I love a good horror vampire book, however the execution was halfway there. While the story started off strong, it ultimately fell flat where I thought it might pick up. It didn't really change much throughout the rest of book so the pace kinda left me wanting more.

What you'll find in Lightfall:
-supernatural creatures: vampires, werewolves, & sorcerers
-an epic fantasy
-assassins
-found family
-bisexual rep
-a murder mystery investigation
-a little bit of horror
-multi POVs

Let me start off by saying that I’m obsessed with anything supernatural, so I’m really bummed that I didn’t love this. Lightfall started off so strong for me. I was enjoying it so much until I wasn’t. It fell a little flat for me and I found myself skimming. Even though this wasn’t for me, I do believe that people will enjoy this.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy!

I could not get through this one. Too many characters & storyline made for a very bloated plot. I was having a hard time keeping with who was who, and what they were doing.

In this vampire fantasy, vampires inhabit First Light city after attacks by the Grays. The city enforces a rigid class system: wealthy citizens receive quality blood while the poor barely survive. Sam, working as a palace maid, seeks a better life. After discovering evidence about a noble's murder, she recognizes an opportunity for social advancement. She collaborates with a sorcerer, werewolf assassin, and rebellious countess to investigate a conspiracy with far-reaching implications.

The novel features a solid world-building foundation and effectively combines mystery, politics, and rebellion elements. Despite addressing complex themes with a fast-moving plot, the pacing lacks consistency and character development falls short. Readers who appreciate dark fantasy with social commentary will likely find value in this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I really wanted to like this book. I love books with vampires in it but It was just interesting enough. I am sorry to say that I just can’t tell people to read this.

Vampires without humans to prey on. An entire culture with interesting status systems and hierarchies, with clandestine power networks, with careful proscriptions against naked greed. I who hate vampire stories salute you, Author Crocker, for using the creaky, worn-out leather of the ill-fitting shoes in a new way.

What works best for me is the alternating first-person PoV narration. It really gives Author Crocker's chops at atmospheric detail presentation a showcase. I wasn't surprised that this meant the book's very dialogue-heavy as a result. The details are there, but spoken. I was probably able to ignore my general vampire weariness because it's used as a quite effective anti-capitalist metaphor, for which *chef's kiss* Author Crocker. I presume his lifelong Mancunian residence coupled with his heritage there has inflected this attitude. Works for me. Sam's plucky working-class girl attitude was also deployed well as a lens through which she sees the world of First Light. We are not trapped in the C-suite, or the scullery, by Author Crocker's use of this round-robin of PoVs.

It felt to me as though the choice of vampires as the baddies was fairly...predictable, and the use of immortality as a placeholder for generational wealth was the driver of the choice. It works; it's got the virtue of clarity and immediate familiarity, but does not add to the novelty of the western-fantasy tropes of ruling elite skulduggery due to greed. There are werewolves and sorcerers in the mix as well, used for violence and for their dark-academia stranglehold on knowledge. These are all expected in a fantasy story. It made the reason there are no humans left in this world a very oddly remote-feeling bit of lore, not a visceral development of plot.

Not that it necessarily needed to be. It's been a long time since there were humans in this storyverse. I mention it because it is part of my larger sense of mild dissatisfaction with the story as told. That skulduggery I mentioned is all wrapped in the same sense of characters discussing things, not things happening. While puzzle-solving, such as Sam's efforts to fix blame for Lord Azzuri's son Red's murder, are best handled this way, it can become less effective when it is the central narrative strategy. It requires the occasional "as you know, Bob," trap to be fallen into. Sometimes the passive voice is necessary, but it always feels to me like a stage magician's patter...too obviously hiding something.

These are my crotchets and concerns. I'm not the world's most voracious fantasy-novel consumer. I'm at best a dilettante, so I could easily be very out-of-step with the main currents in the genre. I'll say that I did NOT like Jay Kristoff's series, and I did like this book, and I'll read the next one. Why, you ask, when I've just been moaning about so much of it? Because its real-world resonances resonate with me, because it is a well-thought-through world so easy to invest in, because the political/intrigue/conspiracy bits are very much my jam at this moment in history. It's a story I feel speaks of and in our historical passage. Because, most importantly of all, I liked the experience of reading it even while I saw its imperfections.

A bit like meeting someone special you can see yourself falling in love with, just not this very minute.

⋆.˚✮ 3.5 stars ✮˚.⋆

⤿ Thank you to St. Martins Press for the arc through netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

a world where only vampires, humans, and sorcerers live with no humans? you can believe i was hooked immediately from that first synopsis line. i have never read a book where humans have never existed in a world, most fantasy books have at least some humans around even if they are not the main focus. i was really intrigued to see what that would look like on page, and how the history of this fantasy world would shake out.

it was lucky for me then that one of the main plotlines of this book IS figuring out the history and if there really were any humans here. one of the main characters, a sorcerer mage, has a faction that is focused strictly on finding ancient artifacts and trying to prove there was civilization here before. that storyline was my favorite out of the few that came together, but even then i just wanted more from it. the plotline itself had it's ups and downs, it was slow moving but without too much character development either, so i felt bogged down at times trying to keep reading. i will say though, i didn't really guess any of the plot twists so i will be reading whatever comes next in the series, as it's left me really intrigued.

while it was super fun to see vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers all in one setting, even if they were all vying for power, the characters felt a bit flat too. i think the writing style of this book just sort of facilitated a detachment from the characters and story itself. what prose was there wasn't in-depth and it just felt kind of stiff, and didn't have any character growth really written in. that was disappointing for me as i felt that there was lots of room for some characters to either grow up more, or delve into more of their past. sometimes that's a problem with i have adult fantasy across the board though, i don't feel the writing always facilitates being as connected to characters as young adult fantasy does, so it may just be a me thing in this case.

i don't think this book is horrible, there were still some interesting parts and i didn't hate my time reading it, hence why i'm planning on continuing the series. there's just multiple areas that need improvement, but for a debut novel (especially debut adult fantasy) i think it was fairly solid. i hope to see an improvement in the next book that comes out!

↬ trigger warnings: murder and death of loved ones, blood and gore, war themes mentioned, torture and imprisonement mentioned, the drinking of blood

4 stars!

This book was very unique. I don't normally love a vampire book, but this felt very unique, and I liked how there were different classes of vampires, I also thought the world building was very interesting and it was exciting to read something different.

I only took a star off because despite this book being under 400 pages, I felt like it was paced kinda poorly. At one point I put this book down for a couple weeks, and didn't come back to it until much later. There also were a lot of characters, and sometimes I would get confused about how they were related and relevant.

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

Typically love adult fantasy and vampire stories but this was dry. Just couldn’t connect with the writing style. Might give this author another try after this debut.

For years, vampires roamed the Everlands, alongside werewolves and mages. The truce between the three was an uneasy one but was something each respected. That is until the Grays showed up and wiped out nearly half the vampire population in a single battle. The surviving vampires fled to the walled city of First Light and there they remained.

Samantha aka Sam is a maid in the Lord’s Palace. She chafes at the rules that have been established over long millennia and longs for a life that is different. When one of the Lord’s sons is found brutally murdered, Sam’s discovery of an important clue sets of a chain of events that could potentially change her life. That’s if she survives that long.

Usually in any novel featuring supernatural creatures like vampires or werewolves, they live in secrecy beside mortals. Their existence is relegated to fantasy, with few people truly believing they actually exist. In Lightfall, the opposite is true. Is is the mortals who are treated like creatures of fantasy while vampires and werewolves and mages co-exist alongside one another. I thought this to be an interesting and unique twist on the well known trope.

The different characters we the reader are introduced to are all unique as well. The vampires are the major players in the novel and we encounter several, all from different layers of society. From the high-ranking Lords and Ladies to the lowest maids, each layer is represented in one way or another. The wonderful thing is that they are all different and unique. From the way they speak to the way they interact with one another, each layer of society and even each person has their own way.

The narrative does take a bit of getting used to though. Each chapter is told in first person from the point of view of a specific character, and several times this changes mid chapter. Crocker handles it well and his writing does have a definite edge. Some characters can be a bit over wordy and at times have a flair for overly purple prose, yet it fits their characterization perfectly. Same for those who rely more on action over words. It fits the character perfectly even if it takes a bit of getting used to.

Much like the individuals who make up the city of Lightfall, the book itself is a nuanced thing. At it’s core, Lightfall is a murder mystery with aspects of horror and fantasy. It is also a commentary on classism and elitism using the set-up of vampire society as an example where the high classes have the best blood while the lower classes must subsist on what is left. Themes of morality, the strength of grudges, and the fallibility of memory are all also woven through the tale, adding just that much more to an already gripping story.

I admit, I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting when I started reading Lightfall. As someone who enjoys vampire centric books, I thought it would be an enjoyable enough tale. While I was right, I was also wrong. Yes, Lightfall is an enjoyable book and I did enjoy it immensely. But it is not a simple story. It is nuanced and layered and very very well done. It is one I recommend to my readers as I eagerly await the next book in the series.

I won't be reading this. I've tried multiple times and haven't gotten into it. Thank you though for the opportunity. If I read it in the future I will come back and change this review.

It took me months to get through this book, which is unfortunate because I really thought I would like the premise, but I just couldn't invest in the world or the characters.

It kept losing my attention and I stopped looking forward to reading it. Overall I felt a bit bored with it.

This book was alright, but I probably should have DNFd it. After trying for months (6 apparently to read the whole thing) to read it myself, I switched to audio, and still just was not invested in the story.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the gifted eARC of this novel.

DNF at ~30%

Lightfall had a lot of potential and I really enjoyed the worldbuilding at the beginning of the book and the writing style. Unfortunately, it wasn't very clear to me what the main plot was and the characters felt very two dimensional so I didn't find myself attached to anyone. The pace was glacial, which is something I struggle with when it comes to completing books. I think there is definitely an audience for this and I can objectively see this is well written, it just wasn't my taste so I would encourage anyone who finds the blurb interesting to give Lightfall a try!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, NetGalley, and the author for sending me an early copy.

With the exception of a few glaring mistakes in editing, this was a good read. I enjoyed how the characters were eventually woven together to solve an interesting mystery. The plot moved slowly in a more classic epic fantasy way, so this was not quite a page turner until about 80% of the way in when everything heated up. The different take on sorcerers, vampires, and wolf shifters was entertaining and I'm excited to see more of the society in the following books.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I absolutely loved the concept of this vampiric grimdark fantasy novel. At this point, it's hard to do anything new when it comes to vampires, but having no humans?! A post-apocalyptic world that's developed without mortals, and the only creatures left are vampires, werewolves and sorcerers. Now that makes for an interesting plot. I loved that we also had a murder mystery to solve for, tons of political intrigue, and to be honest, I'm sad we didn't get to meet the aforementioned victim, because I think we all would have liked him.

I loved the idea of different types of animal blood giving the vampires different abilities--that felt super interesting. The story felt a bit choppy at times with how many different POVs we ended up following, but I still enjoyed all the characters immensely. There were a few things that felt a little too convenient, but I did enjoy our little band of misfits coming together finally.

I'm absolutely looking forward to book two.

I love books about vampires, so I was disappointed that I had to DNF this book. The pacing was too slow and I didn’t like the characters. Unfortunately, this book just didn’t work for me.

Courtesy copy from NetGalley that was just not my style for reasons said in other reviews here. Worth a shot, though.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this one fairly early on. I knew almost immediately that the writing style just wasn’t going to work for me.

Will the vampire and werewolf stories never end? I used to love a good vampire story, but on my search for one that does something truly different with the tropes, I've yet to find anything that feels new and gripping. This book is no real exception and just feels like the same story in a different package in terms of vampires/werewolves.

The ensemble cast of characters is by far the main selling point of this book. All the characters are interesting, well developed, and have strong back stories. The dynamics and emotions between the characters are deep and feel real. BUT be ready for the head hopping. Almost every main character gets their own viewpoint chapters and some characters definitely were more interesting than other, making for some rocky-feeling pacing as the story jumped back and forth to other characters.

Obviously, there is a hefty amount of world-building, this being the first of a series. And it's honestly handled well and peppered in with a delicate and nuanced hand. I found the world building elements very interesting. The author’s creativity shines here and I'm eager to see where that creativity will be poured in the future books now that the setting and world building has been fully established.

All in all, this was a pretty good book and it probably would be even more so if you are more into the vampires/werewolves. For me, it was a fun read, but it didn't stand out as something I'll likely return to in the future.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my advanced digital review copy.