Thank you to Macmillan Audio, Tor Publishing Group, and NetGalley for providing me with an audio galley of this title to read and review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I was sent a copy of the first book in this series through the mail. I was very unsure wether I would enjoy it. Then the audio popped up for review so I decided to do a read along with the ARC I was sent and I'm so glad I did. I wasn't sure what to expect but I didn't expect to fall in love with the world Dimova built; a world full of monsters, witches, and things that go bump in the night. When I saw the second book was coming to print, I jumped at the chance to grab the audio to listen to for review and I'm glad I did.
If you didn't read the first book in this duet, I highly recommend you do. You will not understand the relationships in this book, or the world, since the book picks up about 6 months after the ending of the previous book. And, while the previous book did not truly end on a cliffhanger, all that happened in that book is very important to the folklore in this one.
I'll start with the narrators of this story. The female main character is narrated by Zura Johnson. I did enjoy her voice for the previous book, so it was nice to have that consistency with narrators. But unlike the first book, this book also had a male narrator for the male main character: Tim Campbell. I was so happy to see Asen get his own POV. While I really liked him in the first book, this book elevated him to another level because he had his own voice. I have not listened to anything narrated by Campbell before and I found that I really did love his voice for this book. They were able to do the Slavic accents well and each character was distinct and easy to pick out.
Dimova took this book to the next level of monsters and watching the main character, Kosara, fight against the evil that threatens her home. Kosara is a strong character who has built walls around herself, too afraid to truly let anyone in or let anyone help her for fear of becoming attached and losing them. In this book, we see those walls crumble a bit and watch her begin to understand her found family truly wants to help her and be there for her.
I will say you really saw Dimova come in to her story with this book. It's much smoother than the first book; much more put together. And she continues with the Slavic folklore and introduces more monsters than in the first book. One of my favorite parts of this book was the very end when you can truly learn about all the monsters in the compendium the witches have compiled. And this book read faster than the first for me. The action was ramped up, the conflicts were more dire, and the outcome of beating the real monster was huge.
Dark and gritty, this book is also just fun and even includes a bit of romance, which I was happy to see (though I think it could have been infused with even more to really bring the characters into the light as they fought side by side to ensure the safety of those around them).
I will admit, this book reads very much like YA but the characters are definitely not of YA age. I'm actually not quite sure how old they are but seems like they would be close to 30. For that reason there were some melodramatic areas I really thought would be more suited for a younger audience. I do wish there was a bit more adult infused into the book as it really seems like that's the audience it's meant for.
Dimova is a truly creative author who has a great talent for pulling you into a story, making you care about the characters, and pulling you through to the other side while cheering for everything to turn out ok. I'm impressed this is only her second book and I am looking forward to seeing what else she comes up with in the future!

I really enjoyed the conclusion to this duology. It was great to be back in Chernograd and I can’t wait to see what Genoveva Dimova writes next

I loved Foul Days and was so excited to get an ALC through NetGalley of the sequel, Monstrous Nights.

Monstrous Nights picks up six months after the end of Foul Days and something isn’t right in the city or with Kosara’s magic. The consequences of the end of the first book are proving to be bigger than anticipated.

I loved learning more about how the wall came to be and the politics at play between the two cities in this book. And my favorite thing about this series is how skillfully and compassionately it handles how the legacy of trauma impacts the day-to-day lives of people in the present. This book leaned even more into that theme and really showed how healing has setbacks as well as progress. The crumbling of the balance of power and how Kosara reacts to her altered magic were also really well done. Likewise, the relationship between Kosara and Asen is fantastic.

One major hiccup for me, though, was the addition of Asen’s pov, which we didn’t get in the first book. In Foul Days, Asen is brimming with confidence but all of it seems to have disappeared in the sequel and it made him feel like a different person. I also wish Kosara had more character growth—she never seems to learn from her mistakes. While I did mostly enjoy Monstrous Nights, these two things were hard for me to get past and did affect my overall enjoyment.

Still, this is a fun, fast-paced duology that isn’t afraid to go to dark places, and I’d recommend it to anyone into fantasy simmering with magic, monsters and mystery.

The audiobooks are also great. I liked both readers, whose performances really brought the world and characters to life.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for the ALC of Monstrous Nights.

Monstrous Nights by Genoveva Dimova
Narrated by Tim Campbell; Zura Johnson
Pub Date Oct 22, 2024

Slavic folklore-inspired Witch and Monsters duology, which began with Foul Days
 
Continued from book 1, Kosara has her shadow and magic back. Her evil sadistic ex is trapped in the wall and she can once again live among the people in Chernograd in peace.  So she thought.  Rather than having just her shadow back, she gained 11 other witch's shadows that were taken from their former owners which should make her the most powerful witch.  That is if they worked with her when asked, but of course, they don't exactly listen well.  


Over the wall in Belograd, Asen continues his police job and works a new murder case involving a witch. It's been six months since he left Chernograd and this leads him straight back there following the trail of his deceased wife crooked evil smuggling kingpin Konstantin Karaivanov to an underground monster auction. He and Kosara made a promise to his wife that they would avenge her death caused by her father before the next Foul Days but things are amiss within Chernograd. It's snowing in the summer, another witch is found dead and the monsters who only come out during the Foul Days are appearing. The barrier between worlds is getting thin and Kosara seems to think she is at fault and will stop at nothing to make things right. 
 
Both Kosara and Asen have thought of each other for the last six months but neither made the effort to make contact. Now they are forced once again to work together and face their feelings and the guilt Asen has for his wife and the debt they owe her. Their mission is complicated and several things need to be solved. 

Things to expect from this series:

Slavic Folklore
Stubborn FMC
MMC that bakes
Shadow Magic
Unspoken attraction
Family ghosts
Vampires
Monsters
Werewolves
Ghost Cat
House with Chicken legs
Kikimoras (a "bad" or a "good" spirit)

I enjoyed this duology. My only issue is my ignorance of Slavic culture and names. I had a hard time remembering who was who or what due to the names as they were more fitting for the culture themed around the story. I would get a bit lost and have to think about who the character was due to unfamiliar names. That said, it's a me issue, not the story.

I received the audiobook from NetGalley & Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.

Foul Days has been one of my favorite reads of the year so it goes without saying that I was very excited for Monstrous Nights. Monstrous Nights with a excellent follow up that expands on the world and story of the first in a satisfying way while also wrapping up the various loose ends in a way that made sense in the context of the story overall.

In this book we follow Kosara as she deals with the fallout of her actions in the first novel. Now in possession of Twelve witches shadows Kosara is considered ne of the strongest witches in Chernograd, if only her newly obtained shadows would actually listen to her. Meanwhile in Belograd Asen is trying to catch Konstantin Karaivanov to avenge his deceased wife. When the two cross paths again they find things are more dire than they previously thought and they need to work together to achieve both of their goals.

I enjoyed that in this book we got chapters from Asen's POV, it added to the story and helped develop him more as a character than previously along with adding a different view point to world rather than just Kosara's. The overarching plots all ties together fairly well and again i felt the characters all behaved in way that made sense to the way they where written.

Both of the narrators did a Fantastic job, and really added to the experience of the story overall. I plan on checking out more books narrated by the two.

I really enjoyed book 1 and book 2 was just so fun as well! The romance just got sweeter and sweeter! It's still a slowburn but I loved seeing more of their interactions! It was action packed tho some of it felt a little too much like the first one but it was so enjoyable!! The writing/sorry is so unique and clever!

I absolutely loved this second book in Genoveva Dimova’s thrilling gaslamp fantasy duology, The Witch's Compendium of Monsters. You could enjoy it on its own, but I think it will be more fun if you have already read the first book. It’s so well written, I felt completely immersed in the story. The world building is fantastic, and Dimova does a great job incorporating creatures from Slavic folklore. I loved the complexity of the characters, human and monster alike. The story easily held my attention with all of its twists and turns, and I enjoyed the mix of magic, mystery, suspense, humor, and a hint of romance. Our main characters, the witch Kosara and police detective Asen, both grow a lot over the course of this story, and they reach a satisfying conclusion.

The audiobook production was excellent, and the narration by Zura Johnson and Tim Campbell added to my enjoyment of the story. Both narrators are pleasant to listen to, with good pacing, clear pronunciation, distinctive voices to suit each character, and the ability to convey mood and emotion effectively. The story works very well as an audiobook.

This is a story I will want to listen to again, and I recommend this series for fans of gaslamp fantasy and Slavic folklore.

I received a free advanced review copy of the audiobook through NetGalley. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

Monstrous Nights is the stunning conclusion to the Witches Compendium of Monsters Duology that began earlier this year with Foul Days. This time we pick up only after only a few months have past. While Kosara and Asen were able to stop the threat to both their city's, the work is clearly not done as new problems emerge. Kosara and Asen have to work together once again, and perhaps along the way they will find some long deserved healing with each other.

I loved the first book and the dynamic between the two main characters. They both are deeply wounded in different ways and work so well together. The world Dimova creates is based in Russian and Jewish folklore mixed with.a cold war wall between two major cities. The cast of monsters is so creative and yet believable in this world. It is such a unique concept and executed beautifully.

I was thrilled to listen to this story on Audiobook! The dual POV narration between Kosara and Asen helped me to feel empathy towards both characters and also enjoy the banter between them. Each narrator does a fabulous job of brining the listener into their perspective and personality and allowing us to see their weaknesses as well as their strengths.

Monstrous Nights is a more than satisfying conclusion to the story begun in Foul Days. It has plenty of action to keep you guessing and enough romance that makes you want to root for these two to find some happiness in the world.

Thanks to MacMillian audio and Netgalley for access to an ALC for review puporses.

If you loved Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy and/or Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver and Uprooted, you’ll absolutely love Dimova’s Witch’s Compendium of Monsters duology. Chernograd has a wonderfully spooky, dark thematic atmosphere, and the mystery plot reminds me of older detective noir stories. Kosara and Asen once again team up in this one again to solve another murder and hopefully ignite the tiny spark that lit between them. After the cliffhanger from Foul Days and no resolution to the slow burn, I sure was glad to get into this one so soon after the first book released. Dimova’s conclusion was one of the best wrap-ups I’ve seen to a fantasy, and I will definitely be paying attention to this author in the future.

I love the fantasy setting in this series. Chernograd reminded me strongly of East and West Berlin, which I found later in the author’s note was a spot-on assessment. (If you liked this book, you should check out The Man from U.N.C.L.E., it has a great depiction of the setting and it’s a spy thriller/mystery.) The wall between Chernograd and Belgrad does more than separate two different classes of people, also. Both books begin with one of the characters in our duo crossing the wall and meeting the other. In Foul Days, Kosara crosses to meet Asan. In Monstrous Nights, Asan needs help from Kosara, and he goes to her first. Small details like this in stories really make a story much more engaging for me, and I love them.

Dimova writes characters like a pro, and I’m not talking only about the main ones. Kosara’s house ghosts stole every scene they were in. Kosara and Asen are not half bad, either. Over the course of the first book, her onion layers slowly peeled away to reveal a person motivated by loyalty to her family and friends, instead of the skin saver she came across as initially. Asen’s character gets fleshed out a bit more in Monstrous Nights. We get more of his back story involving his wife and show his immense amount of grief and guilt. This may all sound like a complete sad party, but the author weaves some comedy throughout for relief, which I definitely appreciated.

The narration in this one was superb. I was impressed enough with Johnson’s and Campbell’s narration that I actually looked at the narrators’ website and saw many different accents. The voice and intonation were easy to understand, and there weren’t any low parts I had to strain to hear. I recommend listening to this one if possible.

Overall, 4/5 for the story and 5/5 for the narration. Great characters combined with a fantastic writing style and great setting (especially for October) make this a 4-star read for me. I’d give it a 5 if not for the copious amount of foul language, which hampered the experience for me. For one, it makes the fantasy setting less believable, and for the other, well, I don’t like it.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio for the ALC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.

#genovevadimova #monstrousnights #fouldays #tor #macmillanaudio #macaudio2024 #lgbt #fantasy

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me an audio-arc in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.

After reading Foul Days and loving it, I wasn't sure which direction the second book would take and found myself pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this second book. Kosara is back in Chernograd after the crazy events that ended book 1, and this time she's super powerful. But there's something happening with the monsters and the wall, and it's up to her to figure out what it is.

Kosara and our grumpy cop work together as they try and figure out what's going on and how to fix it. The magic gets super complex and crazy. The stakes are high. I wanted more from the romance, but I also have to remind myself that this is a YA book and not what I usually go for, but overall, I enjoyed it just as much as the first book. We still get crazy scary monsters, we still get the violence that I loved. I really enjoyed the folklore that's in these books, and I love the fact that that stayed consistent in this one.

I also liked both narrators as this book was dual pov and we got to see more in the head of my favorite grumpy detective.

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars

Thank you so much to MacMillan Audio, NetGalley, and Genoveva Dimova for the ALC of this book; all opinions are my own!

It's always the most fun when the sequel hits and lands even harder than the first. I'm so glad to have journeyed back to Chernograd with Kosara and Asen. The continued explanation of magic, the continuation of the slow burn, and the continued underlying theme that power isn't always what it's cracked up to be were so fun to explore in this second installment. I'm honestly amazed by how well everything wrapped up and so happy with how it all ended. Justice was served to all who deserved it, and Kosara may finally be able to sit down for more than five minutes at a time. I think my favorite part of this duology is the magic, and how it's all intertwined with the monsters, world, and weather.

10/10 recommend this duology, and what a perfect season for it!

In Monstrous Nights by Genoveva Dimova we have the successful follow-up to Foul Days. This is a sold YA fantasy duology based on slavic folklore. Kosara, our FMC, is back in Chernograd. She has her shadow and eleven other witches shadows and she is powerful although she cannot control all the shadows. The shadows are making changes to Kosara and bad things are happening in Chernograd - it seems as if the Foul Days are happening, but it isn't the right time. There is, once again, a tiny bit of romance to go along with the world that seems dangerous once again. Impossible to review in more detail without spoiling the earlier book, but both books are well written with good world building, really decent character work and generally good pacing. I gave 4 stars to Foul Days and I give 4 stars to Monstrous Nights. Thank you to #netgalley and MacMillan Audio for my advance copy.

This was the sequel I really needed to Foul Days! Kosara is back and wrestling with her 12 shadows for control. A murder in Chernograd is similar to one in Belograd and it brings Asen back to Kosara. They work together to save their world as the barrier between worlds thins. Kosara’s ragtag group of friends is back as well to help them. I’ll miss this group of characters and this might just be a duology I’ll read more than once!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the ARC of this book.

This audio is perfection. The narrators are absolutely perfect. They bring these stories to life with so much energy and passion. Both narrators encompass these characters so well that it almost feels like you are watching a movie play out in your head. The audio track its self was great no distortions or weird ticks.

This duology will forever be one of my absolute favorites. It always surprises me when a second book surpasses the first but this one defiantly exceeded my expectations. I loved the expansion of this world and being able to dive deeper. The world building is so lush and dark and its so easy to get lost in this world and forget that you are at home on your couch. The folklore in these books are absolutely fascinating and it was really cool to learn more about the different monsters. Kosara is a force to be reckoned with and is one of my favorite female MCs in the past few years. I do really love the relationship between her and Asen even though it is super awkward at times. I really enjoyed that we got to have so much of both of their POV so that the story was all encompassing.

Disclaimer: I read this as a tandem Kindle and Audio Book arc via NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I could not wait to sink my teeth into monstrous nights. I loved Foul Days and that was my first introduction to this author. I could not wait to finish up this duology. This is one of the peak duologies you should be reading during the fall and spooky season. It embodies the feeling of fall and winter so well. The audiobook is done spectacularly and the accent of the narrator is so spot on for how I feel these characters sound and present themselves.

Foul Days was a hands-down five star read for me. The characters were so spectacularly well done and fully flushed out. The storyline was compelling and interesting and the pacing was done absolutely perfectly for me. It's on the characters to be so interesting and I had a new emotional connection to all of them. The mystery and suspense storyline was so engrossing and complex. I never knew who to trust and just when I felt like I knew what was going on. I would get a curveball that would swipe me off my chair and keep me interested. All of this continued spectacularly within the second book. All of the things I loved and admired about the first book were absolutely present in the second.

I felt like the ending was very well done. It was not rushed. There was appropriate amount of attention and climactic build. I feel like the story was wrapped up very nicely and made sense and gave a very satisfying conclusion all things that I was looking to be present in the second book. I cannot wait to see what this author comes up next.

I read Foul Days just before starting this one. Both of these books have good world building and creative monsters. The villain is creepy and has all the typical dirty secrets behind the charm - and it works well here. The secondary villain is also cruel and corrupt. Both stories are pretty timely, I think. Our heroes Kosara and Asen are clever, sometimes to a fault.

Sometimes winning doesn't go exactly as planned. Beating the big bad, gaining unfathomable power, and resolving some issues doesn't land right. Especially when the sky starts to crack. "Monstrous Nights" from Genoveva Dinova concludes the Witch's Compendium of Monsters duology. Out October 22, 2024. Thanks Macmillan Audio for the copy.

Korsara has her shadow back. Along with 11 others, making her arguably the strongest witch jn Chernograd. Except the new shadows seem to have a mind of their own. Asen is still on the trail of the man who killed his wife, also his own daughter, Konstantin Karaivanov, on the otherside of the wall in Belograd. When a headless witch is found on either side of the wall these two wind up entangled once again. And sadly fireballs don't seem like the answer in this situation.

Narrated by Tim Campbell and Zura Johnson, I missed these characters and it was a pleasure to hear you both voicing them again.

Reasons to read:
-So I started blasting
-Comeuppance
-OH that's what's going on
-Slavic folklore and monsters
-Chicken house
-Dealing with problems permanently

Cons:
-Do I have to witness an employer doing a crime to get a job? Is that the answer?

I still remember finishing the first book and screaming „I want the second book ASAP!“
Well, I got my wish a lot sooner than I expected and I‘m so glad because this series has earned itself a special place on my shelf.
Monsterous Nights had to tackle the difficult task most duologies face: 1. Complete the story, 2. keep the high quality, and 3. give the reader something new.
I‘m happy to say Genoveva Dimova managed to deliver and then some. Monsterous Nights is a perfect conclusion to the duology and the satisfying sequel Foul Days deserves.

Talk about weaving a beautiful and fantastical tale! This is so fresh, unlike most other fantasy I’ve read. It’s modern without being “in the real world” and it’s full of ancient magics and witches and vampires and small town politics. In fact, I adore it.

Also, I didn’t read book 1 first, which makes me a dummy, but I just wasn’t that confused?! That’s how good the writing is. Shows me 😂 for not doing my research though. I just got excited about the hook and jump in! Highly recommend.

I really liked the first book in this series (Foul Days) so I was excited for this one to come out. (I needed to refresh myself on the monsters again, though- I love that there’s an actual guide at the end!) This was another fun read, and I was glad that Asen was back. And not only was he back, he had his own POV! I liked that there was a new narrator for Asen’s chapters, too. One thing I was a little disappointed about in the first book (and this is a ME problem) but there wasn’t a whole lot of romance between them. I won’t give any spoilers, but I will say I wasn’t as disappointed in that regard.

If you liked the first book in this series, I think you’ll enjoy this second one, as well. I honestly wouldn’t mind a whole spinoff series set in this same universe, because I do think the monsters and folklore are just so fun. (And I kind of want a karakonjul 😆)

Regarding the narration: I loved both narrators! I loved that Asen had his own chapters and narrator this time around.