Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Everything in First Light seemed just fine until Lord Azzuri, one of the highest nobleman in the city, lost his youngest son to the Grays. Sam, a palace maid, is sent to clean the deceased Azzuri’s room when she stumbles across a clue that may give her a step in the right direction on his death. It may not have been just an ordinary death, but a murder! In an attempt to use this information as leverage for a higher status, Sam is thrust into a political world involving all immortals.

This book had everything I thought I needed to have a five star read early in the year. I tried to keep pushing through to the end but the writing is just not there. The story is multi-POV but also first person in present tense. It’s very confusing, especially if you pause mid-POV, to keep straight on whose POV you are in. Even more so when the characters interact with each other. The info dumps are continuous and at some points repetitive. I loved the concept of this story, but the execution is lacking. I did DNF at 40%.

The best part about this book is the characters. Readers will enjoy getting to know them and following their epic adventures. Overall a bit generic but enjoyable nonetheless. Three stars.

Wow. What a brilliant world and epic story. If you loved The Failures by Benjamin Liar, I think you will love this one too. With immense world-building, and a history and lore that can be felt in the pages of the book, Lightfall is sure to be a paranormal fantasy of epic proportions that is looked to in the future.

Sam is my new favorite vampire, with her love for books helping her to understand the world around her. A world that is pretty ignorant to the real history of the world and what happened to mortals as the vampire royalty keep the books locked away in their library and don’t seem to even read the books themselves. I’m fascinated by the history in this world and cannot wait to see even more revealed there in the coming follow-ups in the trilogy.

We get POVs from several different characters that all seem to bring something different to the story and bring together a ragtag team to try to stop the worst of the royalty from ruining the world.

Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for the eARC. All thoughts are my own.

I am so excited to see vampires making a comeback, specifically ones that are more monstrous and less about love. There is a complex political climate in this novel, as well as various paranormal beings. The vampires in the book are strong, with the type of blood mattering, but they also have a deep hierarchy that makes a big difference in who is able to get what. The whole book starts with having a vampire die, and multiple groups trying to figure out how/why, but as these difference groups search, the more secrets of the world around them start to come to light, or well night. Overall, I really enjoyed this book but there were times were it felt a bit info-dumpy, which is fine when being the first book in a new trilogy. I am excited to see where this series goes.

The pacing was slow in the beginning, but picked up. Following multiple POV was tricky at times, and I found myself liking some characters timelines more than others. Overall a good fantasy, I look forward to book 2.

They definitely didn't get the "if you liked Jay Kristoff's Empire of the Vampire" wrong. This definitely gave off similar vibes and was very enjoyable. I do love a good world build and throw in vampires, I'm sold and giving you my stars easily.

Lightfall is a solid start to a fantasy vampire series.

There's lots of scheming and action. I love a good story where you don't know what everyone's true intentions are. This world of vampires, werewolves, and mages was very well thought out and I very much enjoyed being along for the ride in the world building! I also really loved our main character and how intelligent, resourceful, and driven she was.

Lightfall definitely delivers a dark, gritty, vampire world steeped in chaos and nefarious plots. I can't wait to see how the stakes (HA!) are raised in the next one!

Slow burn and heavy world building. This is an epic fantasy so it is not a quick read. If you like world building, you will enjoy being sucked into this world and all the monsters you meet along the way.

Lightfall is a good first book for a trilogy. The story is told from multiple first person POVs, but the main character is Samantha. Most of the characters are likeable, and their personalities and stories are slowly revealed throughout the book.
This is a great political intrigue book with a pretty different take on immortals. I look forward to the next book in the series.
I will say, if slow pacing and slow reveal world building aren't your thing this may not be for you. Otherwise, a great book for the right audience and it has the potential to be a great series.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this novel before its release date.

I have been an epic fantasy lover for a long time. Lightfall hit all the right buttons for me. The description of the overall world was detailed and instantly put a picture into my mind. The development of the different races of characters allowed for a full appreciation of the story. And although the characters are vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers, this isn't your typical 'monster fantasy.' There was political intrigue, social class tension, and a central character that you just can't help but love. I can't wait for the next in the series!

I just finished Lightfall: Book One of The Everlands by Ed Crocker, and I’m blown away! This epic fantasy takes vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers to a whole new level. The story is packed with mystery and has such a fresh twist on the usual vampire tales—I couldn’t get enough. Honestly, I didn’t even realize how much I needed a book like this until I started reading it. If you’re a fan of vampire fantasy, you absolutely have to check this one out. It’s a stunning debut, and I can’t wait to see what Ed Crocker does next! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book.

I usually love books with vampires and werewolves and other such creatures but unfortunately this book just did not capture my attention. The constant switching of points of views were rather confusing and took away from the story.

Unfortunately, I DNFed at 28%. The premise of a murder mystery tied up in a conspiracy in a world of powerful immortal beings was such a strong hook, but I found the story unfolding too slowly and with a writing style that I couldn’t get into. To me, Sam was the most interesting character with a voice that matched her character, whereas I found the other POVs too similar, and in the case of the Lord, far too juvenile for a leader. There was more telling than showing, which bogged down the flow especially during the one action sequence I read.

This would probably be better suited for someone looking for a more political read that takes its time coming together. I went in expecting a faster pace and more time with the MC Sam, but the other POVs did not make me care about them nor the issues going on around them and there wasn’t enough forward momentum in the plot to keep me reading.

50/100 or 2.5 stars

The synposis of this story sounded fun and different, so I was excited when my request was accepted for this. Unfortunately, it really didn't work for me. I was hooked with the first chapter, but as the story progressed, I found my interest wanning with each chapter. The constant change in narration/POV is not always a bad thing, but it this case it was rather jarring. There are multiple POV right up front, and doing that while starting a triology that requires a decent amount of world-building is not easy to pull off. It made me really only care about Sam's POV, so as I was reading the many other character's chapters, I was not as interested.
I did try to read as much as I could, but I did have to DNF at 25%. The writing was not as strong as I was hoping either, so I am unsure if I will try this author again in the future. I don't like being harsh, but I want to give an honest review and this is it. I do think there are readers that will like this one though, as the idea/concept of the story is great. The execurtion just was not working for me.

From the very start, the reader is bombarded with tons of jargon that put me off almost immediately. It felt as though I had picked up a book in the middle of an existing series with just how many terms and new idioms there were to cope with early on. Worn, Gray, Kinet, Grayfall, Lightfall, wolfblood, cowblood, Neuras, Quntas, Bloodhall, all within the first 30 pages or so. The world building isn't done organically, but through big walls of inauthentic infodumping. People don't talk the way that the diaries of Lord Azzuri, Sam, and Sage do; we don't explain common concepts about our world in our diaries, we just write. I didn't spend 3 pages in my teenage diary explaining what an iPod was or the governmental structure of my country, and that's a lot what this feels like here. The blurb compares Lightfall to Jay Kristoff's Empire of the Vampire because of the diary style and vampires, I assume. But where Kristoff succeeded and this flops is that Gabriel is forced under duress to tell his whole life story to a vampire for record keeping for history. The vampires in Lightfall just write like this...just because? It feels extremely inorganic and inauthentic to the way people journal for a father to watch his son die in a fiery explosion of ash about five minutes ago only to say, "I have some of my son on me," and brush the ashes of his dead child off his shoulder. Please read some real diaries of people during tragedies; most of the time, the writing is done in retrospect, days or weeks or years later. It worked for Interview with the Vampire, it worked for Empire of the Vampire. Pardon the pun but the way this is handled just took all the teeth out of the novel and relegated it to campy and silly, whether or not that was the author's intention.

The writing also has a quirkiness to it, especially in Sam's point of view sections, that feel really modern 2020s "he's standing right behind me isn't he?" memes about modern movie writing. That moment even happened when she's snooping around where she shouldn't be. The writing style never graduates to the potential of the premise, again it all just feels really campy and juvenile.

A vampire murder mystery sounded like a great hook, but the world building and the writing style just weren't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to like this. Vampires, werewolves and sorcerers. The only things missing are the dragons. Well that and whatever it is that makes me want to turn the page and stay in this world. Tbh- I didn’t make it very far - but the oppression was a little front heavy for me. I just didn’t care- maybe because I didn’t know the characters or maybe because there wasn’t an immediate sense of hope or possibility. Just a kid being reckless. I think I would have liked to get to know the character a bit more, see the world a bit more before seeing them do something reckless to escape it. It didn’t help that his escape only benefitted him. ( and I use he lightly bc I’m not even sure if the character was m/f)

As I sit to write this review, I’m still rather awestruck by this epic new fantasy from Ed Crocker. Crocker expertly navigates the complexities of classism, political dynamics, rebel undercurrents, and coming of age while breaking free of societal constraints. Crocker’s descriptive yet believable world-building set this novel up for immediate success. I loved the multiple POV’s of our deeply enigmatic, funny, and at times flawed main characters. Crocker employs a novel take on vampire hierarchy via the different qualities of blood consumed, after all, “you are what you drink.” This action-packed and blood-soaked debut will surely become a cult-favorite among fantasy readers, and in my mind is within the same vein of must-read epic fantasy series as Jay Kristoff’s Empire of the Vampire series. I thoroughly loved the twists (and the twists upon twists) and the blooming relationships between the characters. Even though I’m still reeling from the ending, I am already frothing at the mouth to read the continuation of this epic new story. “Welcome to the club. Leave your morals at the door, the drinks are free in here.”
As always, thank you so much to Netgalley and Steve from St. Martins for access to this eARC for review; my thoughts are my own.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. Lightfall was an interesting take on a vampire/werewolf story, but unfortunately ran a little too slow to keep my attention for the long run. I just wish the pacing had been cleaned up a bit. I loved the world, the characters were unique (though the multi-POVs got a little confusing). A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads for release.

Lightfall
by Ed Crocker
The Everlands #1
Fantasy Supernatural
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: Jan 14, 2025
St. Martin's Press
Ages: 16+

The Grays came out of nowhere, wiping out half of the vampires with bullets that kill with even just a graze. The survivors ran to the city of First Light and there the poor drank weak blood (cow) and the more noble you were the better the blood, wolf's blood being the best, thus giving them powers including wings.

Sam, a palace maid, sneaks into the library at night, an action that would get her killed if caught, but she wanted and believed she and others deserved more, to be true immortals living for centuries without aging. When the city's ruler's son is murdered, Sam is ordered to clean his room, and she finds a clue to his death. Finding the Leeches, a group of rebel maids who use blackmail against the Lords they clean up after, soon they are partnering up with a sorcerer and a werewolf assassin.

But in the search for the answer to who killed the ruler's son, they also uncover the reason why.


This book is told from multiple characters' first-person POV. Sam is the MC and there are others just as important to the story, but even some of the minor characters get at least a chapter to themselves. The first chapter was a hook, but it never set and I was quickly bored. Sure there were some interesting aspects, like the 'myth' of the mortals and who were the Grays, but it was still the typical peasant vs royalty/poor vs rich along with their backstabbing, but with vampires instead of humans.

The twist was nice, but not that surprising because of the foreshadowing. If that foreshadowing had taken place in the much needed detailed history of this world and its people at the beginning of the book, then it would have had more of an impact. And I still guessed the overall who and why.

Even though it was an ok of a story and some of the characters were interesting, overall this book was a boring and slow read due to the lack of depth in the history, characters, and the weird dialogue along with the bare minimum descriptions. I don't think I'll be looking for the next book in this series, as I'm pretty sure I know where it's going.

2 Stars

DNF at 30%. Vampires and werewolves and sorcerers without humans? I thought I would love this. Unfortunately, there was just too much background noise for me to get into it. The constant switching POVs were all in first person, which was rather confusing. There was also a ton of infodumping, which I have a higher tolerance for than most but still couldn't get over. Least importantly, a lot of the names felt downright silly to me. There's a lot of hints of exciting things to come (fun friendships, haunting the narrative, historical research), but not enough to force me to finish.