I loved this book. I even liked the main female character which is rare for me. I liked the haunted house element and the darkness. I am not usually a fan of stand alones, but this one was well paced and ended well without loose ends. I liked the different relationship problems the main character had with the other characters and how they tangled together. Hal was a brilliant character I could not get enough of. I will definitely be reading the author’s other books.

It has taken me entirely too long to read this book and I regret not having finishing it sooner. The romance, the suspense, the magic was all written so well and immediately hooked me from the beginning. It had all the vibes of a gothic, disturbing read which are some of my favorite books to read. I loved both of the main characters and the tension and blooming romance between them was actually swoon worthy. You can never go wrong with an enemies to lovers romance in my opinion.

Wren Southerland has always felt like a burden, especially being the niece of the Queen who's constantly driving her away from her career. As the most talented healer, Wren is expected to use her powers according to the Queen's rules but with such a big heart, sometimes her healing powers get her into big trouble. But then a letter arrives from Lord Lowry who is requesting her assistance in healing a manservant so, against the Queen's wishes, she agrees to help and flees. When she arrives she realizes the manservant is actually Hal Cavendish, the man who is her biggest enemy, the man who murdered thousands of her people. As she begins to heal her enemy, she begins to realize there is something even more sinister occurring in the snowy mountains.

Besides the gothic, disturbing vibes this book had tons of mystery and intrigue which I really wasn't expecting going into this book. The romance was absolutely amazing which is another element I wasn't anticipating but I loved every minute of it.

I'm very excited to read more Allison Saft after devouring this book.

*Many thanks to Wednesday Books for the gifted copy for my honest review!*

A YA Gothic fantasy romance, whose time frame didn't make sense to me. Furthermore, the heroine made me roll my eyes with her indecisiveness. It has Beauty and the Beast, and Cinderella vibes.

Wren Southerland is probably the best healer in the Queen's Guard but she's been a bit reckless with her magic so she's constantly in trouble with her superiors. When she receives a letter from a lord asking for her help to cure a servant, she only sees the opportunity to redeem herself and improve her name. But she arrives she discovers that nothing is as she imagined. The patient is actually the lord himself and he's the sworn enemy to her kingdom.
Wren is deep in snow-covered mountains and it is impossible to leave. During the time Wren and the lord, Hal Cavendish, are stuck together a romance between them blossoms. But a love between them could bring complete devastation to both their kingdoms.

If ever there was a book that one would label a gothic romance, this is it.

There's the forbidden romance, the exotic location, magic, and a young woman going through a slough of emotions.

Author Allison Saft does a tremendous job providing some moody atmosphere and creating a strong, identifiable YA main character. I really enjoyed the healing through magic, which is still tough (not just a wave of a wand), brutal, and bloody.

The dangerous, forbidden romance between Wren and Hal is stereotypical, though Saft handles it well it doesn't really rise above the many, many other forbidden romances in YA literature.

And while I liked the magic and the tone of the book, I never really got into this. I never felt strongly for any of the characters - they were all cardboard to me, moving about in a cool setting

Looking for a good book? Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft is a YA gothic romance with some good, moody atmosphere, and some great ideas, but doesn't really pull the average reader into the book.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this a four out of five stars. I really enjoyed this story and the characters. I liked the character growth and relationships. I liked the the love between the two main characters. The mystery and the magic. If this is/was a series I would love it. I would love to read more about these characters. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

I reallllly wanted to dnf this book about 65% in but I forced myself to finish it bc mama didn’t raise a quitter 😩
Idk if it was just this book or if I’m just not that into fantasy but I just couldn’t get into it. The first chapter was great and it just went downhill for there :/

Thank you for the chance to review this book. This thriller kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time,. I really enjoyed this one.

Absolutely stunning and exhilarating from start to finish. I live for gothic novels, and Down Comes the Night is everything I could have wished for. The plot was tightly paced, and Wren and Hal are engrossing characters to follow.

What a amazing book! I feel in love with this one. The story is spectacular, all the characters are super vivid. I recommend with my heart.

Going into Down Comes the Night, I had somehow twisted my expectations to hinge more on a deeply gothic manor story and less of a magical fantasy, which was a total misconception on my part. That said, the magic was actually a really beautiful part of this story that I found myself pleasantly surprised by. unfortunately, I found some of the characters that we're supposed to be rooting for (Una, in particular) flat for the first 70% of the book, making much of it a drag to get through. I really loved that Wren is a bisexual character torn between her complicated feelings for two people, but I wanted to believe that she would really love both of these people, rather than be told that she does and expect myself to agree. For that reason, I couldn't invest myself fully in the story and found that it just wasn't a great fit for me. I think anyone who enjoyed the crisp magic of the Grisha trilogy would enjoy this story though!

This book is a truly amazing read. It is a gothic tale filled with love, darkness, and magic. Readers will feel the emotion steeped in these pages as well as connect with the characters.

What a wonderful read! I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was excellent.
It's not your typical fantasy - I love that we are dropped right into a country at war, instead of most fantasies where the protagonist is an unwilling hero who gets involved in battle.
The mix of magic and medical was also unique, and a tad gruesome at times which I loved!
I also loved the gothic feel of the mansion where Ren, our main character, is sent. I feel the book also benefitted from being told in the third person. First person narration is so common lately in YA that this felt refreshing.

This book is so far removed from my usual genre that I wasn’t sure what to expect. Surprisingly, I had a decent time reading this novel. Whilst Wren is an annoying main character, I like that her strength is her ability to empathize with others. The mystery elements of the story are not that surprising but they were well done so I enjoyed the plot. I don’t think the romance was that great; there was a strong insta-love quality to it, which wasn’t helped by Wren’s stupidity. For me, this was a quick read and not a bad book, as far as debut novels go. For those reasons, I’m giving this 2.5/5 stars (rounded to 3)!

One of my favorite reads of 2021, DOWN COMES THE NIGHT is the perfect chilly gothic fantasy romance.

I was reading by Chapter 12 and told myself that if, by Chapter 15, I’m still not interested, we’re marking it as dnf. And so I reached Chapter 15, and I still wasn’t interested.

I usually know early on if I’m not going to enjoy a book or possibly mark it as did-not-finish if the characters aren’t working for me. Either I don’t like the way they speak, the way they treat others. I also dnf early on if I don’t like the narration or if the 1st POV just doesn’t work for me. With this book it was the main character. Wren. I didn’t like her character early. I couldn’t get myself to care for what she cared for, get angry at what she was angry at. If she was interested in something, I could not get myself interested in it.

I also didn’t like the way magic and the magic system/rules were written into the book. I don’t know if there were any other magic other than healing and destructive magic. From what I read, healing magic was only to be used either in the military or in the clergy. I didn’t like that they force you into one of two roles in order for you to use magic. What’s the penalty if they catch you using magic and you’re not in the army or a nun? They kill you? That’s even more restrictive.

I liked Hal enough to try to reading (at least until 40%) but his personality didn’t shine enough to intrigue me. The plot played a disappointing factor as well. I was sort of interested in carrying on to see what the plot would shape into and how the characters played a role in it, but ultimately, it couldn’t give me the boost to carry on.

Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft, 400 pages. Wednesday Books (St. Martin’s Press), 2021. $19. LGBTQIA
Language: PG13 (19 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Having the Healing Touch is Wren’s only redeeming quality. Her aunt, the queen, only tolerates Wren as long as she’s a useful member of the Queen’s Guard. But Wren has always let her emotions get the best of her, and her friend, Una, can’t save Wren from the consequences of her last blunder. Desperate to regain what little favor she had, Wren considers taking the biggest risk: deserting.
The premise drew me in, but annoyance with Wren’s actions nearly made me set the book down – multiple times. Saft challenges her characters and readers to consider the roles of magic versus technology, vengeance versus mercy, duty versus compassion. I liked the mental exercise of considering the viewpoints of different characters on these subjects more than enduring Wren’s wishy-washiness. The story ends well, getting there was more painful than I wanted it to be. The mature content rating is for alcohol use, innuendo, nudity, and sex. The violence rating is for gore and murder.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

This book hit all the gothic vibes for the most part I wish the romance was a bit more of the focus but it was an enjoyable read

This was a low-key but nevertheless intense YA gothic fantasy with a solid enemies-to-lovers plot and mystery.
It centeres around Wren, unwanted niece of the Queen and talented healer. My favourite part of the book was how much of Wren's character development centers on her compassion and empathy, which she is repeatedly told is a flaw and something to be supressed and ashamed of. Her path towards cherishing that quality, and accepting that mercy is the harder path to take, was done lovely.
Hal was a somewhat stereotypical initial antagonist and love interest, but it was all stereotypes that work for a very well reason. I enjoyed their dynamic and the romance that developed between them.
The mystery was well executed as well.
The book wasn't action heavy. I liked the way it was written, and it wasn't lacking anything overt, but it also didn't entirely keep my attention while reading it. The politcal situation of the countries and magic system wasn't anything out of the ordinary - it didn't need to be, I think the book more relied on its overall atmosphere, but something there was missing for me. I think I would have appreciated more of the creepy horror and gothic shivers.
There is quite a bit of gore and surgical details, which made sense from Wren's background as a healer, and I greatly enjoyed those details and how they were integrated as something mundane, even if the realities are objectively gruesome they were just normal for Wren.

So I finally gave this book a try for spooky season and I made it about five chapters in before DNFing. I just wasn’t drawn to Wren and her story no matter how hard I tried to be. I might give it another shot but for since I keep putting it down and not making much progress, I’m going to walk away for now.

The title caught my attention. The writing was strong, interesting characters, but I just couldn't get into it.

I received an ARC.