I’m surprised I didn’t enjoy this, because it started off so promising. I found the cast of characters to be extremely flat, the mystery at the heart of the story to be uninteresting, and overall, I was just bored.

I like this novel because of the intricate world building as well as the rich characters and dynamic plot. The author manages to convey a multitude of parallels and metaphors while keeping the propulsive plot interesting and engaging. I can’t wait to read the sequel!

Vampires and politics. What's not to love!? The storyline was unique, and unlike any other vampire story I've personally read or seem before, and that makes for an exciting read from the beginning. The way of life for the characters in this story is highly interesting, and you are drawn in from the beginning. I definitely recommend this fantastic read!

Thank you to St Martins Press for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had high hopes for Lightfall, but it just wasn't for me. The story had a lot of potential with its unique vampire lore and politics, but I found it hard to follow and the characters didn't really grab me.

I don't think I'm the right reader for this book as I really struggled with it. However, I think any fan of epic fantasy, Lord of the Rings, or magical creatures will find a lot to love with this one.

I think Lightfall sets up the trilogy nicely! A lot of the politics and norms are estab,ished from the beginning tihout dumping too much lore at once on the reader. At times, it could be difficult to keep the different characters straight, but that's what makes this book as complex and interesting as other successful novels such as Game of Thrones. I think it's very innovative for the world to completely eliminate the role of humans in the vampire lore and gave readers a refreshing twist to the typical vampire story with them being hunted by the Greys.

This started out promising, but it was just not for me. The characters fell flat, and I was bored.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I saw in the description that this novel was compared to Jay Kristoff's Empire of the Vampire. This had me really excited as I had just finished that novel and adored it. Unfortunately, this book was by far the less enjoyable of the two.

While the concept was amazing (particularly the idea of strengths of blood and the different classes being allowed certain bloods to consume. And the Blood Market?? Amazing), the execution suffered from too many storylines all told in first person. This could have been excused if the characters' voices were distinct enough, but they lacked those unique qualities and all melded together in my brain. This was not helped by some of the cringeworthy dialogue and vast quantities of info-dumping that plagued each character.

SPOILER HERE: The big reveal of the real deal with the Grays also fell really flat because Saxe felt like a caricature of a villain, which immediately made him suspicious. I suspected his involvement the entire time, and was not pleased to have guessed that so early on. END SPOILER.

All in all, a fantastic idea and some shining pieces in there, but just a little clunky in the outcome. I will not be continuing with the series because I did not really enjoy my trudge through this first entry.

I really wanted to like this book. Vampires and Werewolves have always been a favorite genre. It started off promising and I liked the character, Sam, but it wasn't enough. Most of the characters were boring or too over the top. And the endless, room descriptions.... This book had so much potential and an intense edit would maybe save it, but the bulk of it was boring. I'm being generous with three stars - for the parts I liked and for what it could have been.

Thank you to St Martin's Press for providing an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Such an exciting and well written story! The characters were intriguing and the plot kept my attention the entire book. Definately would recommend to friends and fellow readers.

Thank you to SMP and NetGalley for a chance to read and review Lightfall by Ed Crocker!

I think this had a lot of promise, but overall it was just kind of hard to follow along with. There were massive sections of info dumping that didn’t feel smooth within the story. It was more like a character mentions something and then the book says “Oh hey, here’s the history of the thing I just mentioned.” The history and world building could have been incorporated better.

I also didn’t live that there were so many POVs. It’s definitely a personal preference. It’s rare for me to like more than two POVs in a book.

I love the idea behind this book, but it just needed a little tweaking with the flow of it.

Sadly, I was unable to finish this book.

It started off with promise - it's marketed as "for fans Empire of the Vampire" (one of my all time favorites), and the world was intriguing! I loved the concept of a vampire city, the different sorcerer/magick types, and the kinds of blood having different strengths - there was a hierarchy of blood, with the higher tiers granting better abilities (like seeing in the dark). It was so cool!

Unfortunately, my enjoyment was violently derailed rather quickly, when the FMC and her friend referred to each other by name CONSTANTLY. Every. Single. Sentence. NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT!! It drove me absolutely bat shit crazy within a matter of pages, ripping me out of the story every time it happened, until that was all I could focus on and I ended up rage quitting. I highlighted them for a while, until it got to be too much, and you should see my highlights. They said each other's name every time they addressed the other person. It was ridiculous. I read an eARC, so I'm hoping this issue will be fixed in final publication.

Despite that, I still attempted to continue the story one more time, because of the strong start and interesting world. Then I got to the chapter through Sage’s point of view. It was long, boring, and pretentious AF, and it single-handedly obliterated any interest I had left in the book, so I gave up entirely.

Maybe one day I'll try to push past those issues via audio, because the narrator sounded great in the sample I listened to, and I really was interested in the world.

This book kept its melancholy feel from start to finish and I ate it up like my favorite meal. This book unforgivingly explored grief and memory. A truly cosmic read with a great deal of depth that keeps you within this thin veil of unknown where loss means a great deal.

This was an eerie book that definitely sticks with you.

Ed Crocker’s 'Lightfall' is a luminous yet harrowing exploration of grief, memory, and the thin veil between reality and the unknown. With haunting prose and an atmosphere steeped in melancholy, the novel weaves a tale that is both intimate and cosmic, pulling readers into a world where loss reshapes everything. Equal parts eerie and poetic, 'Lightfall' lingers like a half-remembered dream. Unsettling, beautiful, and impossible to forget.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Thank to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read Lightfall.

I am sure there is an audience for this story but it just was not me at this moment in time. I found myself frequently getting distracted while reading as I just was not very engaged in the story or any of the characters. This also made it really challenging to keep track of all the different characters and their points of view. It frequently felt like there was a lot of bouncing around but not much going on.

There was some interesting lore with vampires and werewolves, but I just wanted more tension or action I suppose.

This was an interesting take on the vampire lore that I don't think I've come across before. Different blood that grants the vampires a few different abilities and more. The mystery of why the mortals are gone is also interesting. I liked the development of Sam, from maid to someone more involved and strong. A few of the side characters kept my attention. The ending leaves enough mystery and interest for me to want to read the next book.

MEH. This was a DNF at 43% for me. I kept telling myself that it had to get better, but it wasn't so I finally decided to move on to another book. Many of the character names were silly, I needed a good map to try and figure out where things were because it didn't really make sense to me the way it was written, and the story was dragging. I don't understand all the hype behind this book.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for allowing me access to an early release in exchange for an honest review!

I had higher hopes for this one than it delivered on honestly. The description had me thinking this would be a little more rich than what I got. It's hard to explain but it's not that the novel is poorly written, it's just that it's a little boring. It was trying to be something it's not, and I didn't vibe with it or any of the characters.

It felt a little like it was trying to be Dune with werewolves and vampires, which worked about as well as you're probably thinking. There was a hint of romance somewhere in there, but I couldn't have cared less about whatever was going on with that one. At it's core this is a dry sci-fi ,with bland characters set in a world of vampires and warewolves that could have been replaced with any type of fantasy character and not changed the world or plot much at all.

Overall it was very mid and it put me in a reading slump. This was just not for me but I stuck it out to the end.

Thanks to SMP and Netgalley for the arc.

This was heavy on social commentary and I wasn't really expecting that. In a vampire society where blood is tied to class, the rich and powerful vamps get the strong blood, while the poor vamps get the weak blood.