I can see how this would be an enjoyable read for others but respectfully, it’s not for me. I did not end up finishing this but I thought I’d leave a short and to the point review. I highly recommend if you’re interested in an action-packed fantasy!

Thank you so much, Orbit and NetGalley, for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me hooked right from the start! It was witty and very fast-paced. The battle scenes were very well done, the characters were engaging, and there also appeared to be some political intrigue in the story, which I really enjoyed. Also, the twists in this book were amazing!

There was also some non-binary representation in the book, which I think was handled very well. I really enjoyed the character of Blair, as they had been extremely funny (I found myself chuckling quite a bit with them!), and had been very informative without being info-dumpy.

The Echoes themselves were very interesting. Every time the clock chimes, you get sent down to another Echo, and I found myself getting interested in which Echo world you got sent to next. Each Echo world also came with something dangerous, whether it was a swarm of beetles or a dangerous fog, which made them even more intriguing!

Would I recommend this book? I give it a huge resounding YES, and it's perfect for reading in December and January, as it's set during a New Year's celebration!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e- Advanced readers copy of the book! Overall interesting premise and fun story.

Imgur link goes to Instagram graphic scheduled for Jan 7th
Blog link goes live January 10th
Will be covered in upcoming Youtube wrapup
Amazon and Barnes & Noble Reviews submitted

**TL;DR**: This one caught me by surprise but it’s SO creative!
**Source**: Netgalley - Thanks you to the publisher!

**Plot**: Kembral comes to a party to relax and that’s not at all what happens
**Characters**: The characters were fun, sometimes over the top but not the strongest for me.
**Setting**: This was where this book shined. The different settings and where the party ended up? 10/10, I couldn’t wait to see where we went next.
**Magic**: The magic seems simple on paper but Melissa Caruso does some truly magical things with it. I loved the execution here.

**Thoughts**:

The Last Hour Between Worlds surprised me. As one of the last books I read in 2024 I really left on what feels like an appropriately themed and executed high note. Kembral is a Hound, someone who can search out and retrieve people and things who fall between dimensions. She’s on maternity leave at the moment and is forced by her sister into getting out of the house and attending a new year’s party. It’ll be fun! It’ll be relaxing!

It was neither one of those things. The party is the stage for a game between powerful beings and as it slips further and further from the Prime dimension and gets weirder and weirder it’s up to Kembral to stop it. This book absolutely shines on how creative and how well executed this idea was. The Prime dimension, where everything is normal is where we begin but after that the following dimensions? Unhinged. From eyeball trees to quicksand streets I loved what Melissa Caruso did here. This felt fresh and unique in her willingness to go there.

Once we started slipping further into the mess of the plot I was hooked, and didn’t want to put this down. If you want something with a fascinating and wild magic system? I can’t recommend it enough. There is a sapphic relationship that plays into it and is actually very important to the overall plot but man, that magic and those settings! It was a great end of year read.

P.S. As a Mom who has lost children I do not usually enjoy reading about other Moms and their kids being at risk. But the way the author executed this? I wanted to cry. Thank you.

DNF at 20%. Was getting bored. Story wasn’t hooking me in and writing was nothing interesting. Worldbuilding introduced left me scratching my head in confusion.

Stars: 4.5/5.0
I swear starting books that aren't yet completed series will be my downfall BECAUSE WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO WAIT TILL AUGUST FOR THE NEXT BOOK??? I'M ALREADY MISSING KEMBRAL AND RIKA.

I've said this in a couple of my reviews recently, this year has been a weird funk for me and reading. I've been in a slump for most of the year. With the past few books, I've hoped those would get me back into it, but I know that this book is officially the one to pull me out of the slump. Funny enough, I got the ebook for The Obsidian Tower a couple years(?) ago now, but I hoard my ebooks like I'm a dragon and those are my treasure so I can read those when I can't get to my physical library, but I will certainly be starting this book ASAP now after reading this book.

On to the book now, I'm going keep the actual review kind of sparse as it's definitely a "go in blind and enjoy the ride (descent?)", but if you want a blend of urban fantasy, murder mystery, and queer romance, where you are definitely just thrown into the world and slowly build it from there, but it also isn't overly complicated and easily going to leave you falling behind, this is a great pick up! You aren't going to be fed clues ahead of our MC for the most part like a crime story. It certainly paces like a fantasy book. The romance is not the main point of the story too. It's a subplot that slowly builds throughout the story.

There are a few elements I hope to see more of going into book 2 since we didn't get to see them much in book 1. Kembral is a mother to a 2 month old and the exhaustion is getting to her. I hope since Kembral is back with Emmi that we see more exploration of motherhood, being a single mother, etc. I hope that with this too, we see more depth from Kembral overall. She definitely fits the archetype "the badass" but I want to see more than the stereotype from her.

I will say, I live for the theatrics. So, I will whither away while waiting for where Kembral and Rika go next, but this isn't a story that leaves you on an insane cliffhanger. You aren't left with insanely large questions, what ifs, and what abouts. Just a need for Kembral and Rika to get sleep. Overall, I am patiently (read impatiently) waiting for it to be August 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to orbit books and the author for an advanced copy of this book

This was an insane ground hog day combined with an insane inception type time travel, with a type of crazy matrix element where you just watch all your coworkers die over and over again in different ways and you’re the only one that can stop it. Also your postpartum.

This was a really interesting concept. And I did find it engaging at times but also felt like I needed to spend time checking myself back into the story. It is very character driven and the pacing was a little all over the place.

Read if you enjoy chaos

The Last Hour Between Worlds is a new take on portal fantasy and I really loved the world. I do think that the groundhog's day trope did not do it justice though. About halfway through, I started to become bored of the same story with a different set of clothes for everyone. I wish that Caruso picked a different story to tell within the world. Regardless, it was a fast read.

I mentioned this book in my list of the top ten books I read in 2024. Here's what I said on Bluesky and will say on other social media: The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso is modern day fantasy with gorgeous and elegant worldbuilding and a great queer protagonist.

I loved that the two FMCs were no only rivals but experienced members within their guilds. I thought that the premise for the book was intriguing as you don't know who all the players are and the grandfather clock was a neat artifact within the 'game'. With the grandfather clock's reset there is a bit of 'Groundhog Day' that occurs so I'd skip if that concept isn't your jam.
I would have loved more world building around the Echos because I found the levels, artifacts, and such really interesting. While we don't get as much world-building as I'd like, we do get a lot of the relationship dynamic fleshed out within the FMCs as well as some of the other characters mainly within Prime.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced ebook of this book. I apologize that it took me so long to sit down and read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!!

A surrealist closed door mystery that's as odd as it is enticing. A revolving, resetting murder game where the topside mortals are unaware they're playing pieces, more focused on ejoying their New Years' party than recognizing how awry the evening has gone. A game of cat and mouse between two feuding rivals with a complicated history of flirting and betrayal.

☆☆☆☆☆

Kembral "Kem" Thorne is a Hound, a member of the investigation guild and damned-good at her job. Presently on maternity leave, she jumps at the chance to attend a fancy party—even of the overly stuffy variety—to finally get out of her house. Longing for life's simple pleasures like a full night's sleep or in this case adult conversations.

The idea of motherhood sounded enticing to our protagonist, but the reality... let's just say it left a bad taste in her mouth. Loving her child Emmelaine, yet hating the lack of her old, adventurous life finding lost souls and flitting between dimensions made her new reality more than a little difficult. Her ex dumping her after finding out about their soon-to-be kid also didn't help things.

Kem isn't working this evening. Honestly, she isn't. Please stop asking...

She's only here to enjoy herself for a few hours, before returning to her kid and isolation. The surprise addition of her rival from the Cat guild—spies and burglars all—to the guest list and a series of murders throws a bit of wrench in that plan. Murders that start and restart like <i>clockwork</i> with each new reality just a bit askew from what came before.

Rika Nonesuch is also incredibly skilled at her job and a continuous <i>thorn</i> in Kem's side. Once the pair would test each others skills and wit while flirting, yet all the changed during their last run-in before the baby came. A palpable connection bounced between the pair of rivals, a set who while attempting to thwart one another's plans still had time to offer little kindnesses or a flirty aside. But that was <i>before</i> and things are oh so different now.

Part political thriller part murder mystery, this novel is a delightful read for those searching for a twisty tale of intrigue and lies. Fans of rival romances will also enjoy themselves, envision the iconic DC batcat but make it sapphic! Falling through time as it loops again and again and again, will Kem solve this mystery before neither she nor the party goers can escape?

All Kembral Thorne wants is a night off from responsibility, but she's not going to get it. Usually a member of an investigators guild known as the Hounds, she's been on leave for a few months caring for her newborn child. Tonight, she's attending one of the biggest parties of the year and trying to enjoy an evening of not being a mother. What she gets instead is a party under attack; even worse, the party appears to be caught in a time loop. Somehow unaffected by the memory loss that comes with the time loop, it's up to Kem to unravel the dark ritual that's ensnared the party. And to do that, she'll have to enlist the aid of Rika, her archnemesis from a rival guild of thieves.

The Last Hour Between Worlds is a fun puzzle box of an adventure. I really enjoyed the elements of Kem trying to work out the rules of the time loop. What resets every loop? Who loses their memory? Who's behind the ritual? And how do we break the loop? This is all wrapped up in the additional complication that every loop, the party enters a weirder, more surreal version of their world, adding new dangers to the situation. To top it off, there's only so many loops that will happen until the manor - and everyone in it - is wiped out for good.

(A quick aside, I loved how every chapter heading featured a clock with a moving hour hand so you could keep track of which number loop you were in. It also creates tension as you see the hand getting closer to what will be the final loop where things become Extremely Dire.)

It's not just investigative work moving the story forward, there's some great action sequences. The party keeps coming under attack from different sources, creating some great set pieces as Kem and her allies have to fend off incredibly dangerous foes. These beings are so powerful that it becomes less about outright killing the enemy, and more about how to stall them long enough for time to run out and the loop to reset. I do love clever heroes, so watching the team come up with creative solutions was great.

What didn't quite land for me was the romance subplot between Kem and Rika (and it is a subplot, this is not a romantasy). This story essentially takes place over one night; even with Kem and Rika having a pre-existing history, it's hard to nail that kind of relationship building in that short a window of time. I think my biggest frustration may have come from the fact that there was clearly a misunderstanding in their past that's led to their current animosity, and it takes an incredibly long time before the two finally unpack what really happened. It was one of those times where I was internally shouting "Just tell her already!!" in the hopes that we could unstick whatever was keeping these two apart.

The last little nitpick I have is complicated for me to unpack. On the one hand, I think it is FANTASTIC to have a mother as a female lead. As a new single mom, Kem is wrestling with some big decisions, including whether or not she should keep doing a dangerous job that could get her killed and leave her daughter an orphan. She loves her job, but is it worth the risk to her daughter's future? This is all great content that we don't see a lot of in fantasy, and I loved its inclusion.

But it was also mentioned so often that it began to be a bit much, especially in the first half of the book. Every few pages it felt like there was a new reference to Kem's motherhood, from the changes pregnancy wreaked on her body to the decisions she's grappling with. Maybe this is an accurate reflection of how all-consuming new motherhood is (I'm not a parent myself), but I did feel that the number of references could have been scaled back a bit while still getting the point across.

At the end of the day though, The Last Hour Between Worlds is a great self-contained fantasy adventure. While this is the first of a trilogy, you can read this first book as a standalone and come away completely satisfied with the experience. If you like a blend of action and mystery, strange macabre worlds, and mayhem at a grand party, I definitely recommend checking this one out.

Thank you, author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!!

I really just couldn't get into this one. I think I got 30% through before I had to stop. This book is all action and no vibes. I usually enjoy books that are more vibes more vibes than action.

When Kembral witnesses dying party guests on her one night off from work and her newborn, she feels compelled to solve the crime. Her nemesis, Rika, is also in attendance, looking to get to the bottom of things. Teaming up, the unlikely pair discover a mysterious grandfather clock that shuttles them into a new deadly splinter of reality with every chime. One thing remains the same—a mysterious figure performs a bloody sacrifice. If Kem and Rika want to survive and save their home, they will have to overcome their rivalry and quickly uncover the clock’s secrets before time stops for everyone in this sapphic adventure fantasy novel.

This book was so good! The magic and the world was so unique, I loved the way it worked together. Seeing Kem and Rika's relationship develop was so sweet, I loved the enemies to lovers romance, it worked so well. Also, loved the layers to how everything built together to create such a unique murder mystery experience. The different players in the game were all so interesting, and I hope we learn more about them in book 2. I'd rate this higher if I could, I loved it so much.

Based off the cover, I would have guessed The Last Hour Between Worlds would have leaned a bit more sci-fi than fantasy, but that would have been a horribly incorrect guess. This is fantasy through and through with a nice investigative element as the cherry on top. I shouldn’t have been surprised at Melissa Caruso’s ability to spin an engaging tale of guild politics, layered realities, and a new mom just trying to have a nice evening out.

This follows Kembral Thorne, a renowned member of the Guild of Hounds, is attending a party to celebrate the new year and is looking forward to a few moments without a newborn attached to her. Everyone seems to have questions about when she’s returning to work and if she could possibly pick up their case, but she’s still trying to figure out what she wants next in this new era of her life. There are even a few rivals from other guilds and at least one enemy present to keep Kembral on her toes. Much to her dismay, the party takes a turn for the worse when someone dies. And then more people die. And soon after it becomes apparent that work won’t leave Kembral alone even if she is on maternity leave and Kembral is investigating how and why an entire building full of people are dropping through the layers of reality (called Echoes) to relive the party over and over again. 

This book really dumps you right in the thick of the world, the plot, and the characters with minimal explanation. This is a tricky tactic for an author because sometimes it really grabs a reader and pulls them in (like it did to me) and other times you lose the reader because they don’t know what’s going on and can’t parse all the new lingo and the rules of the world. The Last Hour Between Worlds was definitely a little confusing at first, but there were enough familiarities with the party, rivalries, and the murder to keep me hooked regardless. Eventually the peculiarities of this world became more familiar and things started to make sense. This is where I REALLY got hooked! The Echoes, or layers of reality, get stranger and more dangerous the further down one goes and a group of powerful near deities called Empyreans are playing their own wicked game in order to be able to claim the right to ‘Name’ the new year. This will give them influence and power, but this requires blood and the people at this party are the ones who will suffer.

Kembral herself is a likable character and one in a stage of life not typically shown in books. She’s in the trenches of motherhood and as a single mother no less. Her exhaustion is palpable and she feels different in her changed body and out of practice with both her swordsmanship and her ability to blink step, which basically allows her to step outside of time and space and move to another location. A small teleport basically. Lest I neglect our other main character, there’s also Rika Nonesuch who is a member of the Guild of Cats. She and Kembral used to be friends, but had a recent falling out and now the two are quite prickly with one another even when they are forced to work together to try to fix this mess. Rika is a thief and spy, depending on what sort of job she’s on and she is a skilled illusionist with a personality to rival Kembral.

The Last Hour Between Worlds surprised me with how thoroughly addictive it was. Like I said, I really should expect no less from Melissa Caruso but this is a whole new world with no Witch Lords or Falcons, so I just didn’t know what to expect. I loved the setting, the mystery, the danger, and best of all, Rika and Kembral figuring out how to be friends again. This is the first book in a new series, but this can work as a standalone because the plot has a satisfying conclusion. I personally can’t wait to see where this story goes next!

The Last Hour Between Worlds is a fun blend of fantasy and sci-fi with a world bending twist. I enjoyed the perspective of the main character being a new mother just trying to have a nice night out - unfortunately the echoes of other versions of their reality and the mysterious Empyreans have a different plan. Kembral Thorne is a Hound who always gets the job done and when she is the only one who notices the game being played with everyone at the New Year's party occurring it is up to her to solve this mystery. She ends up including Rika Nonesuch, a member of a different guild and a part of her complicated past. The echoes they fall into continue to get more and more dangerous as they try to save everyone at the party and figure out a way home.

The book is very fast-paced, a unique world with the various echoes of reality and a lot of great development with the relationships.

This was different and not what I was expecting!
The story takes place within a surprisingly small area, which you might think would limit the scope of a debut—especially one that feels like the start of a series. But instead of feeling confined, the setting heightened the sense of urgency and immediacy, pulling me deeper into the action.

In a fantastically imagined world, the author skillfully straddles the line between fantasy and romance. I loved the emotional, tender exploration of love. Although the romance felt a little repetitive; as the story progressed, some of it began to feel a little drawn-out and redundant.

That said, I think this book could work well as a standalone, but I’d happily return for more stories featuring Kembral and Rika if they’re told with the same eloquence and gripping style. Caruso’s world is compelling, and I’m curious to see where it could lead next.

The Last Hour Between Worlds:⁣
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Thank you @orbitbooks_us @librofm @hachetteaudio for my gifted copies!⁣
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I felt at first this was going to be a fantasy book that I wouldn’t get or would make me feel like I wasn’t smart enough to understand. I pushed on and once I got the writing style, I really enjoyed reading this one. ⁣
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I think the coolest thing is that this is basically a locked room, but it happens at different time jumps. The fantasy part that comes in is cool because I was hoping it would be found and solved with the Groundhog Day type vibe. But honestly, Kembral being a new mom all postpartum and still trying to save the world was the best. Like c’mon now, what can’t a mother do? Ya know. ⁣
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THE Moira Quirk, our GUTS Queen herself, does an amazing narration on audio. I will always pick up a Moira Quirk audio. I liked the pacing on audio, much better feel that my physical print.⁣
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Anywho, I really enjoyed this one! Out now.⁣
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QOTD: 10 Day til Christmas! What’s a gift you need to buy for someone? (Yes I’m asking for ideas because I’m stumped)

A single night becomes a fight to prevent cosmic disaster spanning multiple layers of reality that get more bizarre and dangerous each layer down. Ok, so most of this book was like a fever dream, thanks to this fantastical world and intense imagery that was both horrific and beautiful. I’ll be honest I didn’t try too hard to understand every detail. I just went along for the ride, and in the end I totally had fun.

What might be one of the most underrepresented character types in any genre, but certainly none more than fantasy, is the new mother navigating the end of maternity leave. And this book really nailed that, making it easy for me to connect and care for the main character.

Overall 4 out of 5 stars. If you’re interested, definitely give this one a try. Thank you to Orbit for the opportunity to read this ARC. I liked it enough to get a copy for my shelf.