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.

sadly dnf'ed. this had so much potential but just wasn't really gripping to me, however I still encourage everyone to give it a shot since my opinion may not be the same as yours:)

2 1/2 stars
Essentially this isn’t a bad book, in fact it’s actually quite enjoyable at times, but I struggled at times with this one. Like I said, it’s typical YA, nothing new but it’s familiar and sometimes that’s the comforting read you need and the gothic side of things was enjoyable.
What I really struggled with though was the romance, enemies to lovers isn’t my thing but bias aside, this felt a bit of a stretch and there were sections I had to skim read. Wren, who couldn’t handle a boy in pain at the start of the book, and betrays her best friend and loses everything because she couldn’t bear it, falls in love with a guy who killed hundreds of people, including innocent civilians and CHILDREN, and it isn’t even that slow a burner because she starts checking him out pretty quickly. But it’s ok because even though he killed hundreds of people, he feels really bad about it and he says it constantly, I mean constantly, but he also isn’t so consumed by guilt that he doesn’t indulge in pleasure and pursue a relationship even though he admits he doesn’t deserve her. Genuinely I didn’t get how Hal was a mass murderer and it was turned into the love interest because on hindsight he knew it was bad of him. Wren too is unbearable at times, the message of this book is how it’s good (and not weak) to act out of kindness and to listen to your heart. But actually Wren felt incredibly selfish at times and she didn’t seem to guilty when she hurt people - her best friend Una, who she is apparently in love with, is suffocating at times yes but she’s being protective, she trusts Wren, tries to reason her side with Wren, and because Wren wants to do something, she uses her magic to betray and subdue her best friend. And then while away she barely thinks of this friend she was near obsessed with, or her other best friend who is missing - she is more distracted by Hal and her feelings for him. Oh but she doesn’t understand why Una might not trust her, after doing that to her. I wanted to like her but her entire character is about the need to be loved, by her Aunt the Queen, by Una, by Hal...I never saw her without being attached to someone and feeding off their addiction.

Una is an amazing character, truly the book needed more of her, she was complex, exciting and fantastic and, for me, the person I looked up to.

So many people have been loving this and ooh-ing and aah-ing over the romance that I thought I'd love it too, but I knew within the first 10% that this wasn't working for me. Of course, the two main characters hadn't met yet so I kept going just in case things got better, but alas it was not to be.

A simple story like this requires brilliant characters, but I found it lacking both plot-wise and character-wise. I was never invested in the war or Wren and her relationships, and nothing truly surprising ever happened; in fact, the story and the romance were straight out predictable. There was no depth to the characters, which kept me from becoming interested in them, and the romance was flat — Wren and Hal didn't have chemistry and instead just followed the ABCs of two characters liking each other because they're spending time together. There wasn't really a good reason for them to be together: it just happened because of course that's what we expect based on the synopsis.

I'd gone into this expecting a gorgeous fantasy with a sharp plot and an angsty hate-to-love romance crackling with sparks, but instead I got a rather bland, simple story that never managed to maintain - or even pique, really - my interest.

As pleased as I was to learn that the publisher had "granted my wish" to review this title, it sadly did not live up to my expectations.

The cover is fantastic and it drew my attention right to it. I was intrigued by the premise of a gothic romance. Unfortunately, I think I misinterpreted what this book was about. As I started reading, there was no gothic feel at all, and things seemed to be veering much more fantasy than I cared to read. This made it hard for me to really connect and want to read more.

And while Saft's writing is quite lovely, the story itself never held my interest. This is mostly subjective and nothing I can really pin my finger on, but it just felt overly long and I often found myself wandering off to read other books and never had that "gotta get back to it" feeling with this one.

Many thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for making this copy available for me to review.

Down Comes the Night was a very enjoyable read. Wren was a likable protagonist, and I loved her relationships with the other characters. The magic system was very interesting. I loved the Gothic manner setting. The only thing that kept me from rating this five stars is that I found the mystery/intrigue to be pretty obvious and lacking suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinion was not affected by the free copy.

I'm afraid I'm going to put this on my DNF pile at 30%. I knew this would be a romance going in but I was also expecting a gothic feel. The first thirty percent of this book was not that at all. It was more like a war story, which is fine, but I quickly lost interest once that plot was abandoned. A part of me is curious to see if anything that was done in the first 30% comes back at all but for whatever reason the story didn't grab me enough to actually invest the time.

I wish that this was less about magic, though-- that Wren was a healer in the sense of a nurse or a doctor. I also wish that more was done with the idea of showing mercy versus a more hardened view of prisoners of war. I think that sort of topic would've been very interesting to explore. The gothic feel was missing and I'm guessing that comes in later, though that's kind of a weird tone shift from talk of the military and war.

Not much else to say. The book just wasn't for me.

There was nothing inherently wrong with the book, I just didn't find myself super engaged with the story. The romance was a little lacking and I didn't seem to care about it. The story felt pretty predictable. It seemed well written, but just didn't captivate me like I was hoping it would.

I could not get into this book! Maybe it is because it was my most anticipated book? But I just couldn't read past half way.

There’s so much to love about this book. The atmosphere created by the author is truly stunning. So much detail is put into the world and everything about it. Details like the weather are explained so beautifully and it perfectly helps set the mood of the scene. Also, the house where a good chunk of the novel takes place felt like a character in itself. Reading the descriptions of the creaking walls and the chilling sounds coming from down the hall filled me with the best sort of spooks.

I really enjoyed our characters. Wren was a force to be reckoned with, a force of <i>good</i>. She was kind and smart and altruistic. She felt so many emotions and let those emotions be her guide and her power, and I can greatly respect that.

Hal was someone I was instantly intrigued by. I knew there was more to his story and I was eager to know it.

The way the romance played out was super unexpected for me but it was incredibly sweet and beautiful. These two people truly took the time to get to know each other and to understand each other’s backgrounds. In the end, I could truly see how perfect they were for each other.

Something to note is that this book is extremely dense with world building and themes. It can definitely be hard to follow at times, though it is worth it to reread a paragraph or two to make sure you understand. It took me about a week to read and I believe it was because of how thick the world building is and how dense the material is.

overall, I would absolutely recommend this to my friends. Especially if you enjoy moody, gothic atmospheres.

Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft was a book that swept me away! I instantly loved the story and characters, and all of it sparkled with the magic of Saft’s storytelling. I empathized with our heroine’s struggles of being overly emotional in a world that wanted her to be cold. I felt for our heroes every triumph and fall and raced through the book to reach the end only to be sad to leave these characters. While the story was somewhat predictable, it was in a comforting way of knowing things will be okay in the end even though they look bleak at the moment. Anyone who loves gothic fantasy, underdog stories, strong heroines, and enemies-to-lovers will adore this story!

Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft will be published on March 2, 2021.


Thank you to St. Martin’s Press / Wednesday Books and NetGalley for this eARC.

Thank you to Wednesday books and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review! I absolutely love this cover. It captured the darkness and mystery of Colwick Hall quite perfectly. I loved this book. The beginning didn't hook me and was off to a bit of a slow start for me, but once Wren got to Colwick Hall everything changed. This book is incredible. There are so many things going on. The characters will take hold of your heart and have you rooting them the whole way through. Hal Cavendish, yes please! This book is gritty and emotional and dark and romantic and downright amazing. I was definitely blown away! Such a well written book that will appeal to all kinds of readers!