The premise of this book intrigued me, and I felt it did not disappoint. A creepy, gothic, crumbling mansion, a sworn enemy who isn't what be seems, magic, mystery and a little rromanc --this book had it all. Though the beginning of the book was a little slow for me, it quickly picked up as soon as Wren arrived at the mansion and I couldn't.put it down. A really enjoyable and well-done book. Can't wait to read more from this author!

"War had made orphans of them all."
My Rating: 3.75 stars

Down Comes the Night follows Wren who is the niece of the Queen and she is a healer. Wren though as an orphan has always kind of felt unwanted and like a burden to her aunt for different reasons over the years and this has caused her to always be trying to prove herself to the Queen. Wren is a healer and works in the army and while she likes her job she wants more and this chance at more comes at a time when Wren is already in trouble and the Queen doesn't want her to do it. Wren though decides to do it anyway to prove to the Queen that not only is she worthy, but she could also be doing something to end this never-ending war that her country has been in. Wren's new task is to heal Hal and figure out what made him so sick suddenly as it had already killed many other people and the people in the neighboring kingdom needed to figure out why. This is no easy task though especially once Wren finds out who Hal really is. After she figures this out things really start to heat up because now Wren has to make a really tough choice, while also dealing with this mysterious castle owner who has weird rules and very small staff because of the sickness that she is trying to get Hal to recover from.

All of this gets very messy and ends up making the two of them have to work together a bit, but they are both very apprehensive about it for different reasons. Hal and Wren end up having to not only put their differences aside but also risk everything they have in the future to survive and to stop other people from dying senselessly.

Overall I liked and enjoyed this book. It was fun and entertaining and had just the right amount of fantasy and mystery mixed together. The tension between Hal and Wren was just right and we got to learn so much about them, and seeing how the way they interacted changed over time was fun to see happen. You had two people who felt like they couldn't really rely on anyone else because of jobs they had to do, now having to rely on someone else and trust someone else that they didn't know very well in order to stop more wars from happening to stop more people from dying from the mysterious sickness that was happening.
The political intrigue add on to the magical elements and the mystery of the sickness was perfect and I could not get enough of it.

I also really enjoyed reading the different side characters and seeing how they all incorporated together so nicely and how they ended up helping Wren and Hal in the end in different ways was nice to see. For once I didn't notice any pointless side characters and all the ones we really got to know were actually used in the story.

I'm interested to see what Saft writes next as this one was a good stand-alone that was so hard to put down when I had to do other things.

(Read a finished copy from the library)

This book was one of my favorites so far from 2021! A wonderfully immersive page-turner, with just the right blend of horror, mystery and romance. As befits a gothic novel, the cast of (main) characters is small and the setting looms large - an isolated, crumbling mansion high in the snowy mountains, with forbidden chambers, strict curfews, and a mysterious illness that Wren’s been hired to cure. Faced with a treasonous assignment, a growing attachment to her patient, and with the increasingly erratic behavior of the lord who employs her, time is running out for Wren to find a cure and decide on where her loyalties lie. Really well-written and plotted, with an admirable heroine, LGBTQ rep, and great chemistry between all the central characters.

I love that this is a book with lgbtqia+ rep, and the main character is bi/pan, but she doesn't feel badly for having feelings for a guy. That's such a common trope that I am so sick of. The dark atmosphere and haunting writing style bring you deep into the story to lose yourself.

This book was an excellent read. I enjoyed the imagery inspired by Wren’s medical training, the clever use of metaphor to create a palpable atmosphere that soundly placed us in Wren’s head as we explored the haunting, gothic setting.

I also loved the romance, it was visceral and real.

Allison Saft is a real talent, and I’ll be excitedly picking up her next book as well.

Thank you to net galley for providing an advanced copy of this book.

There was a lot of hype surrounding this book and unfortunately, for me, it did not quite live up to it.

The beginning felt way to slow and then the rest felt way to fast.

Hal was introduced as this big bad guy but the second his character actually enters the book it’s like he is a completely different person.

I will, however, say that the main character is likeable and I love that she is bisexual, but it’s not like a huge deal in the book that she is.

Overall, still a fun read but probably won’t be your next favourite book.

This book was beautifully crafted and a brilliant combination of fantasy, romance, and adventure. I'm usually not one for fantasy novels unless they're done in a certain way, and this book certainly swept me off my feet. From multilayered characters, to a well-spun plot, I would recommend anyone looking to support a new and upcoming author to check out "Down Comes the Night" by Saft.

This book had everything I could have wanted from it: gothic fantasy, a dark mystery, a bit of romance, a strong heroine. Wren is a young woman born to a cruel fate. Just about all young people are forced into active duty to the queen. They sacrifice themselves for a war that began generations before they were even born, and that war has no end in sight. Wren is a healer for the military. She is also a bit soft hearted .She wants to heal and help everyone. Her emotions often control her, and she is seen as weak for her compassion in her cruel world. While on duty one day, her compassion costs her everything she holds dear, and now she does not like the look of her future. She can live a life of horror, or she can run. When she receives a mysterious letter from a man from a country that has never involved itself in their war, she has a chance to change her fate. This simple piece of paper and her own difficult choices will help her grow into her full potential. Life will never be easy for her, and never has been easy for her, but at least now she will have a choice. Unable to please the queen, Wren takes a leap of faith and ends up in a dark mansion with a mysterious host and the last person she ever expected is the one she is charged with to heal. Not everyone is as they seem, with hidden agendas and dark desires. There is death in that house, and Wren is not quite sure who it will come for next.

This is a 2021 YA release that was pitched with "love makes monster of us all." I have to disagree as that's not what happened in the book. In fact, love changed the characters for the better. I didn't think this was a gothic tale either. This book, however, could compete with Shadow and Bone (just less remarkable).

The author described the effects of the war, and love+loyalty between characters. There's a lesson buried in the book somewhere. I thought it was: Endless war=lives lost and people suffering.

The romance is another topic altogether. I thought Wren had more chemistry with her childhood friend, Una, rather than her main love interest. I know this book was pitched as enemies to lovers but I wasn't completely convinced. I didn't feel the chemistry at all despite the intimate scenes.

I thought the writing needed to "show" more than "tell." For instance, we know that Hal was described as a monster but we only knew that from his past. This was told to the reader through Wren's perspective. I only remembered Hal using his abilities 3x in the present timeline to protect the main character.

Overall, I expected something different from this book. I thought this was just a fairly good/"okay' read.

*All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own.

I have to say that this Narrator was AMAZING! I will gladly listen to any Audiobook that she narrates for!

This romantic fantasy was full of suspense and intrigue. There is reference to the wars between different kingdoms and the story actually begins in the battlefield but it does not focus heavily on war.

It is a story of relationships, knowing who to trust and deciding what kind of person you will be, standing up for what you know is right, even at the expense of everything you love. It’s an enemies to lovers trope, with just a hint of a love triangle, that will have you rooting for love to win out in the end.

I really enjoyed the story, the characters were well written and easy to connect with. I’d love to see this become a series with Wren as the central character.

I loved this beautifully written, atmospheric book. What an exceptional debut! I look forward to reading more by Allison Saft.

Down Comes the Night is a fun, atmospheric read with a vaguely Victorian Gothic aesthetic. I mean, I do think that the marketing of this as a Gothic Romance will disappoint some folks, because it's really not that at all, but it does have elements of ~Gothic Vibes~ even if the overall story doesn't really fit within that framework. The religion is also vaguely inspired by Wicca, from what I could tell, which I've never seen before but thought was intriguing. It's a very modern high fantasy, set in a world reminiscent of Victorian England that is right on the cusp of the modern era: there's talk of electricity and telephones and cars.

I think you'll enjoy this a lot if you don't think about it too much and just enjoy it for what it is. The magic is never properly explained, and the plot hinges on a contrivance about magic that doesn't really make much sense and is kind of glossed over. The two main characters fall madly in love in less than fourteen days. A lot of things are kind of surface level. But! There's a fun layered mystery, creepy vibes, really really great writing, a solid male love interest, and a heroine who wears her heart on her sleeve. I enjoyed Wren and Hal a lot, and the contrast between their personalities was really fun (Wren is kind of a Sunshine Girl while Hal is Morose and Serious).

There was something very cozy about this story; the writing and characters sucked me in easily, and I stayed up all night reading it. It was such a pleasant reading experience, even if a few things (like the instalove) made me roll my eyes a bit!

This book is a beautifully written gothic fantasy and I did truly enjoy it, however, for me I just wish there was more. I think the author could’ve gone more in depth and I would’ve appreciated that as a reader, because I really did enjoy the story itself but it was just missing that pivotal information that makes me want to live in that world and stay there.

Down Comes the Night follows Wren Southerland - a magical healer for the Queens Guard who is known to be reckless when it comes to her empathy which earns her no favor with the Queen. In an attempt to prove herself she accepts an offer from the reclusive Lord Alistair Lowry to cure his servant suffering from a mysterious illness. Upon arriving, Wren realizes he's not just a servant but Hal Cavendish - her kingdoms sworn enemy who has the power to take his enemies down with his eyes alone.
Hal has his suspicions that someone is playing their warring kingdoms against each other and it's not long before Wren and Hal are working together to discover the truth. While investigating, Wren hurries to discover what is causing Hals illness and the two become closer even though simply caring for one another would be considered treason.

I really wanted to love this. The description drew me in but unfortunately, it just didn't deliver. I expected a gothic romance with suspense but it was more a murder mystery with fantasy elements than anything else.
I wasn't the biggest fan of Wren. From the beginning she's prone to making bad decisions which doesn't necessarily change very much over the course of the book.
In regards to the romance, I was quite disappointed. I love the enemies-to-lovers trope but in this case it didn't work for me. I liked Hal and Wren together but the romance between them just wasn't believable. Wren was awful to Hal a majority of the time which is a huge contrast to how compassionate and soft she's made out to be in the beginning. Maybe if we had seen more of Hal the chemistry between them would have felt real.

I did love the use of magic but would have liked to learn more about the magic system and the world. The book is quite descriptive which while not a bad thing ended up making it feel too long. There were times I was hooked and couldn't put it down but other times it felt as if the story dragged.

Honestly, I am not sure if it was due to my recent book slump or because I was just not into the story but this ended up being a DNF for me. While I was interested at first, I quickly became uninterested in where the the story was going. I may revisit this one in the future. This was not really for me but it may be the right book for someone else! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to access this title.

I wanted to love this book and maybe it not the right time for me to read this book, but I couldn't even get past 21% point in this book. It felt like a lot of fluff for this book and I get it we are setting up a whole world and everything, but nothing was keeping me reading I was forcing myself to read this book and I just can't do it anymore. Maybe I'll pick it up in the future and love it but as of now this book is a no go for me personally, but if you love slow burns and a winter setting maybe this book is for you.

When Wren Southerland uses her healing magic to help an enemy, she is banished from her beloved Queen's Guard and away from her best friend (and the girl she loves), Una Dryden. Wren soon receives a letter from the mysterious Lord Lowry to heal his servant, who turns out to be none other than her enemy Hal Cavendish. Wren must work with Hal to figure out the secrets behind Hal's illness, as well as what Lord Lowry is truly plotting.

I fell in love with Wren from the first page — in the fantasy books I've read, the female protagonist's strength is defined by her ability to be cold and calculating. Wren is anything but — she's someone filled with so much heart, who works incredibly hard, and keeps trying to look for the best in others. I also loved how well-developed Hal's character is — he's someone who has been through so much and still keeps giving others chances. Allison Saft crafted a thoughtful and complex cast of characters that I loved getting to know. I also thought the plot was well-paced and frequently found myself going "just one more page and then I'll study" (spoiler: I finished the book before I even started revising my notes). I would highly recommend this book!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

My Rating 4⭐️

Two countries on the brink of war, soldiers going missing, magic, and a whole lot of mystery are what fill the pages of this gothic tale.

Bravo to Allison Saft for this beautiful story. I enjoyed every minute reading this book.

I especially appreciated the themes of forgiveness, mercy, and that emotion makes us strong. These are the things that separate us from monsters ‘when the night falls’.

The characters were memorable and I appreciated the inner journey Wren, the main character took throughout.

I had trouble with the pacing at times. The build of the story created the perfect amount of mystery and set the rest of the story up, but there were pets that felt incredibly rushed or glossed over.

I had a hard time accepting that Wren and Hal’s relationship as they seemed to overcome a lot of country prejudices very easily.

Also, the end seemed rushed and quite frankly unbelievable. Why the change of heart so quickly from one of the characters? Especially with things being one way the entire story.

I would also have loved to know more about the magic in this world. It was highlighted briefly, but I was unsure what the different Magics were and how people had what ability, etc.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, and look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you for the advanced reader copy. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

Down Comes the Night was absolutely outstanding. Wren Southerland is the bastard niece of the Queen of Danu, reviled by her own family for her passionate emotions that dictate her actions. When Wren uses her healing powers to heal a prisoner who escapes, Queen Isabel removes her from her post--and from her commander and best friend, Una--and costing Wren everything she's worked for. But Wren spies a chance at redemption when she receives a summons from Lord Alistair Lowry, an eccentric noble who begs Wren to come and heal his servant after disease has ravaged his household. Against the orders of her Queen, Wren races to Colwick Hall, but she's floored when the mysterious patient turns out to be Hal Cavendish--a notorious killer and her country's greatest enemy. Cavendish soon proves to be the least of her problems, as Wren soon discovers a horrifying plot behind Colwick Hall's forbidding and terrifying halls that could catapult her world into war. The only way to stop it is for Wren to embrace her compassionate heart and to team up with Cavendish before Colwick Hall claims her as its next victims.
Have you ever read a book that gripped you from the very start with a deep love connection? Like you instantly know that you are reading one of your new favorite books ever for the first time? That has been how I have been feeling since I read the dedication of this book: "For all the girls who feel too much." Man, that hit me in my feels. In this world, we're taught that women with big emotions are weak or unstable. Most YA heroines are detached or impervious to this, but not Wren. Wren is compassionate, emotional and messy, but she is so real. She feels everything and feels it in a big way. Those around her think her weak or reckless, but they don't see that that is her greatest strength. I relate to Wren more than I can relate to many YA heroines in this genre. I loved seeing her become more self-assured and confident, and embracing all of the facets of who she is to get to the bottom of what is going on at Colwick Hall. Wren's journey is a portrait of a life of someone who feels things deeply and who is an empath and many of the struggles we face. I say we because I identify with Wren in this way.
So my love for DOWN COMES THE NIGHT is super personal but Y'ALL. This book is just THAT good. One of the best gothic fantasies (and general fantasies) that I've read in a long time. Saft is extraordinarily talented as a writer. She has a fantastic mastery of characterization, atmosphere and tone as she takes us through Wren and Hal's story. Speaking of Wren and Hal: LOVE THEM. I love how Wren and Hal love each other for the very reasons their world despises them. The banter between them was something I lived for. I thought the plot and the mystery behind Hal's illness was really well thought out and it didn't take me where I expected it to. Lowry was also a fun villain to enjoy, and by the time I reached the end of this book, I had a hard time putting it down. I loved it with every fiber of my being. DOWN COME THE NIGHT is certainly my favorite read of March, if not of this entire year. Saft is one of those authors to watch and I highly recommend this book.

I have to start by saying that this was unexpectedly great. I'm not generally a romance reader, so I went into this read a bit apprehensive. The synopsis sounded so good, but I worried I was setting myself up for something I knew I wouldn't like based on my own reading preferences, but apparently I worried for nothing because this was really enjoyable.

One of the greatest strengths of Saft's writing is the ability to create atmosphere. As one would expect from something marketed as gothic, most of the story operates in the dark and creepy setting of a crumbling mansion on a mountaintop. It's always dark with fog and snow muffling the little sun that could seep in through the grimy windows during the day and a combination of flickering electricity and wavering candlelight with little reach at night. Additional sensations heighten the sense of place, like how moisture in the air can make it hard to breathe or how the smell of wet earth can cling to your clothes. It's all very effective at placing the reader directly into the story itself and keeping them there.

Similar skill applies when creating tension. There are several moments throughout the story where our protagonists find themselves trapped, cornered, imprisoned, or otherwise facing seemingly inescapable danger. There's a nice balance between instances where the danger happens suddenly and surprises the reader and instances where the danger slowly builds creating incredibly tense situations that just become worse and worse until the reader simply cannot look away from whatever terrible thing might happen next. Throughout this read I repeatedly found myself getting sucked into the "one more chapter... okay, need to see what happens so just one more..." routine, yet I was never mad at it. There was always a payoff and I was always having a good time.

A few other things I appreciate about this book:

-The characters are interesting and pretty reasonable, all things considered. Saft avoids all the typical dumb character moments that can be so frustrating as a reader and instead lets her characters act logically and in the best interest of their goals.

-The villains are actually villainous and behave accordingly, which is refreshing. We see a good balance of characters worthy of redemption arcs and those who aren't, which adds a whole new level of depth to the story, especially for a YA novel.

-Saft crafts a magic system that is basic and doesn't require a ton of backstory or info dumping to understand, but which still makes sense. The reader can pick up how things operate very quickly and without putting in a ton of effort, which I can't appreciate enough.

-Yay for queer rep! Especially excited for bi rep! But there is something I have to address- I've seen some complaints that because the primary romance (yes, there is more than one) is straight passing, it diminishes the representation somehow?? I'd like to remind those people that just because someone is in a straight passing relationship, doesn't mean either party is suddenly actually straight. Let's not contribute to erasure please/thanks.

-Somehow made me care about a romance storyline that is fairly prevalent throughout the story??? I generally don't enjoy romances, but can tolerate them as subplots. But the romance is a huge part of this book! And not only did I tolerate it, but I was fully invested! I formed opinions and truly cared about the outcome, in the process experiencing all the emotions that go along with it! So basically Saft is a witch, I guess is what I am saying???

To sum, this is a well-written, super fun debut and I would highly recommend it for readers looking for an easy read that still takes you on a full ride. Nothing too convoluted, nothing you have to think about too hard, but a high-tension, incredibly atmospheric story about soldiers on opposite sides of a conflict falling in love while working together to solve a mystery and try to broker peace between their nations. SO FUN!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.