This book has a great concept, weak execution. The plot had promise but fizzled fast. Characters felt flat and underdeveloped. Too many gaps, not enough detail. Left me wanting more — in a bad way.

Sing the Night by Megan Jauregui Eccles
Rating: (3.75/5)

Sing the Night is a captivating, atmospheric read that has a lot of potential. I’m giving it 4 stars because while it definitely has some great qualities, there are a few areas that could have been polished a bit more. Despite that, I found it to be an enjoyable experience, and it’s clear that this book has a lot to offer, If you’re a Phantom of the Opera fan (like me), you’ll definitely catch the influence here—the mysterious, brooding ghost figure, the intense music, and the dark atmosphere all scream Phantom, but with a unique twist.

Plot Overview
In this ya romantasy, an ambitious soprano enters a Faustian bargain with a ghost trapped in a mirror. Her goal? To win a magical singing competition and restore her late father's legacy. This book draws a lot of inspiration from The Phantom of the Opera, If you're a Phantom of the Opera fan, you'll definitely pick up on the familiar themes—dark, mysterious figures, a deep connection to music, and a haunting atmosphere. But the author adds her own twist, creating a unique and intriguing narrative.

What Worked:
Atmosphere & Setting: The gothic feel of the opera house atmosphere is one of the best parts of the book. The world-building, though minimal in some areas, does a great job of creating an eerie, magical vibe that’s perfect for a supernatural story. I really felt drawn into the setting, and it sets the tone beautifully.

Character Development: The main character’s ambition is relatable. She’s faced with tough decisions, and even when she makes more than a few questionable choices, they make sense for where she is in her journey. I found myself really invested in her story.

Phantom of the Opera Influence: As a life long fan, I absolutely loved the homage to the original story. I’ve seen some scathing reviews of the book, but those were clearly written by people who don’t understand The Phantom of the Opera, or Italian opera in general. The way this book draws from that world—particularly in its use of opera lingo and themes—is really well done. It’s clear that the author has a deep respect for the genre.

The Magic: This was by far my favorite part of the book. As a singer myself, I was absolutely captivated by the way singing and music are tied to the magic in this world. The use of Italian opera terminology to describe certain scenes felt poetic and beautiful, almost like a love letter to opera itself. The way the magic was intertwined with music was absolutely mesmerizing, and I can’t get enough of that.

What Could Be Better
Pacing & Structure: While I really enjoyed the story, the pacing was a bit uneven at times. Some parts felt rushed, while others lingered a little too long. A bit more balance between the action and the slower, more reflective moments would have helped the overall flow. That said, these moments didn’t completely take me out of the story—it’s just something that could be refined.

World-Building: The world has so much potential, but I think it could’ve been explored in more depth. The author hints at so many interesting elements, and expanding on those could make the world even richer. (And we could use a better visual description of our 'Phantom'.)

Spice Rating: None
There’s no steam here. The romance is minimal—just kissing. The story focuses much more on the protagonist’s personal journey, the supporting characters stories, and the supernatural elements, which, in my opinion, worked for the tone of the book.

Final Thoughts
Sing the Night is a promising debut that combines gothic elements with a twist. While it has areas that could be refined, the book's potential is evident. The atmosphere, the characters, and the subtle Phantom influences make it a unique and enjoyable experience. I think it has great potential, and I’m excited to see how the author continues to develop her world and characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Actual rating 2.5/5 stars. This is the first instalment in the Opera Magique series.

This fantastical [book:The Phantom of the Opera|480204] retelling revolved around Selene and her wish to win the L'Opéra du Magician trials. The winner was granted the title of the King's Mage, which was a position her father previously held until he lost control of his magic and, consequently, his life. Selene vows to follow in his footsteps but only so far, believing she can reign in the storm of magic writhing inside of her.

This synopsis instantly piqued my interest as I adore Phantom - both the book and movie adaptation - and fantastical trials are bookish buzzwords of mine. The parts which retell the original tale were interesting and I liked how the author reworked something known into something fresh and new. However, I found I had many questions about just how magic in this world works and how the trials were judged and carried out but none of them were answered, over the course of the book. The plot was solid enough but the mechanics confusing and pulled me out of the story many times, meaning I never bonded with Selene or what was occurring.

I appreciate the opportunity to read this but unfortunately I will not be finishing this. I was intrigued by the premise but the story didn't really grab me.

A deeply intimate dissection of ambition in the arts and the cost of power and success. Eccles’s prose is lyrical and deliciously arranged, painting a picture of beauty amidst darkness that will leave you wanting more and more. Selene’s desperate desires were so visceral and vulnerable. I found her deeply relatable and I cannot wait to see how her story continues. PLEASE DONT BREAK MY HEART MS. ECCLES!!!

Also, TEAM VICTOR!!! 👏🏼

i was so excited to get into sing the night, lured by the promise of a phantom of the opera magical retelling, which is probably the best thing a blurb could have told me ever. "retelling" in this case is somewhat literal, as every character and story beat is present, but the theatrical, gothic and dangerous vibes are a little lacking.

that said, selene, our main character, is a bright spot. i genuinely enjoyed following her journey to become the king’s mage — until the narrative started to feel a bit repetitive and instalovey: train, visit "the ghost", train, visit, rinse and repeat, often with the same dialogues to a t - which have a in-world reason that still didn't make it fun.

the magic system, though, is where the author really struck gold. though i wish it was explored a little more in depth, music literally spinning magic is an incredibly cool and well executed idea. i also enjoyed the subtle commentary on how history can reframe and repurpose something as massive as magic in just a handful of years. it’s a clever, sharp touch.

all in all, this was unfortunately a mid read for me. not bad, but not the fantastical retelling i was hoping for. if you’re here purely for phantom vibes, might not the story for you — but if you love messy competitions, operatic music, and a likable, flawed heroine, you’ll probably still have a good time.

thank you to netgalley and 8th note press for the arc!

I had high hopes for this book, given its intriguing premise, but unfortunately it didn’t resonate with me as I had hoped.

The story never quite captured my attention and I had a difficult time trying to connect with the characters. Their actions and motivations felt underdeveloped, leaving me struggling to understand their choices or care about their journey. The characters never felt fully realized which made it hard to stay invested in the plot.

This book had so much potential but unfortunately did not meet up with my expectations.

I wanted to like this, I really did. Some of the beginning i was on board with then it lost stars as i read. The music-powered- magic and the American Idol Hunger Games competition is vague and cliche. The writing to describe the magic abilities was just as confusingly articulated as the obscure time and place this story takes place in. Visualizing them walking around the Opera singing into their door to unlock all the time seems a bit comical.

The FMC is not likable, just seems like she wants to use our "Erik" character for his magic to win this competition. She wants to win it to clear her father's name (who was a mage that went "dark" and lost his mind with magic use). Not sure how her winning clears his name after the fact and also not even sure the purpose of this magic in the court. They seem like glorified illusionists...so just entertainment? Seems like this is made to be cutthroat unnecessarily.

Almost 60% in and we see "Erik" like only 3 times (he doesn't remember his name and has lost memories being a prisoner to a dark magic for decades). I think his magic being powered by Blood was the coolest part of this story. His magic is actual magic whereas everyone else's are mere illusions, meaning not real.

This had potential but got overly messy in its execution real fast. I couldn't connect with anyone and it meandered on boring passages that I began skipping through.

Ironically, I cared most about Erik and I saw him the least but he was compelling when he was there, all shadow daddy and mysterious (but in the end too mysterious). No chemistry between him and FMC. Again just felt like she was using him. She would say how attractive he looked one time too many and say she wanted to help him but I didn't believe her because she never tries to really help and just kept coming back with answers to theae random riddle quests that Erik sends her on. This felt unfocused, a thinly developed world, confusing magic system, and unlikable characters.

I like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me a read.

Listen, I've been in the Phantom of the Opera fandom since the Y2k era. I lived through the 2004 film, Love Never Dies, and I thought I have seen everything. I'm telling you, this is the first time that a Phantom inspired (or stripped fanfiction) has left me bewildered and perplexed.

Lets start with the setting: this world is using the French language and terms, but is in some fantasy world. ... why? Just call in an alt. universe France. Not only that, there is horrible handling of the French language by someone who clearly does not speak French or bother with correct tenses. And so, this 'fantasy' world has magic. There is also a monarchy. But what does the monarchy do? It's unknown. They DO have mages... which then brings the story of Selene (Christine) and her 'father'.

Her father was once the mage to the King, but for some strange reason he went magic drunk and almost tried strangling her. Selene tries to protect herself and uses thunderbolt (it is effective) and kills her dad. She lives with this guilt. Meanwhile the monarchy is playing the part of FOX and having some weird American Idol tournament in some opera house where nobody performs opera...

Their magic is singing. But their magic is also dancing too? But Selene says often that singing is magic... so it's confusing.

Selene moves into the opera house and befriends the caretaker of the opera house 'magicians' (Madame Giry - or in this cause Madame Giroux... ) and her daughter, Gigi (Meg Giry). They know there is a 'ghost' in the opera house but the ghost isn't really present nor causes mischief.

The Raoul character is Victor (Vicomte De'Changy) and he is a pretty dumb prince who apparently has no other clothes to wear and wears his naval uniform a lot (because the author recalls a bit about Raoul in the original novel serving in the navy, and wears the Hussar costume in the stage show). He pretty much flirted with her and was with her when her father went psycho.

Our Erik character is some dude who doesn't remember who he is and lives in a mirror that is accessible by shedding blood on it. It is there our female lead decides to go after his strong dark powers so she can restore her father's legacy and clear his name. She doesn't do much of that, just continuously try on dresses of the most extravagant kind (even though Selene brings in no currency) and takes part in this weird American Idol competition which somehow triggers some need to strange people and cut their throats out. It's all really bizarre.

The romance is really bad, and at times you wonder why there is some weird debate on who she wants to be with because the author makes it very, very clear that she finds our Erik character hot and how badly she wants to press her body up to him (and make out with him) upon seeing him for the first time.

I admit the ending did take me by surprise, but it wasn't a good 'oh this makes the rest of the book make sense' surprise. No, it makes me wonder why mages exist when they really don't do anything or serve any sort of purpose in this badly drawn out monarchy.

There is also some really weird descriptions of how people talk, as I quote:
"His voice was pianissimo" and "dreams in treble cleff", like what the hell does this mean? how do you dream in 'treble cleff'? The author got tired of using normal descriptive phrases and decided since this was a book about 'music' she was going to relate musical terms to adjectives.
"He rolled the words around in his mouth like cherry stones?" why are 'red stones' or 'cherry stones' different than anything else round that could go in the mouth?

There is a point in which Selene gets hurt and our Victor removes his shirt ENTIRELY and reaches into a picnic basket brings out a jar of honey. He then tells her that it's good on wounds and dabs it on her skin (?!) followed by him ripping up the shirt and using it as bandages. Never-mind that they're in the opera house building and he can just go to the infirmary or ask Madame Giroux for some bandages or ointment. (He actually told her to get lost so he could do this... so it was just an excuse for the female to ogle his body.)

I honestly think this book is the Dance of the Starlit Sea of 2025. It has a sequel coming out and I am not going to be reading it.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Sing the Night has been an anticipated read for me probably for years since the author started posting about her journey writing and publishing.

There were a lot of things I really enjoyed about the story. I loved the opera house setting and the subtle nods to the Phantom lyrics. I also really enjoyed the use of musical terms to describe certain things in the story. I loved the competition aspect, giving the story a clear goal and timeline for our protagonist.

Selene’s blind ambition and lack of self preservation frustrated me, but it was clear that was the point of the story, and I enjoyed the ghost being a personification of Selene’s ambitions and desires. I was very compelled by her being caught between her ambitions and desire for a normal life, especially as her feelings for Victor grew.

That being said, I wish Dante had been developed a bit more. Selene’s obsession with him felt too instantaneous, and I wasn’t convinced by her need to be with him and see him. The chemistry between Selene and Dante was incomparable to the chemistry she and Victor seemed to have. I was much more compelled by Victor as his own character as well as Selene’s attraction to him than I was by Dante and his relationship with Selene. I felt like I needed more from him in terms of his struggle and backstory to feel sympathetic to him. It was clear to me that, consciously or not, he was using Selene, so I just wanted her to stay away from him, especially once I learned Madame had studied with him too!

I was also a bit confused by the magic system. I understood that people sang magic, and the magie du sang wants blood and painful memories, but I didn’t understand why magic was only used as entertainment. Becoming the king’s mage is supposed to be a great honor, but if you’re just a fancier version of a jester, why is that something people are willing to risk their sanity and the lives of others for? Was magic used differently before? Had anyone tried? Do you need an affinity for magic as well as a talent for singing? Or just one?

Lastly, I noticed a lot of repetition in the description of how Selene was feeling in certain scenes. There was a lot of “and perhaps it was this, or perhaps it was that, but…”

All of that being said, however, I very much enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to music/phantom lovers and lovers of romantasy. .