Really enjoyed this book. Fast paced with many twists keeping on my toes. Unpredictable which I love. Some very new and interesting concepts for me that made me pause and go hmm. The idea of a mirror world the idea of a land for souls that are stuck and the ability of a young girl to cross over. Loved the character of Ada always true to herself and her friend always wanting to do the right thing and doing it despite overwhelming influence to not. She had stronger character than anyone else and was someone I liked to connect with. Great book. You will enjoy the ride

While the description sounded really interesting, this book just wasn't for me. The writing didn't really suck me in and the dialects of some of the characters were rather stereotypical and off-putting in some places. None of the characters were developed that well and the different storylines didn't really seem to come together. Rather, the author seems to rely on sensationalism and shocking the audience with gratuitous sex and violence.

My main problem with this novel was that it touches on some sensitive subject areas, like rape and self-harm, but they are neither not seriously explored or even romanticized. For this reason alone, I would recommend this book to come with a trigger warning.

I did not finish this book. The structure was very strange and the pacing was way too slow. After a while I just got lost and forgot what it was that I was supposed to be reading.

This book really drew me into its pages. Its beautifully written, filled with poetic and lyrically satisfying sentences that blossom in your minds eye.
In its description from the publisher it was described as reminiscent of The Witching Hour by Anne Rice and The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. I totally get the Witching Hour part - the story has a lot of the same elements; Southern Gothic with witches and seductive ghosts. There's even the mature blond woman seduced by an evil presence and a young red haired girl with latent powers.
Evening's Land is a very Very dark tale. I don't really believe in trigger warnings, but if I did this would have a lot of them.
I fell in love with the characters. Ada is such a wonderfully nuanced person. The story centers around her and her best friend Faye who committed suicide. Ada moves in with her parents in an old antebellum house after the traumatic event and soon discovers that she can communicate with ghosts and travel in the collective consciousness - a place known as Evening's Land. The restless spirit of a young man reaches out to her. The two become entangled in a web of desire and death - with a sinister group of devil worshipers also trying to control Ada's powers - led by the enigmatic Oliver Roamery. I really loved his character too - there was something very old school Dracula about him - both his ambition and his old Gothic mansion and his sinister mesmerizing ways. Oh, and Christopher - the sexy-maybe-friendly ghost;) Ada's mom also stood out to me, there's something so frail and beautiful about her. The search for love at all costs. Or was it really lust at all costs?
A couple of things made this not a five star review. I felt that the end of the story wrapped up a little to abruptly and there were some grammatical errors that sort of drew me out of the reading flow. I really hope these things get fixed in print because its really such a small detail, but it can be so distracting to a reader. Maybe it was just the e-book format that muddled up the text.
I do feel like I need a printed version of this book - and luckily I work at a bookstore:) I will try to order it if it exists in printed format.

After her best friend's suicide, Ada Walker moves with her parents to Charleston, South Carolina. They have their own issues and don't always see what's happening to Ada. There is a ghost in the house that appears to her, and she has some kind of psychic gift that allows her to access the collective unconscious of the world, known as Evening's Land. She isn't the only one able to do so, and the others that are aware of her plan to use her ability for their own purposes.

The tagline says that this book has the "dark elegance of Anne Rice" and "lush parallel worlds of Neil Gaiman." Being a fan of both authors, of course, I would try to read this book.

While the characters all have their own motivations, the way the story is told makes the beginning rather confusing. There is the current plot alternating with chapters outlining the past with Faye before her suicide, which would be fine if it wasn't told from varying points of view. I had no idea there was going to be graphic depictions of violence, drug use, rape, self-harm, suicide, and human sacrifice, and it felt like all of these elements were thrown together because it had to be "dark" and "edgy." The ghost didn't seem to be "rakishly handsome," but manipulative, selfish, and just as awful as everyone else in the book.

This was a quick but not very pleasant read, and by the end, I really wasn't interested in what else might happen to the characters.

West's writing is so gripping. The book grabs you from the first page and does not let go. The language and sex scenes might be a turn off for some readers, but this book is no less wonderful for it. The beginning is entrapping, the middle is spellbinding, and the ending is superb. The cover is so beautifully done and the artistry spills into the pages of the book.

I instantly fell in love with the cover of this book, as you undoubtedly have too.

I personally don’t think the synopsis for this book gives you an accurate idea of what to expect, above all else: this book is weird.

It explores themes like death, friendship, lovers and parental relationships but also... ghosts.

The author masterfully tells this story from the perspectives of several different characters, across different timelines, and still manages to pull it all together that it makes sense and enhances the story rather than over complicating things.


Ada, the main character, is trying to get her life back together following some pretty traumatic events (all of the trigger warnings). It’s not really going so well as her parents edge closer to divorce and she finds out that her neighbours have connections to a Satanist cult.

She’s not the perfect protagonist by any means, with plenty of her own weaknesses, but she has a unique view of the world that was wonderful to read.
My favourite character was Mary, Ada’s mother - obviously, she’s in a far-fetched situation but her predicament is a very human one and I found that her chapters grounded the story a lot when Ada was dealing with more otherworldly matters.

I don’t really want to give much away, given how mysterious the synopsis is and how enjoyable the ride was, so I’ll just tell you to keep an open mind when reading this book and roll with it- you’ll be glad you did!

Multiple POV and chronological jumps means this title takes a lot of focus to enjoy .
An atmospheric tale with lyrical prose saves it from being a dud, but I don't know if I'd buy a copy. It definitely has an audience and I have no regrets reading it but I can't say I loved it.

This story is beautifully written and all of the characters are unique and interesting. Ms. West does an amazing job of creating chemistry between her characters. The reason I only gave it 3 Stars is because the ending was rushed. It was such a descriptive novel with tons of details and then it just ended quickly and left many open ends and questions. What happened to Faye after Roamery gets her? What happened to Jupiter while she was possessed? What was happening to Mary during the ritual? What happened to Christopher? So many questions left unanswered.

Evening's Land was set up to be everything I should love in a book. The cover art is great. The story starts out strong and mesmerizing. Who isn't fascinated by ghosts and the idea of possession by one? Each character goes through some pretty traumatic things to determine who they are. Then, we reach the main character's mother. She is painfully selfish. I found myself losing interest when she meets the equivalent of the old dude at the goth club who thinks he is Lucifer himself.

This a good book, don't get me wrong, but it's just not for me in the slightest.

Evening's Land is a very dark story that is not for the faint of heart. It touches on a variety of very real themes in life that most authors would have a difficult time writing about in one book, to include suicide, drug abuse, rape, marital affairs, and devil worship. On top of this, the author throws in some fairly complex supernatural parallel world building. The main character, Ada, comes across as pretty naive. She was pretty easily manipulated by other characters. I felt like I had a hard time understanding what her intentions were because she was being driven by the actions of others. There is some resolution with Ada by the end of the story, but it was very difficult for me to feel good about this considering everything else that has happened. I had a hard time picking out the happy times and the glimmers of hope. Maybe that was the author's intention. I like dark stories, but this one was a bit too dark for my taste.

This book felt a bit disjointed and I had a hard time following the story. I felt like there were too many plot holes. The only character I got a real sense for who they were and what drives them was Mary, so I suppose she would be my favorite character, as flawed as she is. The rest of the characters fell flat. I really wish I liked this book more. I do love the cover art though.

I couldn't get into this one. In the end, I didn't finish it. Sorry.

Evening's Land by Pauline West
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the author herself for providing me an updated version of this manuscript for review. Some of the formatting issues were resolved nicely.

That being said, I need to rave a little bit about this book. It's like being handed a good W. H. Auden poem and learning that it has been turned into an erotic dream full of ghosts, a suicide, occultism, and sex, sex, sexy sex.

I normally don't seek out things like this, but let me be honest here: I thought it was all damn tasteful even if the directions it took was always there to push your limits.

Do you like seduction taken on a grand scale? Do you like concepts like evil and sacrifice mixed with your sexytime? Do you like playing with death as you play with your lover, at least in the pages of a tale? Then this is for you. Definitely, this is for you. It's beautifully written and lyrical and it assumes you've got a great vocabulary. No dumbing things down for any of us! The arousal permeates the pages, but beyond that, I was equally fascinated with the Evening's Land itself, the dreamscape where the dead come back and haunt (or seduce) the living.

This is a real trip, and poetical to boot.

I've seen some people say that this book is full of trigger warnings and that is absolutely true. If you have ever been in abusive relationships or absolutely controlling ones, you'll feel the shock of it here, especially since Mary welcomes it with open arms; infidelity and naughtiness being absolutely key.
And Faye's suicide is equally dark, but for different reasons, and we get that PoV very strongly, too. Ada's relative innocence becomes a rather wild abandon as she tries to work through her main story.

Even so, this is an adventure of life and living and excitement and art. It may be interspersed with all the darkness, too, but it's so hard to separate one from the other. In that respect, it's very close to life. :)

The author doesn't coddle us. She speaks her mind and her characters push a lot of boundaries, perfectly willing to make us, as readers, uncomfortable. But... I say this is wonderful. :) This is what good literature ought to do when it forces us down these fantastic paths of the human heart and experience.

This is very cool fantasy.

Admittedly, I read a few reviews of this book before starting it. I am always looking for an author at the caliber of Anne Rice and any books containing vampires, witches, similar to those of Ms. Rice. With this comparison being stated about this book multiple times, I gave it a try. Unfortunately I found it nowhere near as well written as stated, and ultimately did not finish it. Only my opinion.

Evening's Land reads like a fever dream. All delirium and confusion and warped physics, toeing the razor's edge of the familiar and the otherworldly. This is a story about recovery, about coping with possessing an intimate knowledge of death, and living with destructive habits and cravings.
It's an ambitious book for sure, and Pauline tackles a number of themes, exploring areas that authors typically avoid. I'm going to throw a warning out here, which I don't usually do, but this story warrants a caution label. If you are disturbed by themes such as psychological trauma, suicide, depression, rape, sexual abuse, self-harm and death, just be aware of what you're getting into. Like the maps of the 13th century stated where the parchment faded to blank nothingness: "Here there be monsters." You'll find monsters both abstract and actual aplenty in Evening's Land.
I'm a Southern girl, born and bred, and the scenes in this book evoke the South so vividly I could feel the sticky humidity and the heat, hear the drone of the insects and smell the peculiar scent that is unique to antebellum houses. Bravo for the living and breathing atmosphere. My fiance spent years in Charleston and gave two thumbs-up to the descriptions of that historic city, and one telltale grimace at the mention of the nuisance palmetto bug, which is so big that it rivals the Carolina Wren for its status as South Carolina's state bird!
Speaking of evocative scenes, I was hooked when I read the segment about Roy Northcutt's ill-fated fishing trip with his Uncle Bob. At that point I realized what bizarre and surreal treats were in store for me and couldn't be dissuaded from devouring the remainder of the book. These sorts of scenes pepper the pages at intervals; the scene from Early's Bait Shack was another one that will stick with me for some time. Both of these were just so well crafted that I can close my eyes and see what happens, and smell the grease from the grill and the smell of the cheap greasy spoon coffee and Winston's cigarettes. Southern folklore is a powerful storytelling force, and it was a pure delight to feel it resonating through some of the vignettes here.
The characters run the gamut from powerful and terrifying to victimized and pitiful, but what they all have in common are their addictions. Each of them craves something so badly that they become single-minded and destructive in their struggle to have it. Craving and reverie, desire and fixation, these form the the lattice that this story wraps around.
What impressed me the most was how easy it was to relate to the emotional and mental struggles of each character, no matter how selfish or destructive they might be. I might as well have been sitting across the table sharing a pitcher of amaretto sour with them; their justifications for wrongs done and poor choices made were so true to life.
I come from a background where, unfortunately, many of these issues are familiar territory. The aftermath of suicide, the justification of self-harm, the instability brought about by the repercussions of adulterous affairs. All of the many, many excuses, roundabout rationalizations, and denial created to justify the destruction. I could even relate to the ghostly Christopher and his yearning to escape the house that tethers him. His desire to just be free to feel. I empathized with Faye's misdirected anger and desire to see her closest friend suffer as she did. Ada's desire to have just one more opportunity to get it right. To be able to hit the rewind button on life and try the path that was not taken.
The descriptive blurb compares the story to Anne Rice's "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" and Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" but for me it read like the morbid younger sister of Caitlin R. Kiernan's earlier works, and I would recommend that Kiernan's fans investigate this book and the author's other offerings. I could happily re-read this, and intend to purchase a copy that I can pass around to my family members.

I received a digital reader’s advance copy of this book through Netgalley. What drew me to this title was the description: “The dark elegance of Anne Rice’s THE WITCHING HOUR meets the lush parallel worlds of Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN series.” I did not read the description any further before I requested an advanced reading copy. Neil Gaiman is my favorite writer and I would jump at reading anything recommended by him or compared to his writing. And Anne Rice’s popularity and reputation as a writer of ornate prose and attention to detail makes her a notable name among modern fiction writers. So when this book was described as Anne Rice meets Neil Gaiman, I immediately wanted to read it.

And I was not disappointed.

I was drawn in from the very first paragraph. One of the things I love most about Neil Gaiman’s writing is that his metaphors and descriptions make you stop in wonder and amazement at the way it makes you see something in a new and different way. Pauline West’s writing has a similar feel, creating a sense of awe and wonder as it draws you deeper in the story and the lives and struggles of the characters. The metaphors and descriptions hooked from the very beginning: “…his uncle was a big, barrel-chested autocross king, with a scrim of curly red hair that could have upholstered a sofa, and dancing ladies tattooed up both his arms—”. And in describing the first taste of beer “[t]he first gulp was like blood and nickels. The next came sweet and bready and light and suddenly it was going down like Missouri sunshine.”

The story is about a young woman named Ada who has a supernatural ability to open up a doorway between our reality and a dream reality called Evening’s Land. It is about how Ada holds on to her best friend whom she had lost to suicide after a terrible trauma. It is about a young woman coming to terms with her life after trauma and heartbreak, and learning to let go after desperately trying to hold onto a life that no longer existed. She encounters people, other-worldly creatures, and even the dead, all eager to use her and her abilities for their own ends at whatever the cost. As she comes to terms with her powers, she also comes to terms with her sexuality and with the death of her friend.

Pauline West’s writing is beautiful, full of poetry and prose, and near-perfect metaphors that really get at the moods of the moment. Her writing flows easily and masterfully from one imagery to the next, drawing you so deep into the story, you would think you’re right there watching it all unfold. I often came out of a reading session a little dazed and wishing I didn’t have to put down the book to attend to my other responsibilities. The main narrator is Ada, the point-of-view through which most of the story is told, but West uses the points of view of several other characters throughout the book to clarify plot and setting and to increase tension by giving the reader information that the main character does not have. I finished reading the book in less than five days (and I would have finished sooner if I didn’t have to work and sleep).

I must add that this novel is rather dark, dealing with suicide, rape, sexual and mental abuse, and satanism. It is not a light read for the faint-of-heart or for someone with a sensitive constitution (or someone who is easily offended).

This novel comes out on February 20, 2017 and I highly recommend a read!

This review is going to be so very hard to write. Not because the book was good, it was very good, it is because I am going to have a hard time not giving away some major that happens in the book. So I am very carefully editing what I am writing here (I have already deleted 3 starting paragraphs but will be keeping this one).

I think the author did a great job highlighting what happens after someone commits suicide. What happens to the people who are left and how it strains relationships/friendships. I really wanted to hug Ada because of that trauma. No one should find their best friend dead.

I also wanted to hug Faye. She had a crappy home life. A father who seemed to disdain her and a mother who went along with it. The whole hiking trip in the cave nailed that for me and showed me why Faye took the risks she did and why she basically clung to Ada. I think that’s why she broke when she was raped.

Not that Ada had it any better. Her mother slept around, her father was an enabler and Ada started cutting as a direct result of that. So, when she found Faye, it pushed her over the edge. I think her parents did the right thing by moving her across the country so she could heal. Too bad that they couldn’t fix their own issues.

I think if I fell into the Land like Ada did, I would have done the same thing. I would try to find Faye’s soul and try to pull her out of her Purgatory. And I think I would have been as surprised as Ada was if I met a boy in the Land and I would have been even more surprised when he appeared in my bedroom and started to seduce me.

Speaking of Christopher, I was so wrong about him. So wrong and I got so mad at myself for being wrong. I really wish that he didn’t do what he did because it really pole-axed me and definitely changed the story. Want to know what it was??? Read the book, you won’t be disappointed.

The Oliver Roamery storyline was a truly scary. I got goosebumps when he appeared in the story. He is one of the most genuinely creepy characters written. Evil just poured off of the pages when he appeared.

When all 3 storylines (plus the secondary storyline with Mary and Jupiter) meet, it is explosive. Again, read the book if you want to find out how/why it was explosive.

This book was told in 1st and 3rd person but the author did a great job of distinguishing not only who was speaking but what time frame. The whole first half of the book was basically flashbacks starting 3 years previously and alternating between Ada and Faye. Once Faye commits suicide, no more flashbacks, obviously but then the author switches to 3rd person to start the Oliver Roamery storyline.

This book is erotic but I liked that the author chose not to go into the details of when people were having sex. Just flashes of memory, which actually conveyed more than a whole paragraph would. The only time she got wordy was when Ada and Christopher were making out/Mary and Oliver (belch).

The end of the book wasn’t what I expected, at all. I am still shaking my head over it.

How many stars will I give Evening’s Land: 5

Why: This is the first Gothic fantasy that I have read and I have to say, I loved it. The author has an almost lyric style of writing and she keeps you very engaged throughout the book. The story and sub storylines were brought together with a bang and the book ended with a bang.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes but with a warning about the suicide scene and the rape scene

Age range: Adult

Why: Language, Sex (forced and consensual) and mild violence

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

This book has a very dark story line for the most part, dealing with suicide, sexual abuse and satanism in the heat of Charleston, South Carolina. It is essentially about is a girl trying to bring her lost friend back from 'Evening's Land', following her suicide.

The writing is lovely and descriptive but I am unsure who this book is actually geared towards as it reads very much like a young adult story in places, especially with regards to Ada and Faye's relationships with the boys. However, the adult/family relationships are very well written indeed and totally believable.

I really liked the friendship between Ada and Faye, and the family dramas, but I wish there had been more of the Gothic horror and more time spent in Evening's Land itself.

Overall I enjoyed the book, and the ending is very good.

Thanks to the author and to NetGalley for this ARC in return for my honest review. This book isn't for the faint-hearted. There are so many dark characters and dark deeds but you have to just immerse yourself in this world. The writing is so lush and beautiful-I felt the heat and humidity of Arizona, South Carolina and Mexico. The setting just puts you in the right frame of mind for this gothic horror set in present day. The ending was a little abrupt-just like the ones in horror movies. I wanted to know-what happens to Ada now? In the beginning of the story, Ada has moved to Charleston with her parents after her best friend's suicide following a brutal rape. Ada discovers that she has the power to see into Evening's Land (afterlife? not sure) and becomes determined to find her friend who she feels is trapped there. Trust me when I say that I have not ruined one iota of this book by telling you that much of the story. There were a lot of twists, turns and characters that I still didn't know how I felt about them after the story was over.