Member Reviews
This was deeply atmospheric, and I can easily see why it is recommended for fans of Adrienne Young. It started a bit slow for me, but I was hooked by the fourth chapter. I loved the magic, mystery and sweet romance. Some paragraphs came together in such a beautiful way they were almost breathtaking, while other parts weren’t quite as rich. The ending seems like it could easily be continued, which I hope happens.
thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.
I devoured this in basically 24 hours. I have yet to meet a @timesnewrachel I didn’t like. she just has such a way of spinning unique, beautifully written witchy reads. I really am sucker for a “everything you thought you knew about your life is a lie” story. Tana and Wolfe were likable and easy to root for from the beginning. some parts of this were a little eye-roll cheesy (rhymey spells) but overall, I absolutely loved this. not quite as much as Nature of Witches but more than Wild is the Witch. I will read everything this woman writes forever.
WOW! This story was so aesthetically pleasing in the sense that I felt so at peace reading it. The writing was gorgeous and I felt like I was actually a part of the setting. I loved everything, from the characters, the romance, the plot! I can't wait to continue reading more of Rachel Griffin's books! I have a the others and I am going to immediately start for my fall reads. They are SO atmospheric.
Another great book from Rachel Griffin. Considering she is a relatively new author her world building is very impressive! I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!
I was so excited to read this one after loving THE NATURE OF WITCHES so much, and I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed! Like the other book, BRING ME YOUR MIDNIGHT has an immersive setting that focuses on nature and magic's connection to it -- and how using magic in ways that aren't good for the earth can have harmful outcomes. There is also a powerful main character who is trying to find the balance between what she wants, and what other people want from her. I haven't read WILD IS THE WITCH yet, but if it's like Griffin's other two books, I'll probably love that one, too!
It took me some time to get into this book, but once I did, I was hooked. The focus of this romantic fantasy book was very much the romance, so this may not be the book for you if you're looking for a big, epic story. There was so much tension between Tana and Wolfe, and I feel like Griffin did a great job capturing the all-consuming nature of first love. That, along with Tana's struggle to define herself in a community that expects a lot of her, feels very YA, even if the characters are a little older. (Tana is 19/turning 20 and I think Wolfe was 20 or 21?)
My two favorite characters, though, were Tana's best friend, Ivy, and Tana's dad. I loved the relationship Tana had with Ivy, and how their friendship was every bit as important to Tana as her romance with Wolfe. And Tana's dad is a complete cinnamon roll who is content with cooking, using his magic to bring joy to people, and supporting the powerful women in his life...but can still fully hold his own. I would love more portrayals of men like this in our media!
Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for providing a copy for review.
Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and Netgalley for this advanced copy of Bring Me Your Midnight.
I didn't enjoy this. Not even slightly. I had to DNF at 50% because I truly couldn't do it anymore, but I tried. I really did. I promised myself I would get to at least half.
I "wished" for this on Netgalley, having heard positive things about the author and her other books. I knew people who were excited for this. I believed it would be good. I admittedly had relatively high hopes.
Let me go over each thing individually.
First and foremost, and I cannot stress this enough, the prose was boring. For the entire half of the book I drudged through, the prose was giving "I woke up and poured myself a bowl of cereal. Frosted Flakes with whole milk. I ate slowly with an engraved silver spoon. After that, I poured myself a glass of orange juice." That's obviously not from the book, but it felt like it could've been. You know that prose we all wrote our first story, aged 9, using? Yeah, that was it.
Secondly, Tana—sorry, Mortana—Fairchild is an incredibly boring main character. I don't care about her. I don't care what happens to her. I know part of the point of the book is that she's been groomed for a specific purpose (marriage, a union between her and the governor's son) and has been lied to for her whole life, but I don't think she's ever had a single thought of her own, ever. I'm not even rooting for anything bad to happen to her. Main characters aren't always meant to be good people, or even likeable, but they're meant to be interesting.
Third, the plot. Or the lack of one. There were whispers of a plot line, hints at the direction we were going, but it was so slow. So, so slow. And even when the plot was starting to take shape (weakly, almost ghostly) it was boring and uncreative. Maybe there's a big reveal later on, and I hope there is, but I couldn't find it in myself to get farther in and find out what it was. I don't even care enough to google the ending. Suffice to say that the witches of the Witchery only practice low magic to make themselves palatable to the mainlanders, and that the plot is a dark magic conspiracy thing.
Fourth, the love interest, Wolfe, was the most interesting part of the book. Not the relationship between him and Tana, which was rushed and forced, but his life, I guess? I was just mildly curious about his life, but not much else. I am a romantic but this was boring.
I would love to have something nice to say, but I unfortunately do not. I'm not someone who ever really DNFs books, but I believe in not forcing myself to read books or watch movies that don't bring me either enjoyment or knowledge. Life is too short for that.
The time has come for Tana Fairchild to step into the role that’s been planned for her since birth. Her family’s coven (with her mom as the leader) agreed with the governor on the mainland for her to marry the governor’s son. Many years earlier, all the witches moved from the mainland to their island, where they practice a very mild magic. The non-magic inhabitants of the mainland mostly are satisfied with the situation, visiting the island to buy small items infused with magic, but there are plenty still who don’t entirely trust the witches. This alliance between the witches and the rulers of the mainland is vital to finally secure real safety for the witches.
Tana has always loved being in the water, being out in nature. It makes her nervous to think of having to move to the mainland and being cut off from her magical life, but she knows what she’s going to do is important. She has a duty, and she’ll fulfill it.
There used to be a coven that chose to continue practicing a stronger magic, not the watered-down variety practiced now. But everyone knows they’re long gone.
That’s until Tana meets a young man, Wolfe, who claims he is part of that coven. He shows her the power this hidden coven wields, and it feels so right to her. It courses through her and connects her to the water and the land.
When it’s time for her to commit to her marriage to the mainlander, Tana must make an impossible choice, between love and duty, between being true to herself and her very nature, or being someone she’s not for her family and community’s sake.
Bring Me Your Midnight is a magical romance, where the natural world plays a huge role in the story. Author Rachel Griffin writes that she has a deep love of nature, and it shows in her books about witches and magic. (This is definitely true in her Wild Is the Witch young adult book.) This book kept me up late reading, because I just wanted to see where it went. Very satisfying.
Bring Me Your Midnight is about Tana, the coven leader’s daughter on a magical island called “The Witchery.” She has been raised to put her coven and their safety before anything else in the world. When she misses a ritual, a fatal mistake, she is terrified for her life until she meets Wolf, a boy who claims to know how to help her using forbidden magic that was supposed to have disappeared long ago with the old coven. This fateful meeting plunges Tana into questioning the world as she knows it.
This was my second Rachel Griffin book, and I loved this one even more than the first. The worlds and magic systems that she creates are so grounded even within the fantasy elements. They feel very vivid, real, and unique. This entire book has a slightly haunting quality and atmosphere that worked really well with the mystical nature of the story. While the characters in this were great, their relationships took the spotlight. I could actually feel their connections to one another and how it showed the depth and nuances of different types of relationships. The plot is mysterious, cool, and fast paced, and it twisted in many ways that I didn't see coming, but still felt in line with how the characters would behave. This was a very solid witchy fantasy and cemented my admiration for Rachel Griffin. I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next.
First of all, the cover is so beautiful and I’m always a sucker for those!
I enjoyed the inside just as much. The book is relatively short and a standalone, so the world building isn’t as deep or complex as a multi-book series will be. I think that’s what I liked about it. The storyline was simple enough to take me away for a few hours. For a few hours I was a witch practicing forbidden magic with my secret love, and I had so much fun doing it!
🌊 Forbidden Magic
🌊 Witches
🌊 Arranged Marriage
Oh my gosh this is up there in my top 5 this year- and that’s including fourth wing and divine rivals, it’s SO GOOD. I love the atmospheric witchy vibes and the romance is so sweet I just ate it all up. This is my first from this author but I have a few of her backlists and I can’t wait to get to them!!
I just adore Rachel Griffins writing. Everytime she has a book out it's an insta buy for me. This book is a beautifully written description of every woman's decision between duty and love...it was atmospheric as well as magical. The longing for both sides and the realness of the humanity even through magical beings and otherworldly characters was brilliant.
3.5 Star
I liked this one more Nature of Witches, but not as much as Wild is the Witch. The female MC, Tana, was very meek and naive, but I did LOVE the male MC Wolfe - without him, I would have lost interest. I found the twists and resolutions all predictable, but I enjoyed the tie to the ocean and the scenes where it was involved. The magic was also pretty to see unfold, even if the spells came across as cheesy at times and too easy for Tana to do with zero training. The romance was stirring at points and as I mentioned, I enjoyed Wolfe's character the most! Though Tana's BFF Ivy deserves an honorable mention. This book had significant cult energy and no one will be able to convince me it's not also a cult story haha.
This is the second book I’ve read from Rachel Griffin and I loved it just as much as Wild is the Witch. I adore Griffin’s writing style and prose. This is the perfect book to get you in the mood for fall.
This book had absolutely no right to make me as emotional as it did.
Tana is torn between love and duty as she is about to enter an arranged marriage to Landon, an alliance that will keep her coven and their island protected. But when she meets Wolfe on the beach on a fateful rush night, she realizes the story she’s been told her entire life about her coven might have a few more sides to it than she realized. Can she commit to a life of doing her part without know the full truth? And can she turn off the part of her that has come alive during her nights with Wolfe now that she knows the full scope of her potential as a witch?
I devoured the last 200 pages of this. Once we get settled in it becomes such a beautiful story about truth, honor, love, and family.
Science fiction doesn’t usually appeal to me, but put forward a female focused witch narrative and I will take a second look. This story falls a coming of age witch born to what is basically royalty and is expected to bridge the divide between the non magic and stereotypically narrow minded people of the mainland. The story plays to expectation of this type storyline, but does have pretty good character building, but I never felt all that connected to the two male leads that are vying for our heroine’s attention, It was a fun read and easily able to keep my interest throughout.
Bring Me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin is a perfect autumn read to get me in the spirit of the season. I loved the worldbuilding in this book. The story is slow and steady but the writing is beautiful. This book is set on a magical island, where the inhabitants are witches. I just loved this book overall and it left me in a book hangover!
Wow. This book was stunning from the very first page. I loved so much about this. I loved the characters, I loved the story, I loved the worldbuilding. I loved it. And while I predicted early on some of the aspects of the plot, I couldn't quit reading and I was definitely surprised by some of the twists along the way.
I am a huge fan of Rachel Griffin. I love the way she writes and I love her characters. I was thrilled to see a new book from her, especially another witchy one.
This book is set on a magical island, where the inhabitants are witches. They practice magic by daylight, but must "rush" their magic once a month into the ocean so that they don't die from having excess magic built up in their systems. Tana, our main character, misses a rush when she is distracted by a boy she has never met before. Afraid she is going to die, she calls on Wolfe, a practitioner of dark magic, to save her life. The only problem, though, is that as she gets to know Wolfe, he threatens everything that Tana has built her future on. Tana, as the daughter of the leader of the coven, is set to marry the governor's son on the mainland to secure an alliance between the witches and the non-witches. Everything in her life has lead up to this marriage and Tana desperately wants to be the person everyone wants her to be. But when Tana begins to realize that she can have a different life, things begin to unravel.
Like I said above, there was so much to love about this book. It truly was incredibly magical, and I loved every second of it. I can't wait to recommend it to teens.
Her life has been planned out since the moment she was born...
Tana is a witch, living on a small island with the rest of her coven. Allowed only to practice low level magic by the mainlanders out of fear. To strengthen their alliance, Tana is to marry the Mainland Govenors son Landon which will guve the coven the security they have long desired.
One night, during a monthly ritual to expell their excess magic, Tana is distracted and doesn't participate. Terrified that her excess magic will kill her, she turns to the mysterious Wolfe, who claims to know dark magic, something that was banished centuries ago, in order to save her life.
What she doesn't realise is the secrets that will unravel and the choices she will have to make.
Griffen writes so beautifully about the relationship between magic and nature.
I absoutley loved this book, the MC Tana felt likeable and sincere and Wolfe is dark and mysterious. I loved reading about their relationship and how it develops.
This book is about making choices. Choices between love and duty, between following what's expected or forging your own path. This book broke my heart and then stitched it back up. A truely beautiful story.
Bring Me Your Midnight is a book about an island housing witches. One of these witches is our main character Tana. Tana has lived her whole life on the island; a life which has been planned out for her since the moment she was born. To help settle an alliance between the island and the mainland, to protect the magic threatened by the mainlanders, she is to marry their governor’s son.
As the witches on the island feel the threat of the mainland, they only practice a certain type of magic. To do so, each full moon the witches go into the ocean to release the excess magic. When Tana misses one of these full moon releases, she has to find a way to get rid of the access magic in her body, or the magic will consume her. This drives her into the arms of Wolfe, a boy practising forbidden dark magic. What decisions will Tana make to save the witches on the island?
I loved Tana as a main character. She was everything you would want from a teenage girl trying to make her own decisions, making mistakes in the process. The decisions felt really authentic, and you hurt with Tana for all the decisions you didn’t want her to make. Also, her bond with the other characters, such as Wolfe, Ivy and Landon were also really cool to follow, since you really read about so much personal growth between the characters.
Another point about this book is that the writing was very beautiful and fast-paced, making me want to continue reading this book without putting it down. The whole book made me feel like I was wrapped in a blanked when it was too warm for blankets, and I was really happy with the eventual outcome.
Concluding: a perfect cozy witchy read to end the summer with before the start of cozy season!
I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.