The Last Hour Between Worlds was a cool concept, kind of like Groundhog Day with a fantasy/magical twist. Each time loop drops the characters deeper into a dangerous alternate reality, adding a strange and unique twist to the ongoing mystery. The world-building is solid and unfolds without spoon-feeding, which keeps things intriguing, but some elements, like the magic system, could’ve been more fleshed out.

Kembral, the main character and a new mom, is likable but falls a bit flat with repetitive mentions of her exhaustion and work-life balance, you don't really get to learn much about her other than who she's dated in the past and that she is a mother. The cast of supporting characters is interesting, but the dialogue can get campy, and the plot felt very repetitive. While it’s a fun setup this one just fell flat for me.

I found myself absolutely captivated with this story, it’s fast paced and the world building is so vibrant you can’t help but be sucked into the story. This book isn’t science fiction but it had a very similar vibe. I was really impressed by the amount of world building Caruso was able to do considering 85% or more of the book takes place in a single room. I really like Kembral’s character, she just comes across as very human and relatable. I also liked that she wasn’t the best at her job because she was born special/different. She became the best through a sheer stubborn refusal to quit.

I think that Moira Quirk did an excellent job narrating the book. We meet a wide range of characters throughout the story and Quirk did a great job at giving each character a distinct voice that fit their character. This made it easy to follow conversation and events, it also just helped bring the story to life in my mind. I was also impressed by her vocalization of the various non-human sounds in the book. (clock bongs, animal growls, etc.) This world is really visually intricate and I think listening to the audiobook allows you to sit back and let your imagination go.

I enjoyed this book and I’m interested to see where the sequel goes. This book is great for people that enjoy sci-fi, murder mystery, enemies to lovers, sapphic romance, and complex fantasy.

Okay, first of all, I will listen to any audiobook that Moira Quirk narrates. She is probably my favorite narrator in the audiobook game right now, and she brought so much to this story with a stunning array of voices for different characters that made it SO easy to identify each one by sound alone.

In terms of the story itself, this was such a pleasant surprise. A sapphic enemies to lovers story with a time-traveling, universe-bending mystery to solve, I didn't know what to expect going in but I was so invested I had the audiobook running during every free moment I had. Kembral Thorne, Hound known for her amazing ability to slip between steps of reality and new mother, is trying to enjoy herself on her first outing without her newborn at the turning of the year ceremony. It would be easier if her one time-maybe-romance-turned-enemy, Rika Nonesuch, a Cat, wasn't also present. But then guests start getting brutally murdered in a game played by ancient lords of the Echoes (the other levels of reality), and Kem can't help but doing her job - even if she keeps telling everyone she's on leave. And she'll need Rika's help to solve it before it's too late.

Seriously, the overall plot of this book was SO good. I was invested from the first hints of something nefarious at play, and following Kem as she fights to save the other party-goers and solve who is behind the murders, is so fascinating. She's snarky and overtired and so much fun to follow. And how often do we genuinely get books about new moms as heroes? Rita is equally fun - and snarky - and even though her plot reveals were largely predictable, they were still fun to follow along with.
Genuinely the only thing I think was a sticking point was the romance itself. It just felt like it lacked depth at its conclusion - though I could hope that this is built upon in sequels... But I would love to see stories focusing on some of the other quirky side characters we saw in this first book!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for a copy to review!

What a book! I immediatly fell in love with it - with a blend of political intrigue, mystery, sci-fi and fantasy elements, delightful characters and amazing worldbuilding, it was the perfect read for me. Definite 5 stars!!

Ok audio wise , this was amazing, loved the voice. The character felt relatable by this narrator 100%.

Now for the book, I like it is a huge mix of adventure with romance. More heavy on the adventure side. The plot was interesting and fresh . Doesn’t feel like everything that is out there right now. Definitely will recommend

I would definitely recommend the audiobook. This story is build on a groundhogs-day effect, so I found it much easier to stick with the the audiobook than reading it on my own. Melissa Caruso covers the ensemble cast perfectly and gave the most entertaining depiction of a new mother being pushed back into work.

In this fantasy world, demon-like "echoes" can pull you down into lower levels of reality. Kembral Thorn is the city's top retrieval expert, sinking into the echo layers to bring people back. She's on maternity leave but you wouldn't know it with the way the rich and powerful keep trying to recruit her for new jobs. She attends a New Year's Eve party that turns into a massacre when powerful echoes pull the entire ballroom into a lower level of reality. Kembral recruits her fellow partiers to fight the monstrous echoes that are toying with them. But every time the clock strikes midnight, the party is pulled down again, everyone forgets what happened, and the fighting starts again. It's like Alice in Wonderland with the tone of The Golden Compass.

The characters have sharp and hilarious personalities. Gild members like Kembral all have some sort of echo-training: Hounds like her specialize in protection, Cats like her ex are spies and illusionists, Butterflies entertain the politicos and Ravens learn to manipulate echoes themselves. I love the lore that is revealed step by step. It's easy to follow again but keeps introducing loopholes that entertain and build into a satisfying conclusion. Kembral goes head to head against a hot shadow daddy echo who just won't die.

I love that the hero is a mom, but it slow the plot in the beginning. Kembral is really hung up on being post-partum and explains many times that her abdominal muscles have barely rejoined since birth. But stick it out, because with each round of mayhem, she steps back and reveals more about her life than the last few months. From jumping through echoes as a kid to her jumbled love life. All of the characters really grow on you. I quite enjoyed this.

First thing’s first: thank you Netgalley for the ALC of this book!
The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso was not a bad book, but it wasn’t for me. I did enjoy the way the characters interacted with each other, especially the two FMCs. I spent a large portion of this book wondering if I was stupid because things were happening and I had no idea why or how. The author did give us the info eventually, but I just don’t think this style of book is my favorite. To be fair though, I also don’t love mysteries!
The pacing was a little weird. Some parts of this book felt like they really moved along and others were a bit of a slog. I wouldn’t say I was ever bored, but there were definitely parts I didn’t have a good time with.
All in all I can see why someone would LOVE this, I am just not that person.
2.5⭐️

I absolutely loved this book! A cross between a locked room murder mystery and a sci-fi romp through parallel realities with an added time loop - and it all works.

Kembral Thorne is a 'hound', an investigator who can travel through different realities. She's also a new mother who takes one night off from caring for her newborn to attend a New Year's party - except, everything goes wrong at midnight, and she finds herself back on the job way before her maternity leave is over. Things get progressively more and more otherwordly, creepy, and weird, as we plunge deeper away from our own reality and into more fantastical ones every time the clocks reset. What's worse, Kembral's only ally is Rika, her professional rival/past friend/potential love interest - if only they can both sort out their complicated relationship's past.

What immediately won me over in this book was Kembral herself - from the first page, I loved her voice. She's absolutely hilarious, in addition to being loyal, principled, and brave to a point which occasionally bordered on stupidity. I enjoyed exploring the world of the novel through her eyes, both the mundane parts - like the party with all its colourful characters, her friends and colleagues, and Rika - as well as the strange realities we end up travelling through. Very possibly my favourite read of 2024.

Thank you Hachette Audio for the ARC! Moira Quirk was, as usual, brilliant.

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc and an alc!

it seems like time traveling-esque sci-fi with a dash of romance (this time sapphic!!) is very popular recently, and i’m not entirely mad about it. don’t ask me to explain the science/logic about time travel, though (lol). i did think that caruso created a unique concept with “echoes” being the foil to the “prime”/original world kembral is from, and each echo being more chaotic and unstable the further away from prime one travels.

a few of the twists i had guessed before they were revealed, but were still interesting nonetheless.

the audio narrator did an excellent job, and hopefully they return for book two!

The Last Hour Between Worlds follows investigator Kembral Thorne as she unknowingly enters a dangerous game full of murder and monsters. I thoroughly enjoyed the premise, the setting, and the characters and found this book to be unique. I am SO excited that this is the start of a series, because I think there is so much room for expansion in this world (the end wraps up without a cliffhanger).

Moira Quirk's narration is perfection as always.

I received an ARC and ALC from Orbit Books | Orbit and Hachette Audio | Orbit via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

ALC review: Investigator and inter-reality traveler Kembral Thorne (I couldn’t stop thinking of Kethric Thorme) is attending an extravagant ball with all the city’s political players as her first outing after giving birth and spending a few months taking care of her newborn. And NO she is not done with leave. Her friend-turned-romantic-interest-turned-enemy is also here and it’s weird. It gets weirder when suddenly everyone at the ball starts dying. Even weirder when the entire building falls down a layer of reality and all the people who just died are alive again. Then begins a murder mystery taking place across realities.

This was delightful and SO FUN. The layers of reality built on top of each other felt unique and the descriptions of the deeper layers were horrific and wacky at the same time.

While the world-building was great, the real focus of this book is the character and relationship developments all encased in a murder mystery. All of the characters have a unique voice and are so interesting, even those with only minor roles. The relationships and conversations felt authentic and the tone of the book is goofy despite all the murders and unthinkable horrors.

The only thing that kind of lost me was the book’s standpoint on corruption. A theme that comes up later is essentially, “You should never resort to violence to root out corruption because, even if your opposition is actively killing people for their own benefit, it’s better to fail with non-violence and let the corruption remain than harm people in your effort to destroy it.” That really left me scratching my head because seriously??

Also, MOIRA QUIRK voiced the audiobook and she was phenomenal as always. Her voices for the characters may have contributed to how much I adored this book. Our main character likes to charge into situations sword-first, evoking Gideon the Ninth in my brain the whole way through.

Overall this is a strong 4.5 for me, truly a great read the whole way through.

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.

Audiobook review: Moira Quirk remains my favorite audiobook narrator! Every book I've heard from her has definitely been enjoyed more than if I'd read it myself. Her narration is flawless, her delivery is perfect, the voices and accents she does are great. The quality is impeccable. Excellent audiobook all around!

Book: 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!

Audio: 5 stars
Book: 3.5 stars

Thank you Hachette Audio for the ALC!

I am a little mixed with this one. The storyline is really intriguing especially when we learn that they are stuck in an echo, however, I was NOT digging the new mom thing. I felt like the internal new mom dialogue and the "I'm on leave" that kept getting thrown was taking away from the story. At points, I started to wonder if maybe the "games" had to do with her having the child with how often it kept popping up. It wasn't relevant to the story at hand. I personally would have enjoyed not having those bits in the story.

I really enjoyed when Rika became more prominent in the story. She is hands down my favorite character and I loved how her character developed. The big secret when it came to her was worth making it to the end. I am undecided if I will continue the series since I do not dig the whole "mom" theme that keeps happening, but if it means more Rika...I just might.

Review on the narrator:
Fantastic narration, she really brought these characters to life!

Thanks so much to Hachette Audio for the gifted audiobook!

Kembral Thorne is a new mom, and she's also a Hound, out on the prowl to find out why guests are dropping dead at the year-turning ball. However, her archnemesis, burglar Rika Nonesuch, is on the prowl as well.

This felt a bit like the Marvel Universe meets Groundhogs Day, with a saphhic romance storyline. A grandfather clock continually resets the timeline, and the "most dangerous game of the century" threatens to unleash catastrophe on the world. Starting and ending with a bang, the pacing slowed down in the middle and made it a bit hard to focus. But one thing's for sure: this story is a fresh fantasy and the start of a series!

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)

The audio was strong - the narrator did a very good job of creating different voices for the characters, and I really enjoyed it! Highly recommend.

Thank you to Macmillan audio and NetGalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

What an absolute gem of a locked room time romp fantasy. Reality jumping, time lock, artefacts, political intrigue and mystery, well developed whole characters and Saffic yearning.

Thankyou NetGalley and Hachette audio for this audio copy in exchange for a fair review.

Kembral Thorne is a new mother who refreshingly actually has experienced a world altering change due to giving birth, sleep deprivation, nursing and the maelstrom of emotional, physiological and psychological changes becoming responsible for another whole small potato of a human brings. I’ve seen other reviews saying “stop going on about how tired you are/how much having a baby has impacted you, and get back to it (being an arse kicking fighting and magic wielding machine) already“ - as any birth giving parent knows, that just doesn’t happen. The absolute connection I felt to this character, reading her navigating trying to get to grips with the impact of having to do a job that she’s always been able to be *the best* at while discovering how much her recently unused muscles and skills have been left to atrophy, while trying to quiet/balance the fact that her entire world now revolves around her new role, and that the body doesn’t just stop being a newly postpartum wreckage?! because she’s needing to be her super agent self.
There were several moments where I eye rolled (in sympathy) and fist pumped (in solidarity/for representation!) at the spot on description for a 30 something mother being written appropriately. This was fantastic in and of itself.
“ducts felt like steel cables” if you know you know.

The actual story, the slow sprinkling of clues as we dropped further through levels of reality and layers of veiled hidden information were whipped away, the intrigue in what had happened between Kembral and her ex friend, arch rival, Rika Nonsuch was paced beautifully. Surrounding characters were given depth and personality and I found myself charmed or protective or altogether enraged by how well they jumped to life from the page (headphones?)

I am so excited to have this book on preorder and will not be waiting long to re-read. The audio version with the talents of Moira Quirk was absolutely brilliantly produced. As I was listening I realised that I was drawing comparisons to Gideon the Ninth, while we didn’t have necromancers we had a fun sapphic rivalry, space / time shenanigans, dubious political machinations and unknown oncoming doom, in a locked room mystery. That and the fast paced, witty, clever, vulnerable and weary and a bit sweary protagonist. There was a lot that felt the same. And of course Moira has brought the world (and various characters within) vibrantly to life with her outstanding talent, again.

I think this is a very interesting concept for a fantasy novel and I found the characters well developed and likable. However, I found it difficult to follow along with the stories at times by listening to the audiobook. So I would recommend reading either the digital or physical copy. The chapters are clearly labeled with time on the clock and are in chronological order. However, there are quite a few creatures and unique concepts (I.e., echos, time on the clock) that might have been easier to understand physically reading vs. listening.

If you like the whitey banter/ dialogue style of Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth & enjoy the magic & world travel of V.E.Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic, you will enjoy this book.

Thank you netgally for an audio ARC (AAC?) of the story.

Smart, strong MC, whitty commentary, thrurough explanation of magic...but too many side characters. All the characters made it a bit hard to follow along all the time.

Thank you, NetGalley and LittleBrownUK, for providing me with an advance audio ARC/eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it and had an amazing time reading it.
I gave it 4 stars because I didn't understand the magic system and was a little confused,  but that was on me because I didn't pay attention at the beginning.
I loved that the main character was a mom. She was constantly thinking about her baby. I am a mom too, and I felt that we were in the same boat.

Because I also got the audio version, I must say the narrator did an amazing job! I always knew who was who because they did a different voice for every character! Loved it!

P.S. OMG! I JUST FOUND OUT IT ISN'T A STANDALONE. WE GET A SECOND BOOK 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 YEEEYYYYY!!!!!
The story was interesting, and I can't wait to see what happens next!

This book was a fun, exciting epic that transpired through layers of the world and time. In fact, the way this story played with time was most intriguing! It was an engaging journey as we watched our main characters try to unravel the mysteries going on and essentially save the world.

Kembral was an engaging main character, she is out at her first party post having a baby and she is being dragged both literally and figuratively into people demanding to know what is next for her all while she and her rival Rika get pulled into another level of their world leaving the two forced together to unravel the mystery.

The audio narration for this story adds so much depth to the characters, you can literally hear the stress, tired, joy, pinning, and worn out feelings in the author's voice as the story goes. It makes you feel like you are there running alongside our characters trying to figure out all that is happening and prevent the worst from occurring. The production on this was immersive, and really made me feel like I was in Kembral's head.

If you love intriguing worlds, mysteries, love stories, sapphic longing, and a brilliant story I would recommend picking this up. Thank you to Hachette Audio and Netgalley for an ALC to review.