Mini Review: Down Comes The Night by Allison Saft

Tite: Down Comes the Night

Author: Allison Saft

Publication Date: March 2, 2021

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Pages: 400

Goodreads Synopsis

He saw the darkness in her magic. She saw the magic in his darkness.

Wren Southerland’s reckless use of magic has cost her everything: she’s been dismissed from the Queen’s Guard and separated from her best friend—the girl she loves. So when a letter arrives from a reclusive lord, asking Wren to come to his estate, Colwick Hall, to cure his servant from a mysterious illness, she seizes her chance to redeem herself.

The mansion is crumbling, icy winds haunt the caved-in halls, and her eccentric host forbids her from leaving her room after dark. Worse, Wren’s patient isn’t a servant at all but Hal Cavendish, the infamous Reaper of Vesria and her kingdom’s sworn enemy. Hal also came to Colwick Hall for redemption, but the secrets in the estate may lead to both of their deaths.

With sinister forces at work, Wren and Hal realize they’ll have to join together if they have any hope of saving their kingdoms. But as Wren circles closer to the nefarious truth behind Hal’s illness, they realize they have no escape from the monsters within the mansion. All they have is each other, and a startling desire that could be their downfall.

Allison Saft’s Down Comes the Night is a snow-drenched romantic fantasy that keeps you racing through the pages long into the night.

Love makes monsters of us all.

Quick Thoughts

This book let me down a little bit. When I originally read the synopsis, it had me so excited to reach for it in my TBR pile, but unfortunately, it was a miss for me.

I think what let me down the most is that from the synopsis and general marketing of the book, I expected the book to be more of a gothic story than it actually turned out to be. Yes, there is a castle and a little bit of a gothic vibe there, it wasn't nearly as strong of a vibe as I expected it to be, especially from a book that is seemingly being categorized as a gothic novel. Overall, I feel like it lacked atmosphere.

The other reason why this book wasn't a hit for me was because of the writing style. There were large descriptive passages of essentially just info-dumping. During these passages I felt like I was being removed from the story rather than being further immersed in the book world and history.

Overall, my experience with this book was rather lukewarm, but this book does have a ton of positive reviews on Goodreads so if you are interested in reading this one, I wouldn't let my review deter you too much. It was just not my cup of tea.