Impeccable Eastern European vibes, amazing romance and a vicious rivalry. Don't know what else you need in your story but this one probably has it. I really loved this book and I think it was an interesting world with great characters.

I do wish there was a bit more worldbuilding and lore but that's a small complaint. Can't wait for more from this author.

For more thoughts check out my video review - https://youtu.be/W4EFHl0l7EE

The Midnight Girls is a Polish inspired fantasy about heart stealing monster girls, both trying to kill the same prince and take his heart. It has a sapphic rivals to lovers romance, magic, witches, beautiful winter vibes, and a lot of girlbossing. Great fun and an author on my auto-buy list.

4/5 cups of coffee from me!

This was such a great book! Perfect villains and perfect f/f enemies are lovers trope (I'd say enemies to lovers but read and find out). I really enjoyed the competitive streaks of both our servant girls to the witches. The Polish lore and dedication to making it so amazing truly made this a strong read.

The pacing was well done, and as a standalone, Jasinska did what every reader can ask for; gave us a fun and satisfying ending, but also one that lets you know that their world, their story, continues.

There are handsome princes and princesses, history at play and magic both holy and 'evil.' Again, so many great things packed into the book.

I do wish we would have had more of Midnight and Midday together, but I get why it was done this way, it's how the author wanted it and it works.

Again, great read. I would highly recommend to almost anyone. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wasn't convinced by this book at first, but somewhere along the way I was caught up in the pure fun of it. The two main characters are very easy to latch onto, as is their growing relationship, which feels satisfyingly real and messy (as well as delightfully ludicrous). It is a fun change to have broadly villainous characters in this kind of story without making the reader feel guilty for indulging that, and I wonder if it could have even gone further. I do think the prose is too blunt and functional (even for a younger target audience), and the ending (and perhaps the whole story) is a bit of a blur, but the story shines through. I'm not normally a big adaptation advocate, but I think this would work perfectly as a fun film romp, where the characters and spectacles could stand out even more, less constrained by writing.

Do I read Alicia Jasinka's books simply to get the serotonin release from reading women love women fantasy? maybe. Are Alicia Jasinka's books wonderful regardless? Yes, yes ,yes!!

Thanks Netgalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.
It was magnificent story centering around two villain witches that are tivals since childhood. It's not often that a story revolves around villains, which is the first thing that drew me for the book. Each character in this had a significant role for the development of the story. I was rooting for Orince Jozef, whose pure heart is the one that the witches want. It was amazing to see how rivalry can birth truest friendship and how behind all bad deeds the girls do stays the desire for power, but also the simple wish for freedom. I wished to see more of Josef though. There was incredible creativity wooven into creating the setting, the inspirations from the Polish folklore and even the names of the witches - Morning, Midday and Midnight. It was a fantastic read. Hope to see more from the author.

Thanks to NetGalley & Sourcebooks Fire for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

There are three witches, Morning, Midday, & Midnight. They have apprentices that they use to collect materials and power, and power comes in the form of pure hearts from royalty. At the start of the book, Midday has tried her best to follow her witch's orders for years, but Midnight's apprentice constantly one-ups her. Midday has had it and makes a plan with Morning to finally show up Midnight once and for all....problem is though, Midday has thoroughly enjoyed the rivalry with Midnight all these years. What if she doesn't want to *really* defeat Midnight anymore? What if she wants something more?

I found it to be a very entertaining and low-key read which was nice to read. I really enjoyed the magic system and the Morning/Midday/Midnight angle with magic, it was awesome!

I'd say the only issues I had was that the second half of the book felt a bit rushed. I would've preferred this to be two books, actually. The first one could be focused on Midday/Midnight as they grow into their roles and their rival relationship and the second one could include the action that appears in the second half of this book. I would've really liked to see some of their early magic attempts as well as early fights with each other. I also started really rooting for the Prince and his kinda-boyfriend and I had trouble wanting to see the witches succeed when this Prince dude was better than all of them combined. I mean, that's the point of morally grey protagonists, but still...haha.

Fun adventure/fantasy book with a fascinating romance!

The Midnight Girls was a non-stop ride through the beautiful wintry Polish countryside during the Karnawal season. Two young servants, Midnight and Midday, who have been in a competition since they were children, are both tasked with stealing (literally taking it from his body) the heart of the prince. As they get to know each other, however, the stakes have never been higher, and each girl must decide what is truly important to her--this new friendship that has become something more, her freedom, or her devotion to her master.

This is the story of Zosia and Marynka, two powerful witches, who fall in love. This story is beautifully told, but there is so much more here too. This is a story of female power, of desire for that power, and the villainy it takes to hold power that strong. This is a story of magic and Polish folklore. There is action, adventure, friendship, high-stakes, and this book kept me on the edge of my seat. Additionally, Alicia Jasinska's prose was lush and lyrical, and so beautiful. The world-building was exquisite, and it was perfect to read as the first snowfall of the season happened outside of my window. This book was a joy to read. I loved getting to know all of the characters, but was so enraptured with Zosia and Marynka that I didn't ever want to stop reading it. And it kind of left off on a cliff hanger, so hopefully we get to see them again.

I will definitely be adding this to my collection, and I can't wait to tell my teens about it.

Recommended for grades 8+.

This book was one I was looking forward to a lot. Lesbian witches? A bisexual prince? I was sold. This book was incredibly action packed, fast paced, and full of twists and turns. The only thing I would say was that I did want to see a bit more of the prince. His relationship with his "friend" who betrayed him was so interesting to me, I wanted more. I also wanted to see more romance between Midday and Midnight, it didn't happen right until the end despite their obvious attraction. Other than that it was incredible!

I really enjoyed this book. I love the rivalry between our main characters, Marynka and Zosia. They are two young women that were taken in as servants to two witches when they were younger. They have been competing to collect hearts of princes for so long that I was very interested to see how their relationship would develop. I really liked both of them. Two different personalities but can find common ground assuming they are not trying to out do the other. The romance was good. You can feel the tension brewing along with a competitive sort of friendship and enjoyable banter.

This isn’t a 5 stars because I felt like a lot was going on and it didn’t flow that well for me. There is a war brewing but seemed like it wasn’t that important in the end and was just thrown in there now and then. The rivalry between Marynka and Zosia was the main part of the story I enjoyed, along with the complicated relationships they have with Beata and the witches they serve. I wish the ending was explored a bit more. The most enjoyable part for me was the rivalry and action. Few surprises which were good but overall an interesting fantasy romance.

*Received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

This book was a pleasant surprise. I was honestly going into it thinking maybe I would skim some of it, but I was hooked on every line! I love the whole cat-and-mouse, rivals set up with f/f romance, for some reason it just hits differently. The wit and quick tongues made me laugh out loud!

What I really loved about this book is that the characters were completely opposite, but their chemistry didn't seem pushed, if that makes sense. A lot of times when characters are such polar opposites, I feel like their chemistry doesn't make any sense at all. This book, however, had me rooting for them from the first mention of the rivalry.

I really hope there is a companion novel. And the side m/m romance was so heart wrenching just - ugh, I love it. I need a physical copy and I will probably listen to the audiobook when it comes out too LOL.

Two witches compete for the heart of a prince literally. But the two witches end up falling in love with each other instead. An enemies to lovers story. The main characters aren't all good... not the noble, self-sacrificing type that you would expect in a fairy tale.... But they are complex and grey.... An interesting read... finished it in a day.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an arc.

The Midnight Girls is the perfect wintery book to curl up with beside a roaring fire and just let the author take you on a wonderful journey full of magic, villainy and compelling characters. With a glorious slow burn sapphic rivals to lovers relationship with cat and mouse dynamics, this book will have you hooked.

The Midnight Girls is told through two perspectives, Marynka and Zosia. These two girls were taken in by witches at a young age to be their servants and have been in competition with each other ever since. They have such a fun dynamic due to this rivalry and constant need to one up each other and I loved seeing this explored in the novel. Especially in the context of their villainy and willingness to go to extreme lengths to beat the other. Watching this dynamic shift and change as they got to know each other and began caring about each other was great too. I felt that the shifts in their feelings were wonderfully executed to remain true to the characters’ natures.

I also loved Marynka and Zosia as individuals. Their perspectives each felt unique and distinct from one another and I really enjoyed reading from them both. The contrast in their characters made for really great dynamics between the two and I could easily wax poetic about how much I loved the night and day contrast between them and its links to their individual characters. I also adored the fact that they were truly monstrous and never softened. Speaking of characters, I also really enjoyed Beata’s character, as well as the Prince and Kajetan.

Something else that really stood out to me about this book was the setting. The Midnight Girls takes place in a snow cloaked fantasy world inspired by Polish history. It has a gorgeous wintery atmosphere that I absolutely adored. The politics also made this book really interesting. The author’s note says that the world of this book is inspired by late 18th century Polish history and you can really feel that the country is on the brink of great change and revolution and I liked how our main characters interacted with this political background.

Overall, I absolutely adored The Midnight Girls. I highly recommend picking this one up if you’re looking for some monstrous girls being unapologetically ruthless, all while falling in love set against a gorgeous wintery backdrop. I was already excited to read Jasinka's debut but after loving this one so much I will now be hurrying to pick it up.

This was such an interesting YA fantasy read, with a Polish touch.

The premise for this one was interesting - two enchantresses vying for a prince's heart. I was intrigued. I also was there for the enemy x enemy love.

Whilst this one took me a while to yet into (like most fantasy), I really enjoyed it, and I was here for it also being sapphic as heck. The writing just made it super immersive, and I really did enjoy the cultural aspects.

Rating: 4/5

2.5/5
Let’s start with what I did like about this one. The magic elements, while not unique, is well crafted and the three girls’ different magic meshed very well together (and against). We have the three times of day - Morning, Midday, and Midnight - who each have their own specific magic that correlates to their time of day, but there is also a small splash of like holy magic I guess is a good way to describe it with Kajetan and and some of the Royal Guard. There are other stories of religious magic that exists but aren’t shown in the story and I like how Jasinska incorporates this contrast in magic in comparison to the three witch’s.

I was totally feeling the setting and the winter feel of it all. This was a great December read even though there isn’t snow on the ground quite yet, it felt like it reading this. Jasinska does a beautiful job describing the setting and making it feel like a winter wonderland. But besides the setting, the magic aspects, and two characters (that I’ll get to soon), I just wasn’t a huge fan overall.

The competition between Marynka and Zosia became utterly annoying very quickly. I know their banter between each other and their internal conflict over the other is supposed to create a special tension between the two of them, but it was so annoyingly obvious from the start that they liked each other. I got so sick of their inner monologues about the other - especially Marynka. This made me root for the Prince more than anything because I didn’t want to see either of these brats win. I also felt terrible for Beata the entire stroy because Marynka constantly ignores her to internally obsess over Zosia, and Zosia seems to look down on her all the time. But Beata is a loyal friend - has to be to put up with Marynka’s crap - and really deserves so much better. She didn’t even have any chapters from her P.O.V. and she was my favorite character.

I know Jasinska was going for a somewhat historical fantasy based off of the events in Poland at the end of the 18th century, but the problem is that the politics didn’t matter to the main characters. I feel like basing a setting and side plot on historical events only works if the main character(s) are effected or show interest or emotion for what is happening. Marynka and Zosia are focused on beating the other at getting the Prince’s heart and everything else feels like insignificant background noise. Jasinska tried to get the politics to work and seem important, but none of it felt significant because the prospectives we’re reading through don’t care. It just made me want chapters from the Prince’s P.O.V. There was this constant disconnection with this part of the story, and complete annoyance at the other.

I enjoyed The Midnight Girls, but I'm a little conflicted about how much I enjoyed it, because it felt like something was missing in the story. I enjoyed the dynamic between Marynka and Zosia, as well as Beata, and seeing how their character arcs evolved over the course of the story. The setting was inspired by Poland, and the winter descriptions were very atmospheric, which I enjoyed. It was also very cool to see mentions of the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) coexisting in the story's region and to see representation for each group of people in the cast of characters. The LGBTQ+ representation of the story was also fantastic, and is a main focus since the book is told from Marynka's and Zosia's perspectives. This is going to be a great recommendation for me to give to customers looking for books as they transition from MG to YA, as there aren't any intimate scenes, which we definitely need more of with the heavy trend to upper YA. Though anyone not okay with gore might want to stay away from this one, as some of the injuries and battle scenes are graphic.

However, it still felt like something was missing. And the more I thought about it, the more I've concluded it's in the magic system and the overall drive of the characters. The story utilizes a soft magic system approach, meaning the rules of the magic are not explained or analyzed in depth. This can sometimes work very well, but here it just really wasn't clear to me what the point of the magic was, because it didn't feel deeply connected to the main characters and their mentors. At the end of the book, I still didn't know what the witches do with their magic. Maybe I missed something, or maybe there isn't supposed to be a point because of the fact that it's a villain/monster story and this was an intentional choice on the author's part. Or maybe it's simply the fact that I like going in depth with worldbuilding and with stories, so I tend to enjoy series more than standalones. Bottom line is, I think it was more me than it was the writing, since I'm still glad I read the book. Hence the four stars.

Buy, Borrow, or Bypass: I would suggest borrowing this one. I'm glad I read it, and I would still recommend you give it a read, but right now I don't see myself rereading this one. Though, to be fair, I'm still kind of considering buying a copy for my collection since Charlie Bowater did the cover art and I love her work. :)

This Polish fantasy is a great winter read. Marynka (Midday) has worked hard for years to win her adoptive witch grandmother's approval. Her grandmother took her in as a child and gifted her with magic. Grandmother needs to eat princely hearts to gain more power, but she cannot take them on her own. So Marynka must steal them.

However, Midnight, grandmother's sister's servant, keeps getting in the way. Midnight only seems to be getting more powerful, and Midday does her best to keep up. But Midnight often gets to the hearts before Midday, leading to a fierce rivalry (at least on Midday's side).

Their paths cross at Karnawal, a days long winter celebration where everyone shows up and parties, including a prince with the purest of hearts. As they both vie for his heart, they learn more about each other and start to question their true feelings for each other.

Along with some good world-building, there are a lot of great moments in this book: a masquerade ball, a romantic ice skating scene, an ill-fated sleigh ride, magical transformations, and an enemies to lovers slow burn. I also loved how Midday's and Midnight's story line was mirrored by the prince and his friend.

I really enjoyed this book, as long as I didn't think too hard about the magical aspects. I wanted more context about what the witches' purposes besides competing with each other and more background about how exactly the magic works. I also felt like with how convicted Midnight was to her mission, she could have just turned into shadows at any moment and stolen the heart. She didn't need to wait for cover like Midday, so why did she?

I also wish this was a duology! I think the ending left a lot of room for a second book, and I felt like there was a lot more to learn about this world.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for giving me access to an eARC to review!

Definitely an interesting concept, but I just wished we had more time to establish the protagonists' years of being rivals. We got a couple of chapters at the beginning giving kind of like a summary of their rivalry, but I would have loved to see them interacting and their relationship changing over the time they've known each other - I feel like I was being told that they were long-term rivals without seeing much of this. We also sadly didn't get to see much witch-stealing-hearts content either tbh which was a little disappointing.

I found the dynamic between the prince and the priest a lot more interesting than the relationship of the main couple, and didn't feel like we got to know a lot about our witches apart from the fact that they were rivals and had different feelings about their jobs as witches. I think just a little extra time spent establishing these two characters and their dynamic would have made the slow-burn rivals-to-lovers more interesting to me. But this was definitely a solid read, and I think it's a good addition to sapphic YA fantasy without being super heavy on the romance. The pace picked up a lot near the end, but I just wanted a bit more from it!

Big Shadow and Bone vibes - there was a scene between the priest and one of the witches that was giving a lot of Nina/Matthias energy, and the prince reminded me a lot of a Nikolai type! I also think that the witches had more interesting relationships with the prince and the priest than with each other tbh...and there was the inclusion of some elements of Polish history/culture that weren't super fleshed out though there were a lot of references to Polish culture/food/dress which was nice! Also love a snowy setting!

Bright Morning serves White Jaga. Midday serves Red Jaga. And Midnight serves Black Jaga. The servants of the witches know that if they succeed in bringing the hearts of princes to their mistresses, they will be rewarded with magic powers. If they fail, they will be eaten.

With enchanted sleeps, midnight masquerades, capricious witches who serve as mother figures, and a poetic writing style, this book is a beautiful fairy tale. The setting is inspired by Polish history and the three servants are as different as morning, noon, and night - each with her own ambitions and dreams, each wonderfully captivating in her own way. Strong, interesting, and heart-hurtingly admirable. Anyone who loves powerful female characters, fairy tales, Disney's Frozen, and Naomi Novik's books will definitely find this a worthwhile read. Also, if you're someone who wants everyone to be gay, this is a book for you.

My only complaint is that the ending was too open-ended for a standalone; I would have preferred a definitively happy ending for everyone. How can you make me love the characters and then deny them the happy ending you've convinced me they deserve?

This is my first book from this author and I’ll definitely be going back to read her first book The Dark Tide at some point! This books strong point is it’s characters, especially Zosia and Marynka! I also highly enjoyed the wintery 18th century Poland setting.

Marynka and Zosia are fighting with each other to literally win the princes heart, one to eat it herself and one to prove herself worthy to the witch she is a servant for. Both girls are equally monstrous, in fact, they can even change form into the monsters of Midday and Midnight, respectively. They’re both complete opposites of each other, with Marynka being fiery, wild, and reckless and Zosia being cold, restrained and calculated. It’s no wonder the two are enemies, but when they finally meet each other (without realizing who the other is) they learn that they have more in common with each other and maybe perhaps even feelings for each other.

I really enjoyed getting this story from the villains rather than the heroes, and seeing how they became what they are and how it’s impacted their lives and experiences was fun to read.

Originally, I had wanted to know more about the kingdom of Lechija and the situation it’s in and how it related to the story of these two girls, but then I realized that if my schooling had covered other countries histories instead of just it’s own, I might actually have been able to spot connections from this book to actual history, and since that failing is on me and not the book it didn’t impact my rating in any way.

This was a little bit on the slower side, but as I said, the characters were so intriguing that I hardly noticed and got through the book rather quickly. I did also enjoy the writing style, it was very easy to read and follow along with.

While this is a standalone and it works well that way, there is definitely room for a sequel or even a companion novel, which I would definitely read if one was ever announced!

Overall, if you like character driven stories, monstrous girls and enemies to lovers then I definitely recommend you check this one out!