A locked-room-esque time loop mystery/save the world plot featuring a talented and overwhelmed new mother with sapphic rivals to allies to possibly something more.

I think some parts of this will appeal more to certain readers. The representation of a new mother drowning in that stage of life and also feeling pressured about her career is extremely on point and relatable to anyone who has been there. I think parents will appreciate it, though others may tire of it after a while. I'm not complaining as I personally appreciated how real and raw the depiction was.

The time loops were really interesting, I would have loved to explore more in each loop instead of being locked inside the whole time since it's described as getting more surreal and chaotic with each time down. I liked knowing early on what the end goal needed to be and that the time loops had to be ridden out, so I could just enjoy whatever new obstacles came up. This was a fun book overall!

This book really carves out its own space in the fantasy genre, and feels unique from anything I've read recently. I love that it features a new mom as the protagonist and therefore presents a character who is more measured and has physical limitations that don't often get portrayed in female main characters within this genre. This provides nuance to the character, who is warring with her own headstrong instincts from before her pregnancy in addition to the struggle against her main adversary. I also appreciate that this lends itself to a romantic subplot that is slower to develop and feels therefore more realistic. The plot, by contrast, definitely drives the novel, with a literal countdown pushing the pace. The world here is very interesting, both with regard to the magic system and the politics, and hopefully with be explored further as the series progresses.

I read till about 30%. The writing style wasn't as I expected. The description and comparisons seemed to promise a gothic, mysterious and mind-bending time loop with atmospheric writing, but the tone felt much more playful and almost tongue-in-cheek humourous. The world-building seemed a little fuzzy and unclear, even at a third of the way in. I'm sure lots of people will enjoy this one, but it didn't quite hit the mark for me!

This book appears to be one of those "good for you, not for me" books. Many people whose reviews I usually mesh well with had drastically different experiences with this book. It wasn't bad, but it was meh.

The Last Hour Between Worlds is an incredibly interesting premise - in a world with multiple "echoes" (think universes? dimensions?), there are people whose job is to save people (mostly children) and dogs (!!!) who accidentally slip between them. Kem is a hound, one of these intra-dimensional detectives, and she is at a new year's party shortly after giving birth. However, the party somehow gets thrown into a 'echo', and Kem must solve the mystery to save the party guests!

The world building has many pros and cons. One pro is that it is incredibly deep and smart, and the author treats it as such. Your hand is not held as the world moves between echos, and you will likely be confused at first. This is a pro in that i like being treated like an adult. It is a negative because (as I mentioned) I was confused a bit. Also the concept of going through the hours as echoes is very interesting, but got repetitive and a bit dull toward the end. I felt like there were multiple false-endings in this, and I got a bit irritated by it toward the end.

Random complaint - the number of reviews complaining about Kem constantly talking about her baby really bothers me. She is not excessively talking about her baby - she JUST GAVE BIRTH. As a 30+ fantasy reader, it was SO REFRESHING to have a character that was more in my sphere of life. The world needs more characters like Kem! (also if you loved an older female main character, I suggest Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi)

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley fo an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars
With each toll of the clock, the partygoers slip deeper into Echoes of reality and time resets.

I thought the world and concept were very interesting. I would probably describe it as Groundhog Day meets Chronicles of Amber, but with mass murder.

I liked that the main characters and the side characters all had personalities and motivations. Kembral is a new mother having her first night out since childbirth. She is trying to decide whether she wants to spend more time with her child before returning to work and if she can even continue going on dangerous missions. It was a nice change in perspective from the normal 20 something bad ass with no attachments.

The "villains" had very fae like motivation, which fit with the general atmosphere of the Echoes.

I found the story to be very interesting at first, but then it slowed down in the middle in order for relationship moments to happen. I think this would have worked better if most of the relationship conflict wasn't being resolved by outside forces.

The book has a satisfying conclusion, despite being the first in a series. I'm interested in reading the next book.

Thanks to the folks at Orbit and Hachette Audio for my early copies of "The Last Hour Between Worlds" by Melissa Caruso (out 19 November 2024).

Kembral Thorne always brings the dog back. One of the best Hounds in the city she has a 100% retrieval record for pull people (and dogs) out of the Echoes. Echoes being the different layers of reality, some are a little bit different than ours, just a tad more magic. Just after too many things get wildly dangerous and can make your brain melt. But Kembral is on leave and tonight is the year-turning ball. Her newborn daughter is with her sister and she has the night off to enjoy. Just the guests include a politician who is threatening her, dear friends who might cause a scene or a duel, and a professional associate who something might have happened with (if damn Rika Nonesuch hadn't drugged her and stashed her under a pile of trash!). Fun times. At least until everyone starts dying.

Narrated by Moira Quirk, always a pleasure to hear you have a cast to play with. Real good job on the creepy kid.

Reasons to read:
-Copper and Thief dynamic
-Time loop similar to All You Need is Kill
-Great secondary characters
-Antagonists who are smart and make contingency plans
-The indomitable human spirit in the face of jerky divinity

Cons:
-Hey that is a rather unsettling being as old as time

Let me just say that I love the world building in The Last Hour Between Worlds. I love the parallel worlds to our time, the magical time spy agency, and these mystical and dangerous Echo beings. There's so much more I love that I can't even say! If you love the idea of The Umbrella Academy meets an almost Inception like feel, this is for you! Besides the world, I also adore the characters in The Last Hour Between Worlds. For Kem, not only is she dealing with the potential demolition of the world, but also what her job means to her after coming back from maternity leave. Now that she is a mother, how does she make sense of the world, the stakes, and her own actions.

"It's easy to fall into the wrong world..."

Thank you so much to Orbit for sending me an early copy of this book! The Last Hour Between Worlds is my first novel by Melissa Caruso and I was so excited to start this, purely from the premise and cover alone.

The Last Hour Between Worlds is unlike any fantasy novel I've read before. Moving between vertical layers of reality? Celestial beings? A new mom on maternity leave literally being the most powerful line of defense this city has to offer? Having to work alongside her professional rival (with whom she has a mysterious history)?? I KNEW from the first page that I'd be devouring this book, and I was absolutely right. This book is like the fantastical, unsettling, murder mystery of my dreams- and you know what's even better? It's (surprise!) SAPPHIC.

I was surprised to learn that this is the start of a series as I do think this book would benefit from being a standalone- but I suppose I will just have to eagerly await the release of book 2 in order for me to make that determination! The Last Hour Between Worlds will be released on November 19th, and I hope that you are just as enthralled as I was.

This wasn't bad or anything. It was just very Marvel with its high stakes while still feeling light-hearted in between those life and death moments.

Despite being a mishmash of my favorite things (Inception meets Marvel multiverse with a Final Fantasy-esque villain, and it even gave me Kingdom Hearts vibes at times), I didn't really find it all too exciting. And I feel kinda bad about this tbh because it has everything I love.

I liked the FMC and her "will they won't they" sorta love interest. Their fun (and baggage filled) dynamic actually kept me going. The FMC by herself wasn't all too interesting, but paired up with Rika, she became a lot more interesting. I did think the new mom POV was unique. You don't really see that too often in fantasy adventure stories. For once, I actually didn't care about the FMC complaining about new mom problems.

I've seen other reviewers say they disliked or hated the groundhog day premise, but I actually really liked it! It's very multiverse plus Inception, and each world became progressively more whacky that I wanted more.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure if I'll pick up the next book. Maybe if I need a lighter fantasy read in between darker books, I might put it on hold at the library.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for this arc.

This book was the sapphic rivals to lovers with time loops and parallel worlds OF MY DREAMS. I'll be closer to the publication date with a longer review but I loved this book, I can't wait to read more about the characters.

*Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

What a slow burn. It took me awhile to catch on, but once I was in I was IN. Time loops are one of my favorite plot devices, but mixing in a mystery made it extra fun. A deadly competition, a bloody ritual, and a dinner party that keeps repeating.

I still don't quite understand the Echos or the hierarchies (Hounds, Cats, Ravens?). I also didn't like how much they talked about her motherhood making her less fit to do her job. It got really uncomfortable. But I want to know more about what causes Echos, how the political structure works, and see what this world is like outside of the loop. I'd recommend this to fans of sapphic fantasies or Groundhog Day.

DNF at 21%. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this book at all! It's just not for me. I've enjoyed Caruso's YA before, but...eh. Too urban? Too fast-paced? I'm not really a fan of time loops to begin with, and even though this isn't a typical time loop... But I definitely encourage anyone intrigued by the blurb to give it a try! Or at least check out some more detailed reviews.

As always, thanks to Hachette Book Group and Orbit for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC!
My heart is heavy...this will be the 2nd book I have ever DNF'd. I trudged to the 50% mark but I just couldn't do it anymore. I set this book down twice to read another book and I never do that. When I thought about picking up this book for the 3rd time, I realized I just didn't care what would happen in the second half.
Kembral is a field agent in a magical equivalent to the CIA. She had a baby two months prior and her first night away from the baby is for a company party...that ends up turning into a job.
She is CONSTANTLY (and I mean like every few pages) complaining about how tired she is from lack of sleep after the birth of her newborn (yea we get it, now shut up and be the a** kicker you are suppose to be).
The house the party happens in is under a thin layer of reality. There are 12 layers of reality and as the story progresses the house slips further and further from the reality they know as their prime reality. As the house slips into a different reality, the same things happen over and over and over AND OVER just a slightly different setting. I was so bored reading essentially the same thing each chapter.
There is just no way I was willing to keep reading the story to continue to read the same thing with the only progression being the enemies to lovers romance that was tossed into the mix that should have been left out.

This was definitely really unique and a fun concept, but I was confused for most of the book. This is a deja vu, ground hog day, whatever you want to call it, book with a repeating cycle of the same night that ends in a murder mystery. There is a cool twist with the levels of echoes, which are versions of the reality that the main character is trying to unravel. At least I think that’s what they were. Like I said I was very confused about a lot of the world building so forgive me if my summary is wrong. I think the plot fell flat at times because I found myself asking what are they doing and why multiple times throughout this book. The world is there, it has huge potential and I think this will probably work for others. The main character is quite funny which gave the prose a humorous and morbid undertone that I liked. This almost had the vibes of The Magicians tv show with the whimsical and unsettling atmosphere which kept me interested enough to finish. The sapphic romance and relationship build up was great and I think it will be even better in future books. However, I don’t think I’m gonna continue the series. I wish the world wasn’t such a vast concept because if it was executed better this would’ve been amazing.

I really liked the concept of this book and it had some great parts but in the end it wasn’t really for me. I would describe it as a locked room, time travel, mystery with a drop of romance.

The romance is a sub plot when I felt like the fact that it was sapphic was hyped up a lot. There is a relationship that slowly builds but don’t expect a lot of romance explicit-ness. There is a sweet connection between the characters though.

This book also involves time/reality travel which always makes my brain hurt 😂 I did like the way I was able to slowly grasp what was happening and how each level was described.

Other random thoughts- she’s a new mother and makes that like half of her personality the whole time, constantly mentioning it. There is quite a bit of violence/blood.

I unfortunately DNF’d this book at about 20%. I just really struggled to connect with our main character, she felt a little two-dimensional; new mom with a dangerous job just about sums her up. I also struggled with the story because it felt like a lot of just telling us what was happening rather than experiencing it. It’s very possible it gets better after the world building growing pains, I just didn't feel like I could push through after our main goal was revealed.

The humor of Gideon the Ninth meets Inception-like layers of reality-bending - not to mention some classic sapphic pining between rivals - in this exciting new series opener from Melissa Caruso. With dashes of irreverent humor, a well-grounded main character, and a uniquely complicated/nonsense world with its own wiggly and interesting rules, we’ve got a lovely self-contained mystery story (or maybe deadly trials? There’s a bit of both here) but a universe that can hold much more. This book definitely stands on its own which I can appreciate since book two is obviously not currently available.

Kembral is a very good main character: she’s implacable, she has a very good reason to not want to be involved in things, she has an equally good reason to fight tooth and nail to get herself out of things intact, she’s competent in a no-nonsense way (which invites imagination from Rika and other characters, which may or may not take our dear Kembral by surprise), and she’s got a cool party trick.

I also really liked the structure of the repeating party and moving deeper through layers of unreality as things become increasingly tense and also increasingly nonsensical. The rules don’t apply the farther you get from reality, and that keeps even a “repetitive” plot from ever getting boring.

I had a really great time with this! The world set up and magic system was really interesting. I liked the way there are divisions in society, but not by social class.

The romance subplot was also alright. It wasn’t my favorite, but I did think the arc of it throughout the story was interesting and definitely added something throughout. Something about it was a little bit off, but I can’t actually figure out what it is.

Overall, this was a pretty strong start to a series. I’m interested to see what the next book is, since the end is relatively open-ended.

Thank you to Orbit and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Kembral Thorne, a new mom, goes to a new year’s eve party to spend a few hours having fun when weird things start happening and she gets sucked back into her work as a Hound.

This is locked room mystery where every hour for 12 hours the clock resets and the whole party falls through another layer of reality that gets increasingly more strange.

Things I loved:
- new mom representation
- excellent world building
- super fast paced
- very sweet romance

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for the advanced reader copy.

This was an incredibly interesting read for me, and although the beginning started out a little bit slow and I needed a little bit of time to fully get into it, once the action picked up it was difficult to put down. I also do think this could be an incredibly empowering book for readers who are mothers because the main character is strong, she’s driven, she’s good at her job and she also just had a baby. And part of the initial focus was her conflict in trying to decide whether or not she was going back to work eventually or if she would do something more low-key now that she has a child she’s responsible for. I think it is a brilliant book for emphasizing that no matter what route anyone would choose to go in that situation picking the one that is right for them and write for their family is always a good choice.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book and I look forward to reading the sequel whenever it comes out.