A+++
Oh. My. God.

This was honestly everything I could have ever hoped for and I'm not kidding when I say The Whispering Night might be the best book I’ve read all year. I am so happy with the ending I barely know where to begin.

I haven't been this excited and happy about a series in so long and I'm so sad that it's over but elated on the high note it ended on. Subsequently, I've actually re-read the entire series over and picked up on so many subtle things I missed on my first go. The was WN tied things up? Love.

If you like fantasy, Magic gone wrong + right, a murder mystery, complex realistic characters who have wonderful organic growth then pls try the Luminaries Series by Susan Dennard. As you've seen I cannot stop yapping about this enough and I apologize because I don't see that stopping soon.

The final book in The Illuminaries trilogy rounded this fantastic series off perfectly. This is that rare trilogy with no tricky middle book or disappointing ending, every book was a solid 5 stars for me.

I absolutely love the world of Hemlock Falls. This tight-knit community with the various clans and their differing skills and styles really had me gripped.

Winnie has been through a lot in a really short space of time, and the third book picks up immediately following the events of the second. Winnie is deep into the mystery now and there’s no way out but through as she works to figure out what happened to her father, and protect her family and friends.

We get a bit more romance in this book (ugh, Jay) and it is really lovely, but also not Winnie’s main driver, which I love.

Without giving anything away, this book wrapped up the plot beautifully. It was a very satisfying ending.

Susan Dennard has mentioned that she leaves herself little elements that could potentially become spin-off’s and I am holding onto the hope that there is some sort of spin-off to this series because I would love to see more of the world of The Illuminaries!

Please note this review is only for the preview chapters, not the entire book. This is a great start to the final book in the Luminaries series.

This is a chapter sampler.

I will definitely be reading the full book once it's available to read. The connections made in the first two books are all coming to a rapid conclusion even in this sampler!

I think this might be my favorite book of the trilogy. Winnie is in top form, emotions (so so many emotions) are across all the pages. Ugh!Jay stole my heart even more than I ever expected. He had the best lines of the whole book, and I just melted. I cried at more than one point. I laughed. And I fumed. The gentle balance of new and old friends and alliances, a really great big bad, the issue of having been a loner for so long and then learning to trust people again, subtle science drops, and trying to hunt down a mystery. The challenge of literally. having a gauntlet thrown and trying to protect the ones you love. Winnie both gives to many flying fucks, and none at all. I as so proud of her growth, we learn so much about backstory without it having felt like telling. The Nightmare Masquerade is such a fun backdrop of chaos and pomp and circumstance.

Also I will just say that you'll need to pay attention to the details, even the small sentences that I thought were lovely turned out to hold so much information. Again a master craft of understanding that every single sentence and detail needs to lead to something. And Sooz is so very good at details. She pairs devastation and drama side by side with humor to cut tension and still manages to sprinkle in real life among the paranormal. Just *chefs kiss*.

I will say that this book is so much faster than the other two, I got to one large turning point and had to stop because I knew that I was pulling into Paris and wouldn't be able to pull myself out of the book mentally if I kept reading. So I tucked it away and after I was back from my Europe trip I allowed myself to savor every single sentence. I then proceeded to write Sooz an effusive email highlighting what worked well and we clarified some bits (truly she did it in like two sentences, I am eternally amazed at how she can wordsmith) that should hopefully make the story even better for you all than it was for me.

I cannot wait to read it again. On that note we are doing a readalong to time with the release of the Whispering Night! Currently we are deep into The Luminaries but starting in October we will jump into The Hunting Moon. It truly is the best little series to kick off you fall reads and I would love to talk more! Please come join us on the discord.

this is just to say, luminaries edition

I have read
the whispering night
that was in
my inbox

and which
you were probably
excited
to read

believe me
it was delightful
so satisfying
and so [redacted]