Bring Me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin – Book Review

A huge thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and Edelweiss+ for providing me with an ARC of Bring Me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin in exchange for an honest review.

What It Is About

I’m completely shocked by the way my love for him took hold of every part of me, masked itself as an impossible choice when the truth was that I could only ever choose him. From that very first night, my fate was sealed. Queen of the dark.

Tana Fairchild is to marry the governor’s son, Landon, and solidify the alliance between her island home’s witches and mainlanders who view them as a threat. To try and maintain the peace, her coven has been releasing their magic into the ocean during the full moon. But the peace is fragile and they need stronger reassurance.

But then Tana misses the ritual, which is an unforgivable mistake. Luckily she finds someone who can help her release her magic – Wolfe, a strange boy she met on the shore.

Wolfe belongs to a dark magic coven, which shouldn’t exist anymore. Instead of surrendering her power to the ocean, he teaches Tana forbidden magic that makes her feel powerful and more in tune with nature than ever before.

Now Tana must choose between her duty and her heart, between loyalty to her coven and loyalty to Wolfe and his wild magic.

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Themes and vibes:

• • forbidden romance
  • kinda sorta a love triangle
  • forbidden magic
  • duty vs. heart
  • questioning lifelong beliefs
  • soft magic system – more intuitive than following strict rules
  • set on an island
  • mostly 1 POV (if I remember correctly, only one chapter was from someone else’s perspective)
    

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Bring Me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin – My Review

I turn away from him and shake my head, try to erase the feeling of being up in the air, because if I don’t, I’m terrified I might realize that this is the most fun I’ve ever had. That this is the most alive I’ve ever felt.

When I first heard about Bring Me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin coming out this year, honestly – I was thinking of passing it. Just a personal preference, of course. I heard about the author when her first two books came out, The Nature of Witches and Wild is the Witch, but I haven’t read them.

They just didn’t seem like they would be my thing. Based on the covers and what I heard about them from other reviewers, I envisioned good but too atmospheric and lyrical witchy books, and that’s just not my cup of tea.

In the end, though, I decided to give Bring Me Your Midnight a chance, mostly because of that gorgeous cover. And I’m glad I did – overall, this was a very good read.

The book was very atmospheric and descriptive and beautiful without being overbearing with descriptions. The whole read was very nature-oriented in the best possible way. It made me feel like I was there, I could almost smell the salt in the air.

My body is shaking, and I’m unsure if it’s due to fear or the magic roaring through me. I am being rewritten, the water around me and the magic inside me carving new paths until the map of who I am looks different.

From the very beginning Tana’s love for her morning walks and swimming in the ocean, her love for the place, for the island, for her family and the whole coven – it all just pulled me right in.

I also loved the magic, even though it was maybe a bit too vague for my taste. Basically, there’s low magic and there’s dark or wild magic. Most witches have given up on their wild magic because the non-magical people see it as a treat. Using wild magic would lead directly to war between witches and humans, and humans have the numbers.

That is the reason why all witches from Tana’s coven use only low powers. They infuse their gentle magic into candles, bath products, tea, food, music… and then sell these products to the mainlanders. The rest of their powers they release into the ocean during every full moon.

As much as everyone knows, the practitioners of dark magic shouldn’t even exist anymore.

[…] infusing magic into the dried flowers and herbs that make up our scents, small spells for calm, joy, excitement, confidence, assertiveness, all things our magic can summon and the mainlanders will pay for.

To even further reinforce the agreement between the mainlanders and Tana’s coven and ensure peace, Tana is to marry Landon, the mainlanders’ governor’s son. And she is prepared to do it. She’ll gladly contribute her part and help her beloved coven in any way she can. Plus, Landon is a nice guy and a life with him would be far from a tragedy.

I liked Tana as a main character. She’s young and beautiful, charismatic but with a lot on her shoulders. She felt very mature and selfless about what was expected of her and ready to give up a lot to make the life of the other witches easier.

And the book was written in the way that made me truly understand why her sacrifice was necessary and why her making any different choice might present a huge problem for both Tana and the community.

And it fills me with pride to have helped manifest their biggest hopes. I’m so happy for them. I am. But it also feels a lot like sadness.

At the same time, Tana is a young girl full of passion and life and magic. She understands why she needs to marry London but that doesn’t mean she is thrilled about it. At least she can try and make the most out of their marriage. And she is ready to work to build a relationship with London as a true life partner.

But falling in love for the first time makes her fully realize what exactly she was giving up on. And as much as I loved her maturity, I adored when things took a turn and gave her a chance at something real, raw and genuine.

Mostly, I was just so glad not to be in her shoes. Which goes to show how high the stakes were, and that is always a good thing. A sure way to keep me glued to the pages.

But it’s okay to be scared and worried and uneasy. I can believe in this path and still wish I could see farther down the road.

The expectations. Questioning everything you thought you knew. Belonging. Legacy versus who you are in your heart. The fact that nothing was black or white. That wrong choices for one person could be the absolute best choices for someone else…

Bring Me Your Midnight had some truly brilliant moments and I loved it for it.

But there were also things that didn’t quite live up to the expectations. And it’s not easy for me to explain exactly what I didn’t like about it, because some things would be spoilers and others were just a huge bunch of tiny things, too small to mention each separately.

A few things didn’t quite add up, which is not uncommon for fantasies with soft magic systems. There were holes in explanations of how everything worked. I could just go with a lot of it, but every now and then something really irritating would come up. Small things that just didn’t make sense.

There were also some inconsistencies in the characters’ arcs. Some decisions were made too quickly, practically without any second- guessing, and I wasn’t really buying it. Didn’t feel quite genuine, I guess.

He’s unpleasant, his face nothing but hard lines and sharp edges, his voice constantly laced with annoyance, and yet beneath it all is a boy who deeply loves his magic. I suppose that’s one thing we have in common.

There was also a lot of rushing into things, jumping to conclusions after a lifetime of having certain beliefs. Some of these instances did make sense, but not all of them.

And also, the resolution felt a bit too easy and convenient.

But what I didn’t like the most about Bring Me Your Midnight was that I couldn’t truly feel the spark between Tana and Wolfe. They were adorable. I liked them separately. In a way, I liked them together as well. But I can’t say I truly believed their earthquaking love. For all their grand professions, I couldn’t actually feel the feelings.

In fact, the whole story is a sort of a love triangle, but both love interests fell a bit flat to me. Not all of it was bad, but when I think about a truly good romance – this wasn’t it.

I avoid his face as if he’s the sun, as if looking directly at him will cause irreparable damage.

This was, of course, only my own personal experience with it. I feel like most people wouldn’t agree with me on this one, and that’s okay. This is only my review, and though I’m always keeping them honest, they should be taken with a grain of salt.

Especially because, even with all my complaints, I actually enjoyed most of the read and I’m certainly glad I read it. It was beautifully written. I’m pretty sure many of you will love this book even more than I did, and I’m happy for you guys 😉

Bring Me Your Midnight actually made me wanna check out Rachel Griffin’s two previous books I mentioned, and I hope to do it soon. Have any of you read them? Did you like them and which one I should read first? Please let me know in the comments.