Tonight's the grand ball at the palace, and Anais' parents have pinned all their political hopes on marrying off their daughter to a rich & titled noble. Anais dutifully attends the ball, dances with potential suitors, and then dies in an unexpected rebel attack on the palace, bombs, guns, and blood galore. But worse than all the blood and death, is Anais waking up after to realize that she has to relive the same day, the same deadly ball, and die every night, over and over and over again.

I loved Mother of Learning, which has a similar kind of Groundhog Day/ second chance plot, and this book has a lot of similar vibes in its own very unique fashion. Anais keeps repeating the same day, each time trying to find a way to stop the deadly attack & the deaths of everyone she cares about. Each life, each new iteration of the day, changes depending on Anais' choices and actions. Each retelling reveals new secrets, slowly peeling off layers of political intrigue to reveal the culprit behind it all

I was afraid this would be a romance heavy book, given that it's set at a royal ball, Cinderella reminiscent midnight, and all that. I was really happy to find Anais wasn't a moony-eyed lovesick teen. She was refreshingly normal. She could admire men's looks or despise them, all while remaining cognizant of her goal. That's not to say there's no romance. While there's only so much she can do in a single night, it also gives her the chance to be more daring, & to get to know more than one man. After all, anything Anais does won't be remembered by anyone but herself.

There's great character development here. Anais slowly learns more about the politics and potential threats, where she'd been very sheltered and unaware until now. She also gets to know her friends and acquaintances better. More than that, Anais starts off wanting to save the royal family and all the nobles from the revolutionaries, but over time and multiple restarts, Anais starts questioning her own beliefs. Is the royal family worth saving? Why should she want to save the selfish nobles who all look down on her for being from a backwater farming province? Maybe the anarchists are right in seeking equality for all.

Someone wants to kill the royal family and all the politically powerful people at the ball. For reasons Anais has to uncover, she is the only one able to relive the same day and deadly night over and over. While she tries to discover who's the mastermind behind it all, and how the magic of her repeating night works, Anais also needs to answer questions about herself: how does she want this night to end, and does she want to move on to a future where her mistakes have permanent consequences.

Groundhog Day meets Cinderella in this time loop fantasy about a teenager stuck at a ball until midnight when revolutionaries kill everyone. Every day Anais wakes up determined to prevent another horrific death even as her investigation thrusts her into the middle of courtly intrigue. The book questions the desire for power, sensitively handles overwhelming isolation and grief, and emphasizes finding your own path. Disney princesses can’t hold a candle to this complex heroine.

When a series of bombs go off at the kingdom’s anniversary ball, Anaïs, along with everyone else in attendance, is killed. Then she wakes up a few hours earlier. Nobody else remembers what happened, or knows what’s going to happen. Unless she wants to be stuck in an unending loop of death and destruction for the rest of eternity, she needs to figure out who’s behind this attack and stop them before they can kill her, and the rest of the court, all over again.

I liked Anaïs! She starts the story as a reluctant ball attendee, being pressured by her parents into finding a husband despite knowing that nobody there wants to marry her and she doesn’t want to marry anybody there. Her initial reaction to being caught in the loop, and all her initial floundering, was very believable, as was the progression of what she found herself willing to do in order to try and break it. I really liked how she developed over the course of the story. I enjoyed seeing her building desperation to find a way out, her growing willingness to do increasingly audacious and at times deplorable things to try stopping the explosions, and her determination to find the right solution to the whole situation. As will be familiar from other well known time loop stories, being stuck in a time loop brought out the best version of herself, as well as maybe some elements of the worst version of herself.

The story does get dark, and a decent amount of this darkness stems from the fact that the loop is triggered by Anaïs’ death. If she wants to try the night again, she has to die. There were some loops that she may well have survived if she’d prioritised herself above all else, but the destruction and death toll aside from her was so high that she wanted to try again anyway, and that meant she had to find a way to die. Deliberately dying over and over in order to save the lives of others isn’t something that many people would be able to bring themselves to do, and it speaks volumes about Anaïs that she chose to help rather than run even though it would cost her like this.

Prince Leo was a really interesting character! Half the time he’s playing the role of the drunken younger prince with no responsibilities to speak of, but it becomes apparent that this is largely an act and a defence mechanism. He believes Anaïs more often than he doesn’t, which was a relief. Being stuck in a time loop is such a weird thing to lie about that if someone claims to be in one it’s always a better idea to believe them and skip the hassle, and he mostly does this well. The moment he’s given some kind of purpose for himself he drops all the acts and shows himself to be intelligent, down to earth, and at times downright heroic.

The development of the relationship between Leo and Anaïs is an interesting one. Leo doesn’t remember the loops, and so doesn’t remember Anaïs, so the most he can feel for her at the end of any given night is respect and maybe a crush. At no point is he in love with her. In contrast, Anaïs has a very long time to get to know Leo. I thought the jump between her realising that Leo was someone she could trust to her being in love with him was very quick and I wasn’t wholly convinced by it. However, I really liked how their relationship was written after this point! With every loop she’s not just giving up another chance at her own survival, but she’s giving up whatever dynamic she and Leo have managed to build that time around. She knows him, and she loves him, and she also knows that as long as the loops continue he’s never going to feel the same way about her. That’s something she just has to accept. There’s nothing she can do about it. This disconnect and mismatch in relationships is something that hits hard in time loop stories, and this was no exception. It’s tragic, and that’s the whole point.

In general, the emotions of Anaïs’ loop were well executed. Aside from the things I’ve already touched on, such as the growing disconnect in her relationships and her growing desperation and willingness to do things she ordinarily wouldn’t dream of, another thing this book addresses about the loops is the possibility of Anaïs getting so caught up in them that she deliberately and unnecessarily keeps herself in them indefinitely. If you theoretically have the power to manipulate events so they go exactly how you want them to go, at what point do you stop? At what point do you say you’ve done enough and let time resume its proper course? I thought the eventual resolution was an interesting one, and it’s one that I ultimately fall on the side of liking.

There’s an attempt at an anti-colonial message in here, but it felt incomplete to me. It didn’t quite land.

The reason why I wanted to read this book in the first place is very simple: I love stories involving time loops. If I had to list out my top five pieces of media across all formats, three of those five involve time loops. I LOVE time loops. And, because I love time loops, I have high standards for them. A big part of what makes them so cool is the butterfly effect of it all, the only things that should be changing from loop to loop should be changing as a direct result of the actions of the person(s) at the centre of the loop. Unfortunately, this book emphatically doesn’t tick that box. I was convinced for a solid chunk of the book that Leo could remember the loops as well because he kept acting so drastically differently from loop to loop for no reason that him remembering the prior attempts was the most reasonable explanation. But no, he didn’t remember anything. He wasn’t the only one acting differently across loops with no explanation but it was most noticeable with him. If you’re not already a big lover of time loops then this might not bother you so much, but I am and it bothered me enough that I honestly nearly dnf’d the book over it. If the loops aren’t rewinding time but are putting her in slightly different alternate universes then just say that, y’know? That would be fine. But she never even considers the possibility. I fully acknowledge that this is a me problem lmao, as I said I have very high standards.

If you’re looking for a unique take on a glittering court fantasy with darker elements then you’ll probably enjoy this one! If you’re looking for a well executed time loop story then you might find that here, depending on how high your standards are and what your priorities are for them. It definitely hits on the emotions of a time loop, and that’s arguably the more important thing.

Midnight Strikes is absolutely incredible. I have loved time loops ever since the movie Groundhog Day came out, and the one in this book is brilliant. To solve the time loop, the main character, Anais, has to solve an extremely important mystery. Along the way she learns a lot about herself - really lifechanging things. Despite everything she goes through - and she goes through A LOT - she stays strong so she can save the day, even though there are many, many reasons that she shouldn’t.

Midnight Strikes is my favorite book so far this year. I can’t wait to read more from this author.

I loved this book. It had all the elements of a great fantasy: a well paced plot, fully developed world, and engaging characters. Throw in a time loop, some magic, and romance, and I couldn't put it down. I literally read it in two days. Highly recommended

Thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for an advanced reader copy.

3.5/5⭐

I LOVE time loop stories; they can be so creative and fun and I just find them so entertaining. I was sold on Midnight Strikes as soon I saw the words "fantasy time loop," and although a few things kept this from a higher rating, overall I really enjoyed it.

The writing was beautiful and there were so many passages I found myself wanting to highlight (not something I normally do and unfortunately not something that was possible in the format I was reading). This is an impressive debut and I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from Zeba Shahnaz!

The world building really shone; I'd love another novel set in this world without the time loop so we could explore more of it. And the magic systems were fascinating with some really fun twists. Anaïs is a great reluctant hero narrator and she goes through a very satisfying evolution into a stronger and smarter protagonist with each loop. The progression of the side characters through her interactions with them was also fun to watch.

It feels a bit silly to call a time loop story repetitive, because hello, but the nature of this one meant that the loop itself was only a few hours long and didn't go much beyond the setting of the ball. This made any progression in the story very difficult and the first half did drag a bit for me. (This book also took me ages to read, due entirely to the terrible formatting of the publisher's egalley, which I'm sure contributed to that drawn out feeling.) Anaïs was also the only one ever caught in the loop, which meant all relationships started over, stunting the romance significantly. Throw Leo in that loop with her, let their connection really develop! I also found the ending less than satisfying and wanted a bit more closure. I loved the final words, but I didn't love that they were the final words, if that makes sense.

This was a fun, fairytale-esque fantasy adventure that I'd overall recommend, especially if you love time loops and don't mind a lighter romance.

This was one of my most anticipated reads this year. Midnight Strikes has an interesting plot and certainly feels like Cinderella is stuck in a time loop. However, as the day repeated several times over without any real answers or many of the details I hoped for, the magic of the time loop started to wear off for me. My preconceived notions about time loops may have played a role in this because I was looking forward to more scrutiny about the day and changes Anaïs made.

The magic system is interesting and the world itself is as well, even though the setting was limited to only a few locations. The magic system was engrossing, and I wanted to read more about it. With magic having a greater emphasis in the second half, I was able to enjoy the book a lot more as Anaïs made several revelations and hopefully headed toward a new day--she grows considerably throughout the book.

While it did not quite live up to expectations, I did enjoy the last half of the novel. It left me feeling uplifted. I even wished some of the first half was shortened so the ending could be longer.

I always am disappointed when a book with an intriguing premise falls flat on its delivery. I enjoy a good time loop story because I love unraveling the mystery with the characters of why they are stuck in a time loop and what they have to do to break it. In "Midnight Strikes", I was hooked by the description's mention of political plots and such. But when it came down to the book, I personally felt unsatisfied by the supposed plot twist. I also hold characterization and storytelling to a high regard in fiction writing and my expectations were not met. I felt as if Anais' motives for figuring out the mystery of her time loop and saving everyone wasn't well established. Her relationship with Leo came out of left field for me. There obviously wouldn't be time for the both of them to develop feelings as he is a victim of the loop and doesn't remember anything but her moment of realizing her feelings for him was entirely unestablished in the pages before. That is not to say the I did not entirely dislike the writing. There were moments where Shahnaz's writing and prose had me clutching my chest, heavy breathing. I would have just loved if those moments were continuous throughout the whole book.

A fast paced fantasy that I couldn’t put down and a cast of characters you can’t help but root for! I loved midnight strikes

What do you get when you combine Edge of Tomorrow with Cinderella? Midnight Strikes. (aka Edge of Cinderella, lol) Yes, Midnight Strikes is a time loop story so yes you’ll travel over the same ground again and again, though of course there will be differences each time, as Anais attempts to discover a way out. While it’s not an often used plot device and I don’t know about you, I really enjoy a good time loop story. And this is the first fantasy time loop story I can remember. Midnight Strikes has a solid cast and an intriguing story. It’s definitely a journey I enjoyed taking (again and again and again, lol) Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/midnight-strikes-zeba-shahnaz/1141693742?ean=9780593567555&bvnotificationId=bbac5e21-c2dd-11ed-94f1-0aa2d5b154e7&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/243458098

Have you ever asked the question: what if Cinderella was stuck in Groundhog Day with magical powers? Well, look no more because Midnight Strikes by Zeba Shahnaz is the perfect answer to this question.

What I liked: This book was so much fun to read. A time loop story has the high potential to be so repetitive and just boring, not this book. Yes, you will see some big similarities between the chapters, but Shahnaz changes it just enough to reveal new clues and keep the plot and character development going. The author has also created a world with an easy to follow magic system that just feels natural to the setting.

To keep in mind: This entire book takes place generally in the same setting with the same small group of characters. This is a book featuring a time loop, so be prepared for some repetition. Midnight Strikes is a YA fantasy, so don’t go in expecting something super dark, gritty, and smutty.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and it even got to point that I was just walking around reading it while doing chores since I could not put it down. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a fun, adventurous mystery with minimal to no romance.

A big thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good time loop, but combine that with fantastical fantasy elements, and there you have the masterpiece that is Midnight Strikes.

Midnight Strikes by Zeba Shahnaz is YA fantasy novel that follows the every-turning ever-looping life of Anaïs, as she is forced to attend a spectacular ball that has her rubbing shoulders with the most glamorous royals and snobbish nobles. But her cries of escape are answered with an explosion that kills her and everyone in attendance. Until she miraculously wakes, to find the disastrous ball happening in a few hours. And she is the only one that remembers it, each time the world resets. All she has to do is survive past midnight.

I have always loved a good time loop story, as it creates a unique challenge for both the characters and the author. In both how to escape and how to change it each time. I think Midnight Strikes works as a perfect example of this, as it throws in the genre of fantasy right along with the mystery of it all. And Shahnaz's writing style perfectly ties it all together.

I haven’t read a good fantasy book in a while and this book made me itching to read more. I was hooked immediately and could easily picture the world the author had built.

After attending the anniversary ball and dying after explosions go off in the palace, Anaïs wakes up in the afternoon of the same day, forced to repeat these hours over and over again until she can figure out what is happening and how to stop it. Anaïs is the only one stuck in the time loop, and each day she has to find new ways to gain information about what is happening. Overtime, she forms friendships with people she had never really considered she could be close with, but unfortunately for her, each day she’s the only one waking up with these memories. Instead of repeating the same steps, Anaïs tries different things to try and stop the destruction, which was such a fascinating way to learn about the layers to the plot that would eventually kill almost everyone at midnight. I was hooked and loved discovering each thing at the same time as Anaïs.

There is a little romance storyline and you best believe I was rooting for Anaïs and Leo, the youngest prince, the entire time. But obviously it was a little heartbreaking as they’d have a cute moment, only for Leo to not know about it the next time. Their romance was so swoon worthy and we got to learn more about Leo each time the loop restarted. As the book progresses, the stakes get higher and Anaïs goes through a lot as the loop only restarts once she dies, so in some cases, she had to take matters into her own hands.

Midnight Strikes is set in a palace where Anaïs is an outsider, whilst her family have some authority, they’re treated differently, so Anaïs isn’t the biggest fan of the court. This book is filled with court politics, political intrigue and unsettled commoners, all the things that make a court fantasy book unputdownable. I truly loved this book and thought it was an incredibly debut from this author!

Anaïs enters the kingdom's anniversary ball with her parents' heavy expectations just wanting to be done with the whole thing. Midnight strikes, bombs explode, and Anaïs doesn't survive. Only she wakes up to start the day anew. What was dreaded is now intriguing, and Anaïs can't help but want to figure out how to keep it from happening again... and again... and again.
Every once in a while, it's unbelievably refreshing to have a book like this cross my path. I don't know what I expected outside of a time-loop, but nods to Cinderella surrounded by death on top of that wasn't it. It's so great how Zeba weaved in characters and magic to make what could be rote (there have been so many time-loops published lately) into something I was excited to listen to.
As I was unable to send this book to my kindle from NetGalley, I did listen to the audiobook through the PRHA app and the narration was excellent! I'm actually glad this is the way I ended up reading it. Nikki Massoud has a great voice for audiobooks - I loved her accents and pacing throughout.
Thank you to Delacorte Press and Netgalley for the advanced copy and PRHA for the alc. All thoughts in this review are my own.

Awakening after a horrible death caused by political rebels, Anais finds herself in a time loop where only she remembers what will happen once the clock strikes midnight. After numerous failed attempts, she works to discover the information she needs to find the culprits and save those around her. Through it all, she gets to know the motivations of many people on a deeper level, and over time finds herself feeling strongly for those she gets to know most, including the prince. However, these individuals never remember what has happened in past versions of the day, and this makes it extremely difficult to work as a team and save the kingdom. In the end can she find a way out of the spiral? Or will she be doomed to live forever in one horrible day?

This would have been a solid 4 - 4.5 star read for me, except for a couple of things. Some passages and gains of knowledge felt really rushed and more of an information dump, while others felt a little too drawn out in comparison. This is particularly true for me with the segments with interactions with her parents.
There are many who I would love to give this book to, but due to the excessive and unnecessary language, they won't want to read it. This type of language has its place, and it is not in a story of this type. In fact, it was very jarring and off-putting rather than adding to the feel of the story. Another example of just because you can, doesn't mean you should. The audience for this could be much broader without that.

One other thing that didn't quite work was the sudden relationship with the prince. We can see her end as her feelings grow, but if there had been some way for the prince to also experience some of that relationship growth earlier on, that would have made a stronger union between the two. I can see how this was more of a strong feminine heroine who can do it on her own, but it still could have been that way without too much compromise of the story or character development while still adding an additional layer of bonding between the characters.

Overall a well-put together story arc with a decently paced ending. But not something that left me wanting to shout about it to fellow readers.

I received this from the publisher via Netgalley.

Loved this! Exciting concept, gorgeous setting and swoon-worthy romance. What more could you want! I'll definitely be picking up a copy of this fantastic debut.

Midnight Strikes by Zeba Shahnaz
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Anais is attending the Anniversary Ball tonight, where the king and his family are celebrating their rule over Ivarea. But at midnight bombs go off, resulting in death and destruction. Anais wakes up to discover that it is the afternoon before the ball again and she relives the night again. And again.
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What I liked:
-I love a good time loop a lá Groundhogs Day story!
-There were lots of layers to the story and characters. I enjoyed learning about each layer every time Anais relived the night.
-Mostly I loved each time Anais and Leo worked together. I liked them together a lot.
-The ending was good and I was happy with the future that it hinted at. I wish I could know more!
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4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you enjoy time related stories then I would recommend Midnight Strikes! Also I think this would make a great movie 👏🏼👏🏼.

This book is like "Groundhog's Day" meets "Cinderella" if everyone dies at the end of the ball and Cinderella is forced to figure out how to stop that from happening. Obviously it can be a little repetitive, but I didn't mind it too much as the female protagonist is constantly learning new things.

It honestly, was a very quick read. It was enjoyable. What I will say is the ending is left wide open for a sequel. I'm not sure it that is the works or not, but I could see it happening down the road. So, that type of ending may impact your decision to read it or not.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Anaïs was supposed to die. And she did. But she keeps reliving the same evening, the same ball, over and over again, each time doomed to die and for the cycle to repeat itself. As a girl from a small province with a mother who just wants to marry her off to one of the many courtiers found at the kingdom’s party of the century, the night repeating on loop is the last thing Anaïs wants. But when her desire to change her fate leads to some upsetting political revelations, she discovers that repeating her last night alive might just be her only way to avoid dying. For realsies this time.

This book had fairytale vibes from the get-go – and wound up being an actual fairytale, who would have thought? The story doesn’t waste any time to get going – Anaïs’s first death occurs at the end of chapter one. The plot, however, slows considerably as the same night starts repeating itself – so too does the action. Despite being centered around the night repeating itself, it just seems like there should have been a solution to it feeling so repetitive. A hard ask, I’m sure, but something I do expect in a traditionally published novel.

All the pieces were there but their construction never felt quite natural, the prose being the prime example. Anaïs is prone to dramatic inner dialogue. I could see it working every now and then, but her one liners (that are most definitely Written To Land) are so constant that they lose all value when you look at the sheer volume of them. And, something that Anaïs herself comments on, the stakes just aren’t that high when she knows every choice she makes can be forgotten/forgiven because she’s doomed to relive it anyways.

The romance aspect was very insta lovey if often adorably with some cutely written moments; it’s just hard to believe an actual connection could develop between two individuals when one of them only has a few hours of memories to base it on. Though I will applaud the author for a sensibly vague ending as far as the main couple is concerned; very well done given the characters’ circumstances.

The story’s wrap-up wasn’t exactly earthshaking but did its job well enough– though there were a few very contradictory moments involving the main antagonist that just didn’t sit right with my logical brain. Overall, it was a fun read. I enjoyed it. And I was invested enough to want to know how Anaïs would get out of her predicament – but I never cared more than a surface amount.

Content warning: death, murder, bombings, self-harm, suicide, torture, graphic violence, gore.

When first reading the synopsis for Midnight Strikes I was new I needed to read it for the time loop aspect. When I started reading I was worried that it was going to be a straightforward romance story, but it expanded into a mystery that did not end in a happy romance, but a happy ending altogether. This story takes you for a ride in the funniest way possible, and you feel the frustration of the main protagonist when nothing goes the way it needs to for her to end the loop. With different magic structures in the story, it makes for a compelling tale to read. I give it a solid 4 stars in delivery, the only thing that stopped me from giving more is the confusing use of titles.