Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Nightbirds

I guess I'm just hitting some middle of the road fantasy with these last two books! This is a debut historical fantasy about secretive magic, about power, and about sexism. The magic system was interesting and gave off a very 1920s vibe throughout most of the story. The overall world building was well done, and there's a strong cast of characters throughout.

Some of the pacing in the book was off, however. There were some moments where the writing really shined, so there's potential! Especially since this is going to be a series; lots of time to flesh out some of the aspects of this book that had a lot of potential.

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ceeshay's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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ninascozydayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Disclaimer: this eARC was sent to me in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you Random House International for making this available to me!

It had been a hot minute since I’d read fantasy, and boy, had I missed it. Luckily, this book absolutely delivered for my fantasy aching heart.

A story with unlikely friends, Nightbirds by Kate J. Armstrong starts of strong with the mystery that seems to surround the entire story: that of the Nightbirds, girls who exchange kisses for special gifts, and their magic. It can only be given with consent, and they can never use it for their own. Until strange things start happening…

There were a lot of things that I liked about this book. What I liked most were the main characters. They were fun, interesting, well-written, and honestly badass, and so different from each other yet complimented each other really well. The multiple POV was done really well. With a multiple POV, there’s always the chance that one of the POVs isn’t as interesting as the others, or drags, but not in this case: because the girls all had such wildly different stories in terms of where they came from, it was kept interesting. The only POVs I didn’t like were the weirdly placed ones that sometimes came in-between chapters. I always like it when there’s something, like a quote or a passage from a book that exists in the world, between chapters. Those were also used in Nightbirds, but at certain times it was used to write a few pages POV of someone else, which took me out of the story cause it’s not quite a chapter, but also not something you read quickly (and if I’m honest, not that interesting either, I fully believe the book could have done without it).

However, that doesn’t take away from the absolute joy I had reading this book. I loved the plot and the excitement of it and all its twists and turns, all its secrets (cause there were a lot). I also loved how the story developed, and for a first book in a series it really struck that balance between exploring and introducing, while still keeping a good pace and keeping up the action. There were some things that I really did not foresee, and others that I did expect, and I loved them both equally. I also really enjoyed the world, or at least the way the different quarters of the city worked, and how it was both set in high society and the city slums. Lastly, I think the magic system, though a bit cliché (powers based around the elements isn’t the newest thing in fiction), was cool and I liked how the special powers the girls had were based around those elements.

In short, I really did enjoy this book and would absolutely recommend it. Once again, thank you PRH for sending this over for review, very excited for book 2!

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