I received this ARC free in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! Rachel does a great job of building suspense and making you really become immersed in the story. I am also happy that it ended the way I wanted too!

This book is magical, both literally and figuratively. The setting reminded me a bit of Spells for Forgetting. It was like walking down a touristy beach town and while the details weren't too deep, I could imagine everything about the Witchery in my mind. it was atmospheric, beautifully written with rich characters.

I loved Tana and the tension she felt between honoring her family, their history, and honoring herself. Ivy was such a great best friend who really sees Tana for who she is, and not just the responsibilities put on her since birth. Wolfe was a great angsty character and I even appreciated Landon with his sometimes brutal honesty. There are multiple times where you feel the push and pull of all their emotions, with multiple plot twists, secrets and of course magic. The emotional roller coaster of first love, and the connection I had as a perpetual people pleaser (which Tana grapples with) really just hit home for me. This was a standalone novel which I think forced some of the conflict to wrap up really quickly. In a duology or even a slightly longer book, we could have dove into those details a bit more. Overall though, I had all the feelings as I stayed up way too late to finish this in just 2 sittings....and I may or may not have gotten online immediately to pre-order a copy from the first run which is GORGEOUS along with a copy of Griffin's debut, The Nature Of Witches.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC.

I loved this book. If you’re looking for a young adult cozy fantasy with forbidden magic and a forbidden romance subplot to make your heart happy, read this.

The main character Tana has her life mapped out for her as the daughter of the witch island’s coven leader. She’ll marry the mainland’s governor’s son Landon, and she’s okay with it. The alliance will give the island and therefore her coven the protection and support it needs in a world that fears and hates witches. Everything goes as planned.

That is until she meets a boy on the island who shows her a side to her world she thought gone and dangerous, and things get far more complicated. Secrets are revealed, and suddenly, Tana doesn’t know who to trust. But she can’t deny her feelings or the alluring pull to a world she’s been taught will kill her.

This book definitely had a bit of a slow start, but once it took off, it soared. The magic, the worldbuilding, the romance. Everything.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rachel Griffin once again reaches into the natural world, a world of politics and alliances, of romance and secrets, of the brilliant blue of the ocean that ties the Witchery and the mainland together. In what appears to be a world where the humans are fully aware of the witches from across the magically turbulent currents, the relationship between human and witch is far different than the books that came before, with an ever widening scope of a world.

Weaving magic into everyday items such as perfumes and tea blends, Rachel paints a picture of an incredibly realistic world that is the Witchery, its vibrant yet common elements creating a very familiar world, with the extra layer of magic.

With tea blends for courage and bravery or perfumes for any and all occasions, infused with feelings that don't have names and can only be described, infused with memories as a gift, infused with a simple calmness to wash over the wearer, each remarkably human product able to be infused with different forms of magic.

Lending to the feeling of a low stakes story and near cottagecore-esque descriptions, the close knit community and their magical products are so unique, yet so familiar alongside Rachel's writing, that it is surprisingly easy to suspend disbelief while reading.

Even then, it is reminiscent of real world magic as practiced in some faiths and cultures, where crystals and flowers have metaphysical properties, only in this case the memories are literal, not just items symbolic of those memories. With this, Rachel seem to pull on all that she's learned from writing her previous two books, lending to even stronger writing, voice, and storytelling.

While hopefully most readers are nowhere near a situation of arranged marriage - forbidden romances, hidden dalliances, and secret trysts are still things many can and will still be able to relate to.

With Landon as the loveless yet "correct" choice, and Wolfe as the passion filled "wrong" or "sin," readers faced with the struggle of existing as queer or even simply being in love with someone their family doesn't approve of (class, race, etc.) may recognize the internal war Mortana wages on herself.

With a character arc written so beautifully, Mortana (Tana) Fairchild's story of making the ultimate choice to go after what she wants will find a home in the hearts and souls of readers struggling to follow their own dreams, for any reader who feels the need for permission to fight for their love depite the odds.

As a third beautiful romantic magical realism book that leaps over expectations, Bring Me Your Midnight will dazzle readers, break hearts, and ultimately put them back together, only to do it all over again.

Thank you, NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire, for my free e-book in exchange for a review.

The responsibility of determining the fate of a community can be a heavy burden to bear. Tana/Mortana, the protagonist in Bring Me Your Midnight, faces this dilemma. Tana and her fellow witches live in fear of being eradicated by ordinary people, which leads to poignant struggles depicted in the book. As a reader, I can relate to having to choose between two important things.

Bring Me Your Midnight is a love story between two people with different perspectives on life and a tale of two individuals who share a similar passion for their beliefs. The slow-burning journey of the characters from adversaries to lovers is captivating.

Friendship is another key theme in the book. The strong bond between Tana and Ivy is evident, and Tana goes against the rules to make a difficult decision for Ivy's sake. Ivy forgives her in the process.

Finally, what I appreciate about this piece is its focus on nature. The book highlights the importance of preserving the ocean and the urgency to act before it's too late. This relevant topic prompts readers to reflect and contemplate.

Overall, Bring Me Your Midnight explores the themes of choices and sacrifices as one comes of age and stands by their beliefs.

Sadly, this book (and i think author) just isn’t for me. I couldn’t get into the writing style, which made it hard to get immersed into the story.

Bring Me Your Midnight is definitely a slow moving read. I almost DNFed it at several points until the plot picked up around the 40% mark. Nothing was happening for so long. I did enjoy the world that the author built. No quite fantasy, but almost an alternate reality where witches exist in the open was interesting. Tana was a little boring as a MC as her life seemed fairly ideal. She was a little too much in her head for me, so some things got repetitive. Wolfe is a typical loner bad boy type, but was still likeable. Tana and Wolfe had definite insta-love, but eventually I started to enjoy their romance.

In true Rachel Griffin fashion, Bring Me Your Midnight is an upper YA fantasy novel steeped in atmosphere and romance. Set on an island known as the Witchery, I was swept up on the setting of this story from the first page. From the charming small town, to the alluring sea, Rachel Griffin’s worlds jump off the page and immerse the reader in the magic of nature. This, by far, was my favorite element of her newest novel.

This book follows the internal battle of our main character as she wrestles with questions about the community she loves and what she has always known to be true. As with her other books, Rachel Griffin truly shines in developing her main character. I really felt for Tana as we followed her journey to independence.

My favorite relationship in the story was that of Tana and her best friend, Ivy. Sadly, the romance didn’t live up to the tenderness of their lifelong friendship. No romance Rachel Griffin has written has come close to touching Clara and Sang of The Nature of Witches. While I enjoyed the concept of this forbidden romance, it didn’t play out in a very believable manner for me.

Similarly, the plot fell a bit short of my expectations as well. It felt a bit basic and predictable and employed one of my least favorite tropes toward the end that really made me feel frustrated with the story. Overall, I felt that there was a lot of potential with the setup and it needed to be explored further.

Despite my disappointments with the plot and romance, I still fall head over heels for Rachel’s writing every single time. This book is a wonderful read for fans of character driven and atmospheric YA fantasy.

This was a book that sucked me and didn't let go. The idea of the witches and how they handled the fear of non magical beings was a unique twist and I appreciated a FMC who wasn't afraid to see that it wasn't the best solution.

Tana is a low magic practicing witch who is engaged to the prince of the non magical humans. The marriage is important and will protect her people, but she doesn't really want it. She doesn't know him and he is one of the least romantic potential love interests I think I've ever seen in a book...and that's a good thing. Enter Wolfe who not only has a cool name to represent him being the not so bad bad boy love interest, but he is a high magic (dark magic) using man who technically shouldn't even exist in her world. Will she choose her heart or her community?

The only reason this book was a 4 star instead of a 5 for me was that it was fairly predictable in a good way. The writing is beautiful, the plot is strong, there's not a lot of plot holes... I just sort of could tell where it was going from very early on and enjoyed the ride.

I haven’t read anything by this author yet, but I’m very familiar with the cool, witchy titles and covers of her books. I always eye them in the bookstore with appreciation. But as I don’t always gravitate towards contemporary fantasy, I haven’t actually gotten around to reading either of them. However, reading the description for this one, it sounded a lot like Adrienne Young’s “Spells for Forgetting” which I absolutely loved. Unfortunately, however, this one didn’t reach those same highs.

Before getting into the parts of this book that ultimately left it as a bit of a disappointing read, I do want to focus on a few positive. For one thing, the cover art for this book is beautiful. Like the other books by this author, this one would definitely stand out on bookstore shelves. I also liked the overall concept of the book, with an island made up of witches who must expel their excess magic into the ocean to continue to exist peacefully with those around them. This idea is very interesting, and while the climate change points are not exactly subtle, that doesn’t take away from the overall impact of the set-up.

Unfortunately, as we saw so often in this book, things that should have been interesting would either not be fully explored or would peter out before the reader got to actually experience any conflict. We are told that the ocean currents around the island have become increasingly dangerous. However, other than a second-hand story from Tana’s childhood, we never actually see any dangers on the page. We’re simply told that it is so. Further, when this conflict is ultimately resolved, again, we don’t see anything of it. We are told it happens, and that is the end.

Again and again this sort of thing happened throughout the story. It was very much “telling” the reader how they should feel and what exactly was happening, but there was very little showing. Conflicts would show up throughout the story, but then, often in the same chapter, they were quickly wrapped up. Any attempts by the reader to build on stakes or feel any tension about what is coming next was almost immediately stamped down by a quick resolution.

I also struggled to picture exactly where and when this book took place. There were references to dresses and balls, but then the next moment would refer to a car driving by. It was very unclear what sort of society or world I was meant to be picturing. Is this a modern day story? Some point in the fairly recent past? For a story that is so centered around this unique community and rare, magical island, there was a distinct lack of descriptive prose. Yes, I would have enjoyed some more lyrical descriptions of this quaint town, but I also would have taken a basic description of what exactly I was supposed to be picturing at all.

Beyond this, Tana was a difficult character for me to connect to. She’s meant to be a twenty year old woman, but if I hadn’t been told this, I would very much have pegged her as a fifteen year old. Her voice is very juvenile, and her understanding of her place in the world and her choices was very passive to the point of fairly extreme naivety. At the same time, as her views were challenged, she quickly switched tack, seemingly with very little inner conflict at leaving behind lifetime-held beliefs. I also did not enjoy the romance in this story. It felt very insta-love like, and, again, I failed to connect to the characters or feel real stakes in their relationship.

This book didn’t work for me, which was too bad. I know the author is really popular, however, so if you enjoy more contemporary witchy stories, this may be for you. But if you’re looking for something with much depth, sadly I don’t think this is it.

Rating 6: Unlike the ocean with all of its mysterious depths, this one felt shallow and floundering.

(Link will go live Aug 12)

First of all, thank you NetGalley for providing me with this eARC!

I love books about witches and that's why I wanted to read this one. The descriptions were beautiful and enchanting. I could really envision the world they're in.

I also enjoy some of the tropes this book used, like forbidden love. I found this to be quite well executed during the story, however, the ending felt flat and anticlimactic to me.

It wasn't very long but that also made it easier to read. Overall, this was a cute witchy story.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Witches have had hold on my imagination since The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Bring Me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin has witches, forbidden love, tested friendship, & a young woman trying to figure out a path forward while learning the lies that her society has been built upon.

Tana has known forever that she will marry the governor’s son in order to cement an alliance between her community of witches & the non-magical humans who fear magic & try to control its wielding.

But meeting Wolfe Hawthorne & seeing a lie revealed opens up her eyes & makes her question the fate she once accepted.

Bring Me Your Midnight is an atmospheric story layered with secrets & yearning & tension. This is a world where magic is powerful & where using it makes Tana feel conflicted, where magic is loved by some & feared by many others.

With complicated family dynamics—there are secrets & also love—, with powerful external & internal forces that make Tana wonder what is right & wrong & how her own self factors into the equation, with a strong friendship that might crumble under the weight of those aforementioned factors, Bring Me Your Midnight is a stirring, intriguing tale of moonlight & waves.

4⭐️. Out 08/01.

Please see a trusted reviewer’s list of CWs.
[ID: Jess's white hand holds the ebook over a group of ferns.]

Big thanks to NetGalley & publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

this was a 3 ⭐️ or 3.5 ⭐️ read for me - the premise of the book sounded so interesting to me and made me really want to pick it up! bring me your midnight centers around witches, and has both an arranged marriage and forbidden love trope (which definitely got my attention)

while there were definitely cool concepts and moments of beautiful atmospheric writing, i found the plot progression a bit flat and anti-climatic until the last 15%. i wish we could have gotten more action in the first half rather than simply focusing on the forbidden love aspect between tara and wolfe. i also thought the romance built up too quickly? and i wish we could’ve gotten more tension between the two love interests, since they are supposedly from opposing witch covens. i wasn’t sure how much time had passed throughout this book, but it seemed a bit unrealistic that tara was so confident that wolfe was “the love of her life” in what was probably less than a year (or maybe i’m just getting too old to read YA *shrugs*)

overall this book was super easy to fall into - i loved reading about witches and i think this would be perfect for a cozy fall read! 🔮

Thank you Netgalley for the copy of this book!

The best part of this book—and any of her books—is the magic system. I loved the nature based magic system, the witch coven, and way their magic interacted with nature and the ocean.

This story was definitely fast-paced and a quick read. I wished it’d spent a little more time developing the characters and the main relationship. I did enjoy the overall message and theme of growing up and finding one’s own path. The love story was sweet and the vibes lush and gorgeous.

Overall, I’d recommend to YA fantasy lovers, and I definitely think this would be a great one for younger YA readers too.

Review: Bring me your midnight
Author: Rachel Griffin

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5/5

Oh my goodness. I may never be the same. I adored this book. I can tell this is going to be one of those books that sinks in to my bones and is never really gone.

This world building in this book is phenomenal. It is atmospheric. Cozy. Everything.

The love story… amazing. The family loyalty… gutting and tender. The friendship between Tana and Ivy…. So complex and deep.

I adored this book. I will be recommending it to everyone.
If your my friend prepare to hear about this book A LOT. ❤️❤️✨✨✨

Rachel Griffin has quickly become a must-read author for me. I've loved her writing and characters and world building since The Nature of Witches and haven't been disappointed since. Bring Me Your Midnight continues the traditional atmospheric feel of Griffin's previous work, with a fun Cinderella-esque feeling to the plot. Tana is the daughter of the coven's ruler and she is told to marry a human prince, essentially. However, things are not what they seem on her home island, as another witch soon shows her. This book included some of the most beautiful prose I have read in a long time, and though it took me longer than I expected to get into the story I'm very glad I stuck with it. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the advanced eBook!

I really wanted to like Bring Me Your Midnight, but the pace is just unbearable slow. I continually get sucked in by gorgeous covers, which is exactly what happened here.

I thought the slow pace would speed up once the world had been built and the characters introduced, I especially thought things were going to speed when the plot started to kick in, but it didn’t. There was no excitement, no tension or drama, no passion. There was romance in this book, but it didn’t develop, just appeared.

I really tried to get to the end, but once I got to 65% I had to call it quits.

This had potential, first fantasy in a while that actually pulled me in completely for part of the story. It got off to a slow start, was fantastic in the middle, but then didn’t ever really get to a crescendo…I kept waiting for the big moment/conflict to come to a high point. I liked both main characters, got wrapped up in their love story, and was invested in the conflict. There is one mature scene that prevents us from using it for BOTB.

Ooooo my friends. Rachel Griffin’s new book, Bring Me Your Midnight is a force to be reckoned with, that is for sure. The writing, the story, the characters, everything about this book was just beautiful.

Tana, the daughter of the coven leader of the Witchery, is set to marry a mainlander boy from a prominent family to establish peace and protection between the witches and the mainlanders after the witches have denounced the ways of old magic for a softer, more low magic lifestyle.

But before their engagement is announced, she meets Wolfe, a witch from a hidden coven that still practices the old, dark magic, and her life is turned on its head.

This is a beautiful, magical story full of finding one’s own strength and identify in a life where everything had been decided for you. The evolution of Tana and the growing forbidden connection between her and Wolfe was just incredibly written and wrecked havoc on my emotions. I found myself so angry and emotional at Tana’s situation and had tears quite a few times — the sign of a wonderfully written book, it makes you feel things.

This book is not one to be missed.

I absolutely loved this book. It enchanted me from the first few chapters. The coven’s home feels like a beautiful and magical place I want to visit and that it could steal your heart even with its secrets.

Tana's journey is filled with exciting firsts, some angst, and heavy decisions between her coven's future and her happiness. With an unbelievable loyal friendship that I wish everyone had and a intense budding new relationships it was impossible to put this book down.

This magical world is just mesmerizing.

A huge thank you to Sourcebooks Fire, Rachel Griffin and NetGalley for granting me an ARC for my review.