Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Down Comes the Night

I enjoyed Wren as a queer protagonist who never has her queerness be questioned or even be an issue within the text. She's in love with her superior officer and best friend, someone who cares about her but doesn't put anyone above her own work as a soldier. Wren's interest in anatomy and the more scientific aspects of medicine are used but not really appreciated by those around her, because they don't understand the value of this learning and the additional lives that can be saved by combining scientific knowledge with magic. This lack of emotional support from those around her also leads Wren to be more vulnerable when it seems like her knowledge is finally being appreciated by someone who is in a position to help her. She receives a letter from a lord from a neutral nation who promises her political help if she'll come save his servant from a mysterious illness.

When she arrives, the lord is eccentric and the patient she was summoned to save is Hal, a war criminal and former child soldier. He's an assassin who can kill with his magic gaze, and the lord seems to have no idea, demanding that Wren do all she can for his "servant". Gradually, it becomes clear that Hal's illness is more complicated (as are her growing feelings for him), and Wren will have to choose between turning him in and stopping the war.

I saw a review which characterized Wren's dilemma as a choice between supporting a current war criminal or a former war criminal. That is definitely literally a choice that gets made at several points in the text, and somewhat dampened some of my enjoyment of the story. However, I did appreciate it as a narrative about two people who didn’t have much choice about whether to join their respective nations' militaries, but now are trying to find other paths for themselves and stop those who want a war to continue. When the options are to root for the character who was a child soldier but now is trying to stop the violence, or to support the character actively kidnapping and torturing people for his own personal and political gains... that's not nearly as tricky of a problem for me as this other reviewer found it.

One of my favorite worldbuilding details is the way that the small cluster of three countries (two of which are shown) have very different levels of technology, largely driven by whether or not their citizens have access to magic. Next is the way that this feels like a Beauty and the Beast retelling. It's probably not meant to be one, however, so many of the larger story beats fit neatly into the mold of that narrative, that, at the very least, someone who loves Beauty and the Beast (depending on the reasons) would likely be very interested in this book. It has a snow-covered castle lorded over by a strange man with strict rules about where the heroine may or may not go, an arbitrary timeline to solve a strange problem, a ball, and lots of wound care. The cadence of the plot follows that other one in some interesting ways, but getting into those details would be too many spoilers.

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theonlybaillie's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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robin_reads's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

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

I was annoyed throughout most of this book.. the romance felt unbelievable to me and rushed.
A bit forced at times.

This is upper YA or even NA.

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kalmia31's review against another edition

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dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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takarakei's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes

2.0

Who cares? like literally there is not enough world building or character development for me to give a crap about this story. All the secondary characters are barely mentioned let alone given any actual substance. The MC Wren is bi, ok, but we don't get enough detail of her prior relationship with Una (sp? idk audiobook) for it to actually mean much? I guess in the end it's more like enemies to lovers/close proximity once she arrives at the estate to take care of Hal. I wasn't even really into their romance either. The main mystery is like 'solved' almost too early, and then the end of the story drags on. It's just a lot of like gore and medical horror strung together into kind of a fantasy (really more court politics) lackluster romance.

The ending is super unbelievable, like all of a sudden at the last second Wren is able to convince the Queen to just stop siding with Lowry?? just like that? even though she tried before...

2.5/5 🌶️

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aivilo611's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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limabeans's review

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dark emotional mysterious slow-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

4.0

I really liked this book. I will admit it was advertised as a fantasy romance but the romance kind of happened out of nowhere and didn’t take affect really until the end. Which is fine, just the cover and quotes presented are misleading.

Thinking back there were some flaws of the story, but it was well written with enjoyable characters. The story itself was so tense and interesting. I wish the whole ‘murder mystery’ concept with Lowry didn’t exist though; it felt like it threw the main plot idea (of Hal and Wren trying to stop the war) off.

The ending was sooo interesting but I don’t like the idea of Una AND Isabel being forgiven by Wren. Una did mess up her relationship with Wren greatly, but her motive was understandable, so maybe I wish Isabel wasn’t just ‘redeemed’ all of a sudden at the end of the book; after putting Wren through everything she did I didn’t like that the author gave a ‘pass’ to her.

- Wren was a pretty good mc. Not the best but she felt more relatable and realistic. Really liked following her journey.

- Hal was a good love interest too, but I wish the author went more in depth with him

- Una was the most well written character in the story. (Well maybe minus Lowry). All though she made me frustrated, that was the author’s intention which definitely worked.

One thing I want to add is that this felt like 2 stories combined; this is Alison Saft’s first work though and maybe I just expected a little more after reading her latest work, ‘A Far Wilder Magic’

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karelidz's review

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mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

4.8⭐ just because i found the MC's best friend very annoying, but other than that, i absolutely LOVED IT. It had everything i was in the mood for: mystery with some romance and a bit of fantasy sprinkled in there.
I don't usually reread a lot of books, but I'd definitely reread this one. 100 percent.

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