arc received from netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Down Comes the Night is a gothic fantasy that is aptly dedicated to "the girls who feel too much." Wren is the illegitimate daughter of the queen's sister and a skilled healer who finds herself on probation after choosing to heal an enemy soldier against orders. To avoid being reassigned, she takes the offer of a reclusive lord from the neighboring neutral country to heal his sick servant in hopes that she'll secure an alliance and win back favor. Everything about this book is addicting and atmospheric and brings back my fears of creaky old mansions. I honestly cannot pinpoint exactly what made this book so addicting but I genuinely became so invested with the characters and the plot that I could not stop reading.
Wren definitely had to grow on me because of how she allowed her emotions to control her actions so recklessly at first. Her relationships with Una and Isabel is rocky to say the least and leaving them behind seems incredibly irrational but I love how Allison Saft really took her emotions and taught her (and the reader as a result) how to use them to make her stronger. As she learns more about the other side through Hal and begins to question how wars are meant to solve the problem, her character development honestly blooms so beautifully. Speaking of Hal, I don't have much to comment on him per say but I absolutely adored seeing his relationship with Wren unfold, it's really one of those stories where the romantic subplot just works so well in highlighting the main character's arc without overpowering the storyline.
This is definitely a story that just evokes so much reading happiness because of the experience and makes me kind of sad that it's just a standalone. However, the story truly takes advantage of being a standalone to explore how religion and war are tied together and also throw in a soft romance that leaves all the room for yearning.
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Reviewed by riv @dearrivarie on
Reading updates
- 16 February, 2021: Started reading
- 17 February, 2021: Finished reading
- 26 July, 2021: Reviewed