Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Wednesday Books (2021), 400 pages
Description
Fantasy. Romance. Historical Fiction. Young Adult Fiction. HTML: "Narrator Saskia Maarleveld displays impressive vocal versatility in this gentle fantasy...Maarleveld captures each character and immerses listeners in the gothic setting of the sinister manor. Her intensifying pace and warm tone perfectly express the slow-burn romance that blooms between Wren and Hal as they work together to save their kingdoms." �?? AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner He saw the darkness in her magic. She saw the magic in his darkness. Wren Southerland's reckless use of magic has cost her everything: she's been dismissed from the Queen's Guard and separated from her best friend�??the girl she loves. So when a letter arrives from a reclusive lord, asking Wren to come to his estate, Colwick Hall, to cure his servant from a mysterious illness, she seizes her chance to redeem herself. The mansion is crumbling, icy winds haunt the caved-in halls, and her eccentric host forbids her from leaving her room after dark. Worse, Wren's patient isn't a servant at all but Hal Cavendish, the infamous Reaper of Vesria and her kingdom's sworn enemy. Hal also came to Colwick Hall for redemption, but the secrets in the estate may lead to both of their deaths. With sinister forces at work, Wren and Hal realize they'll have to join together if they have any hope of saving their kingdoms. But as Wren circles closer to the nefarious truth behind Hal's illness, they realize they have no escape from the monsters within the mansion. All they have is each other, and a startling desire that could be their downfall. Allison Saft's Down Comes the Night is a snow-drenched romantic fantasy that keeps you racing through the chapters long into the night. Love makes monsters of us all A Macmillan Audio production from Wednesday Books "A YA fantasy classic in the making." - Christine Lynn Herman, author of The Devouring Gray "Fans of Leigh Bardugo's "Grisha Trilogy" and Marie Rutkoski's "Winner's Trilogy" have been waiting for this Darkling-esque romance." - School Library Journal (Starred Review… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member WhiskeyintheJar
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
War had made orphans of them all.
Down Comes the Night is a standalone story marketed as young adult, fantasy, romance, and Gothic. I don't often venture into
“It’s uncomfortable, yes, to be so aware of you.” Good, she wanted to say.
Suffer with me.
The story is told from Wren's point of view and she is the illegitimate daughter of the queen of Danu's sister. With her mother and father both dead, Wren is sent to a holy cloister until she is twelve years old and then sent to the military academy to train in the medical corps as her magic heals. There she meets Una, and with a little hero worship in their relationship from Wren, they become friends and eventually have one night together before Una declares it can never happen again because she is Wren's superordinate in the military. When three soldiers of Danu who were patrolling the border between Danu and Vesria go missing, one who happens to be Wren's friend, the queen sends Una and Wren to investigate. Wren's sense of mercy allows a lead to escape and she ends up getting punished by the queen and sent back to the holy cloisters, feeling let down by Una. There she receives a letter from Lord Alistair Lowry III, a noble in Cenos, asking her to come help cure a servant and use her status as an almost royal to work as a liaison between their countries as he wants Cenos to side with Danu and defeat Versia. Wren, wanting to finally prove her worth, goes against the queen and Una and leaves to help the servant.
Something was undeniably rotten in Colwick Hall.
Wren arrives in Cenos, around the twenty percent mark, is where the Gothic tone creeps in more as Lowry lives in a dark and forbidding castle that is rumored to be haunted. It started off with Gothic promise but I'm not sure it was fully sustained but if this is written for young adult minds, then the howling and mystery of the closed off East wing could hit the mark for them. When Wren goes to heal the servant, she discovers that the servant is in fact Hal Cavendish, The Reaper of Vesria, a soldier that has killed thousands of her country brethren and supposedly in line to become the ruler of Vesria. While at Colwick Hall, Wren discovers that Hal's sickness and Lowry are not all they seem and she finds herself growing to care for Hal as she battles the desire to deliver Hal to the queen and become a hero in the queen and her country's eyes.
But it would never be simple. He was Vesrian, and she was Danubian.
I thought around the fifty percent mark, when Wren finally begins to trust Hal as he says that he is also investigating disappearances but of Vesria soldiers, that the pace started to slow down. The newness of the world ebbed and I started to look for more depth behind certain elements, the queen's obsession of clocks, the queen herself, the war, Severance (taking away someone's magic), and world itself. Wren trying to figure out what exactly is going with Lowry had her going in circles for too long and then Wren and Hal running from the castle felt needless and pointless to the overall plot. At first, the story felt set in some kind of fantasy medieval time but when it moves to Cenos, it switches to Victorian, which with Cenos supposed to be more technologically advanced, I guess could make sense but really it just made the fantasy and Gothic elements not mesh right and neither ended up feeling developed fully.
I believe you, he’d said, with more trust and affection than she thought she’d ever deserve. Now she had to believe in herself.
The author's messaging was clear, endless wars cause horrible suffering, the lies from leaders at the top usually have self-serving purposes, and mercy and caring are not weaknesses. Wren and Hal getting to know one another and dispelling rumors and lies about each other, clearly built up their friendship. Their attraction had sweet moments that I thought fit into young adult but their physicality sometimes leaned into New Adult for me. The messaging was good but I thought it got lost in some slow pacing that could have been trimmed up. As fantasy novels usually come in trilogies though, Down Comes the Night does deliver a good story in a one-stop.
War had made orphans of them all.
Down Comes the Night is a standalone story marketed as young adult, fantasy, romance, and Gothic. I don't often venture into
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young adult but I was surprised when there was a sex scene in the last ten percent of the story, but maybe this isn't unheard of. The characters are around nineteen which, with the overall tone, made me think this fit more in New Adult, just less sex than I'm used to seeing in that sub-genre. With our characters having magic abilities, Wren, who is our main protagonist, can heal and Hal, the enemy-to-lover, can kill with his eyes, the fantasy element was there. The world building gives us three countries, Danu, Vesria, and Cenos, with Danu and Vesria currently in a truce after warring for centuries. This is why the military ranks are full of young adults, as there has been mass casualties on both sides. The war seems to be about religious differences and power struggle between the magic empires. Cenos has remained neutral as their citizens don't have magic abilities. “It’s uncomfortable, yes, to be so aware of you.” Good, she wanted to say.
Suffer with me.
The story is told from Wren's point of view and she is the illegitimate daughter of the queen of Danu's sister. With her mother and father both dead, Wren is sent to a holy cloister until she is twelve years old and then sent to the military academy to train in the medical corps as her magic heals. There she meets Una, and with a little hero worship in their relationship from Wren, they become friends and eventually have one night together before Una declares it can never happen again because she is Wren's superordinate in the military. When three soldiers of Danu who were patrolling the border between Danu and Vesria go missing, one who happens to be Wren's friend, the queen sends Una and Wren to investigate. Wren's sense of mercy allows a lead to escape and she ends up getting punished by the queen and sent back to the holy cloisters, feeling let down by Una. There she receives a letter from Lord Alistair Lowry III, a noble in Cenos, asking her to come help cure a servant and use her status as an almost royal to work as a liaison between their countries as he wants Cenos to side with Danu and defeat Versia. Wren, wanting to finally prove her worth, goes against the queen and Una and leaves to help the servant.
Something was undeniably rotten in Colwick Hall.
Wren arrives in Cenos, around the twenty percent mark, is where the Gothic tone creeps in more as Lowry lives in a dark and forbidding castle that is rumored to be haunted. It started off with Gothic promise but I'm not sure it was fully sustained but if this is written for young adult minds, then the howling and mystery of the closed off East wing could hit the mark for them. When Wren goes to heal the servant, she discovers that the servant is in fact Hal Cavendish, The Reaper of Vesria, a soldier that has killed thousands of her country brethren and supposedly in line to become the ruler of Vesria. While at Colwick Hall, Wren discovers that Hal's sickness and Lowry are not all they seem and she finds herself growing to care for Hal as she battles the desire to deliver Hal to the queen and become a hero in the queen and her country's eyes.
But it would never be simple. He was Vesrian, and she was Danubian.
I thought around the fifty percent mark, when Wren finally begins to trust Hal as he says that he is also investigating disappearances but of Vesria soldiers, that the pace started to slow down. The newness of the world ebbed and I started to look for more depth behind certain elements, the queen's obsession of clocks, the queen herself, the war, Severance (taking away someone's magic), and world itself. Wren trying to figure out what exactly is going with Lowry had her going in circles for too long and then Wren and Hal running from the castle felt needless and pointless to the overall plot. At first, the story felt set in some kind of fantasy medieval time but when it moves to Cenos, it switches to Victorian, which with Cenos supposed to be more technologically advanced, I guess could make sense but really it just made the fantasy and Gothic elements not mesh right and neither ended up feeling developed fully.
I believe you, he’d said, with more trust and affection than she thought she’d ever deserve. Now she had to believe in herself.
The author's messaging was clear, endless wars cause horrible suffering, the lies from leaders at the top usually have self-serving purposes, and mercy and caring are not weaknesses. Wren and Hal getting to know one another and dispelling rumors and lies about each other, clearly built up their friendship. Their attraction had sweet moments that I thought fit into young adult but their physicality sometimes leaned into New Adult for me. The messaging was good but I thought it got lost in some slow pacing that could have been trimmed up. As fantasy novels usually come in trilogies though, Down Comes the Night does deliver a good story in a one-stop.
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LibraryThing member Allison_Krajewski
Down Comes the Night is the debut novel from Allison Saft, and it was the perfect book for the gothic, YA fantasy, enemies-to-lovers vibe I was feeling.
The plot was interesting, overall. Even though I was able to predict the main important plot point waaaay before Wren or Hal, and as a result, the
Generally, I liked the characters. I liked Wren well enough, even if her character came off a little flat sometimes. It was also cool to have a bisexual MC as well as a lesbian side character (representation is so important). I liked Wren's friendship with Una; it was complex and raw and frought with tension (spoiler: but they were able to resolve their issues...eventually). Hal was also a complex character who I adored. He had this tough outer layer, but once Wren pulled back his thorny exterior, he ended up being sweet and kind and so much more. Queen Isabel and Lord Alistair Lowry were a little harder to swallow, but that was the point of their characters -- and they were well written as well.
I thought the author's writing style was good, if a bit flowery. There were some instances where I felt like the author either repeated herself (to point out emphasis for a particular plot point) or just described something too much.
I will say that, even though there seem to be a few things that I didn't like, there was much more that I really enjoyed in this book, and it was exactly what I needed to get me out of my slight reading slump. I will definitely be looking forward to the next books by Allison Saft!
3.5 stars, rounded up.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.
The plot was interesting, overall. Even though I was able to predict the main important plot point waaaay before Wren or Hal, and as a result, the
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middle seemed to drag for me (though some of it is quite possibly a result of personal stress that equated into lack of focus for reading...). The one thing I didn't like, however, was that I was hoping for more of a gothic vibe -- Wren's initial time at Colwick Hall was creepy, but over time, it started to feel a little superficial.Generally, I liked the characters. I liked Wren well enough, even if her character came off a little flat sometimes. It was also cool to have a bisexual MC as well as a lesbian side character (representation is so important). I liked Wren's friendship with Una; it was complex and raw and frought with tension (spoiler: but they were able to resolve their issues...eventually). Hal was also a complex character who I adored. He had this tough outer layer, but once Wren pulled back his thorny exterior, he ended up being sweet and kind and so much more. Queen Isabel and Lord Alistair Lowry were a little harder to swallow, but that was the point of their characters -- and they were well written as well.
I thought the author's writing style was good, if a bit flowery. There were some instances where I felt like the author either repeated herself (to point out emphasis for a particular plot point) or just described something too much.
I will say that, even though there seem to be a few things that I didn't like, there was much more that I really enjoyed in this book, and it was exactly what I needed to get me out of my slight reading slump. I will definitely be looking forward to the next books by Allison Saft!
3.5 stars, rounded up.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.
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LibraryThing member jmchshannon
Down Comes the Night is Allison Saft’s debut novel. As a debut, it is a perfectly adequate story involving two war-torn countries on the brink of another disastrous war and two enemies who learn to look beyond the surface to see the truths lying underneath. As an enemies-to-lovers fantasy, there
To me, Down Comes the Night is really more of a coming-to-age story. Wren must find her path as she waffles between her love for her best friend, wanting acceptance from her aunt, and following her heart. The story is Wren’s journey as she uncovers secrets, learns some hard truths, and discovers love where least expected.
The romance within Down Comes the Night is sweet but lacks any chemistry between the two characters. Even one very intimate scene is missing the heat one expects with such tropes. While I still enjoyed the trope, I missed the butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling a steamy, chemistry-laden relationship creates.
All of this reiterates that Down Comes the Night is a decent debut novel. After all, it follows a predictable path with one or two minor surprises to jolt you out of any sense of complacency. Ms. Saft’s writing is basic and simplistic, but I do think she shows promise. With a little maturity and more experience, I believe Ms. Saft has the makings of a good writer of young adult fiction.
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too is it acceptable. While the story fails to wow you, it does enough to entertain as it drives home its lesson that emotions are not a form of weakness.To me, Down Comes the Night is really more of a coming-to-age story. Wren must find her path as she waffles between her love for her best friend, wanting acceptance from her aunt, and following her heart. The story is Wren’s journey as she uncovers secrets, learns some hard truths, and discovers love where least expected.
The romance within Down Comes the Night is sweet but lacks any chemistry between the two characters. Even one very intimate scene is missing the heat one expects with such tropes. While I still enjoyed the trope, I missed the butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling a steamy, chemistry-laden relationship creates.
All of this reiterates that Down Comes the Night is a decent debut novel. After all, it follows a predictable path with one or two minor surprises to jolt you out of any sense of complacency. Ms. Saft’s writing is basic and simplistic, but I do think she shows promise. With a little maturity and more experience, I believe Ms. Saft has the makings of a good writer of young adult fiction.
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LibraryThing member sennebec
I picked this up after reading Allison's new book because I greatly enjoyed it. This is equally rewarding with two main characters who are prisoners of their past. Wren's impulse to heal gets in the way of the rigid expectations of her aunt, the queen, as well as her best friend and commander, Una.
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Hal is equally victimized by his history of murderous actions on the battlefield. When circumstances force her to heal him in a sinister and mysterious mansion, under suspicious circumstances what follows in the process makes for a darn good read with plenty of intrigue and a dandy ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member Carolesrandomlife
I liked this book but have to say that it was very different from what I expected. I guess I made a few assumptions based on the cover that didn’t quite pan out. That’s okay because this was a very worthwhile story that was definitely worth a read. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by
Wren is a healer who really wants to make people feel better if it is in her power. She loses her position in her unit for not following a command and decides to take an offer to care for someone at the home of a powerful man. She hopes that her work could also help bring some peace. She finds that the man needing care is none other than the Reaper of Vesria who happens to be an enemy of her kingdom. As she gets to know Hal, she finds that he is very different than what she imagined.
I liked the characters in this book. Wren had a lot of spunk and I loved how brave and caring she proved to be. Hal had a very interesting story of his own and he was a genuinely nice guy underneath everything. I thought that they were great together and enjoyed seeing them work together to achieve their goals. This was a fantasy and I really liked the extra abilities we say in some of the characters. The mystery was incredibly well done which helped to make this a very engaging read.
Saskia Maarleveld did a fantastic job with this story. I thought that both her male and female voices were well-done and I liked the fact that she added just the right amount of emotion to her reading. I really felt like she brought this story to life and I found myself wanting to listen to it for hours at a time. I believe that her narration added to my overall enjoyment of the story.
I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be a very entertaining read with great characters, just the right amount of romance, and an interesting magic system. I do hope to read more of this author’s work in the future.
I received a digital review copy of this book from Wednesday Books via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library.
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Saskia Maarleveld, which proved to be a great choice since she did a fabulous job with the narration.Wren is a healer who really wants to make people feel better if it is in her power. She loses her position in her unit for not following a command and decides to take an offer to care for someone at the home of a powerful man. She hopes that her work could also help bring some peace. She finds that the man needing care is none other than the Reaper of Vesria who happens to be an enemy of her kingdom. As she gets to know Hal, she finds that he is very different than what she imagined.
I liked the characters in this book. Wren had a lot of spunk and I loved how brave and caring she proved to be. Hal had a very interesting story of his own and he was a genuinely nice guy underneath everything. I thought that they were great together and enjoyed seeing them work together to achieve their goals. This was a fantasy and I really liked the extra abilities we say in some of the characters. The mystery was incredibly well done which helped to make this a very engaging read.
Saskia Maarleveld did a fantastic job with this story. I thought that both her male and female voices were well-done and I liked the fact that she added just the right amount of emotion to her reading. I really felt like she brought this story to life and I found myself wanting to listen to it for hours at a time. I believe that her narration added to my overall enjoyment of the story.
I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be a very entertaining read with great characters, just the right amount of romance, and an interesting magic system. I do hope to read more of this author’s work in the future.
I received a digital review copy of this book from Wednesday Books via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library.
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2021-03-02
Physical description
400 p.; 9.45 inches
ISBN
1250623634 / 9781250623638