I was so intrigued by this book - I've been on a quest for excellent vampire books. The story IS interesting, I liked the premise, and I tend to like multiple POV, but the writing felt clunky to me, and I just never found myself drawn to any of the main or side characters.

Thank you to @netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Lightfall is a unique and fast paced adventure with vampires, sorcerers, and werewolves.

After the fall of the great vampire cities, the remaining vampires fled to First Light. The Greys have taken over the area outside of the city, keeping most of the vampires trapped inside, and everyone else out. When the younger son of the First Lord is killed outside the city, the hunt is on to uncover the truth. A palace maid has discovered evidence in the young lord’s room tying him to a much bigger conspiracy that can upend everything for the immortals.

I really enjoyed this unique book. The book is well written with multiple POVs to keep things interesting and engaging. There’s complex lore, a murder to solve, a vast conspiracy of the elite immortals, a rebel group of lower class maids, and the mysterious Grays who are becoming increasingly bold in their attacks on the last vampire city. This is a really rich fantasy and I enjoyed it very much. I look forward to more in this series.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Full disclosure - I did not finish this book. I really tried. The first chapter was absolutely amazing and I couldn't wait to turn the digital page for chapter two, and it was like hitting a wall. The world building felt very tedious and clunky, and the writing style did not hold my interest. I could see potential, but just not enough to force myself through another estimated 9 hours of reading. While I do not have to have likeable characters, I need to not dread being in the mind of a POV character, and within the first quarter of the book, I hated Sam. Absolutely, if you are looking for something to really take your time with, and you enjoy slow intros to new worlds, this might be for you. If you can tolerate unlikeable POV characters, this might work for you. It just didn't work for me.

4.5 rounded up

This debut novel, the first in a trilogy, has an intriguing cast of immortal characters. The book is told from multiple points of view and I enjoyed seeing the situation from each perspective. There is quite the world building in this story but it was doled out at a good pace and kept me reading to find out what was happening.

Lightfall is part fantasy, part mystery, and has some political drama. I found myself rooting for a number of the characters and look forward to seeing where they go in the next installment.

Thank you St. Martin's Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

5 🌟
0 🌶️

This book was great! I don't even know how to describe this combination of mystery, fantasy, political intrigue, and even some comedy. Vampires, werewolves, and mages inhabit this world, but no humans. Humans are the mythical creatures. There is rampant classicism, and the lower classes are kept downtrodden. Sam is part of that class, but she's intelligent and wily, and she's managed to educate herself. Because of this, she manages to get involved in a murder mystery that is only the tip of the iceberg of all that is happening in this society. This book is the first in what I imagine will be a very inventive and exciting dismantling of the current power structure with more exciting reveals and unexpected allies. This novel was a brilliant opener with unforgettable characters and powerful scenes. I enjoyed every minute of this, and unfortunately, I imagine there is a long wait for the next installment.

Thank you, NetGalley and St, Martin's Press, for the eArc. These opinions are mine.

2.5 stars. I was told Ed Crocker's LIGHTFALL was for fans of Jay Kristoff's EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE. I'm indeed a fan of that series, so I jumped at the chance to read book one of THE EVERLANDS TRILOGY. While Kristoff had published several books before Vampire was published, this is Crocker's debut...and it shows. LIGHTFALL has a lot of intriguing world building and magical elements going for it, and the fact that there aren't any mortals was a big draw for me. Vampires, werewolves, sorcerers - HELL YEA. There's a caste system when it comes to the different levels of blood and immortal creatures themselves, and I tried to dig it, but the way it's all executed, it felt like Crocker was way in over his head. And it makes sense, because it's pretty ambitious to create a fantasy series of this magnitude without having published in the genre. Sure, it's been done, but Crocker's writing style is convoluted, clunky, and the info dumping nearly took me out. BUT THE VIBES ARE VIBING, I will admit. Atmosphere is great.

There are just so many POV's that I got whiplash, and the characters aren't necessarily easy to connect to. I enjoyed Sage, and sometimes Sam, but the dialogue often felt comedically forced and juvenile. Not to mention, a lot of it felt repetitive. It was as if Crocker forgot that he had just explained something in those exact words paragraphs before. I'm not here to just dump negative comments on an author who worked hard to craft something, I simply don't think this book was for me. And that's okay. It was pretty hard for me to get sucked into the world, which is pretty ironic because it's about vampires. BUT I TRIED. I could see this work for folks who like slow world building, political intrigue, info dumping on every page and convoluted magic systems though. I'm really not trying to drag Crocker, I just have to be honest. I have no desire to continue the series, but hopefully it picks up for those that choose to! It could be AMAZING.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting concept to have werewolves, vampires and sorcerers but no humans but…. I found it dragged a bit. It felt a bit like YA even though I don’t think it’s written for a YA audience. The maid vampire seems pretty naive for someone who’s watched her father killed for trying to protect her mother from being taken and used by a lord, her mother kill herself, her sister die horribly and works for people that might do horrible things to her or kill her for fun…. That should generate a certain cynical maturity in anyone who’s survived that level of bad things…. The older son of the lord vampire is stupidly evil. He should have pissed off another male vampire enough to get killed in a fight by now even if he killed a few would be challengers. I didn’t hate it and I wanted to see where the rumors of the days of old and were humans real or not went but I don’t need book two.

3.75 out of 5 stars.

The basic premise of Lightfall gets all the stars from me, but the scope of the narrative and the execution didn’t correlate well with one another.  I love the noir feel from the start, the post-apocalyptic setting, and the mystery—the book reads like a combination of several familiar and popular stories combined:  Daybreakers, The Starless Crown, Shannara, The Alienist, and a bit of The Longing of Lone Wolves.  The post-apocalyptic, post-human setting drew me in, and while I enjoyed much of it, there were some things about it that made it hard for me to absolutely love.

World building really takes the cake here.  I love stories set far in the future where humans are (presumably) extinct, and the beings left behind after them live longer lives and fight deadlier quarrels.  The story opens with a monster hook:  a powerful vampire lord must investigate his own son’s murder.  Through this investigation, readers will meet a slew of characters, each somehow connected to this murder and other, deeper (of course) plots of power upheavals, scandal, and mysteries long obsessed over that will finally find answers.

Crocker’s strength for this debut lies in the world building and character development.  I’ve read a few post-human dystopian stories before (i.e., Brooks’ Shannara series and Pecherczyk’s Season of the Wolf, et al. series), and this one adds to that repertoire quite well.  The atmosphere builds a dark mood to frame the story, and in combination with the murder mystery, readers have quite the mashup of fantasy, sci-fi, detective noir, and a smidge of romance to look forward to.

The main, and huge, drawback for me stems from story framing.  Crocker tells the story of Lightfall from multiple points of view—all first person.  I find first person narration works well for me with maybe one or two characters tops, but readers will have to jump around among at least five here.  The author labels each character’s part, which certainly makes it easier to follow, but my brain doesn’t focus on the story well with all the changing of perspective.  With as intricately plotted a novel as this, readers may have a difficult time juggling all the points of view.  I had to go back and look at the start of the chapter sometimes to remind myself whom I was following, despite the chapter headings.

I look forward to the rest of the Everlands Trilogy, which I will definitely add to the TBR as it comes out.

My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the DRC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.

This book had a really neat feel to the relationship between beings. We’re so used to Vampires andWerewolves/Wolves being portrayed a certain way, that when we were given something different in this book, I ate it up. I was really pleased with this book!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a complimentary copy! Lightfall is a debut novel by Ed Crocker and I enjoyed it! I never know what to expect when I read a new author. Sometimes I’m hesitant, afraid I won’t enjoy it, but this one did not disappoint!!! It is a Fantasy novel with lots of action! I got some Twilight vibes while reading. There’s no romance in it, so if you’re wanting romance, this isn’t it. It’s the first in a series and it looks like there will at least be a book two. Are we talking Duology , Trilogy, who knows….
There are werewolves, vampires, and sorcerers in this novel; where the rich vampires seem to rule most of the land. But the Grays (the vampires’ enemy), wiped out most of the vampire population. Now, the remaining ones are living in First Light. It’s like a caste system where you have nobility and then the lower level vampires. But Sam, one of the palace maids, has been through too much. When one of the ruler’s sons is killed, Sam works with a group of people to discover what happened. She finds clues along the way. Rebel maids, sorcerers, and a werewolf end up teaming together with Sam to discover not only who killed the ruler’s sons, but a huge conspiracy by the nobility. Packed with lots of action, this is one debut novel not to be missed!!! AVAILABLE January 14, 2025

Thank you to Ed Crocker, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for giving me an eARC of Lightfall in exchange for my honest review.

This book was so much fun and I loved it a lot more then I expected to. The basic premise of it is that there is a world where no humans exist. Sam is a vampire and a palace maid. As such, she is considered to be a member of the lowest class, designated to drink blood that will not allow her to have immortality. When Sam finds a clue to a murder, she uses that information to get in with the Leeches, a group of rebels, and is determined to make a better life for herself where she can in fact live forever. From the beginning I was drawn in to the story. The world as a whole is really unique and while we see very little of it, I am excited to see more in future novels. The character development is slow, but I think it makes sense for an overarching story line. Sam stays true to herself and readers can see her grow as a person slowly as she experiences more and more in this world. Sam is clever and determined to survive, though she holds a great deal of self-doubt. It makes for an interesting combination and a cool story arch. I am interesting to see where the story goes from here because the plot of this story was resolved so to speak, but there is still a lot of threads that need to be sorted out. I feel like Crocker left it off in a good spot where he did not box himself into one storyline, but rather, there is a lot of room to get creative and I am excited to see what happens next. I highly recommend this book for all fantasy lovers.

What a debut! This book is full of vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, and others!

It did take me a while to get into this book. The pacing at the beginning is a little off with all the information. There are many different politics and feuds going on, which is hard to keep track of. It made it convoluted and slowed my reading way down. I saw a few reviews where people gave up at 20%. I’m sorry you did that because it was worth the slow pace in the beginning.

Now, after I got to about 30% and the characters started to form their rebel group, it was hard to put down. There are many amazing characters in this book. I loved how we had one of each group/leader/class coming together. The way they formed a bond was just so beautiful. The bookworm and sorcerer and their knowledge were so fun to read about. It’s truly showing you how knowledge is power. I adored the relationships between each of them and all together. Jacob was a character that seemed so weak and annoying. I ended up feeling for him and rooting for him in the end! Sam is one of the characters with the most beautiful character arc! I loved watching her journey, even if it’s heartbreaking at times. Humorous moments break up some of the darker moments.

The magic and politics are intriguing and unique. Just a heads up, there are several brutal moments in this book. While the book starts off as a murder investigation, it quickly turns into a lot more. Characters realize that they might be in over their head. Deep secrets are coming to light and entrenched in the world created for them.

Overall, I enjoyed this debut! You do have to put in some slow-paced reading effort, but it is worth it. There is so much potential here! By the end, I was obsessed with these characters. I cannot wait for book two!!

Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, for the e-arc (thanks Netgalley) and finished copy!! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately Lightfall did not work for me. If I were the type this would have been a book that I would have DNF'd. Fairly early in the story I was not enjoying this. I pushed through however, because I have some all time favorite books where the first third didn't work for me. Sadly Lightfall never got there for me. On paper it should have been something I loved. There's a world with no mortals inhabited by Vampires, Werewolves, and Sorcerers. The book kicks off with the murder of the second son of a nobleman and then multiple points of view come together to solve his murder. My main issue with this is that I think it would have benefited from more time. I've heard many authors talk about their books and ideas. Frequently they mention needing to evolve their craft before they're able to take on a specific story idea. This would have benefited perhaps if the author had taken on something less ambitious. The world building and the way the author tried to show us how the societies functions were always done in an incredibly clunky manner. I also really despised reading the dialect that certain characters were given. In general I don't particularly care for dialect spelled out in any books and I found it grating to read in this one.

My one good take away was I liked how the blood class worked with the vampires. Certain types of blood are divided into the different vampire hierarchies as different animal blood can give powers to the vampires. I will say I don't think we got enough explanation for why x blood was better and gave power, it seemed more if the author thought it was a cool animal it was a better blood and only the noble class got to drink it.

This epic fantasy is a fresh new take on vampires and the blood that sustains them. While the majority of this book is world building for what is gearing up to be an absolutely epic fantasy trilogy, we still get a lot of interesting characters and some incredibly choreographed fight scenes. I'm really excited to see where all the espionage and planning leads the remainder of this series. I loved all of the fully-developed characters no matter how villainous and cruel they may have happened to be. Overall, this is an impressive debut and one I can't wait to continue reading!

Vampires, werewolves and sorcerers… oh my! 🧛🐺🧙‍♂️

I was really excited to give this first book in The Everlands trilogy a try. The premise is based on a poor vs. elite vampire class system with a twist: the wealthy get the best blood. This created a really interesting situation within a city of vampires that are stuck within its walls due to The Grays that hunt them outside its borders.

This series is also made up of a world with no humans, only immortals, which was unique from most stories I’ve read with these characters involved. Add in a murder mystery and it had all the makings of a great fantasy that I thought I’d love, but it just never came together for me.

While I struggled to connect to the story due to extremely slow pacing and constant POV changes, my main issue was actually with the dialogue. It just felt off. And I know that fantasy worlds have their own languages and characters speak differently, but in this case it became too distracting to really understand what they were trying to communicate.

I thought about DNFing a few times, but I liked Sam and Raven’s POVs enough to keep reading. While the last 25% had more action, it was just too little too late to make up for the rest for me.

This book gets points for originality, a bookish FMC I was rooting for and a stronger finale, but overall, it wasn't a win for me. With that said, it might’ve been a case of a great book, wrong reader. It has plenty of 4-5 star reviews on Goodreads, so I’d still encourage you to look into it further if you’re interested before deciding whether you want to try it out!

Lightfall is a story about vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers ... 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑠.

With that alone, 90% of the usual tropes and plot points go out the window. Instead, what we're left with is a bit of a character study on what these powerful groups of beings become without that trodden conflict.

What greater purpose do they seek?
What knowledge do they hold dear?
How do they coexist socially and politically?
How is blood acquired and bartered, and how does that play into classism?

And most important -- what kinds of situations and conflict do us humans know to come from the answers to those particular questions (all to well)?

Through multiple POVs the answers to the above shape the plot of Lightfall; with a murder mystery, and another long-standing mystery of greater societal impact, at its core. However, for me, the characters of Lightfall completely steal the show with razor-sharp wit, deeply droll and sarcastic humor that had me cackling, and truly insightful and, dare I say, human moments.

Overall, the pacing felt very slow for me in terms of story development, but I do concede that while I loved the deeply philosophical notes of this story, I am not the audience for its level of political intrigue. I'm a reader that prefers dashes and dots with that sort of thing, whereas this paints with sweeping strokes (and there are plenty of you who will absolutely love that). Be that as it may, though, do be prepared for the POV establishment and backstory to comprise at least the first third of the book (and bleed into midway without a ton of movement).

This is an impressive debut that will undoubtedly find its audience with such rich, insightful, and hilarious characters. Absolutely worth your consideration.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Ed Crocker for the gifted copy of this exceptional novel.

I couldn’t resist this because it was compared to Richard Swan’s The Justice of Kings, which is the first book in one of my favorite fantasy series. The synopsis in general was pretty irresistible. I mean, it’s set in a world with no humans, only vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers and there are rebel groups, a murder mystery, and vampire politics! It’s a fantasy burrito with all my favorite fillings.

Lightfall follows several different POV characters that we are slowly introduced to over the first little bit of the book. Actually, it’s a surprising number of POV characters (at least six), though the main group consists of Sam, a Worn vampire housemaid in service to the lord of First Light, Sage Bailey, a magickless sorcerer who journeys with a compatriot to First Light to investigate a murder, and Raven Ansbach, a former werewolf assassin who now hunts down the criminals of her own kind. The characters are slowly drawn together when the youngest son of the Lord Azzuri is murdered outside of the city by Grays, a mysterious group that drove the immortals out of their city at the center of the continent decades ago. There are so many unanswered questions - why was the young noble outside the city? What was he doing spending time with the common vampires? What could the mysterious note in his room mean?

This was a story that had me hooked almost right away thanks to the likable and varied characters. Sam in particular was a good starting point - this maid is sneaking about in the hidden sections of the library with her stolen vial of wolf blood to unlock secret doors. It made me immediately curious about both her and her motives for getting this forbidden knowledge. Sage Bailey and his fellow Quantas mage, Jacob give almost a Sherlock and Watson vibe with how they operate. Sage is obviously brilliant and it’s less obvious how Jacob is helpful, though it becomes apparent that he’s the more social of the pair and doesn’t mind doing some investigation in a bar. The two are lead members of a sorcerer cult called the Cult of Humanis and they believe the humans are still around and they also search out human relics. Raven is… brutal. The first few POV chapters of her follow her as she hunts down rogue wolves and tears them to shreds, definitely making her seem more beast than anything. The other POVs are equally interesting, though pop up less than these three - we have Alanna and Lady Hocquard (rebels) and Lord Azzuri, all of which give the reader insight into spaces that would be sorely missed without them.

Lightfall was fabulously entertaining and I think the comparison to The Justice of Kings was apt, with the investigative element and the overarching political nature of the plot. I don’t think it’s all that similar to Jay Kristoff’s writing, which this was also comp’d to as his writing (especially in Empire of the Vampire) is mostly just violent and overly packed with crass humor. If you want somewhat of a different take on the classic vampires and werewolves, with sorcerers thrown in for added fun, definitely check out Lightfall. I will be keeping my eye out for news of the sequel especially after that absolutely jaw-dropping conclusion, which went in a direction I entirely did not expect.

Perfect entry into 2025 with this phenomenal 5 star read.

Remarkable world and character building. The magic in Lightfall is in Ed Crocker's extraordinary gift of storytelling. I just loved every moment of my reading journey. Ed Crocker really knows how to take me away from the real world.

A clean ending to the story. Not what I would call a cliff hanger, but definitely leaves me wanting book 2 ASAP.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In Ed Crocker's supernatural world, mortals are mythological and their tools are used to oppress the lower classes. Sam, a palace maid, is tired of being lower class and the corruption of the upper classes. She's on a mission to change her life and those of others at her level. But can she do that without ruining others' lives?

I expected more out of this book it was ok. It is full of mages vampires and werewolves starts out with. Major death and then there’s a ton of world building and the world building drags for way too long without much story or plot happening in between the character building in this is really well done though.