Evenfall was just okay. It has the makings of what could be a pretty good story. Unfortunately, there was a lot of infodumping and confusion going on for a lot of the book.

The first third of the book pretty much consisted of our heroine, Ember, trying to figure out what was going on. She made friends with another young lady, Ada, who tried to explain to Ember where they were and what was happening. Only they didn't spill it out all at once. Perhaps this occurred in order to prevent the reader from getting too much information all at once, but the limited action occurring while Ember was learning about the world... eating breakfast, walking to Ada's home, was not very exciting. There were a lot of slow parts like this throughout the book. Although it did pick up quite a bit towards the end.

Ember was being chased by the Crescent Prince. Her new friends saw him as a monster. They were trying to avoid him. Then she was caught.

All of this occurred among a magical backdrop where Ember didn't think that she could wield magic of her own.

I wish that I could have liked this book better. The sequel might be more interesting, as the action was just starting to pick up towards the last quarter of the book. We'll see.

This book read like me trying to drive a stick transmission in stop-and-go traffic with some rude honker people at rush hour. Get going, putter out. Get going, putter out. HONK! Move it, lady! And so on. I had a hard time being motivated to read and found myself avoiding reading because I simply did not enjoy most of this book.

To begin, we readers are thrown into a story, in media res (but without the action so much), and then we are left, much like the MC, trying to figure out what is going on, where we are, who we are, and who is everyone else? No background of characters, world, story, etc. is given for anything, and when it, in rare occasions, is given, the bits and pieces of it are confusing and so sparse that it is hard to connect the new information with the complementary piece of info given any number of pages or chapters ago-until the halfway point of the story, which I feel is too late to bring a narrative together and make it interesting.

While the last half of Evenfall was well worth the read, I felt a bit let down by the lack of depth in the book. The work promised to be inviting and intriguing but only gave a small piece of itself before shoving the reader, by means of a clichéd cliffhanger, into another. While reading this book, by the end of it, did not feel like a complete waste of time, I don’t feel so enthusiastic about it as to tell everyone to go get it and read it at the first possible opportunity.

First off, I would like to thank NetGalley, publishers and of course the author for this ARC, in return for an honest review.

This is my Honest review of this novel:
Let me start saying, this novel was amazing with minor spelling or grammer errors I still loved and understood the plot. Which brings me to sich, the story plot was amazing and done in an original way. The sequential timeline made it is easy to follow and understand even the mistakes. The world and character building was spot on with the story at every page. Character tropes were perfect also, i loved the authors use of diverse characters.

Now here is the synopsis for this tale:
Quote: "A monster does not deserve the intimacy of a name"
authors Gaja J. Kos, Boris Kos


As if waking up in an unfamiliar world isn't enough of a surprise, Ember gains a new title to her name. Savior.

Hunted by the Crescent Prince and his lethal shadows, she accepts a young Mage's help to navigate the land of blood magic and its many illusions. But where Ada sees the good in her power, Ember discovers something else.

An icy darkness, designed to take lives, not save them.

The only thing worse than not being able to rely on her senses--or the reality she had once believed to be true--is knowing that she cannot trust her heart. Especially as it seems to draw her to the one person in whose hands she can never fall...

Now: my experience reading this novel was amazing. I know it is sometimes harder to read an ebook but I feel so in love with the plot, world, characters and their tropes, that I couldnt put it down!! Fast paced, great action sequences, romances, friendships tested, darkly twisted, and a magic unlike anything I have yet to read. This is going to be one of the top titles for November, possibly a contender for the year!! A truly great read, single POV narrative, and just amazingly written and thought out.

This book would be another book with people traveling through worlds and using magic to defeat a foe if not for this points:
- I love how clueless the main character is when she finds herself in another world. She doesn't take things at face value and even rans from the person that wants to help!
- I also loved how real she was: she even menstruates! No, really... how many books have you found where the main character freely talks about it? Fantasy ones at it.
- the way the book talks about women and how they should be free to use magic and decide what to do with their lives, marry for love and not arranged marriages, etc, really makes a point.
- the world building is amazing. Not only on the world she currently finds herself in but the story of how the worlds where and how they come to be what they are.
- the characters all have their abilities, their fears, their strenghts and their perks

Aside from all this that truly separates this book from similar ones, we find an heroine who really knows how to endear the reader and has a very personal voice. No insta loves and very well built relationships.

I received an eARC from NetGalley, thank you to them and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

I don’t really know where to start with this book. We are thrown into what seems like the middle of the story and slowly receive answers to our many questions. For a long time not a whole lot happens. I considered putting it down but continued because the cover and description had pulled me in so completely. I will say the last half of the book has much more action than the first half but it still fell a little short for me. I think there was too much internal monologue and not enough happening outside of the main character’s head. I think there is a TON of potential here and I liked quite a few things but I couldn’t help feeling like something was missing. Overall I would say that I probably would continue reading the series in hopes that it would improve, but sadly, it wasn’t a new favorite and no one is more disappointed in that fact than me.

I mainly picked this book, because I am a sucker for good covers and this one is absolutely stunning!
Kudos to the cover artist! But we all know we shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

Sadly the story was your unoriginal YA fantasy following Ember our main character, who later throughout her journey as the "chosen one", falls for the Crescent Prince Mordecai. Another case of Insta-love...
In felt the characters were nothing special and not enough developed for my taste. I liked the original idea of the world building, but wanted much more. I might just grow slowly out of YA books and concentrate more on new adult or high fantasy.

I absolutely loved reading this book. It has everything I love in a book. The finding of ones self, magic, captivating storyline, a little bit of angst and finding a purpose. The magic system is amazing. I can’t wait to read more. This book is written like a gorgeous tapestry; you can see it unfurling before you and it takes your breath away.

Please visit my blog, GoodeyReads (www.goodeyreads.com) for the full review!

A TALE OF TWO BOOKS.

I was truly contemplating putting this book down through the first half. I felt like I was reading about Ada’s story rather than Ember’s and Ember was some kind of narrator for the entire saga.

I was annoyed to no end about how everyone kept calling Ember a savior, the One, etc., but she herself had NO IDEA what anyone was talking about!!?

Then, I got to the half way point.

Then, I met Mordecai.

Then, things got SOOO much better. I mean really, I thought I was reading a different book altogether.

The story became increasingly darker. I enjoyed every second of nefarious characters showing some twisted benevolence.

Last note, this book was a total cover request. Merwild does AMAZING artwork and I’ve been a fan for awhile. This cover is absolutely gorgeous.

I received this from Netgalley for an honest review.


I didn't love this, but I didn't hate it either. I however struggled with coming through it, and it felt at times almost dry. However, this is a debut novel so take that into consideration. I will eventually check this author out again, but I don't think this series is for me. I didn't find the characters at all that interesting and, it just made me struggle through the entire book.

Okay, well I've tried writing this review several times but have always come up short because I have absolutely almost nothing to say in regards to Evenfall.

You want to read the most typical, YA novel there is well this will be perfect for you! Full of genre tropes from a female "saviour" type character, to falling in love with the villain, to the one LGBT character they are all really there in spades.

Ember is a high masters daughter, in her world only male high masters control magic objects, and women of Ember's stature are good for one thing "breeding". One night Ember opens/falls through a portal into another world and immediately the one person who finds her identifies her as their "saviour". Apparently Ember has unique Magic that will allow her to unite 3 different worlds that once belonged together but had become separated.
The only thing is that Ember needs to stay away from the Crescent Prince who has been searching for Ember her whole life, to turn her into a weapon. Of course as soon as Ember lays eyes on him, she can.not.keep.away.literally.he.is.the.most.beautiful.man.she's.ever.seen. *eye roll*.

Things obviously happen, and then the end comes just in time for you to know there will be a sequel. Now did this book make me care enough to read what happens next, no. Do I wish it did, a little. The author had quite a great idea in mind for the story, and it could have been unique and new but the way it current reads it very much a typical YA novel.

I thought the plot was so interesting, with the concept of different worlds. At first I was dubious of the plot, which I thought was weak then it developed into more. The author took time shaping the characters and of course, there is a great love story involved. ] I already want to read the second book!

Evenfall by Gaja j. Kos & Boris Kos

I was sent this book as an advanced copy by the publisher via NetGalley for reviewing purposes, but all opinions are my own.

If you are a fan of Sarah j Maas, and Leigh Bardugo you will enjoy this book.

The story starts off with Ember, who doesn’t truly know who she is and what power she possesses until the day she wakes up in an unfamiliar world where she gains the new title of: Savior.

She learns that all her life the Crescent Prince; Mordecai has been searching for her. For her power and what may lay beneath it all. She learns what her true self is and what she may need to do to fix all the wrongs she never even knew about until now.

Evenfall brings together all the best things you could ever want in a YA fantasy book. The cover will draw you in immensely but I promise you; when this book releases on October 30, 2018 you ARE going to want to pick it up! This story is so beautifully written in a way that makes you fall in love with the book and world itself. I am so ready for the sequel already!

“A monster does not deserve the intimacy of a name”

Advanced reader copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

For a reader who loves light and dark/sun and moon tropes, grey characters, magic, and a doubtful protagonist with untested strength, Evenfall did not disappoint. However, there were a few things that did not satisfy me.

Evenfall was a slow read I have to say. It took me a few days to finish the first half of the book. Perhaps it was because I did not wholly like the supporting characters that accompanied our protagonist Ember throughout that period of time. The characters all have so much potential within them but you rarely get to see them grow as individuals and not just as Ember's companions. We only know little information about them and sometimes, when the writing becomes quite confusing and overbearing at some point, I know nothing at all for I understand nothing.

The first half of the book really made me stop and read a few paragraphs again for I had little to no understanding of what was happening or how the author described the world. The world built was really amazing and filled with life. However, as I have mentioned before, it did get confusing at certain points and there were some questions in my mind left unanswered.

Maybe my confusion and my curiosity about everything was what kept me going.

I do not regret anything at all.

I read the second half of the book in a day because I was that immersed in all the fast-paced action and revelations that were being thrown at me all at once. The plot in this part was really eye-opening towards the realities and truths about the three worlds and it does make you question morality and motives, which I absolutely love, especially after reading all those straightforward light-vs.-dark books. Evenfall makes you question and delve deeper into our actions and power.

Ember finally grew on me and I am honestly fond of seeing characters hone their skills and embrace their strength. I did want to see more of her power in this part, though since she felt a bit flat and lost in the first part of the story. The second one may have shown us more scenes of Ember with her strength but sometimes, I felt it was overpowered by some of Ember's narratives. There were parts that I really liked to the point where I would cheer on for Ember and fall in love with how beautiful the sentences were structured. Ember isn't a character that is strong in the physical sense. She's smart yet she has doubts. She is brave yet she is also afraid and to see her grow and embrace herself is really satisfying, especially after the dragging first part of the book.

In all honesty, the most developed character in the book was the Crescent Prince. He's one of my favorite characters in the book (the other being Ember) not just because I love light-and-dark tropes and a character with a villainous presence but because this book shows us more than a fearful ruler. There is still some humanity in him and to discover his motives does make you question the concept of good and evil. Learning more about the Crescent Prince makes me want to take care of him more and I really do hope we get to see more of him in the upcoming book.

Evenfall has a lot of potential. Although confusing at some points, things do finally clear up and set us up for the upcoming events. The first part may be dragging but pushing through is worth it. I do hope that the characters and the other worlds are more developed and talked about by the upcoming books and I do hope Ember grows into something stronger and certain.

Will I read this book again? Most definitely.

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars!

Evenfall was a unique read, but it was a bit slow for my taste. This is a clear case of it's not you, it's me. It has a gorgeous cover and a tempting synopsis so I couldn't resist requesting it. It was my first Gaja J. Kos book. I loved the concept of this book and the characters were very interesting, but they need more fleshing out. The heroine Ember isn't my favorite protagonist, but I really loved the Crescent Prince Mordecai. He was totally swoon worthy. The romance seemed too insta-lovey. I wish it was a slow burn romance. The writing was beautiful and very much detailed. The world building and the magical aspect was great. They're the best parts I loved about this book.   

The characters weren't bad but I couldn't emotionally connect with them which is one of the major Issue I had with this book besides the slow pace. Ember was an okay-ish character but sometimes she was very annoying. I really want to admire her, but her constant attraction to the prince seemed totally cliched. I don't blame her either because he was a dark charming prince, but I wish she had some self control. Well, coming to Mordecai, he was my favorite character in this book. He's a complex person and boy, he was hiding so many secrets. People believes him to be evil because of his cruel actions. He kinda reminded of darkling with his swirling shadows and all.  The romance wasn't my favorite. I really thought that I would enjoy it but insta-love is one of my book turn-off's. Nevertheless, I'm still rooting for this couple. The secondary character seemed very interesting like Ada, Eriyan, Zaphine, Dantos, and also Ivarr.  They weren't fleshed out well enough and also they were kinda left-out in most of the second half which was a bit disappointing. I really hope we get to know more about them in the next book.

The plot was interesting and unpredictable. There's not much action in this book. If you like slow paced books then you'll definitely enjoy it more than I did. I really liked the sci-fi and magical elements in it. The writing was captivating but some parts seemed overly descriptive. The book was written in Ember's first person POV. I like both singular and multiple POV's, but I think this book should've been great if it was written in multiple POV's. The world building was interesting. It's not too complex, but I wish there's a map to get clear picture of this divided world. The concept of using blood magic to create illusions seemed very fascinating like altering your appearance, deceiving, and creating illusion of Sunlit sky or Starry Sky etc. I would really love to discover more of this magical world.

Despite my issues,  I still think it was a good start to a series and I'll definitely look forward to the next book. I actually wanted to give this a three star, but because of Mordecai, I added another half star to it.

“I didn’t ask to come here.
I never wanted to be anyone’s savior.
I had no desire to be responsible for their lives.
And I certainly did not want to take them.”

This book has the trifecta - a beautiful cover, lovely writing, and a compelling story. Look at that cover, it’s just gorgeous. But I’m sure every reader can relate to an amazing cover and a lacking story. So I was happy to find an engaging plot, unique and developed characters, and detailed world building. Ember is a great main character. But my favorite part of this book was the writing itself. It was lyrical and effortless. This is a book to savor.

Ember wakes up in a strange land with no memory of how she got there. She comes from a land of constant sunshine to a land of eternal night and magic.

“A trick. All of it was one grand trick.
But carried on the wings of that thought came another, far more terrifying one.
What was real in this world? “

She is found by Ada, who sees her as their savior. Ada is determined to protect her from the evil Crescent Prince Mordecai, who wants to use her to advance his power.

“Her belief that all she had told me was the truth.
In a world of illusions, this was her reality.
But I had seen too many people convinced in facts tailored to their liking to fall into those clutches quite so easily. “

Ada and her friends are working on uniting the worlds by searching for relics from other worlds. They are being pursued by the Crescent Prince who intends on stopping them.

“The truth alway had many faces. I had never accepted only one and discarded the rest simply because they didn’t fit into the way I viewed the world. “

If you like fantasy with a hint of romance, if you like your heroines nuanced, try this book out. I think fans of Cruel Beauty, Caraval, and a Court of a Mist and Fury would enjoy this book as well. I highly recommend it and think it will be a breakaway hit of 2018.

My only complaint is the wait for book two. I need it now!

I received this ARC through Netgalley and the opinions are my own. The quotes come from an unfinished copy.

★★☆☆☆

(2 stars)

Got this book as an ARC off NetGalley for an honest review. Like an odd number of recent reads, I picked this because *kisses fingertips* the cover is fantastic. I am incredibly easy to persuade about a book if I like the cover, and I especially love the illustration on this one. It's fantastic arc and deserves credit, as does the typefacing and font-work!

Anywho, this is a slightly different YA fantasy- that still, very much so- is extremely conventional. It's an indie book with an extremely mainstream storyline, and seems to fight itself over if it wants to tell a typical YA story, or if it wants to make a point about breaking those cliches. While the latter half of the book surprised and pleased me, overall I found the cast not particularly likable, the worldbuilding uninteresting, the storyline plain, and the writing far too overdone.



PLOT
The blurb for this book is pretty hard to parse through, but the essential plotline becomes very clear early on, and is quite simple: Ember is a girl who lands suddenly in a strange new world, with no memory of how she got there. In her world, only men are allowed to use magic via 'objects of power', and it is eternally daylight- here, magic is used through blood, and it is eternally night.

Ember finds she is a prophesied person in this land, and falls in with a rebel and her friends who hope to use Ember to reunite the world- as it has been shattered into three pieces, and only Ember is able to save them. However, in this world there is the Crescent Prince, an immortal tyrant who has also been waiting for Ember to arrive.

Ember has no idea what is going on, but the plot is quite a 'chosen one' storyline. She is reluctant and confused about the role she has fallen into, but has hidden powers she is only learning about, and must figure out who she is. She hangs with Ada, a lesbian (hell yeah!) rebel, Saphique, Ada's ex, and Other Guy, as they try and plot a way to break into the Crescent Prince's palace and steal an ancient relic.

The first real twist is when Ember kills someone, and in doing so finds out she has a hidden, dark energy that is similar to the light energy the Crescent Prince is bathed in- the series is named after this 'shadowfire'.

The second twist is the latter half of the book, in which the rebel's plan goes sideways, and Ember ends up kidnapped by the Crescent Prince himself.

WORLDBUILDING & WRITING
My very first note about this book is that it was 'wow, talk about overwritten prose!' I'm very much turned off by purple prose, and this book has quite a few segments of exactly that, especially in the beginning. For a quite short book, it made reading- and wanting to read- a lot harder.

I suppose in theory the worldbuilding is quite interesting, but the writing is what fails it for me. The world is split into three, with a different magic system in each one- blood magic controls illusions and trickery, time and space are controlled by objects of power, and... no one knows what the third type quite is, beyond 'some sort of voice magic'. There's some good thought into the world of blood-magic we see in the book, such as how people have pins woven into their clothes so that they can constantly be bleeding to power their illusions, or the way a character always has sharpened hairpins 'just in case.'

However, the descriptions of action scenes, and the writing itself, turned me off to what is honestly an interesting idea. Beyond this, we don't actually spend that long with anything magical happening, Ember's world of time/space isn't particularly explored, and we flat-out know nothing of the third world.

Still, there's a number of interesting fantasy and magical concepts, including world-ideas (such as the eternal moonlight of the plane Ember is on now)- it was just also met with boring cliches. Chosen one narratives, a mysterious race known as The Ancients, sexual assault to fuel character development (TWICE!), an angsty murder-prince...

I think with some reworking, a lot of this book could have been improved.

CHARACTERS
The characters were horrendously forgettable, save maybe one.

Ember, our first person narrator, is fairly generic for a new-wave YA fantasy lead. She flits about with her role in the world, she is able to comment on being a pawn but does nothing of note to rectify this, she has dark angry powers that make her think of being a monster, but ultimately is a nice, smart, resourceful, normal girl. She's pretty, she likes books, she falls instantly in love with a boy, et cetera.

The rebel crew is only really around for half the book. There's an admirable amount of effort in trying to get the reader to like Ada, and I liked her for being something different- she's in charge, she likes girls, she determined, she's very powerful. However, like her two friends, I couldn't really place a personality on her, and found myself quite apathetic about her in the later half of the book.

I couldn't tell you anything about her ex-girlfriend, for one. I mean, I'm happy the cast was so women-centric at first, and we had some good lesbians, but they weren't compelling characters otherwise.

Crescent Prince stands out as the most developed and interesting character, though he is also painfully generic in terms of the genre. He's an angsty dark murder prince- I mean, he's literally in charge of the city and still not called a king? That's YA, baby!

However, the book did some nice choices in the second half. Let me explain how this goes: the YA girl in a dark fantasy book always has an edgy royal/powerful/prince love interest, but relatively often, he's there to tempt her, and she ends up with a more generic nice boy. Childhood friend, quite often. She learns that, while the prince is hot, he is also kind of evil, and she must still fight against him... no matter how seductive he is.

This book, surprise! Does not pull that cop out. Crescent Prince, aka MORDECAI (I think only of that dumb movie when I hear that name now) is Ember's love interest, through and through. No cop-outs there (except the fact they don't bone, which was a real disappointment).

Mordecai's character is much more appealing and non-abusive than I'm used to in this archetype, so I appreciate him a bit. I'd say I'm not that into him, but he has some nice dialogue, he has complex motivations and emotions... I do wish it wasn't such insta-love between him and Ember though, but oh well.

CONCLUSION
While the book has glimpses of higher potential, and is willing to break a few norms, it sadly ends up a quick normal 'chosen one' journey of a Very Special Girl and her Hot Angsty Prince Love Interest. It offers very little new on top of this, making it hard to call it particularly special.

With the way the book ended, and the clear arc of what the sequels will be, I have to say I have no interest in reading the rest of the series.

Pay my regards to the cover artist though. They are doing the work of the Heavens.

THIS COVER!!!!! IS AMAZING!!!

This book keep my attention the whole time, although the beginning was paced slow it not affected my reading because I was so entertained with finding where the story was going, and in who I could trust.
I love the characters. Each one of them.
Ember, the protagonist, is so wonderful and despite her young age she was decided.
I’m so excited for the next book and where this journey will take us.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is my honest review.

I think that Evenfall leans more towards a 3.5, but I don't think I could justify giving it 4 stars.

One of the strongest points of this book was the writing. I'll admit that at first I wasn't really into it since I felt that the story was progressing too slowly for me and I was kind of confused, but the beautiful writing kept me going and wanting more. We were introduced to some amazing worlds and the cast of characters as absolutely brilliant. The main character, Ember, read like such a relatable person. Well, at least most of time since we are not "The One". Furthermore, the secondary characters didn't feel washed out, but instead read like real people with different personalities and goals.

Even though I found Evenfall entertaining, I did have some issues with it. Firstly, I wish that there just was more. I wish there was more world building and a closer look into the different worlds, their history and the various types of magic. The sequels should definitely focus more on those points.

Also, maybe my biggest problem with this book was the pacing. As mentioned above, the beginning was too slow for my liking, but then the pace picked up, but maybe things moved too fast. At first, nothing spectacular was happening, but then everything happened all at once. Maybe this first book is just a prelude to what comes next and it works more like a foundation for the sequels. But the aspect of this book where things moved too fast was the "romance". Firstly, the love interest wasn't even introduced properly but from what we know, he's not a really good person, which our main character knows but when they meet she just casually falls in love. The insta-love is strong with this one so I wish that their relationship didn't escalate so quickly, but instead let things move further throughout the rest of the books.

Despite the cons, it still ended up being a fun and entertaining fantasy read and honestly, I'm hooked. I also can't believe that I have to wait quite a while for the next book in the series, but I'm definitely exciting.

“I’ll come for you,” I whispered into the night. “When the world is right, I’ll find you again.”


Evenfall was by far the most unexpected read I’ve had this year. The plotline was not what I expected, and somewhat surprisingly, the charceyes themselves were unexpectedly put together.

The story takes place when Ember wakes up to find herself in a completely different universe than her own, with no recollection of how she got there.

The capital of Nysa is enchanting, with its enchanting citizens and storybook town. The strange new land is not all as it seems, when people can change their appearances and surrounings with glamour and illusions.

When she meets Ada, the scavenger on the run, she learns that their universe is hiding a dark secret, and must avoid meeting the mysterious dark king at all costs.

This book was sent to me By NetGalley and in no way reflects my opinions.

I don’t know how I feel about this book. I love the cover. I liked the beginning, it was interesting and I was eager to read more. Then it was just.... blah. I hated the characters, sometimes Ember too. Ada and her mother, her friends,... they were a big no for me, there was definitely no connection between us. Thankfully it got better in the second half of the book. I wasn’t bored, I even highlighted some scenes - I liked the romance, and I liked the main male character, from the beginning I had a feeling that there was more behind his story and that he wasn’t a bad guy at all.

What I didn’t like was the end. Because Ember got together with her “friends” again, and as I said before I didn’t like them.

3 stars.

I received an arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.