So yeah... this audiobook really isn't for me and I'm feeling so bad!!! I got to about 20% through and I just can't continue.
Also, I love Emily Rath's romance books... but her writing fantasy isn't necessarily for me.
I'm incredibly sorry that I won't finish this audiobook, but thank you NetGalley so much for giving it to me in exchange of an honest review.
Hopefully I will be able to pick this book up another time!!!

I don't usually rate my DNF's, but it's not letting me review it unless I do it... so 1 ⭐️ it is.

I enjoyed this Finnish fantasy with historical fiction elements. We follow two women’s separate journey the underworld and back. Siiri and Aina’s experiences were equally compelling and the narration for each POV was well done. The ending can be seen as standalone, but I’m still interested in seeing where Jen will go in the upcoming duet finale!

Picking up North is the Night, it was my first time reading a book by Emily Rath, and while at first I was a little wary, as I had seem some negative reviews and know the author normally writes contemporaries, I was absolutely blown away at how well written this fantasy story is. From the first chapter, I found myself immersed in the setting and story, in thanks to the writing style. I truly am so impressed that this is the author's first time writing fantasy. North is the Night reads as a beautiful, folklore infused epic. It reminded me of many Greek myths, such as that of Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as Hades and Persephone. It also had similarities to other old tales, such as East of the Sun and West of the Moon. It even reminded me of some modern books, such as the Bear and the Nightingale. Overall, I was completely blown away by the fantasy storyline of this book. I can't wait to see where it goes in book two. I'm also inspired to read Kalevala, the poem this book is based on.

All of that being said, this book does have one glaring issue, and that is the romance. The romance of this book is very muddy and confusing. North is the Night was marketed as sapphic, but reviewers immediately started saying that it wasn't and this book is a problematic heterosexual romance. What's weird is that both parties are kind of right. To end the confusion, let me say that this book is sapphic. At first it's a little unclear, as it is a friends-to-lovers storyline that could be read as platonic, but it does build up to a romantic relationship. And even in its platonic stages, Aina and Siiri's devotion to one another is beautiful. That being said, there is also a M/F romance in this book involving one of the women from the F/F relationship, and I don't think I'll know how to feel about this inclusion until this series concludes. While there is nothing wrong with polyamorous relationships, I'm not sure if that is what this is. I cannot tell if the M/F romance is supposed to be a poly-inclusion to the existing F/F romance, or if it is supposed to be a hurdle for the F/F relationship to overcome. And that is because the man in the M/F relationship is written with some problematic tendencies. Aina repeatedly has to convince this man to allow her free will and talk him down from "taking what he wants". So while I have nothing wrong with a poly love story, and believe it still deserves to be labelled as queer, I do have issues with the power imbalance between the M/F relationship presented in this story. I'm interested to see where these relationships go, and I believe how they resolve with help me determine if I have an issue with the romance in this story or not.

Also, side comment, while I have absolutely no issue with this book being marketed as sapphic, as it is, it was also marketed as "Sansa/Arya but sapphic," which I think truly is weird, as those women are siblings.

But for now, while I found the M/F romantic plot to drag in the middle of this book, I otherwise really enjoyed it. The fantasy story itself is absolutely beautiful, and I'm quite curious to see how all these relationships develop and what the author says about love and power in the next novel.

Thank you to RB Media for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I am not normally a fantasy girl but omg this book ended sucking me in. Siiri and Aina are from a little struggling village where bad things have been happening from death, hunger, and now girls are going missing. When in reality this is all chaos created by the "old gods". When Aina sacrifices herself for Siiri, Siiri puts it on herself to go and save Aina meanwhile Aina is trying to survive and escape Tuonela and get back to Siiri.

The world building and the slow unraveling of all the mythological stories was beautiful. Both sides of the pov were equally as intriguing pulling me in. I want to like just talk all about this book but I definitely don't want to spoil it. It did take a moment to get into it but before I knew it I was finished. Can't wait for the second book.

The audio book was so good, the narrations where done so well at first it was difficult to differentiate the voices but after a bit it does become more obvious not only in tonality but obviously storyline. And the witches voice is fun and creepy. Very much enjoyed it.

I heard this audio book thanks to NetGalley, RBMedia, and the author Emily Rath. Though granted access to this book for free my opinion is very much my own. [Warning: If you have issues reading about religious prosecution (specifically where Christians are the villains), violence, and homosexuality skip it. This one is simply not for you.]

This is an incredibly detailed book that is based on a Finnish folktale. It had very interesting undertones of religious takeover and how the Swedes impacted the Finns. It really was a very interesting listen. I was confused by the romance themes as I went into this thinking it would be a sapphic romance but I felt that the hetero romance was much more obvious. However that should not take away from how amazingly interesting and detailed this book is. I highly recommend listening to it as I am not sure I would have been able to pronounce any of the names! The narrators, Khaya Fraites and Emily Lawrence, did a fabulous job!

Big thanks to NetGalley, RB Media and Emily Rath for a copy of this audiobook. This is my honest opinion

I love, love, LOVE Emily Rath as a romance author, so I was really excited to be given the opportunity to be able to listen to her first fantasy/romantasy novel.

I really wanted to like this, truly. I wanted to see more romance and depth to the main couple. It is supposed to be lgbtq+ but it really isn’t explored. While I appreciate the world building, as is necessary in fantasy novels, the pacing felt off at points and think some of the fluff could’ve been trimmed from the novel.

The narrators overall were fine but they didn’t really help with the pacing either. I think some of the book was recorded in a rush bc you can tell where parts are spliced and new parts are put in. It really is jarring especially during scenes with lots of action.

North is the night was an excellent read. I loved the writing and it was propulsive. Great character study. I would read more from this author.

thank you to the publisher for an artc for this! i enjoyed the dual narration and the insight into finnish forklore. i think this book with so many native words was a bit confusing to follow along with audio. i think i may have enjoyed (and been less confused) if i could follow along with the book. overall i thought the story was brilliant and loved reading about the adventues of two friends (I did not get the romantic vibe) so i am not sure if i would consider this a romantasy book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book!! Emily has a way with story telling that goes so well into fantasy!
I did meet Emily in person and hearing her talk so passionately about this book really took it to another level for me. A very plot driven book; I know it’s marketed as romantasy but for me this book was low romance and much more fantasy.
If you are ready for an epic fantasy adventure then this is a book you should check out.
I learned and LOVED being introduced to finish mythology!

North is the Night
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wow What a great story that kept me hooked the whole time. It was magical with lots of fun adventures. I really enjoyed it. I'm excited for book #2. Thank U NetGalley

Format: Audiobook
Rating: 2.5/5 ⭐️

I am very very skeptical of fantasy novels written by romance authors, and this just wasn't it. It had big Gild vibes (was it because the narrator of Aina sounded like Gild's narrator, or because they both felt flimsy as all heck?). The pacing was all over the place and I struggled to know how much time had passed at any given point in time. I also am slightly (read that as *really*) annoyed by this supposedly being LGBTQ+ but like... 99% of the book is Aina and Siiri separated and it feels not at all like they are longing romantically for each other.

Strong female leads do not need to be stab-happy (like Poppy from FBAA), or just kind of crazy and talk to any and all inanimate objects. They also don't need to have internal dialogue that makes everything so basic! "This is dangerous, I have a secret that they don't know." Yeah congrats honey, now stop talking about it as if this isn't painfully obvious to us all and DO something instead. "I think she died right here!" Yeah? The dead girl that is dead and right here? You think she died here? "Maid? I don't have a maid? Oh, do you mean my maid?"

There is no letting things be a mystery to the reader. Everything is beatened to death over and over and, just for good measure, over again until you want to yell at how painfully dull everything is. We don't need to have a side character go "oh? go on put it together" then the main character perfectly detail it all, then the side character go "you are so clever!". None of this adds to the story.

While we are on it, let's also stop calling main characters "clever" when in actuality they are thoughtless and prone to putting themselves in danger.

I will not be picking up the second book. There wasn't enough depth in this story to really keep my interest, and I don't think I can suffer through Aina and Siiri being told how clever they are for having the tiniest thought ever for another full book.

Thanks to NetGalley & Recorded Books for providing an eARC of the audiobook for North is the Night by Emily Rath.

So I was very intrigued when I heard Emily Rath was writing a fantasy. Then I read the synopsis and was even more interested. Yet I still wasn’t prepared for how much I enjoyed this. It was different but in the best way possible.

Thank you to NetGalley, RBMedia, and Emily Rath for an alc in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was really looking forward to this one because it was based on Finnish mythology, which is something that I haven’t come across much in mythological fantasy. It is also a far cry from Rath’s previous works, but it didn’t disappoint me. I loved the writing style. It felt very atmospheric and like I was listening to someone tell me old folktales. The magic system was really interesting and I loved how music/drums were woven into the system.

The narrators, Khaya Fraites and Emily Lawrence, did a great job with the story. It was very immersive for me and they worked well together with the different perspectives.

I am definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the duet.

This was a really interesting story. I was shocked to find out it was by the same author of the Pucking Around series. I think she is way better writing fantasy than that series.

I have such mixed feelings about this story. I think it was really interesting and I LOVE that it was inspired by Finnish folklore. It’s such a unique topic and definitely under appreciated. That said, most people are not as familiar with the old Finnish gods and therefore those can be A LOT of information, and similar sounding names, to take in. It’s me. I’m most people. I really liked having the glossaries at the beginning to refer to for this reason, and again, found it really interesting.
Siiri was a really fun character! I liked her strength of spirit and devotion to Aina. Her story/chapters really caught my attention and had me eager for more. I loved her relationship with Väinämöinen, and his backstory as well.
Aina was a little tough for me, and where the mixed feelings came in. I was probably most invested in her story because I’m a sucker for “he falls first” type love stories and was therefore very drawn to Tuoni…but I don’t think I was supposed to be? I’m pretty sure that relationship is a little toxic - and slightly instalove - but damn if I wasn’t wanting more. This naturally, made the ending a little hard for me, although I think it was very sweet and poetic in its own way. I’m not sure I would label this as quite a sapphic romance so much as a tale of friendship, love, and devotion. That doesn’t mean I don’t think it was romantic, because it absolutely was. Aina really says it best:
“You have my heart, Tuoni . . . but Siiri has my soul.”
Khaya Fraites does a really good job with the narration. As someone who has studied Finnish in the past, I can say the pronunciation is really tough, and I think Khaya does well and makes it sound very smooth/natural. She also did a good job making characters sound fairly distinct, and she did especially well with emotions and voicing the tones of the story.
Overall, I really enjoyed the story. I cannot say I’m quite eager for a sequel, but I also cannot say I wouldn’t read it.

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.

Im not one for audiobooks but listening to North Is The Night has changed that for me. The narrators did a wonderful job bringing this book to life. It had such great world building and is such an emotional and adventurous book.

This Finnish folklore retelling was just so good. I was hooked from the start. The story was so interesting. I need the next book right now. Siiri and Aina are soul sisters. They love each other like no other. Siiri is dedicated to protecting Aina. That vow is tested when Aina is taken to Tuonela by one of the Gods of Death’s daughters. Siiri journeys to see the shaman to learn how to get to Aina. While Siiri is learning all the things, Aina is going through her own trials. Nothing in Tuonela is as the elders have told. The Witch Queen has been playing with mortal girls to death. Can Siiri and Aina make it back to each other? Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for the audio arc in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately I had to DNF at 37%. I was hoping for something more atmospheric, but for a book cover that's covered in snow, I didn't feel transported or captivated. Khaya Fraites and Emily Lawrence do an excellent job narrating and I'll definitely be looking for books narrated by them in the future.

DNF at 20%. I really enjoyed the start, I found it really atmospheric and immersive. I stopped listening after the attempted rape scene. It felt gratuitous, tonally at odds with the rest of the book, and I thought it was unnecessary.