I absolutely hated this book for the first half. Only after the halfway mark did I become engaged. I enjoyed the character development, but overall this was clearly a first book. ( )

At the beginning of this book I did not connect with Wren nor particularly like her but that changed by the end of this story. I appreciated the twists that were revealed to Wren, a couple of them were expected and a couple of them were not. Overall, this was a quick romantic, fantasy read and I am looking forward to reading more novels from Allison Saft in the future. ( )

I liked this book but have to say that it was very different from what I expected. I guess I made a few assumptions based on the cover that didn’t quite pan out. That’s okay because this was a very worthwhile story that was definitely worth a read. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, which proved to be a great choice since she did a fabulous job with the narration.

Wren is a healer who really wants to make people feel better if it is in her power. She loses her position in her unit for not following a command and decides to take an offer to care for someone at the home of a powerful man. She hopes that her work could also help bring some peace. She finds that the man needing care is none other than the Reaper of Vesria who happens to be an enemy of her kingdom. As she gets to know Hal, she finds that he is very different than what she imagined.

I liked the characters in this book. Wren had a lot of spunk and I loved how brave and caring she proved to be. Hal had a very interesting story of his own and he was a genuinely nice guy underneath everything. I thought that they were great together and enjoyed seeing them work together to achieve their goals. This was a fantasy and I really liked the extra abilities we say in some of the characters. The mystery was incredibly well done which helped to make this a very engaging read.

Saskia Maarleveld did a fantastic job with this story. I thought that both her male and female voices were well-done and I liked the fact that she added just the right amount of emotion to her reading. I really felt like she brought this story to life and I found myself wanting to listen to it for hours at a time. I believe that her narration added to my overall enjoyment of the story.

I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be a very entertaining read with great characters, just the right amount of romance, and an interesting magic system. I do hope to read more of this author’s work in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Wednesday Books via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library. ( )

I picked this up after reading Allison's new book because I greatly enjoyed it. This is equally rewarding with two main characters who are prisoners of their past. Wren's impulse to heal gets in the way of the rigid expectations of her aunt, the queen, as well as her best friend and commander, Una. Hal is equally victimized by his history of murderous actions on the battlefield. When circumstances force her to heal him in a sinister and mysterious mansion, under suspicious circumstances what follows in the process makes for a darn good read with plenty of intrigue and a dandy ending. ( )

Down Comes the Night is pitched as a gothic romantic historical fantasy novel and it both fits and doesn't fit that framing. I've been trying to sift through the various subplots and characters to figure out the essence of the book and I'm not sure it quite came together in the end. A case of close-but-not-quite-there. However, I think this is a book that will work well for a lot of readers, so let's get into it.
The story opens as Wren, unrecognized niece of the Queen, is letting her empathy overrule orders once again. She heals a prisoner and he escapes. Her commanding officer Una--the woman Wren loves--is angry but defends her when they're brought before the Queen. Wren is stripped of her military assignment and given two terrible choices: have her magic surgically removed or go heal in the mines. Her desperation leads her to accept an offer that seems too good to be true and she escapes Una's escort to the mines to serve as healer to a notorious nobleman in a nearby, un-allied land.
When she arrives, she finds out that everyone in the manor is dead or mysteriously sick, including a servant who turns out to be the baddest bad guy and heir to the kingdom Wren's people have been at war with for generations. The two nations are currently at an armistice, but soldiers on the border have been disappearing on both sides and war is looming. Wren is bisexual and Una is an emotionally-constipated disaster so I'm glad they aren't end-game, but Hal wasn't as swoony as I was promised. The world seemed queernormative which is always a plus!
The blurb tells you that Wren and Hal fall in love and save the world, but it doesn't tell you how damn gross this book is. It's pretty quickly apparent that the lord of the manor is responsible for the illness and death among his staff, but it gets worse as the book proceeds. There's a lot of discussion of eyeballs and a scene with a "wet squelch" as a speculum is inserted to take out an eyeball. I could tell that the author did a lot of eyeball research because it's very descriptive. *shudder*
Okay so eyeballs and murder and lots of gore and medical ick in general. The romance is present and I think it was probably okay, but I never really bought into Wren's quick forgiveness of a mass murderer. Hal is deeply apologetic and wants to make amends, but he's still a mass murderer, you know? Your mileage may vary.
In all, there are gothic vibes here and a historical-but-not fantasy setting, but it's not a true gothic. The characters are trapped in the house by illness and a murderous nobleman, but there wasn't a building sense of dread, that creeping, growing feeling that I associate with a gothic. It's certainly dark, there's a terrible mystery and quite a bit of angst, but something was missing. ( )