"When Night Breaks" by Nanella Angeles is absolutely 'Spectaculore'!!! From the great world-building to the exquisite, hidden messages from 'Phantom of the Opera', 'Moulin Rouge', and 'Hadestown', this book was a wonderful conclusion to the 'Kingdom of Cards' duology!!!

DNF @ 36%

I tried. I really did. But this book is just too long and too boring for me to try to push my way through. I read a third of it and absorbed nothing. It's time to walk away.

I ADORED Where Dreams Descend when I read it, so there was no chance that I wouldn't love When Night Breaks. That being said, I was surprised and thrilled by the direction the plot took and the way that this book built upon the first. I had been dying to get back to Kallia's story and I was thirsting for more information about Jack (which we get in spades!). Also Janella Angeles's writing is lyrical and lush and so evocative throughout the book. Highly recommended!

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for granting me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced review copy of “When Night Break” by Janella Angeles. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

I thought the first book in this series was alright so I picked up the second book. While there are some interesting aspects to the world and the beginning of the second book especially was very compelling, I just haven’t been able to finish this book. I have gotten 40% through and have tried both physically and trying to read via audiobook and it’s just not happening. I look at how much of the book that I have left and it’s still basically an entire book at 2x listening speed even though I’ve gotten through 40%.

The first book at least made some sense. This sequel is for people who really loved the first book and want to spend a ton more time in the world. I don’t know if this was supposed to be a trilogy that got squished into two books but that’s definitely how it feels. It starts off strong but then devolves into convoluted nothing.

I know the author posted a lot on social media about having trouble debuting during the pandemic and then working on this book also during the pandemic. It kind of feels like this book fell through the cracks when it came to editing attention. There were many repetitive words and phrasings. It should have been shorter or at least tightened up the plot rather the aimless wandering between POVs.

I just can’t get through this book. Fans of the first book will probably like getting to spend so much time in the world in the second book but that’s just not me.

2/5 stars

This book really built on the first! I enjoyed the continuation of the characters more than anything, the plot was a bit come and go for me. I saw it fall back on a lot of the YA stereotypes near the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of When Night Breaks.

I absolutely adored Where Dreams Descend when I read it in 2020, so I was very excited to see it's follow up in the Kingdom of Cards duology had been released. Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. It lacked a lot of the magic and excitement that made that first novel so special. The first half of the book moved so slowly with hardly anything happening, and while I enjoyed the second half, it didn't make up for the dullness at the start. The ending was good, but predictable, as well.

Anything Phantom of the opera is perfection. And this story is no exception. In the second installment of this series, I was overjoyed with the outcome .

I wanted to like this duology and I DO like it, but that's just it. I feel like it needed to be fleshed out a bit more. Like you never really get more info about who her parents are and I'm still a little confused about how she even ended up with Jack to begin with. Just felt like there were missing plot points, because the story felt more focused on the relationship aspect. To me, at least. Still an interesting take on magic and a fun, feisty female lead with a respectful male lead if you wish to give it a read.

A good way to complete this series. Magical and really gets you into the setting. The characters were just as good as the first book.

I was so excited to read this book, as I loved the first one, and it did not disappoint! The story was so well-written and I loved the dimensions to the different characters.

What a great ending to an awesome duology! It’s so underrated and I’m hoping more people will jump on this bandwagon! Fans of The Night Circus and the Caraval series will enjoy this!

A thrilling conclusion to the masterpiece Where Dreams Descend.

Angeles’ writing continued sweeping me off my feet into this fabulous world of magic and mystery. The first 70% is slow-burn, but it didn’t feel slow to me. I adored the new, darker mirror world of the Glorian we experienced in the first book. JACK really shone, and solidified as my favorite character. Vain and the Diamond Rings were a delightful addition, and the whole thread of mirrors as portals/windows into the real world was gloriously done.

The only reason this isn’t a five-star review is the last 20%. SO much happened, I couldn’t keep track of it all, and all the delightful depth we’d experienced with Jack petered out. I’m a Kallia + Jack stan, so of course, I’d have loved the ending to be different. Alas. #justiceforJack

All in all, I’d highly recommend this duology for fans of Phantom of the Opera, The Night Circus, and Caraval. I can’t wait to see what Janella Angeles writes next.

Immense gratitude to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc!

-A

This book was an okay conclusion to a wonderful first book. So I was slightly disappointed. Like many people, the ending was not for me. But the writing and world building was beautiful.

Absolutely loved the second book in this duology. I was the perfect ending to an already great story.

I loved how Kallia and Daron progressed and grew as people. The story line was phenomenal.

I will definitely keep my eye out for more Janella Angeles books!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for the review copy!

This is a story about what happens after the dreams descend.

I think this was a fine sequel, but I didn’t connect with it the way I did the first book. It was well done in that it wrapped things up, but I missed the dynamics from book 1. I think this might work well for readers who are looking for a conclusion & were more dedicated to the world/plot vs the characters.

Thank you Netgalley & Wednesday books for the earc!

I can't believe I am saying this, but this book is a MESS. Wow I am dissapointed. I liked WHERE DREAMS DESCEND and thought it was a solid debut, so I was excited for this one especially considering where book 1 left off. I can't say much without spoiling, but there is a BIG twist early on in this book which would have been great if a.) it remained consistent with the mood/story of book 1 and b.) that it was executed properly. Neither one of those two things were the case here. I applaud the author for trying, but honestly this book came off as completely confusing and a little pointless. It certainly didn't flow with book 1. At all. The characters, while more nuanced versions of themselves were shown which I appreciated, were all over the place and any character development from book 1 was thrown out the window. And honestly, I got to the point where I was just tired of reading it. The premise of aforesaid big twist was promising, but it was left unfulfilled, which is a shame. I hate downing on someone's work and I still think that Angeles is great, but this sequel was a hard miss for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is an amazing sequel and a stunning conclusion to this amazing duology. I adored the characters and their growth, and the new characters were interesting and added to the story well. The plot, for the most part, was amazingly done and furthered the story. The only thing that I disliked is how repetative that it felt at times, and how the two main charecters spent most of the book together and kind of grew apart, and it felt like they were kind of unnaturally shoved back together. Overall, this was a well written and good book that I really enjoyed. 3.5/5 stars from me.

So this wasn't my favorite out of the duet. I liked it well enough, but for my tastes, there wasn't enough interaction between both main characters. I felt like they didn't have any good interaction and for my romance loving heart, it meant they didn't have any good chemistry between them. I just felt like this book dragged during the beginning and it took me a little while to get into the groove of this book and I just felt like it didn't live up to the first book. I liked the end half of the book more than the first, but yeah. I recommend checking it out because it was a good read, I just felt like it didn't live up to my personal expectations. But I liked it enough to give it 4 stars because the book was good and interesting, and I liked the characters. but after really loving book 1, this wasn't my favorite.

When Night Breaks is the second book in the Where Dreams Descend duology. The first book follows Kallia, a magician who has been lied to her entire life and wants to finally make it on her own and prove she is the most powerful magician at an extravagant competition. This book starts almost immediately after where book one left off, after the magic competition.

I would like to disclaim that I think this author is the sweetest and I did enjoy book one. I think I would even consider trying a book outside of this universe in the future! Unfortunately, this book was not it for me. The parts that I really enjoyed about book one (the wit, the found family, and the romance) felt absent to me, and what I didn’t like about book one was even more present. The characters didn’t have the same voice (I read WDD a year ago, so this could be on me for remembering them wrong), and explanations to the many questions of the mysterious world and backstories felt vague, unanswered, or flat.

I think that, while I did not enjoy the way this duology played out, the world and the premise of the plot had a lot of potential! I also think I would still recommend Where Dreams Descend as an enjoyable standalone to readers who like light fantasy, magicians, and romantic tension!

This was a difficult review to write, and I've been holding onto it for a while. I finished reading the book before the publication date, but I had so many mixed feelings about When Night Breaks (WNB). When I finished the first book, I was so excited about WNB because Where Dreams Descend (WDD) ended on a cliffhanger. It felt as though a silent promise was made. WNB would up the ante; WDD was just a sparkler compared to WNB's fireworks. With regard to world-building, WNB fulfills its promise. The world was superb. Angeles's vivid descriptions painted a place I imagined to be similar to Las Vegas with its bright lights and people who never sleep. This world was even more dangerous than it was in Glorian, and a whole lot creepier.

As much as I love the world Angeles created, characters play a significant role. Kallia and Jack have always been the most interesting characters. The trials Kallia goes through in the first book are nothing compared to what she has to overcome in WNB. She's smart. She's stubborn. She's strong. She's a survivor. And also increasingly frustrating. I can't fault her for remaining true to her character in WDD, but I couldn't help feeling like I wanted to conk her over the head.

Jack is a morally grey character. I know I shouldn't have, but I loved him. Angeles wrote him so well that I couldn't help it. I wanted more Jack, and I got more background on Jack, but he was hardly present. Kallia and Jack did not interact as much as I hoped they would, considering their current predicament. It was their relationship I was hoping would be fleshed out, but I was disappointed when it wasn't explored as much as it could have been.

Overall, my expectations were only partially met. The story was also less engaging and became repetitive at times. I love the unique world Angeles created, and I loved Jack even more. We get Jack and some of his story, but his relationship with Kallia doesn't get the resolution I crossed my fingers for. Even when it wasn't the resolution I hoped for, I still wanted some sort of finality and closure, but it doesn't happen. Ultimately, I have a love-hate relationship with the duology. I may reread WDD in whole again but might not be able to do the same for WNB.