This book kept its melancholy feel from start to finish and I ate it up like my favorite meal. This book unforgivingly explored grief and memory. A truly cosmic read with a great deal of depth that keeps you within this thin veil of unknown where loss means a great deal.

This was an eerie book that definitely sticks with you.

Ed Crocker’s 'Lightfall' is a luminous yet harrowing exploration of grief, memory, and the thin veil between reality and the unknown. With haunting prose and an atmosphere steeped in melancholy, the novel weaves a tale that is both intimate and cosmic, pulling readers into a world where loss reshapes everything. Equal parts eerie and poetic, 'Lightfall' lingers like a half-remembered dream. Unsettling, beautiful, and impossible to forget.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Thank to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read Lightfall.

I am sure there is an audience for this story but it just was not me at this moment in time. I found myself frequently getting distracted while reading as I just was not very engaged in the story or any of the characters. This also made it really challenging to keep track of all the different characters and their points of view. It frequently felt like there was a lot of bouncing around but not much going on.

There was some interesting lore with vampires and werewolves, but I just wanted more tension or action I suppose.

This was an interesting take on the vampire lore that I don't think I've come across before. Different blood that grants the vampires a few different abilities and more. The mystery of why the mortals are gone is also interesting. I liked the development of Sam, from maid to someone more involved and strong. A few of the side characters kept my attention. The ending leaves enough mystery and interest for me to want to read the next book.

MEH. This was a DNF at 43% for me. I kept telling myself that it had to get better, but it wasn't so I finally decided to move on to another book. Many of the character names were silly, I needed a good map to try and figure out where things were because it didn't really make sense to me the way it was written, and the story was dragging. I don't understand all the hype behind this book.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for allowing me access to an early release in exchange for an honest review!

I had higher hopes for this one than it delivered on honestly. The description had me thinking this would be a little more rich than what I got. It's hard to explain but it's not that the novel is poorly written, it's just that it's a little boring. It was trying to be something it's not, and I didn't vibe with it or any of the characters.

It felt a little like it was trying to be Dune with werewolves and vampires, which worked about as well as you're probably thinking. There was a hint of romance somewhere in there, but I couldn't have cared less about whatever was going on with that one. At it's core this is a dry sci-fi ,with bland characters set in a world of vampires and warewolves that could have been replaced with any type of fantasy character and not changed the world or plot much at all.

Overall it was very mid and it put me in a reading slump. This was just not for me but I stuck it out to the end.

Thanks to SMP and Netgalley for the arc.

This was heavy on social commentary and I wasn't really expecting that. In a vampire society where blood is tied to class, the rich and powerful vamps get the strong blood, while the poor vamps get the weak blood.

This book was different than what I was expecting. It was very heavy on social commentary (which isn't a bad thing), but I don't feel like it was marketed like that.
There was also a lack of depth in the development of characters and world building that I think would have elevated this book and taken it from 'okay' to 'great.'

I had high hopes for this book. I was wanting a really good book to get back into the Vampire/Werewolf world that I could be obsessed with and this went in the other direction for me.

I wasn't enthralled with this world and just found myself skimming.

I enjoyed the read enough to finish it, but was surprised I didn’t like it more from reading the premise of the book. When I heard it was compared to Empire of the Vampire I got even more excited, but it just fell flat for me. Maybe that was an unfair comparison and put me in a different mindset than I should have been while reading it. I just wasn’t invested in the characters and story like I want to me in the fantasies I read.

Ed Crocker wrote vampires like I’ve never read them before. Lightfall had a mystique about it that might just have me continuing the series.

In the last vampire city of First Light, the vampire class system is harsh. Sam is a maid in the palace and has always longed for something more— she discovers the only clue to a high profile murder and quickly gets roped into an underground rebel spy group. Our teams grows to 6— two sorcerers who can’t do magic, a vampire countess rich in secrets and her rogue friend, and a werewolf assassin. As they slowly begin to unravel the mystery, it becomes clear they are stumbling upon something much larger.

The world had an almost scifi-quality about it. It was a city years after the tragedy hit, things sucked (literally and figuratively), and it was quite dark and atmospheric. I enjoyed learning about the world, even though I was confused for a while. By the time I got the hang of things, the book ended!

I enjoyed the way that the fantasy characters interacted in a refreshingly new way. Specifically, Crocker’s take on sorcerers (different types, including some with no magic, all born as adults???) and vampires (types of blood=strength, abilities, and immortality) were all very interesting. Also no mortals! He had multiple POVs that helped unlock more lore, but I wish it was more limited as some of his characters’ POV felt similar to one another (but not all! That’s why I wish it was slightly more limited).

Considering this is his debut, I’d be interested to see what Crocker writes next. I was engaged and I really enjoyed the creativity—I feel like I’ve been reading a lot of the same types of fantasy lately, and this was a welcome change!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ed Crocker’s Lightfall is a beautifully imagined fantasy with a compelling premise and stunning world-building. The richly crafted landscapes, intricate magic system, and grand sense of adventure immediately draw you in. However, while the setting is immersive, I found it difficult to connect with the characters on an emotional level. Their struggles and relationships felt somewhat distant, making it hard to fully invest in their journey. That said, the foundation Crocker has built is strong, and I’m hopeful that the remaining books in the trilogy will deepen the character development and deliver an even more engaging story.

*A free eARC copy of Lightfall was provided by the publisher in return for a fair and unbiased review*

Lightfall by Ed Crocker is the first book in Crocker's new The Everlands Trilogy and I found it to be an enjoyable start to this story. Lightfall takes place in a world filled with vampires, werewolves and sorcerers where much of the magic is driven by the consumption of different types of blood. The novel contains multiple POV's from the different races that become more interconnected as the novel progresses. Most of the plot is driven by the fallout from the murder of the son of the ruling vampire lord in the city of Lightfall.

While the novel did have a bit of a slower start, by the time things got going I was fully sucked into the story and its conclusion I am eagerly left waiting for the second volume of this trilogy to release.

Many of the blurbs recommend Lightfall to fans of Empire of the Vampire and The Justice of Kings. I have only read the Empire of the Vampire books, but I could see fans of that series finding enjoyment with Lightfall even though this book is nowhere near as dark as the EotV books.

Overall I recommend this book to fans of fantasy and dark vampire stories and give Lightfall a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

I received this as an E-Arc on NetGalley. Unfortunately I DNF’d this one, but I still have a long review for it.

I’ll start with the plot. It seemed fine enough on its own, and I wasn’t overly bothered (except for the class oppression vampires plot, more on that later) by anything. It was slow moving in the beginning and not giving much indication as to what the novel was about. I can make several guesses, presumably the gray’s will be involved at some point, and there is definitely something shady going on with the death of the lord’s son, but Crocker isn’t even attempting to hide either of those things. Sam, the maid, is clearly going to be up to something class related. Plot wise, I was fine.

Prose wise, I had several issues. Ed Crocker has a style and formula that makes itself apparent almost immediately. Short, quick, direct sentences that have more telling than showing, followed by 1-3 longer sentences with a longer description, but not necessarily greater detail. This worked best during the action scenes, but was more ineffectual for all of Sam’s POV chapters, even if she is sneaking in and out of libraries. The tone is flat and unemotional. This sometimes works for the vampire lord, except when Crocker expected me to believe and understand his grief, something we are occasionally told but never quite shown. The language is simplistic yet declaratory, calling forth a YA fantasy style than one suited for an adult epic fantasy about vampires.

On characters, I’ll keep things short. You could tell me that Sam was a 2010s YA fantasy heroine a la Throne of Glass or Shadowhunters and I would believe you, She unfortunately suffers from the same affliction that they did back in the day, where she managed to be nosy, snobbish, and obnoxious while also having no ostensible personality. The vampire is existent, and not particularly engaging. I’ve spotted attempts to make him seem layered, but they read more as discrepancies than development. There are more characters I’m sure, but I didn’t stick around long enough to find out.

My longest and arguably biggest problem was with the world building. This is the most boring depiction of vampirism I’ve ever read. In this world they supposedly started out as mindless beasts roaming the land before being granted intelligence by an event called the Great Enlightenment. I have issues with that in and of itself, but I’ll move on. Vampires are ageless undead immortal beings who use the blood of others to maintain their existence. They are generally the figure of the Other, beings who existence transgresses natural and societal laws and customs. So why is their culture and society identical to that of 1800s England? A beat for beat recreation of the class system, racism, and misogyny which makes no sense in a super race of beings. Many vampire tales utilize these things in their stories as well, but they are interfacing with human society at the same time. In the novel's attempt to remove all traces of humanity (yet still deal with human society) it has erased the contexts of their existence. This could still be a compelling novel and take on vampirism with that, but it still insists upon pre-existing human social standards without regard for what led to or influences their existence. What does gender, wealth, and sexuality even mean to a race of immortal beings? Lightfall doesn’t seem to have any interest in finding out. This is not a fresh new take on vampires, but a limp incoherent depiction of them, robbed of nearly all their vampiric traits. Even the blood drinking occurs from vials and glasses. As I read through the book I honestly got the impression that the book was not written with much interest in the vampires themselves.

The lack of thought given to whether or not this “class system” adequately maps on to vampires grows almost hilarious when in Sam’s POV, a clear underdog of the story lamenting that the wealthy vampires hog all the wolf blood while she and other’s of the lower class have to drink cow blood. The problem is of course, werewolves are real and are presumably having their blood being harvested from them, which does little to endear me to Sam’s cause. Blood drinking is really not a one-to-one allegory for hoarding wealth.

This is to say, I DNF’d this one. It’s a crying shame because I absolutely adore epic fantasy and vampire fiction, but I don’t think either of those elements were utilized to their fullest potential. Thank you to the publisher to providing me with this e-arc, even if I didn’t end up loving it.

I am always on the hunt for a fresh take on vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers. Needless to say, Lightfall by Ed Crocker fed all of the proper urges, in large part because of thought-provoking and ravenous characters like Samantha “Sam” Ingle, Lady “Daphnée” Hocquard, Alanna, First Lord Azzuri, Redgrave, Sage Bailey, Jacob, Lady “Raven” Ansbach, and more! Throughout Lightfall, first book in The Everlands Trilogy, I was reminded of other favorite reads of similar (yet also very different) flavors such as The Passage by Justin Cronin, The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda, and Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco. All in all, I was most captivated by the careful, subtle mixture of mystery where fantasy meets sci-fi, and some utterly delightful, much-needed queer representation. I cannot wait to see what the sequel entails, especially with that unexpected secret meeting plot twist of an ending. If you want to read a refined (not fanfiction) paranormal murder mystery with room for a rebellion against classism and world order, you are in for a treat!

Lightfall is a quick, non-stop read where rebel maids have just as much power, if not more, than the mightiest lords and ladies. With outstanding characterization and social commentary for a vampire novel, Lightfall will not be what you expect; I promise… It is a read I will repeat to scratch that paranormal itch and challenge the definition and perception of humanity. So good!

Lightfall isn't your typical vampire novel. For one, there are no humans. They're extinct, a myth really. What remains after the evolution of vampires are different classes of vampires: powerful Lords(royalty), midways(working class) and worns(servants). Vampires survive on blood from various animals, lending their strength into traits. But your class determines the quality and strength of blood you can consume.

Everyone in this world is immoral. Other than vampires, werewolves and sorcerers exist and thrive for hundreds of years. They have battled out different treaty arrangements and are striving for power. The sorcerer's were the weirdest part of this book. The character mixes as a whole had strange chemistry.

Sam, a worn vampire servant wants more for her life. She wants to escape. In her attempts to leave Sam uncovers the late vampire princes mysterious note, and stumbles upon a secret rebellion. As witty as Sam was, she also felt a bit naive in parts. Like I kept forgetting she was a vampire in parts.

For a debut novel, the concept and storytelling were intriguing. If you like complex world histories and world building, this is for you. For a vampire book, this wasn't too bloody and I think that has to do with the extinct humans. I expected a lot more devastation like Empire of the Vampire. But the vamps in this are well organized and quite evil in other ways.

Lightfall is told through a few different points of view, but the perspectives were done well. I do wish we had more of Raven, the alpha as her character and overall werewolf representation was awesome. She definitely was the strongest, most interesting character.

I'm interested to see where this series goes, especially with the ending! Hoping that the plot moves a lot faster in the next installment.

Thanks to Netgalley and St.Martins Press for the ARC.

Overall: 4⭐

Lightfall is an epic world with vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers. The novel shows capitalism at its best with Vampires rich and powerful that drink the strongest blood and the poor drink the weakest. I thought this was an interesting concept and the world building was great but fell short on anything big going on. I felt I was let down because nothing really big happened, which mad me sad. I was really excited for this book but was just let down.

I want to thank NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

Unfortunately I couldn't get into this read. The way the world building was presented in the first person narrative felt too expositional and took away from the characters

Very fitting for fans of Jay Kristoff which is why I thought I would enjoy this book more than I did. I had a really hard time getting involved with any of the characters and quite lost in the plot.