Narration: No issues, but I’m not a fan of single narrators for dual POV. Made it hard to realize when the chapters switched if I wasn’t paying close attention.

Story: Ehh 3.25 stars?? It feel very YA through most of it (some maybe due to the narrators voice). Without spoilers it felt like the main affections were one sided, then came out of nowhere at the end. Interesting Viking & pagan gods dive.

Thank you, Netgalley, for allowing me to listen to an ALC of this book!

Siiri and Aina are long-time friends, when suddenly Aina is taken by an evil goddess while they are in the forest. Neither of these young women are prepared to give up hope for the other and go on separate journeys to reunite. It is a hard fought process with many bumps, bruises, and broken bones.

This book had minimal sapphic qualities as the girls are separated (literally different worlds), and there are significant scenes with Aina and a male character.

I enjoyed the journey of Siiri and Aina, I thought it was a very unique plot. The beginning was great, and I felt like, towards the end, it became more difficult to follow of sorts? Also, it's maybe a me thing, but the two different narrators said names differently, so I super focused on that. 😅

I did like that romance wasn't the CORE of this book because the plot carried this book so well. If you're looking for a spicy book, this isn't it. If you're looking for a book with an interesting and unique plot, pick this up!

"North is the Night" is a historical romance/romantasy inspired by Finnish folklore and mythology. The story begins with two close friends, aware of the dangers lurking and young women going missing, who see a death god and one is taken. From there, the other ventures on a quest to find a long missing Shaman and the entrance to Tuonela to save her friend. Throughout the story, while Aina is in Tuonela she must come to terms with her captivity while forging friendships and devising an escape plan. Siiri, who has ventured north to find the Shaman and entrance, has had to battle would-be rapists, witches, and the elements to reach her goals.

While the book does have an ending that resolves Aina and Siiri's separation, it does not give us a definitive ending to the overarching themes of Christian colonization from the Swedes of the Finns.

I enjoyed the overarching storyline, the sapphic love interests, and Siiri's journey, along with the Shaman. However, this book is described as dark and there wasn't anything dark about it (aside from people that see Finnish mythos as dark in general). It was very contemporary and more a historical romance/romantasy than dark. Aina had to be the most obnoxious FMC I have read in a while though, and I am pretty sure I got whiplash from her back-and-forth attitudes/thoughts/inner monologue. Tuoni was more of an insta-love interest and that was 'meh' for me as well. I did enjoy the characters of the daughters/Goddesses of death.

The narrators did a great job as Aina and Siiri. I think the audio could have been improved with a male narrator performing the bits of Tuoni, as his dialogue wasn't convincing, but that could be the writing and not the narration. I also understand why a male narrator wasn't used as the perspectives of the book are from both women, Aina and Siiri.

I'd recommend this for fans of New Adult romance, and those interested in Finnish mythology without much background knowledge on the subject. Those familiar with Finnish mythology may not find it as dark as they anticipate/want, though.

I absolutely love Emily Rath and her writing it is always pure perfection. At first I was like how is this a sapphic book but once I got to the end I can see how in the second book it will definitely be more sapphic. I think that the two story timelines were very interesting and every chapter had me on the edge of my seat. I am looking forward to the second book in this duology.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for granting me an audio arc of this one.


Firstly i want to say that Emily Raths JacksonVill Ray's series is an all time favourite so I was really excited for this.

However it just didn't hit they way I expected it to.

It's described as sapphic but honestly I didn't get those vibes. It gave more rode or die besties than soul mates. They had little to zero romantic chemistry between them. For all of the 5 pages they had together.

But overall the story was good. Plot flowed well and characters were well developed
The narrators did a fantastic job at setting the scene and portraying the characters well.

Net galley provided me with a audiobook version of this to review for my opinion. And it was soooo good. I love a great audiobook and this story is fantastic. I was so curious because I've read her hockey series, but this was great!

I truly wanted to love this book as I love Emily Rath but unfortunately it did not grab my attention. I read up to 35% and gave up for now. I think this book just wasn't the right one for me at this moment. I will give it another try at another time.

North is the Night is a fantasy that had an excellent premise but unfortunately fell flat. This is Emily Rath's first fantasy book and it was a decent first try. You can tell Rath put a lot care into the Finnish Folklore, and did a really good job of creating this wintery cold atmosphere.

Where this story falls flat is for a few reasons. The first being that this book is too long and really dragged until about the 70% mark, the story really could have used some tightening. Second, I needed more from the Sapphic love story and I would hope this gets explored in the book, but we really don't get to see that come to fruition until the very end of the book and even then it feels one sided on Siiri's part.

I will be picking up the sequel to see if any of this gets addressed and overall this was fine. A good attempt at fantasy from an author who writes why choose hockey romance.

As for the Audiobook I thought it was fine, I am glad with got a different narrator for Aina and Siiri, it also made learning how to pronounce all the Finnish names so much easier. But I found when the book lost momentum, so did the audiobook so I did switch to the Ebook for the last 30% of the book. So I don't think it was a fault of the audiobook specifically but because the story it self could have been 100 Pages shorter.

I think North is the Night is a refreshing and unique idea that fell short on execution.

I tend to be a reader that prefers an evocative and well delivered atmosphere. For a book that is set in a cold and brutal environment, I just didn't feel it. The prose, while pretty, felt lackluster and mundane for me. The Plot and Characters were a step above the atmospheric elements but sadly they only felt mildly engaging.

I do also think, that for my audio book tastes, this one fell short. I felt the narration to be over acted and it pulled me out of the story again and again.

I think North is the Night could work for someone just dipping their toes into the fantasy/folklore genre. For readers who have been immersed in these worlds more widely, this one might feel a bit rudimentary and mismarketed.

Honestly, North is the Night isn't the worst book I've listened to this year, but it's definitely up there. I loved being introduced to folklore and mythology I don't know much about, but overall was just disappointed. Also, this was marketed as being sapphic and that's not correct (and also disappointing lol)

4.5 stars! I loved this book and the audio was really well done. This is a Finnish folklore inspired fantasy and I really loved it.

I was pulled in by the characters and plot and just along for the ride with them. We get death gods, tricks, animal characters along the journey, and searching for a friend. I was highly invested! A little on the long side towards the end but then it picked back up and wrapped it up so well.

I received an audio ALC, all thoughts in this review are my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I don’t recall if I have ever read anything related to Finnish Folklore. I know nothing about Finnish Folklore so I cannot comment on if I felt it was written accurately in that aspect but I loved learning about the gods and goddesses. I loved that there was a sense of culture present as far and scents, food and clothing.

As a fantasy reader that loved the Jacksonville Rays series I can say that I thought Emily’s writing in this book was beautiful. I thought she did a great job with the characters and world building.

I did an immersion read with North is the Night. I read physical and listened to the audio.

I think both narrators did an amazing job. I would definitely recommend the audio book.

This book started with a captivating premise, but as the story progressed, it felt like the author strayed far from the original plot. Siiri clearly has strong feelings for her best friend Aina, but Aina doesn't feel the same—though this dynamic changes later, and it feels forced. Aina is kidnapped, falls in love with Tuoni, a god of death, and gets pregnant after marrying him to save other girls. Yet, she later feels betrayed by fate and resents her situation—despite the fact that she made her own choices.

Siiri, on the other hand, kills two men and pressures a reclusive shaman into teaching her his ways to save a friend who doesn't even love her back. The shaman, who wanted to live in isolation, is forced to teach Siiri against his will. The whole storyline felt off for me, especially considering the gorgeous cover.

Tuoni deserves better, and so does Siiri. Aina is, in my opinion, the real villain here—she drags both Siiri and Tuoni along, has a child she never wanted, and then runs away from Tuoni, who wanted to raise their son. Instead, she forces Siiri to help with the birth and care for the child, too.

The inclusion of Christianity felt out of place and didn't add anything meaningful to the story. Ultimately, this book wasn't what I had hoped for, and it missed the mark for me.

This book is absolutely fantastic! Loved the fantasy, the Finnish folklore and the way she molds the two together. The gods of death I absolutely loved and wanted more of! There is some romance in here but it feels more like a fantasy book than a romantsy book. Hoping there will be a book 2 at some point to see more of this world.

Audiobook was very well done. Narrators made the Finnish words much more digestible. As far as the book itself, it was good but I don’t know if I felt a spark towards the story. The beginning drug on so much and did not pick up until part 4. Although I did appreciate the glossary, the amount of gods and goddesses seemed a bit over the top when they didn't have much to do with the plot. Most of the time I didn’t know who we were talking about. Liked the balance of fantasy and romance. Hoping the set up really delivers for the sequel.

I was sincerely interested and very excited when I got granted the audiobook for this! As someone who moved to Finland a few years ago with a Finnish partner, I was really quite excited to see a book about Finnish folklore, with fantasy aspects and a sapphic romance!
But I found myself sincerely quite disappointed. I DNFed this one at around 54% in because there were just too many things that did not really sit well with me.

First of all, I found it annoying that the narrators for Siiri and Aina really ended up mispronouncing a lot of the Finnish words (notably, the word kantele, within the first chapter, pronounced so strangely my Finnish partner actually did not know what they meant as I repeated it to them). It really bothered me as it felt to me like that's the #1 thing you can work on when you get an audiobook with words in a different language - make sure you nail the pronunciation, and this really just distracted me from the whole story.

Then, secondly, I was looking forward to this being a more sapphic romance, as that seemingly was what it got marketed as. And I saw it with Siiri, the set-up for it was there, and yet as I got about halfway through the book, it felt like there was more of it being alluded to than it actually being there - which could of course still happen, but after about 300 pages I expected more than just vague hints at it, all while getting open, graphic descriptions of one of the characters kissing a man. Repeatedly. Which was a choice, certainly!

And then of course there is also the question of the Sámi representation. The Sámi people are an indigenous and marginalised minority in Finland (and other Nordic countries) that have gone through colonisation, erasure of their language and culture and are currently still being discriminated against. The author managed to make the one Sámi woman in this story a villanous witch and an enemy of one of the main characters, and their people as a whole the "enemy" in general. This was exactly what I was worried about when picking this book up, as it is still such a sensitive subject considering the discrimination and marginalisation are still ongoing, and therefore I found this portrayal of the Sámi quite distasteful. I am by no means an expert, but anyone that has been to Finland and knows of the Sámi people knows that their portrayal is something that should be treated with care and respect.

Therefore, I am unfortunately DNFing this book.

Honestly, I went into this book super blind and enjoyed it at face value. This romantasy debut did
a pretty good job at world-building. This one wasn't my favorite fantasy read, but it wasn't bad either, which is reflected in my rating. Despite the marketing controversy, I found myself rooting for both main FMCs and admired their bravery. I plan to read part two!

As an author, I love Emily Rath, so seeing her delve into a new genre was cool. Excited to see her growth from here on out!

Thank you to RBmedia and NetGalley for this ARC audiobook in exchange for my honest opinions!

🎧 / 3.5⭐️

3 Stars

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the audio - this is my honest review*

I didn’t love this at all - but it wasn’t terrible.

Firstly, i understand that there have been issues with how the book has been marketed as a sapphic romance and I can definitely see the issue. There’s barely anything in here that’s sapphic. You could tell me that Aina and Siiri were just friends and nothing about this story would change (except the one chaste kiss they shared out of nowhere). More to the point, it felt like the stories of each woman was totally separate. Siiri might have been motivated by finding and rescuing Aina, but I definitely didn’t feel that the opposite way.

Aina’s story was so much more interesting to me. Her experiences in Tuonela and with the god of death were interesting, if a little contrived and Mary-Sue. I would have loved to actually stay in this world and explore it properly.

The most interesting thing about this book was the use of Finnish folklore though - I liked that. I don’t know anything about it though to know how good a use of it in the story is.

The historical element of it though - yikes. There’s a lot to unpack in the issues with the Christians, the Swedes and the Sámi. I don’t think these aspects were done well at all and they weren’t used enough to matter.

Overall, I think there were some interesting ideas here that really just fell over in the execution.

*the audio was well done and well acted. Both narrators really made the character even though the dialogue and action/story was very stilted.

I had a tough time getting through this one. The plot felt a bit out of sync, almost like it couldn’t decide if it was trying to do too much or not quite enough. The religious war subplot felt tacked on, like it wasn’t fully integrated into the story—it didn’t carry the weight it could have. Then there’s the relationship between the main characters, which felt pretty one-sided to me. I kept hoping for that spark or depth that would make me fall in love with their dynamic, but it just didn’t get there. I really wanted to love this book, but instead, I was left feeling confused and like something crucial was missing.

3.5⭐️

I find myself torn on how to rate this book. If I am rating on vibes, it’s a solid 4. I really liked the premise of the story and had a good time listening to the audiobook. The Finnish folklore aspect was really fun. I enjoyed the narrator a lot.

Sounds great, right? Why am I torn?

This book could have been cut MUCH shorter. This audiobook is 18 hours long. That seems insane given that it did not feel like 18 hours worth of stuff happened in this book. While I liked the narrator, it was very difficult with the dual POV because if you did not pay very close attention, it was easy to forget whose POV you were in because their voices were exactly the same. The romance between Aina and the god of death was very forced and icky, and I’m not a fan of the pregnancy trope and him using the pregnancy to force her to stay with him. There was also poor imagery - and when I say poor, I mean I was not able to picture anything while listening to this due to lack of description.

ADDITIONALLY, after reading some of the other reviews, this book had a lot more problems on a deeper level that my “vibes” reading approach did not pick up. Naturally I went into this book based on the cover and the fantasy genre with no other preconceived notions about it. Seeing that it was marketed as sapphic is absolutely baffling - while it was obvious that Siiri was in love with Aina, that feeling seemed to not be reciprocated (maybe a little at the end? Honestly it was so confusing) so that was definitely mismarketing. On top of that, there was extreme villainizing of women and anti-indigenous tones. All of this puts a bad taste in my mouth after reading it.

I was leaning towards 4 ⭐️ but have decided to bump it down to 3.5 ⭐️ (rounded up) because again, based on vibes, I had a good time - but don’t appreciate some of the problematic issues.

Thank you so much to RBMedia for an ALC in exchange for my honest review!