DNF, i wasn’t a fan of this story and couldn’t die the life of me get into it. It had an interesting idea and potential.

The start of this made me so close to DNFing, and not because of the story, but because of the writing. It's much more fluffy and decorative than what I'm used to, but I took a step back and tried not to picture everything so detailed, and it worked. I understood more of what was going on when I didn't focus as hard.
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I've never been a fan of the bad boys, but there's something about Mordecai, and it's not his 'Rhys-ishness'. I liked Ember as a character, and how much thought we got behind her actions. I also felt like I really knew the side characters too, and am pretty excited to get my hands on the second one.

I couldn’t get into this book. I tried multiple times and it just didn’t grab my attention. I skimmed through hoping something would grab me but nothing ever did.

So I've started asking for books again on netgalley and this time I intend to read them all. Or try. That's what happened with this one. I swear I tried but ended up skimming through most of it. And my biggest problem was as usual with the characters. I love understanding them and to feel like I'm their head. Even if I don't like a character I don't mind reading about them and from their perspective as long as I understand where they come from. And from the moment that doesn't happen in a book...it's a no for me. These characters felt flat. and the worldbuilding lacking in some aspects. And it had a lot of potencial. Speacilly that dark Prince that reminded me of the Darkling at first.

The main reason I requested this book? The cover. I love the artist who drew it. So talented. I recognized it right away and had to try to read it.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this title, as I could not get into the writing style and I knew it would not be fair for me to continue reading it knowing I would not like it. I think the concept has a lot of potential, so if the writing style is up your alley I definitely think it would be worth it to pick up!

"It’s not hurt that weakens,” she said, tugging on my arm and staring at me with imploring, wide eyes. “It is never hurt. Through blood and darkness, we are reborn.”

This book certainly had an interesting premise - A teenage girl who is fated to be the savior of three separate worlds or realms. On several occasions, I felt as though there was an info dump especially while explaining the history of the worlds and Ember's role in saving it.

My biggest issue was the lack of dialogue. The story leans on descriptions to convey what's happening for the most. What I enjoyed the most was the writing style. In the first scene, the protagonist sees a starry night sky for the first time and the description is nothing short of captivating.

Ember, our protagonist, is headstrong from the very beginning. Not only is she quick on her feet but she's also a fast thinker. The secondary characters were also pretty enjoyable but somehow I couldn't connect with them on a deeper level. I felt like they needed to be more fleshed out and maybe that is something we will witness in the later books. I won't comment on the crescent prince because I feel as though it's better to uncover his character on your own!

On the whole, I think that this series has great potential and I might just end up reading the sequel!

YES YES YES GIVE ME MORE

Looooved this book! That cover is just perfect and the story itself is magical.

Again.. One of those books or ARC I wasn’t able to finish. It hard to let go of a book, to not finish something. But I just cant force my self to read it despite trying several times.. If the first half of the book didn’t intrigued me or atleast caught something then its pretty hard..

Sorry netgalley..

I wasn't sure what to expect when I read Evenfall but it definitely exceeded my expectations. Interesting world building and characters that left me hooked.

sadly, this book was not for me. I didn't connect well with the writing and found it really difficult to keep returning back to. the plot was interesting and the characters had potential but i didn't feel a personal connection to anyone or anything.

A  monster does not deserve the intimacy of a name 

I loved it and this book cover is everything!! .

It was one of those instances when everything seemed to slow down. Not from the kind of magic stored in my pendant. No, it was sheer, utter terror that brought things down to a crawl.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

OMG, why did I take so long to read this book... This was such a great read! I got this book on Netgalley last year and completely forgot about it. I've been reading every book that I have that needed reviewing and came across it again and boy am I glad I picked it up.

World-building: The MC is thrown in a world that she doesn't know and she learns more about it so do we, the reader. Everything is explained calmly and I never had to go back and double check if I read it correctly.

Characters: At first I thought the characters were a little flat and the MC didn't have much of a personality. That opinion gradually changed, but still not quite. Everyone was a little like each other, not in appearance but just on the paper. The MC was the most flat of them all and that was quite disappointing.

Story: This story was a mixture of Grishaverse and A Court of Thorns and Roses with a clever new storyline. It was unique in its own way with little splashes of other beloved books. The magic system wasn't explained that well but I don't even mind. The MC doesn't know much about magic either and you read everything from her point of view so it's only logical we don't know much either.

Overall this was a great read and I really enjoyed myself. I badly want to read the next book! It's getting three stars because the world was relatively simple and the characters a little flat. Three stars seems like an excellent rating for this lovely book.

The book was a fun and easy read. I did enjoy it, but at some points it felt like it was a little it off.

The characters were very well written and the writer did pull you into the world and the story very nicely. If some points had been spread out a bit more, explained a bit better, the rating from me would have been higher.

But in the end, I would still very much recommend this book to fantasy and young adult readers

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I was not sure about this book as I read it. It was a little slow paced and it took a little effort for me to get the complex story line. I had to re-read some sections a couple of times to get some of the details to stick with me.

Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars

Oh man, what a ride! I’m so upset that I sat on this book for so long because it was such a fun read!! The characters in this book are top-notch and I am 100% on board for the second one. Mordecai is everything I wanted The Darkling to be in Shadow and Bone, so don’t mind me swooning in the corner over here.

Admittedly the beginning half of this book was a little slow. I really loved the story and that we’re dropped in this new world with Ember. It was so fun learning everything WITH her and trying to put all the puzzle pieces together. But this also meant a lot of explanations and history lessons of the universe. I didn’t mind too much because what we learn is interesting, but it doesn’t exactly make for an exciting plot.

We do get to meet a lot of fun characters though and getting to know them was my favorite part of the first half! Eriyan and Dantos are my FAVORITE and I can’t wait for more of their banter in the next book!! I also really really loved Ember and felt such a strong connection to her character. She’s not strong in the literal physical sense, but she has a quiet inner strength and a great sense of humor.

When you reach the halfway mark on this thing though, LOOK OUT. Because the plot takes off and I couldn’t put this down! I was literally sneaking reads in the bathroom at work by the end. Mordecai is such an awesome morally grey villain and I LOVED IT. First of all, his name is so cool?? And he was such a layered character, it was so fun to watch his relationship with Ember unfold.

I’m hoping that in book two we get to explore the world a little more. We get some really cool glimpses of it in the beginning, but I couldn’t help wishing for a little more exploration. Understandably, Ember is a tad distracted being on the run for her life and all, so it didn’t bother me too much. But my fingers are crossed for more next time because this universe seems awesome!

↬ FINAL WORD
If you like young-adult fantasy romance books, then you’ll like this too. The characters are awesome and it only gets better the more you read!

I have recieved an ARC through NetGalley by the publisher.
The book was certainly entertaining with its dark magical world and adventutous main heroine. I vvery much liked the forbidden romance between the two leads. At times the pace was too slow and some chapters were just pointless with nothing important happening but overall it is a great read.

To be honest, I had quite the problems with this book. I just checked Goodreads and I started this book in the beginning of October! And I needed ages for the first third. I just couldn’t get into the book. There are several reasons for that, but let me tell you first, that I picked Evenfall back up a few days ago and somehow found my way into it, very easily so. I can’t even say why, but the story finally clicked with me and I read the rest of the book in a matter of hours.

My main problem with Evenfall was the main character, Ember. I’m still not really sure how to characterize her. What do I know about Ember and her motives? That’s a good question. She’s a fast learner and quite brave, but apart from that? Mhhh. You know how they say „show, don’t tell“? Well, Evenfall told me a lot, but didn’t really show me. For example, Ember is always described as being smart and that her only weapon is her sharp mind. It is also often said, that her sharp mind doesn’t seem to be sharp right now because of reason XYZ. But I only saw her not using her mind? I mean, at the beginning of the book she strands in this world foreign to her and this girl shows up and tells her she’s been waiting for her. And Ember just runs away. But Ada, the girl, finds her and after a minimal amount of talking Ember trusts her and seems to call her friend already and follows her around like a puppy. Ember doesn’t really do anything for herself, she just follows other people (mainly Ada) around and adapts to their plans. Later in the book she realized that though and starts to change. Did I say starts to change? I guess that is not entirely true because she doesn’t start, but has a moment of realization and just changes from one second to the other.

Ember starts accepting herself and her powers all of a sudden. Powers she just got the knowledge of but instantly knows how to wield? And other powers she knows slmuber inside her she has to learn anew because she forgot how to use them? I just found the entire transformation to be not entirely plausible. Everything just went to fast from that realization point on, and before it was to slow.

I really liked the Crescent Prince, though. He is one of those characters whose description makes me instantly like them. Sorry, but I’m weak when it comes to the pale guys wearing only black clothes and are cold but actually have something nice inside them. And when I say weak, I mean „holy shit I love him already“. Anyways, he was probably the best written character in the story. I understood him and his motives best.

As for the other characters… I don’t know. There’s Ada, who has quite the temperament and is extremely stubborn. She seems to know everything that is going on in her world and is the leader of a little gang of revolutionists who take Ember into their circle as their savior. Zaphine is very pretty and a skilled wielder of magic and also Ada’s ex-girlfriend. She is the most skeptical of the group and in my opinion an interesting character with much potential, but not a lot of page time. And the boys are rather unimportant? One of them likes to drink and the other is his cousin and his fond of Zaphine. Ok, great.

I won’t talk much about the romance. I don’t think it is unnecessary, but the way it happened was just too fast, too much, too soon. I probably rolled my eyes very hard at some romancy parts. Sorry, but it all starts in the second half of the book, they fall in love and then they part again and I just ???? what even was that?

The story itself is really interesting though. I liked the concept of three worlds that were once one but were ripped apart. And the magic system(s) were really cool as well, I just wish they were more developed.

To summarize it all, I have to say that the second half of the book was so much better than the first, there was more action, more character development and the reader finally gets to know where the book is going. I found the concept of the story to be intriguing, but the characters kind of destroyed it for me. I’m sorry to say that. But unfortunately, I didn’t get warm with the most important characters and that made my reading experience not so fun at some points. The thing is, I still enjoyed the second half of the book a lot, the writing was okay, very easy to read and also very detailed. And even though I did not like the characters very much, I still want to know how the story continues.

A girl thrust into an unknown world, convinced by those who surround her that she is their savior. Destined to help them reunite the worlds and thwart the wickedness of The Crescent Prince. Ember, however, is not nearly as convinced as her friends that she is the person they're looking for. And her doubts about her destiny are only furthered when she unintentionally kills a man intending to harm her. But she doesn't just kill him. She kills him with shadowfire, an ability thought only to belong to The Crescent Prince himself.

It took a while for the plot to get off the ground. Once it got past the necessary worldbuilding and introducing the characters and into the meat of the story itself, I was invested. The writing is descriptive, painting a vast world of magic and intrigue, three dimensional characters with actual personality.

This is the most original book I have read this year. Exciting and gripping and so unexpected. I loved the story telling and the premise, which is something I have never seen before, which is difficult to find when you read fantasy as voraciously as I do. So believable, even in its hard choices. The character interactions and the plot developments rang with truth.

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Genre: YA/Fantasy

Opinion:

“The thing I noticed above all else when unconsciousness released me from its talons of darkness, was that for the first time in my life, I found myself gazing at the night sky.

The second, just as enchanting, yet infinitely more unbelievable, was that the world around me was no longer mine.”

Ember wakes to find the various hues of black, blue and velvet of the night sky staring down at her. Where her world is flushed in light, this new world is flushed in darkness. With no recollection of how she must have traveled between worlds, Ember finds herself exploring a city called Nysa during their celebrated winter solstice. But the warning from a young girl named Ada brings caution to Ember. Their planes have been fractured, broken, and only a child born of the three worlds may have a chance at repairing them. The Crescent Prince seeks the savior, the one, to use in his quest for power and complete control. As a powerful mage, Ada feels that Ember is the one they have been waiting for. As Ada works to hide Ember from the cruel and ruthless prince, they formulate a plan to sneak into his palace to steal one of the three fragments that could keep the worlds from falling apart. But Ember soon finds that nothing is as it seems, especially when it comes to the past.

“But what truly drew my gaze was a fountain of starlight, pure and mesmerizing, a work of art that commanded the space with singular grace.

I was stunned by its simplicity, by the beauty of thousands of minuscule stars, cascading down the three levels before they were drawn up to the top again to repeat the cycle. I wanted to sit down before it, stare at this wonder until the flickering specks were imprinted on the backs of my lids…”

If I was to pick a set of authors to describe a fantastical world to me, it would be these two.
Somraque is a world of night, of starlight and dark shades of color. It is a world that I fell in love with instantly, as did the main character, Ember. Walking with Ember as she explores the city and witnesses the various types of illusions and magic, was exhilarating. The writing is exquisite and beautiful, and it crafts a detailed and pulsing world for the reader to easily visualize in their minds eye. But as bewitching as the writing is, the construction of the plot felt over-drawn and dragged out.

Truth be told..

…I was practically falling asleep during the first half of this book.

About HALF of Evenfall is story building and fillers. For nineteen chapters I was slipping in and out of consciousness. There was some speed-reading, some page scanning for dialogue, and the ever-true sign of a book you just CANNOT get into: I put it down about thirty times. I DID enjoy some aspects of the first half, such as the descriptions of the city and the explanation of the fate of the worlds, but I felt like I was drowning in words that were completely unnecessary. I NEVER thought I would say this in a book review, but the first half of this book was WAY TOO WORDY. It felt like I had lived through the stone age before the story started to pick up and pull me in.

But once I hit chapter twenty, something magical happened.

~*I woke up*~

My advice:

Stay and get to Chapter Twenty.

It will fulfill at least SOME of your dreams.

“A touch so gentle it barely existed, yet it enveloped every inch of me, radiating through my veins and crackling through the very shadows that reached towards the starlight sky beyond the illusion.”

THIS is what I was waiting for! The point when the authors would throw a rope around my ankles and drag me into the midst of turmoil and heartbreak. Chapter twenty is when you will get hooked, when you will swoon, and when you will finally be able to make sense of what is going on. Here we are finally blessed with the prolonged presence of the crescent prince, not just a snippet or two of him. He is dark and mysterious, stone-faced and stiff, but is he…cruel? I just wasn’t seeing it.

“And yet it wasn’t his face or elegant demeanor that stole away my breath. It was the shadows- tendrils of pure silver that seems to unfurl from his body and dance in his wake.
Horrifying. And beautiful.”

For the entire first half of Evenfall characters are telling Ember how horrible and cruel the crescent prince is. That he is a murderer and only craves power. That he wants to enslave her and bend her to his will. But when we finally “meet” him, he just seemed…blah. I was expecting the Beast that trapped the Beauty, the High Lord of the shadows and night, the Cruel Prince with sarcasm and charm. But he wasn’t any of those things. He may have been described in a beautiful way to make anyone swoon, but his character fell flat. For all the time it took to build the first nineteen chapters, I would have expected twice the time to build up his and Ember’s relationship.

But alas, the details and buildup of that relationship was just as quick as my eyes fluttering shut at the beginning of this book.

The relationship between Ember and the crescent prince had barely any beginning before it jumped right into the middle! This man has lived for years upon years in isolation, so how is he so quick to be familiar with Ember being around? A gradual relationship was what was needed for this story. One where the reader could REALLY connect with both characters on a different level. This would have been the opportune time to really sharpen and mold Ember and the crescent prince.

I am left feeling like I know the characters as if another reader had explained them to me, instead of me seeing them for myself. The authors touched the surface of them, but I feel no depth and no kinship to them. I think the only character I TRULY care for in this story, is the dog. And what a precious dog she is! Though I don’t feel a strong and heart-wrenching passion for these people, my interest is still peeked for what happens and the possibilities of what COULD happen. This story ends with a cliff-hanger that DOES leave me wanting more, if only to know what happens to the cruel-but-not-so-cruel prince.

Though my review comes off more negative than positive, I find that I am much more appreciative of this story than I sound. It was creative and beautifully crafted, I just wish there was an even and consistent flow throughout the read. I wanted to be engaged and hooked the entire time while reading, not just for the last half. I am hoping the characters will have a stronger presence in the next story, which I plan on reading. It was a beautifully woven tale of magic and adventure, so hopefully it is in book two where I will really fall in love.