

Wise words, Bonnie Hunt, wise words indeed. Wren wants to hate him but please, she doesn’t stand a chance: of course these two people are mad for each other. OF COURSE Hal is gorgeous, emotionally and physically tortured, desperate for redemption, with “eyes like a starless sky.” He is pale, he is thin, he is needy. OF COURSE the servant is ACTUALLY Hal Cavendish, AKA Reaper of Vesria, a guy whose magic is so powerful that he kills soldiers from Danu by looking at them. I shall not leave the estate under any circumstances without express permission.I shall not enter the east wing of the estate.I shall uphold the curfew and retire to my bedroom from midnight through six each morning.I shall provide a detailed summary of the patient’s progress each week….


Lowry wishes her to heal a servant who has a mysterious disease. The job is with the moody Lord Lowry in his crumbling estate, Colwick Hall. She also longs for love and approval from her commander, Una, but although Una clearly returns Wren’s affections, Una is always a little standoffish and disapproving of Wren’s kinder qualities, because of Una’s position as a war leader.Īfter Wren is banished from the Guard for using her healing powers on a prisoner, she accepts a job in a neutral neighboring country, which is where the gothic kicks in. As the daughter of the last Queen and a commoner, Wren craves the approval of her aunt, the current queen, but gets only contempt. She serves as a medic in the Queen’s Guard in the war between Danu (her country) and Vesria. Wren Colwick is a healer, gifted with healing magic. I was entranced by the atmosphere but the poor heroine’s indecisiveness and lack of common sense, combined with an over-reliance on cliches and purple prose, almost made this a DNF.

This book, which ends on a cliffhanger, features a scene in which the heroine, bare-footed, sneaks into the forbidden East Wing, clad in a white nightie and holding a candelabra, at midnight, so you can tell it’s not fucking around. But Down Comes the Nightmight have out-gothic-ed me, and that’s no easy feat. I cannot get enough of mouldering abbeys and candlelight. Genre: Gothic, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult
