A review by lindaskessler
When Night Breaks by Janella Angeles

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

You know the meme of the guy ferociously trying to get in a locked gate, yelling let me in? That’s me, shaking Angeles by the shoulders and begging for answers to the many questions left forgotten by the end of this book. I am surprisingly sad to leave some of these characters behind and wish there was just one more book to round everything out.

Back in 2020 when I was attending NYU’s Summer Publishing Program I received an absolutely gorgeous ARC for the first book in this biology—Where Dreams Descend. It ended on a devastating cliffhanger and the sequel wasn’t due to be out for over a year. I lost track of the release, but finally finished the tale this month.

It’s hard for me to figure out just what to say about this book. There are elements I loved: the showmanship of it all, specific characters that I would happily read novellas about to get to spend more time with them, the idea of there being a mirror dimension only magicians can access. But ultimately, this book fell short for me. The elements I loved do not outweigh the struggles I had: an exposition heavy 2/3 of the book that went 0 to 100 in the last section, feeling rushed, only to leave us with a myriad of unanswered questions and plot points that went no where as far as the reader can tell. Saddest of all, the ending simply skipped over all the scenes I so desperately wanted to watch unfold. I think I will miss Jack and Vain (well, really all the Diamond Rings and maybe even Harold) most of all.