel these aspects were delivered, the plot moved a bit too slow to engage me. I didn’t really connect with the characters, but I did feel that they had plenty of trials to overcome that helped develop them, so I wasn’t quite sure why I felt so apathetic towards them.
I think if you’re a fan of heavy fantasies such as Lord of the rings, then this might be a good fit for you. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with it, it just wasn’t to my taste. I’d still recommend to give it a go.

Thank you to Arcadia for providing me with an arc.

I ended up DNFing North is the night as I couldn't get into it. I may come back to it because I do love Emily Rath's writing but this one I struggled to get into.

❄️ North is the Night ❄️

Wow! I have always been a huge Emily Rath fan and I was so excited for this book.
I’ve always loved fantasy and I adored getting to learn more about Finnish mythology.

This is a beautiful story where bonds are tested to their limits.
I loved following both Aina and Siiri, their journeys were so different but each one was fascinating.
Aina is such a kind and sweet soul, seeing a story where this is kept throughout was special, she didn’t have to be anyone by herself in order to succeed
Siiri is a fighter, she is brave and strong in every circumstance. The journey between her and Vainamoinen was a highlight and I loved the concept of the souls.

I am very excited to continue with this series and see where it goes.

I don’t know much about Finnish mythology, which is the main reason why I picked up this book. There is a letter from the author at the start of the book, saying that the story was inspired by Kalevala, a great Finnish epic poem, (which I have now added to my tbr) and her Finnish grandmother. There is also a disclaimer at the start, which I appreciated, saying that while North is the Night is inspired by Finnish mythology and folklore as well as shamanism and paganism, creative license was taken – this is merely the author’s interpretation, and the book should be read as a fantasy. The Finnish mythological elements are woven well into the story, especially the Finnish underworld and the deities that inhabit it. The story is told from dual perspectives, with Aina navigating her way through the underworld, literally and physically, while Sirri goes off on a quest in search of the shaman, fighting threats both physical and supernatural. The women have opposing personalities, Aina being gentle and kind while Sirri is stubborn and determined, but it is clear that they care about each other greatly. I really enjoyed the slow pace of the story, how tension was slowly built up, and how it set up the sequel.

However, things that I didn’t like about this book were the lack of pronunciation guide for the names, although there is a list of deities and Finnish words that are used in the story; it was a little light on the sapphic romance side but I’m sure that’ll improve in the second book; Aina’s character seemed to fluctuate in the latter half of the book between demure and compassionate to fearless badass which felt a little forced – felt more ‘YA’ than adult in that regard; and the depiction of the Sámi, the traditional indigenous group located mostly in the northern Nordic Region, as antagonistic (although Christianity and Christians are also depicted as antagonistic as well). I would recommend this book for those who are interested in slow-burn adventures and exploring lesser-known mythologies through retellings.

Honestly, I am not sure how to even review this book. It took over my whole life for a couple of days and was all I could think about. It consumed me totally. Such a hypnotic, mesmerising, beautiful tale of Finnish Fantasy and I can’t wait for book 2 now!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book. A gorgeous 4 star read book from me. What an exciting plot, vivid storytelling and relatable, rich characters. I could put this book down – absolutely loved it.

3.75

“I am perfectly content in being my own good man”

This was fascinating and intriguing. We follow the journey of Siiri and Aina and their battles between the mortal living world and the dead.

I really enjoyed the mythology aspect of this and I felt it was really well done and the stories were explained brilliantly so even readers like myself who are not familiar with gods/goddesses could follow along with ease.

I will say that I found myself really eager for Ainas POV during the first half of the book. I really enjoyed the love story between her and Tuoni and how they developed and I think I was cheering for them more than our intended couple.

Unfortunately I was let down by the ‘FF’ portion of this story. From the beginning I feel Siiris love for Aina was shown even without the words but unfortunately that didn’t translate the same in Ainas case. It felt more like a sisterly love than anything.

I’m interested to see how the story will progress in the next book and hopefully we get a little more development between our two FMCs.

Thank you to Net Galley, the author and publisher for allowing me to read this book.

This isn’t my usual genre of choice but I was drawn to the description and I’m so glad I requested it as this was so magical! I was so drawn into the storyline and using Finnish folklore just added the perfect read for me! I think I may be a new convert.

Wow! What a fabulous story. If you enjoy fantasy and the stories we all remember of witches, dark forests and beautiful imprisoned princesses, then this is for you.
This book has everything you could ever wish for, all wrapped up in a fantasy masterpiece. I didn’t read this book, I devoured it! I was carried away with the characters to new and magical lands with dark, light, danger and strange creatures. Some, not quite how they appear. Love, hate, jealousy - every emotion is rolled into this story. There was not a page of it that disappointed. It’s fabulous and I can’t wait to read where our characters go and what happens to them next.

I have to say, I am glad that I got this as an arc so that I did not have to spend my own money on it. I didn’t realise this was written by the Emily Rath of ‘Pucking Around’ until it was too late, and realising it was written by a fantasy author did explain a fair few things.

We follow Siiri and Aina in two separate but linked stories based on Finnish folklore. An evil demon arrives to take Siiri to the land of the dead, but Aina ends up sacrificing herself instead to protect her best friend. Siiri immediately embarks on a quest to find the lost shaman, Väinämöinen, and convince him to help her travel to and from Tuonela herself and rescue Aina. Meanwhile, Aina finds herself the hostage of Tuonetar, forced to watch her newly found friends get tortured and killed by the evil Witch Queen and her cronies, while desperately trying to find a way to restore balance to Tuonela.

Initially, I was hoping that a folklore-inspired story set in Finland in winter would have some gorgeous prose. Who doesn’t like reading about a snowy forest and the aurora borealis and the old gods? Wrong. From page 1 this was not going to happen. Despite reading the entire book I don’t have a concrete idea of what a single character looks like, nor Finland itself, nor Tuonela. Any mention of any physical descriptors is fleeting and I don’t even get a sense of it being cold - which is insane given it is set in Finnish winter. Tuonela is supposed to have no light so I am left wondering how on earth anyone is supposed to be able to see. Is everyone squiting all the time? Is there some low level glow emanating from the air itself that allows everyone to see? There are 2 thrones - what do they look like? I know we have gold and silver but I need more. Tall? Cushions? What are the arms like? Are they together on a dais? Give me MORE.

Rath also falls victim to the trap of taking a dual POV story and feeling the need to end every single chapter on a cliffhanger. Every semi-important or revealing conversation is interrupted and the air of forced mystery very quickly makes for a dull read. The two voices of Siiri and Aina are also very much the same and so it did always take a second to realise it’d switched despite them being in wildly different places.

The characters also have an odd propensity to speak to animals and truly believe that these animals can understand and communicate back. This may be some Finnish reverence for bears or mythological animals that I don’t understand and hasn’t been communicated well but it just feels a little odd to watch happen time and time again.

Siiri and Aina also seem to fall victim to the gal-palification that plagues many sapphic relationships, but more overt. The way these two women talk about each other, and the things that they are prepared to do for each other and the way other people view them as a pair (a love interest becomes extremely jealous of their attachment to each other as if there is a romantic aspect), screams gay. Yet the narrative seems to shy away from admitting that. They /literally/ went to hell and back for each other. They both admit their souls are tied together, they agree to be joint mothers to this child. Hell they even kiss, and share a bed every night, but no no no they’re just besties. They just love each other platonically bro. I am all for female friendship and I will scream from the rooftops that love does not have to be romantic, but this is written like a sapphic relationship that some christian priest went through and edited to be straight - even throw in a husband and hetero sex scene to be sure - without realising which parts of it were actually the moments of these girls truly loving each other.

And, finally, saving the biggest complaint for last - Rath’s treatment of indigenous people and women. These are two incredibly marginalised groups that at the time when Christian missionaries were coming to Scandinavia were routinely killed.

This is set around the time when Christian missionaries were coming to Scandinavia to preach, and if we have learned nothing from the witch trials of the 1600s, women and indigenous people were not treated kindly by these people. They were denounced as witches and then tortured and killed in their hundreds. And yet, Rath has, for some unknown reason, chosen to take this time period, and make every adult woman that we meet evil, make the single member of the Sámi present, coincidentally a woman, also evil, and every god that we really meet is a goddess (bar one), and is also, you guessed it, evil. The evil women are not just your regular antagonists, they are caricatures of villains. The way they speak and the way they taunt is giving a poorly written disney villain written by a man who’s wife has just left him for being an overgrown child, who keeps saying ‘the divorce came out of nowhere!!’. Every woman we meet is evil, and every woman we meet is a witch to the point that evil and witch and woman become all but synonymous, which feels like a poor-taste choice to make, especially for such a time period.

I was toying with giving it 3 stars, as 2 felt rather mean for someone’s first foray into fantasy, but I could not find a good thing to say about the book itself. I like the idea. That is where my compliments start and end.

This was not really my cup of tea. I would have liked to love it but it didn't meet my (high) expectations. Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a free e-arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I found it very hard to get into this story, even though it had the potential to be really captivating I thought the writing lacked depth and I did not care about the characters. I LOVE mythology so I am really sad I didn’t enjoy this. I was not invested in the romance, I did not like Siiri, and could not get past her name sounding like hey siri.

A disappointing read.

An epic fantasy adventure, with rich folklore at its heart. North is the Night is a gorgeous dual perspective read, I found myself torn, both rooting for Siri to save Aina and learn more about their love for each other while also enjoying Aina and Tuoni”s eventual story. I loved this and can’t wait to see what happens next.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I thought this was a really good book. The blending of myth and magic is so well done. The story is interesting, a bit different from others of this type. The characters are well drawn and as a reader I was very invested in what happened to them. An exceptional read

Reading the blurb for this book, I immediately wanted to read it. I love anything Viking or Scandinavian as I have Viking ancestry myself so it’s become sort of a special interest to me.
This book gave me huge Vikings: Valhalla vibes with Siiri trying to keep the ways of the old gods and paganism in a world that was being quickly converted to catholicism. I will say I found myself a lot more invested in Siiri’s story over Aina’s as I do like a strong female character over a damsel in distress and Siiri was a true badass. I did find at times certain parts of the book dragged a little so this is reflected in my star rating. All in all i would recommend this book as i enjoyed it!

First off, I want to take Net Galley for providing me with this arc.


Firstly , I just wanted to be known that I love emily rath and all of her works her style of writing and the different subjects she manages to pull into all of her stories. I was so honored to recieve this ARC to review.

Lately there have been a lot of books coming out where as soon as they have fantasy and romance elements.They're classed as romantasy. North is the Night however is a fantasy book that has romance elements.

I really loved that facet about this because it meant that there was a lot more Focus on the world building, the magic and Lore. Emily has made sure to prioritise the Finnish mythology and folklore throughout the story , making it a spotlighting point. As someone who loves mythology but has never strayed far from Greek mythos, this was such a refreshing and new landscape to jump into. The intricacies of the magic and lore mean that there is a slow pace to begin with, just to aide the reader in getting their head around the gods, goddesses, shaman and witches (which I was so thankful for as Finnish myths are new to me).

Emily provided the slow pace so well whilst also creating such a beautiful script throughout the whole story. It has beautifully woven elements of adventure, suspense, sacrifice unlikely friendships as well as offering an exploration of human connection and the darker sides experience in religion.

I defintely recommend this book, especially if you're looking for something a little more fantasy based, with different mythology then what you're used to seeing on shelves.

This was a ARC from NetGalley.

I did enjoy this book, I did. It was slow at times and fast at times. I liked the mythology of it all, the god of death and the witches absolutely enjoyed it.

The LGBQ of it was different which I liked compared to the usual storyline you get you get during a fantasy world.

Such a different read. A different but good read.

I really enjoyed this book. I was pleasantly surprised. I really liked the folklore and how each character progressed through the story. I couldn’t put this book down. Fantastic read

This book wasn't what what I was expecting at all but I absoltely loved it. It look me a little while to get used to the language and the pronunciation of things but I loved it all the same. Just when you think the book is going one way it turns in a while other different direction. Likeable characters and story and I can't wait for book two. I am in my element with stories like these worh myths and mythology and I absoltely ate it up. Thank you NetGalley.

This book was an unexpected gem.
The overall atmosphere reminded me of The Bear and The Nightingale, but with Finnish gods and folklore. Even though I knew very little about it, the book was so well crafted I didn't feel lost at any moment, and the prose was beautiful, while still feeling like an ancient legend or tale itself. In fact, I often felt as if I had been sitting by a fire and hearing some old woman or shaman telling this story as I was reading.
I especially liked the idea of the opposition between the old gods and the folk beliefs and customs and Christianity, and the story had such strong and relatable characters, who evolved in a way that even surprised me (end that doesn't happen often!). The ending got me somewhat emotional, and I cannot wait for the final volume of this duology!
(bonus points for shamans, and soul travel).