Down Comes the Night is a creepy, atmospheric enemies to lovers tale

There’s nothing like a well-done enemies to lovers story, one in which two protagonists who have every reason to hate each other suddenly see past their prejudices to discover something more. Put that enemies to lovers story in a crumbling, Gothic-style mansion where potential death and danger awaits around every corner? Even better.

Such is the general gist of Allison Saft’s lush and layered debut novel Down Comes the Night, a story that’s part romance, part mystery, and part fantasy saga about a pair of kingdoms engaged in a centuries-long war. It’s an intriguing mix of genres, one that doesn’t always quite work if you look at it too hard but that’s always interesting enough to keep you turning pages, wondering what will happen next.

The story follows Wren Southerland, a gifted healer in a world where magical abilities are a rare and valued recessive trait. She’s a medic in the Queen’s Guard, where she users her powers to knit injuries back together and save the mortally wounded from certain death. But she’s not particularly cut out for life in the military, which constantly demands she suppress her emotions and empathy toward their enemies.

After an impulsive choice gets her thrown out of her unit, she answers a letter from Lord Alistair Lowry,  a rich nobleman in a neighboring country whose staff has been ravaged by a mysterious illness. If Wren can heal Henry, his favorite servant, and one of the last surviving staff members, he’ll use his power and position to help her restore her own standing at home. Lord Lowry, you see, is an influential man in the court of Cernos, the one kingdom that’s been neutral in the long-running conflict between Vesria and Dania. He promises to help broker an alliance between all three nations and end the fighting for good.

But nothing, naturally, is that simple.

Because it turns out that “Henry” isn’t just some servant, he’s Hal Cavendish, a murderous warlord known as the Reaper of Vesria, a man who is personally responsible for hundreds if not thousands of deaths. And as the two grow closer despite themselves, strange, dark things begin to happen around Lowry’s mysterious house and it turns out that many things aren’t what they seem.

The world of the story is complex and thoughtfully developed, a mix of 19th century Europe and dystopian fantasy, and Wren’s magical abilities are as tied to science and anatomy as much as they are innate special traits.

Unfortunately, however, Down Comes the Night suffers from more than a few pacing problems, particularly in the first third or so of the novel. Too much time is spent on Wren’s life in Knockaine and her attempts to fit in amidst the Queen’s Guard, as well as a strange unrequited love affair with her superior officer.

Once Wren reaches Colwick Hall things become much more exciting and propulsive, but it’s hard not to think about how much better this story could be if it were just a bit more balanced.

That said, Down Comes the Night remains one of the more original YA stories you’ll read this year, and the romance at its center is downright searing, a match between a killer and a healer that shouldn’t work at all but really does. (Even if I did want to learn a bit more about Hal’s past choices than this particular story has time to give us.)

Down Comes the Night is available now wherever you buy your books. Let us know if you’re planning to add this new release to your must-read pile.