Dark Night Golden Dawn

First off, I would like to thank the author for an ARC of this book. Dark Night Golden Dawn is a modern fantasy book with a complex world and hierarchy of different beings. As with most first-in-the-series books for me, it was slow to start. I found some of the verbiage and writing style to be a little difficult at first, but once I was into the story I was able to look past that. This story focuses a lot on familial bonds, both blood and found family, which I appreciated. There is also a focus on forgiving past wrongdoings and not holding a grudge which I found super relevant. There is a romantic element to this book that I loved! I loved Finn and how tender he was with Harlow. He pulled her out of her comfort zone to make her see herself how he saw her. I found Harlow to be relatable in some of her insecurities related to her body.There is definitely some spice, and it was so good! This book has many tropes, but my favorite is the enemies to lovers element. There is also a fake dating element that was fun. I took off one star because I struggled a little with the writing style in the beginning and the pace. Overall, I really enjoyed the story and the characters, and I am definitely intrigued to read book two when it comes out. Dark Night Golden Dawn is an adult fantasy, 18+ for themes, and sexual content. Check trigger warnings. The author has a really nice note to the reader about triggers at the start of the book. Follow Allison Carr Waechter for more information on preorders and future works. This book comes out 4/12/2022.

I liked this book - and - then it got weird.
I did find some aspects problematic.
I found the comment that Aurelia made to Selene about Harlow at the end of the book distasteful and no way for parents to be speaking about their daughter.
I also found the epilogue and how they referred to her awful as well.
A book so richly written ruined by coarseness right at the end.
I also found how the other characters treated he quite worrying. Clearly she was traumatised but hey let's set her up ‘for the season', truss her up for market, and pair her off to save the family shop.
She was treated poorly by her family and clearly her parents weren't all that interested in trying to help her. They would rather comment on her clothes.

That being said. I liked Harlow. She wasn't perfect. She had self esteem and self worth issues and she was trying to work on herself and through it. She made mistakes that had consequences. She came back after some time away and tried.

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

Dark Night, Golden Dawn should have been a five star book for me. It had so many of my absolutely favorite tropes (vampires, mating, there's a social season like in historical romances etc.), but ultimately, it fell more than a little flat. My biggest problem with the book lies with the main character, Harlow. For most of the book, she is a limp, boring noodle. She has little personality other than wondering why anyone likes her at all. (The author writes a reason for this into the story, but it didn't really solve the issue for me.) Despite having the world's worst self-confidence, Harlow is good at practically everything, other than standing up for herself and doing something to make herself interesting.

Finn, Harlow's love interest, is slightly more interesting than her. He is the typical alpha male, a perfect specimen with awesome powers. He is protective, and always willing to take a step back to make sure Harlow is comfortable with how things are going. They have a rocky past together, but Harlow gets over this surprisingly quickly.

The plot and the world built in Dark Night, Golden Dawn is vastly interesting. The author has fantastic ideas, but the actual book just does not equal up to a fantastic story. The writing itself tends to be on the more boring side — too simple and plain to really paint a picture of what's going on. The sex scenes should have been steamy, but instead felt overly bland. We get so much of Harlow hating and doubting herself when we should have gotten more descriptions of the world, of the plot, of what was going on.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. If I remember about Dark Night, Golden Dawn when it's sequel comes out, I might grab it. But I have a feeling this book might fade in my memory — it just has no sticking points.