Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Nightfall

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Nightfall by Penelope Douglas

10 reviews

booklovinmamas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Nightfall is the final installment in the Devil’s Night series, and it’s a long one that had me captivated. It took me a bit to finish it because I had to keep putting it down to run some errands, feed my family, or sleep. You know, the usual stuff that prevents readers from reading their books.

I’ve been meaning to read this book for so long, but I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the Devil’s Night series. I wasn’t prepared to read Will Grayson’s book, but I’m glad I did now. I was curious to finally find out who Emory Scott was and why Will had issues with her in the first book in the series, Corrupt. Emory was the girl that Will had a crush on for years but she didn’t want anything to do with him. I knew she broke his heart, and I needed to understand why. I also needed to know how she would fit into the series with the others because I thought initially that Will was going to end up with Alex. I trusted Penelope and where they were going to take their readers with Will’s book.

If you read Kill Switch and Conclave, you would have learned that Will was missing and the Horsemen and their ladies wanted to find him. They suspected he was forced to go to Blackchurch, where the rich send their sons if they are caught acting up. It was up to Michael, Kai, Damon, and their ladies, including Alex, to find Blackchurch and hopefully get Will out of there. He had missed out on a lot since he went missing. The issue is that Will doesn’t want to leave Blackchurch because he has plans there, but he never expected his past to show up there. Emory Scott ends up at Blackchurch and she has no clue how she got there and who sent her. All she knows is that she’s about to face the one person she’s tried to avoid since she broke his heart, and she finds out he isn’t the same boy that she once loved. She’s also going to face the others at Blackchurch, and they are all there for a reason.

This was an emotional rollercoaster of a book from the first page to the last page when it came to Will and Emory. The back and forth from past to present helped explain what happened to these two characters and what made them have a falling out and also had them come back together. Their character growth from nine years ago to the present was deeply moving. Emory’s struggles and resilience in the face of a difficult life resonated with me, and I understood why she kept things from Will. She ended up leaving her past for a while but was forced back to fix things and make things right.

One of the standout moments for me was at the end of the book when everything was revealed, and the truth about Will’s situation at Blackchurch came to light. This was the moment when Will’s strength and resilience came forward and showed his character growth the most. The other Horsemen were even impressed with his strength and independence.

The only thing that bugged me was Alex and how things played out for her in this book. She deserved to have her own book, but I did appreciate the twist to the storyline of Will’s book that included some kind of happiness for Alex because I thought she was going get shafted.

I give the final full-length novel four stars. Although I’m sad it’s finished, I’m happy that every character who I’ve come to care deeply about has found happiness after so much heartache and trouble. I still see Damon as the scariest of the bunch. Michael will always be a favorite (even after he ticked me off in Conclave), and now Will is another favorite. Kai seems to be the most reasonable one who knows how to handle situations. I’m going to miss them, even the FMCs, who definitely knew how to handle the Horsemen.

I highly recommend this series if you enjoy Dark Romantic Suspense with several different storylines involving revenge, mayhem, and spice.

Trope(s)/Element(s):
✓Enemies to Lovers
✓Second Chance at Love
✓Forced Proximity
✓Revenge

Content Warnings

nineinchnails's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

this was by far my favourite in the series. if the whole book was them in blackchurch it might've been like 4.5 stars or higher because i really loved the vibes and the dynamics there - it kinda reminded me why i love reading RH because my favourite RH series are actually pretty similar vibes wise.

i think being able to personally relate to a lot of emmy's experience made the book hit a lot harder for me than the others in this series, because PD managed to portray how it feels to walk on eggshells like that surprisingly accurately. the prose isn't amazing and there were a few spelling/grammar issues (nowhere near as bad as a lot of other DR tho imo) but i found the flashbacks so moving. in most of the other books i found the flashback chapters a bit of a chore to read but i was tearing through these!

i liked damon even more in this book. it might be because his "friendship" with emory felt realistic and pretty natural (especially compared to rika in kill switch lol) so it less like a character assassination than in his book. speaking of rika, i liked her a lot more in nightfall - she also felt more authentic than she did in kill switch! for some reason a lot of alex's scenes and interactions felt somewhat forced or out of character and i can't put a finger on why exactly. there seemed to be a big emphasis on her relationship with will and their past hookups to the point it felt like overkill but

her with aydin was perfect and i'm really relieved they ended up together

.

i really liked the characterisation in this book and ended up liking the new characters way more than i expected. i was scared i'd end this book not caring about emmy and will's relationship since he's been obsessed with her since like the first book but it was developed well + i could understand why they fell in love. however, the last bit of the book (and the epilogue) fell a little flat for me and i'm not sure why, other than the pacing. i think it might be because there was so many characters together it was just a lot to keep track of, or something like that? anyways in regards to the

train scene i'm so glad damon gave all the guys a little discipline bc i thought he was just witnessing that and it disturbed me a little that he was cool with all that

Content Warnings

faith99's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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siw_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

jen1804's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Difficult to rate this book because there was a lot I liked but also a lot I didn’t like. This book is so long and if I’m honest it kind of all felt a bit disjointed what with the time we spent in Blackchurch, the flashbacks and the trying to figure out how everything fitted in with the timeline that we’d been given during the other horsemen’s books. Parts of it felt straight up ridiculous and out of nowhere and left me feeling baffled. Like where did this rando girl Athos even actually come from all of a sudden who has now been adopted by Rika and Michael.
I also personally felt that the descriptions at times were lacking to the point where I found I was getting confused about where they were and what was happening and the logistics of it all.
The scenes of Martin abusing Emory were so graphic and so excruciating to read. I felt so sad for Em. I think Penelope Douglas did a good job of making us despise Martin and portraying the mind of a domestic abuse victim. Harrowing.
The friendship that blossomed between Em and Damon was so endearing, understanding each other’s pain and keeping each other’s secrets, though I feel robbed of not getting to witness Will’s reaction to Em telling him about Natalya and why they were in the school showers together that night. I love that Damon gave Em the carfax room from one abused child to another, and I love that Damon and Emory now have a design and building business together, plus him rebuilding the gazebo using her blueprints was just beautiful.
So glad Martin fucking died. But I so badly wanted Damon to dive off the cliff after Will and be the one to pull him out of the water as a kinda full circle moment.
I loved the romantic scenes between Will and Emory so much, they were so cute, I bookmarked so many of their lines, especially their flashbacks from when they were in school. I liked seeing the female play a more dominant part too. There was not enough romance content though! And the ‘present’ scenes seemed too rushed. Like woah that marriage proposal did not have enough of a present day romantic foundation behind it after all the spiteful Blackchurch behaviour for it to make sense.
As much as I thought the marriage was quick though I can forgive it, because the four way wedding was everything and I adored that so much!
If I’m being honest Will’s Blackchurch agenda kinda doesn’t really make a great deal of sense to me, like whatever, and the whole Aydin/Alex sub plot is just a big nope. But I’m glad Will’s grandpa was a double crossing legend and seeing their relationship with each other was lush.
I did however really like that Will discovered Coldfield and the tunnels and I loved the idea of their own private access to all these places around Thunder Bay and Meridian City including tunnels to each other’s houses.
I wasn’t very happy about how angry Will was about the whole Em being ‘the reason they went to prison’ thing, because let’s be clear it was NOT her fault and she did not in fact owe any one of them an apology. This series is basically full of the guys holding grudges over miscommunication, lol.
The train carriage scene was weird but I guess also not unexpected from this bunch of characters! Pahahhh.
Overall I enjoyed it, and really loved the insight into their kids ten years later that we got in the epilogue. I love that these four guys who were basically entitled assholes in high school let’s be real, have all found a strong woman who’s their match and equal. I really enjoyed the context of found family throughout this series and the love that is woven through all of them.
Satisfactory ending? Yes.

Content Warnings

araceli1022's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

coligmueller's review against another edition

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3.0

The book was ruined because they spent too much time trying to round out the series (which they did not do well) rather than focusing on Will and Emory. Also the complete 180 with Alex and Aydin was ridiculous.

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