A review by gwendolyn_kensinger
Midnight Is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead

3.0

No-one is more disappointed than me that I didn’t enjoy this more than I did. Let me explain why I didn’t connect with this book. For starters it’s a character driven novel and as we all know by now I prefer plot driven stories. I also thought it leaned too far into Ruth’s younger perspective. The mystery of the skulls in the swamp was underutilized. While the characters in the book were literally trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together we were told within the first 50 pages who, why and how those skulls ended up there. So all I really had to focus on was whether or not Ruth was gonna get her real life Twilight moment. And sadly, I was disappointed with the results of that also. The ending didn’t shock me or even upset me because I was half expecting it after the author event I attended. Maybe if the mod didn’t go on and on with how upset she was about the ending I would have been a bit more surprised??? Also the pacing was slow and Ruth’s final monologue with her dad did me in. Like we get it you figured it out Scooby Doo. Despite so many glaring negatives for me, I think a lot of readers will still really enjoy this book. I continue to enjoy Winstead’s writing and I look forward to what she’s working on for 2025.