While Ashley Winstead is a hit writer in my opinion, the narrator for Midnight is the Darkest Hour made this one I couldn't listen to fully. I found myself distracted by the voice and not focused on the plot. Thus, I chose to finish the book on paper versus audio.

Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead was an audiobook that I listened to and it was narrated by Sarah Welborn. She was an excellent pick for this back woods deranged town. This entire story was messed up and gave me that uncomfortable feeling you get when know things aren’t right and there isn’t anything you can do about it. I loved Ruth and Everett.
The writing was good and the author lured me with the complex mess. This had murder, mystery and lots of corruption. I recommend this audiobook.
Thanks Tantor Audio via NetGalley.

Many thanks to my friends at @bookmarked @netgalley @tantoraudio and @librofm for the #gifted copies of this book.

A dark, twisty read with cultish vibes and Twilight references.

That’s the kind of synopsis that gets my attention, even more so with Winstead being an author I’ve been excited to try.

But sometimes high anticipation creates a letdown.

Gosh I wanted to love this read. Outsiders for main characters. A swampy setting where a skull is found. An examination of religious zealotry. This is a story frame I generally find captivating. Yet something in the execution fell short, never creating that necessary connection for me.

What did work:
👍🏻 dark depiction of a small, southern town
👍🏻 people behaving badly in the name of religion
👍🏻 well placed Twilight references

Ultimately, the one-dimensional characters and drawn-out plot stilted the well-executed elements alongside my enjoyment. And then THAT ENDING. Ugh. That ending. It’s rare that I fully hate an ending. But this one, I did.

Still, I’ll seek out Winstead’s next book. I know her writing is wildly loved for a reason.

🎧 Set in Louisiana (read: Lou-see-ann-uh), this book begs an authentic southern drawl. As I listened, I found myself utterly perplexed that the publisher chose someone with a fake accent. It’s not just kind-of-fake. It’s bad-fake! So, if you’re queuing this one up, my southern roots prohibit me from recommending the audio. Stick with the print.

I HIGHLY recommend the audio for this one !!! I was reading dual .. book and audio and the narration for this was perfect. It only added to the book.
My full review of the book is posted on the ebook edition.

This was one of my most anticipated reads this year! Unfortunately, the story didn’t tip me like I was hoping. By the 50% mark, I felt like the story hadn’t moved hardly any. The plot was boring at the rate of pace it was moving.

However, I did enjoy the narrators voice and I will listen to more audiobooks by this narrator.

I’m rating this one 5 stars because I know that I was just the wrong reader for this one. I know many of you will love this one, just as I’ve seen so many glowing reviews already.

Thank you to NetGalley and RecordedBooks for the audio ARC! Utterly addictive, this thriller is full of unexpected turns. I loved the character of Ruth, I found her voice compelling and her character journey powerful. Several times I was left aghast and while I won’t spoil it I don’t know how I felt about that ending - however the climax of the story was particularly engaging. I enjoyed the narrator and felt they stayed true to the tone of the story. This was a 4.5 for me!

This book was a little hard to get into. All the characters dance around each other. Everyone has BIG secrets and the story is just ok.

This was an excellent thriller that kept me guessing the whole time! It was unexpected and fresh. I would definitely recommend this book!

I feel this will be a mixed review. There were things that I liked and things that were inconsistent.

Ruth is a preachers daughter, described as overly quiet and meek, an outcast and abused child. Timeline covers Ruth’s life from 17-23, when she is friends with (obsessed with?) Everett, also an outcast because of his drunk lawless father. The story takes place in small town Louisiana, where religious fervor and corruption, fear and superstition set the tone for daily life.

We actually rarely see quiet meek Ruth. She is outspoken, brave and bold. Sneaking out of her house all night to run through the forest with Ever. The reasons that she and Ever cannot be together are so flimsy and annoying, that it is actually weird that they are not a couple. But Winstead builds lovely characters, and perfectly captures fraught emotions and building tension. I got caught up in Ruth and Ever’s relationship when I stopped looking for logic and just savored the lush southern feel.

Bodies are turning up in the swamp, and Ever is suspected because he is the resident bad boy. Ruth runs around trying to solve the crimes to save Ever. Some of the murder mystery twists were clever and some made me say” huh?” The whole ‘planting the deed to frame the drug-running biker gang’ story line was just nonsensical.

Ruth is obsessed with the book Twilight and I appreciated how Winstead uses Ruth’s constant comparing herself to Bella and Ever to Edward as a way highlight Ruth’s brainwashed immaturity. But I did not appreciate how this book is supposed to be modern day and no one uses a cell phone or the internet.

If you liked Twilight and Where The Crawdads Sing, you will adore this book and give it a 5 star rating. I only give it a 3.

I have questions for whoever called this Verity. To me, this Southern gothic thriller feels more like Where the Crawdads Sing and The Last Carolina Girl.

That's not to say all Southern books are the same. They're not. The South is a very vast and nuanced place. It has its problems, but so does everywhere else.

I have issues with the South. I grew up there. I'm not white. And while I grew up Catholic, and not evangelical, this book brought back some religious trauma. If you, too, are bothered by these things, don't pick this up.

I thought the Low Man would be a more exciting villain. Ruth's obsession with Twilight is questionable, but comparisons are obviously made. While I wanted the true evil to be something more supernatural, in the end, isn't true evil just what life makes it?

Unfortunately this book didn’t work for me and was a DNF but I am sure other readers will feel differently! Thank you for the ARC!

This was a good one, a bit of a thriller a bit of a romance. Gave me Bonnie and Clyde feels. Ruth and Everette become friends when they find themselves in a swamp having just committed a murder in self defense. The two outcasts find comfort and friendship within each other in a town full of terrible secrets. When the men in their town start dying they’re the only ones who can figure out whose behind it and why

Firstly, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I picked this up after quite enjoying In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, and I have to say this is completely different tonally. This book tackles some quite dark themes of religious indoctrination, persecution, belonging and abuse of power. We follow Ruth, the daughter of a preacher in a super-religious small town in Louisiana. The book switches between “now” and a previous timeline, and the flashbacks are very effective at portraying life growing up in this very religious community and endearing Ruth to the reader.

I felt that the plot itself was secondary to the themes and messages of the book - it’s really about Ruth, challenging the religious upbringing that has been so entrenched in her. To me, the mystery aspect itself played more of a supporting role, providing a catalyst to her development as a character.

This delivered much more than I expected going into it, and I think the topics were handled quite well, in my opinion. The differences between this book and the author’s previous book (In My Dreams I Hold a Knife) highlights the author’s versatility and I look forward to reading what they release next.

Content warnings for religious indoctrination and off-page abuse (all sorts).

Atmospheric and entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where the Winstead's previous titles are popular.

The perfect read for October! I was captivated by the audio narration by Sarah Welborn. She told the story so perfectly. Ashley Winstead has a way with words especially in this book it was almost poetic at times and Sarah Welborn narration fit the story in Louisiana so much I felt I was listening to an old folk tale passed down from generations. Besides the edge of your seat story being told I really loved the ending. I don’t see it coming and the more and more I think about it is so perfectly done!! I really enjoyed this book. Many thanks to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Ashley Winstead's thrillers are always so unique. They're so different from each other as well as from all other books in the genre. This one wasn't quite as dark as The Last Housewife, but still contains potential triggers so check those out before you read (religious trauma and rape are the main ones). I liked how she took on religious trauma through Ruth, who I found to be an interesting MC if a bit naive. She's a librarian and uses books to solve the town's mystery--LOVE.

I enjoyed the hint of a love story between Ruth and her best friend. If you're a Twilight fan this is a must-read.

I did find the ending to be a bit rushed, and I wanted to see a bit more aftermath if you will. No spoilers here, though--check my blog for those. To avoid saying to much I'll leave it off here! This is the perfect fall thriller, and I highly recommend you check it out if you haven't already.

The audiobook was on point. Thank you to @librofm for the gifted copy! I really enjoyed this eerie listen.

Midnight is the Darkest Hour is filled with small town corruption, occultism, religious fanaticism, and folk horror elements that come together to tell the tale of the sheltered preacher’s daughter and her obsession with romance. It is a little overlong, and I can’t help but wish that there were more horror elements to help make the story more exciting. There are more than a few references to Twilight that draws the reader out of the story and make the central story excessively dramatic.

The narrator does a great job emoting whatever the main protagonist is going through. That alone made it easier to see past some of its flaws; unfortunately, the story becomes overly long and a little predictable about half way through.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Ruth is the daughter of the local fire and brimstone preacher in a small Louisiana town. She doesn’t really have friends until she starts hanging out with Everett the troubled son of the town drunk. The story goes from the present back thru Ruth’s childhood as she tries to unravel some local murders. I didn’t connect with any of the main characters.

Enjoyable narration.

"𝑮𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒖𝒔 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚. 𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒖𝒔, 𝒊𝒇 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒖𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒘."

Special thank you to @tantoraudio and @netgalley for the advanced audio copy of this book & Ashley Winstead for the signed hardcover copy.

MY REVIEW::
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

@ashleywinsteadbooks is an amazing writer. No two books are alike, but since the first one I've read of hers - I've always gone in blind. Never read the synopsis, just a kids first time in a candy store. I've never been disappointed yet , and this is no different.

It may not be my fav of her 3 thrillers, but the ending left me rewinding my audiobook, thinking I wasn't paying attention or somehow I didn't receive the whole book.
Like uh HELLO!, I NEED ANOTHER CHAPTER or another book!

This southern Gothic religious suspense/thriller had me on a roller coaster.

Forbidden love✔️
Controlling father✔️
Murd€r cover-up✔️
Small town secrets✔️

Sign✍️🏼Me✍️🏼Up✍️🏼

I didnt quite know how this would go, but it did end up coming together to blow my mind w that ending.
Can't wait to see what she cooks up w her next book!

Pub Date:
OUT NOW

QOTD ❓️⁉️❓️ What's the last audiobook you listened to?

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This was an atmospheric, dark book, that I was using to get me in the mood for spooky, fall season. It began with what I thought would be a clever connection to a later mystery, but that didn’t seem to exist. This also became somewhat based in an earlier historical timeframe, but somehow seemed modern as well. I became a bit lost in the story and it became a bit too “meta” for my liking, such that I’m not sure I followed the ending-whether that be to lack of interest or potential confusion. 3 stars ⭐️ for this book. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced copy for review.