Huge thanks to Recordedbooks for the ALC through NetGalley!!

This was such a wild ride & I so badly want the sequel now!!! Also I was quite worried that the author usually writes spicy romance books and that I might not like this one but I was so wrong cuz she excels at writing fantasy, and I'm quite curious to see what she's gonna do next in this genre.

I absolutely loved the world created by the author. It's highly influenced by Finnish mythology & folklore, while the author also has added her unique ideas to them to make it more dark & gruesome & also captivating!! (don't judge me, i just love dark myths & gothic vibes and this was perfect for me). The way the gods were portrayed made me look at em in awe as well as in horror cuz they all have immense powers & can easily do more damage with a flick of their fingers, yet they've lost powers cuz of the loss of trust in them by the villagers. And I found this aspect of the plot to be highly interesting as they also need our beliefs to exist & be powerful in the real world.

And I found the setting & the politics of the underworld to be extremely cruel and even brutal at times. All the gods & goddesses in there exude that fearsome aura and have unique brutality to themselves which was interesting to witness (while also making me lose sleep at times cuz I looked through their images in Pinterest, I'm a scaredy cat y'all🙈)

The audiobook is a duet narration and both the narrators did an incredible job of bringing out the nature of the characters. Siiri is strong but Aina is meek & gentle, and you could clearly picture who's who even if the narrators had not mentioned the chapter titles. That's how well they portrayed the emotions of the characters!!

Characters -
If you'd told me at the start that I'd grow to like these two girls & even root for them to get together, I would've laughed at you but I was screaming for them to join hands by the end!!! They both grew up on me & have become one of my all time fav characters now.

Siiri is such a brave soul that she's ready to venture into the darkness of the underworld to bring back her only friend, Aina (ik, massive Orpheus & Eurydice vibes!!!). And she kept surprising me with her relentless efforts to keep going further even when things went south, and she was ready to even give up her own life to save the one she cares about. And what I liked most about her was that she was always ready to go against the traditional norms set forth by the people on how a woman should act!!! She breaks the rules & makes her own, and I absolutely admire her for that.

Aina, on the other hand was meek & vulnerable at the start but goes through an incredible transformation towards the end. At times, I found myself questioning her choices and actions but she had me rooting for her in the last few chapters. I don't think I've ever seen a woman who would do things she has done for the people they care about cuz she goes through so many ordeals & yet stays hopeful and lives for the people she loves!!! Her nature of giving all of her & sacrificing everything for others is honorable indeed and I truly love her from the bottom of my heart.

By the way things ended, I'm so eager to get my hands on the next book!!! If you love fantasy with dark folklore and FMCs who are ready to die for one another, you absolutely have to give this a try.

Wow, this was such an incredible read! I did mainly listen to the audiobook, but I had purchased a copy of the hardcover just before I started reading it, so when I had an hour left, on a Friday afternoon when I don't typically pick up audiobooks, I tandem read physically while I had the audiobook playing, which was a great experience, since I didn't really know the spelling of all these characters names and places. Still don't, really, but I have a better understanding.

The way that this story was told, going between Aina and Siiri's stories, Sirri trying to make a plan to rescue Aina, and Aina trying to survive. Each where both really interesting, and watching as the stakes rose, as they learned more of what was going on, on both sides, was so great!

There was a point, about 3/4ths in, where things seemed to be pretty good, that they'd defeated the big bad. But given that there was still a quarter left of the story, yeah, I knew things would go wrong. How they did, it was sad, and I hope that the future holds more happiness for all of them!

Honestly, if this series results in a threesome, or Aina going back and forth between Siiri and Tuoni. Like she said, he has her heart, but Sirri has her soul. If she isn't made to choose, that would probably be happiest for all involved once they settled into such a relaitonship with one another! I mean, why not, once the threat is passed, once Kal is old enough that she wouldn't be what they threaten him with to make him comply?

Loved reading this book, and I can't wait for the sequel!

Sadly do to the time of year I didn't get all the way through this book before it vanished from my account. What I did hear I enjoyed a great deal.

It took me two entire months to get through this story. It’s hard to pinpoint any technical weaknesses, but it just came across as dull. I never grew to care for the characters, and I grew tired of being told how much everyone cared for each other instead of shown. The plot had plenty of action yet still seemed to drag. I’m really bummed this didn’t work out for me.

Following two Finnish girls in the time that the old gods are fading, North is the Night is a mythological epic. After Siiri's best friend Aina is taken by a death goddess, she sets off into the wilderness to save Aina and maybe the entire Finnish world as they know it. Meanwhile, Aina must survive by her wits alone in the underworld.
I really wanted to like this book. Finnish mythology is an area I want to learn more about, the Christian colonial era, cool girls with axes, and a ton of comparisons to authors I love? It sounded delightful. Unfortunately, I didn't really like it. It fell flat, and also the relationships didn't make sense. Siiri should definitely not have been straight. She was set up so queer (she goes to the underworld for the woman she loves the most) and also it was marketed as sapphic. It probably doesn't help that this book was pretty hyped up, and also the hardcover is alluringly beautiful, but this just wasn't it.

This book was a mix of a lot of things but none seemed to be done well.
Siiri's POV for the first half was boring at best.
Aina was the only interesting POV in the first half.
And then right when Siiri got interesting, Aina started giving me whiplash with her changing her mind every 5 seconds.
The "romance" was confusing, even at the end it was unclear if they were actually together or if they were just BFF's that are completely there for each other. There was 0 chemistry and it felt very pushed.
I just feel like there are so many other books out there that do these plot points so much better that there is no point in wasting almost 600 pages on this book.

A little slow and pretty for my taste, but really good! The world is interesting and Emily's writing is absolutely lovely. The narrator did a great job and I'm glad I read this one!

The only reason I finished this book is because I listened to it and could have it as background noise.

I originally picked it up because Finnish folklore and sapphic romantasy sounded amazing. Well the Finnish folklore was interesting, but I kind of wish I knew more about Finnish folklore before I read this. The sapphic romantasy part was the most boring part about this story.

There was no romance between the two girls until the very end. I would have believed they were just best friends who were raised together and like sisters more than I believed a romantic love. It was almost like they didn't recognize their feelings for what they were throughout the entire book and they didn't make me believe it by the end.

Frankly, I thought Tuoni and Aina had a better love story and was kind of disappointed the way they left off.

The book also starts off very heavily about the Christianity that the Swedes are bringing and crushing the old Finnish gods with and it reminded me too much of what's happening modern day with anything except "normal" Christianity being looked down upon and it just made me want to throw this book. Luckily, it tapered off and most of the book wasn't about the religion. However, the next book will be as they start their religion wars and I will definitely not be reading that.

The audiobook narrators were good, although sometimes they sounded too similar and it made it a little difficult to tell them apart. However, I was using it as background noise, so that's on me for not giving it my entire attention.

Thank you to Netgalley for an audio copy of this book. My thoughts are entirely my own.

Overall, 4 stars. I don't typically enjoy folklore/mythology books, but I really enjoyed reading about Siiri and Aina, their friendship and their individual journeys. My imagination had a good ol' time imagining what Tuonela was like and what the witches looked like. This book is a total 180 from Emily Rath's usual content so I went into this with zero expectations which made this more enjoyable. The only thing I wish I had was a character list of who all of the gods/goddesses/witches were so that I could keep their names straight.

Siiri and Aina's devotion and love for each other, their culture, and their beliefs were so strong and resilient. The relationships between Siiri and the bear and Aina and the raven were so sweet and born out of mutual respect and trust. Great story, I would consider book fantasy, and not romantasy. Interested to see how the duology will continue.

Thank you NetGalley and RBmedia for the advanced audiobook!

Format: audiobook - the audio narrators were great, and I liked the dual POV

Soft DNF at 19%. The premise was super interesting, but I got bored pretty quickly. I might circle back to it in the future. The audiobook narrators themselves were very engaging!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for my advanced audio copy!

So yeah... this audiobook really isn't for me and I'm feeling so bad!!! I got to about 20% through and I just can't continue.
Also, I love Emily Rath's romance books... but her writing fantasy isn't necessarily for me.
I'm incredibly sorry that I won't finish this audiobook, but thank you NetGalley so much for giving it to me in exchange of an honest review.
Hopefully I will be able to pick this book up another time!!!

I don't usually rate my DNF's, but it's not letting me review it unless I do it... so 1 ⭐️ it is.

I enjoyed this Finnish fantasy with historical fiction elements. We follow two women’s separate journey the underworld and back. Siiri and Aina’s experiences were equally compelling and the narration for each POV was well done. The ending can be seen as standalone, but I’m still interested in seeing where Jen will go in the upcoming duet finale!

Picking up North is the Night, it was my first time reading a book by Emily Rath, and while at first I was a little wary, as I had seem some negative reviews and know the author normally writes contemporaries, I was absolutely blown away at how well written this fantasy story is. From the first chapter, I found myself immersed in the setting and story, in thanks to the writing style. I truly am so impressed that this is the author's first time writing fantasy. North is the Night reads as a beautiful, folklore infused epic. It reminded me of many Greek myths, such as that of Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as Hades and Persephone. It also had similarities to other old tales, such as East of the Sun and West of the Moon. It even reminded me of some modern books, such as the Bear and the Nightingale. Overall, I was completely blown away by the fantasy storyline of this book. I can't wait to see where it goes in book two. I'm also inspired to read Kalevala, the poem this book is based on.

All of that being said, this book does have one glaring issue, and that is the romance. The romance of this book is very muddy and confusing. North is the Night was marketed as sapphic, but reviewers immediately started saying that it wasn't and this book is a problematic heterosexual romance. What's weird is that both parties are kind of right. To end the confusion, let me say that this book is sapphic. At first it's a little unclear, as it is a friends-to-lovers storyline that could be read as platonic, but it does build up to a romantic relationship. And even in its platonic stages, Aina and Siiri's devotion to one another is beautiful. That being said, there is also a M/F romance in this book involving one of the women from the F/F relationship, and I don't think I'll know how to feel about this inclusion until this series concludes. While there is nothing wrong with polyamorous relationships, I'm not sure if that is what this is. I cannot tell if the M/F romance is supposed to be a poly-inclusion to the existing F/F romance, or if it is supposed to be a hurdle for the F/F relationship to overcome. And that is because the man in the M/F relationship is written with some problematic tendencies. Aina repeatedly has to convince this man to allow her free will and talk him down from "taking what he wants". So while I have nothing wrong with a poly love story, and believe it still deserves to be labelled as queer, I do have issues with the power imbalance between the M/F relationship presented in this story. I'm interested to see where these relationships go, and I believe how they resolve with help me determine if I have an issue with the romance in this story or not.

Also, side comment, while I have absolutely no issue with this book being marketed as sapphic, as it is, it was also marketed as "Sansa/Arya but sapphic," which I think truly is weird, as those women are siblings.

But for now, while I found the M/F romantic plot to drag in the middle of this book, I otherwise really enjoyed it. The fantasy story itself is absolutely beautiful, and I'm quite curious to see how all these relationships develop and what the author says about love and power in the next novel.

Thank you to RB Media for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I am not normally a fantasy girl but omg this book ended sucking me in. Siiri and Aina are from a little struggling village where bad things have been happening from death, hunger, and now girls are going missing. When in reality this is all chaos created by the "old gods". When Aina sacrifices herself for Siiri, Siiri puts it on herself to go and save Aina meanwhile Aina is trying to survive and escape Tuonela and get back to Siiri.

The world building and the slow unraveling of all the mythological stories was beautiful. Both sides of the pov were equally as intriguing pulling me in. I want to like just talk all about this book but I definitely don't want to spoil it. It did take a moment to get into it but before I knew it I was finished. Can't wait for the second book.

The audio book was so good, the narrations where done so well at first it was difficult to differentiate the voices but after a bit it does become more obvious not only in tonality but obviously storyline. And the witches voice is fun and creepy. Very much enjoyed it.

I heard this audio book thanks to NetGalley, RBMedia, and the author Emily Rath. Though granted access to this book for free my opinion is very much my own. [Warning: If you have issues reading about religious prosecution (specifically where Christians are the villains), violence, and homosexuality skip it. This one is simply not for you.]

This is an incredibly detailed book that is based on a Finnish folktale. It had very interesting undertones of religious takeover and how the Swedes impacted the Finns. It really was a very interesting listen. I was confused by the romance themes as I went into this thinking it would be a sapphic romance but I felt that the hetero romance was much more obvious. However that should not take away from how amazingly interesting and detailed this book is. I highly recommend listening to it as I am not sure I would have been able to pronounce any of the names! The narrators, Khaya Fraites and Emily Lawrence, did a fabulous job!

Big thanks to NetGalley, RB Media and Emily Rath for a copy of this audiobook. This is my honest opinion

I love, love, LOVE Emily Rath as a romance author, so I was really excited to be given the opportunity to be able to listen to her first fantasy/romantasy novel.

I really wanted to like this, truly. I wanted to see more romance and depth to the main couple. It is supposed to be lgbtq+ but it really isn’t explored. While I appreciate the world building, as is necessary in fantasy novels, the pacing felt off at points and think some of the fluff could’ve been trimmed from the novel.

The narrators overall were fine but they didn’t really help with the pacing either. I think some of the book was recorded in a rush bc you can tell where parts are spliced and new parts are put in. It really is jarring especially during scenes with lots of action.

North is the night was an excellent read. I loved the writing and it was propulsive. Great character study. I would read more from this author.

thank you to the publisher for an artc for this! i enjoyed the dual narration and the insight into finnish forklore. i think this book with so many native words was a bit confusing to follow along with audio. i think i may have enjoyed (and been less confused) if i could follow along with the book. overall i thought the story was brilliant and loved reading about the adventues of two friends (I did not get the romantic vibe) so i am not sure if i would consider this a romantasy book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book!! Emily has a way with story telling that goes so well into fantasy!
I did meet Emily in person and hearing her talk so passionately about this book really took it to another level for me. A very plot driven book; I know it’s marketed as romantasy but for me this book was low romance and much more fantasy.
If you are ready for an epic fantasy adventure then this is a book you should check out.
I learned and LOVED being introduced to finish mythology!

North is the Night
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wow What a great story that kept me hooked the whole time. It was magical with lots of fun adventures. I really enjoyed it. I'm excited for book #2. Thank U NetGalley