Down Comes the Night, By Allison Saft ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Fantasy, Gothic Fiction, LGBTQ, Mystery, Political Intrigue, Romance, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 2nd, 2021

400 Pages

Synopsis: A gorgeously gothic, deeply romantic YA debut fantasy about two enemies trapped inside a crumbling mansion with no escape from the monsters within.

Honor your oath, destroy your country.

Wren Southerland is the most talented healer in the Queen’s Guard, but her reckless actions have repeatedly put her on thin ice with her superiors. So when a letter arrives from a reclusive lord, asking Wren to come to his estate to cure his servant from a mysterious disease, she seizes the chance to prove herself.

When she arrives at Colwick Hall, Wren realizes that nothing is what it seems. Particularly when she discovers her patient is actually Hal Cavendish, the sworn enemy of her kingdom.

As the snowy mountains make it impossible to leave the estate, Wren and Hal grow closer as they discover a sinister plot that could destroy everything they hold dear. But choosing love could doom both their kingdoms.

Allison Saft’s Down Comes the Night is a snow-drenched, gothic, romantic fantasy that keeps you racing through the pages long into the night.

Down Comes the Night is a lovely gothic tale that reminded me of Daphne du Maurier and Guillermo del Toro. I have to admit it took me a little while to warm up to Wren, but once the setting moved to the castle and she connected with Hal, I found her much more relatable. The world building is very well done and I especially found the political strife interesting. Add in an intriguing murder mystery with a lovely romance and I was pretty much hooked by the end of the first chapter. Allison Saft’s writing style is also beautifully descriptive which further pulled me into the story. As far as I can tell, Down Comes the Night is a standalone, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel as I was left wanting more. Overall I unhesitatingly recommend this to anyone looking for dark gothic fantasy that’s filled with political intrigue, self-discovery, mystery, and romance.

 

Family Fridays #23

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Family Fridays

Happy Friday Everyone! I hope you’re all safe and well. Today’s post will be the last Family Friday, at least for now. There’s only so much more ranting I can do about ignorant, selfish people who eschew health guidelines. Not really much is changing here in Alabama with the news being a mixed bag of good and bad. The good: numbers are still down and Governor Ivey extended the mask mandate. Since the original mandate was put in place July 16th, the percentage of positive COVID-19 cases have declined from 17% to 8%. The bad: Many of the outbreaks are centered around colleges and universities where students are ignoring guidelines. Not helping are things like the University of Alabama ordering its professors to not inform students if a classmate has tested positive. 

For this week’s positivity I’d like to share this ingenious invention from Allen Pan. I swear if he gets all the bugs out I’d consider buying one of these!

Let me know how you’re doing, and have a nice weekend everyone!