book review: dark night, golden dawn
Image: Dark Night, Golden Dawn by Allison Carr Waechter.
In a city where the elite are powerful as gods, the season is about to begin. The Immortal Orders will gather, pair and create a spectacle for all of Nuva Troi to witness.
Harlow Krane is a sorcière who wants nothing more than to recover from her most recent breakup in peace. When the season begins, her Order needs her help to save their ancestral occult district from being taken over by the Illuminated, the most powerful immortals in Nuva Troi. They offer to back off—if Harlow agrees to pair with their most eligible bachelor, Finn McKay. But Harlow has been burned by Finn before.
Finn McKay is one of the Illuminated. Rich, powerful, and he isn’t afraid of anyone—except for his parents. When they push him towards Harlow Krane, he knows their purposes are sinister at best. For the past seven years, Finn has done everything in his power to stay away from Harlow and he won’t break his resolve now, even if it means defying his parents. As the season begins, it’s clear something is dangerously wrong but besides Finn, only Harlow seems to notice.
With magic behaving strangely, the balance of power between the Immortal Orders and humans grows deadlier by the day. Harlow and Finn must work together to keep ancient grudges from resurfacing and take back their lives in the process. If they can get over their past, the whole world may have a brighter future.
Dark Night, Golden Dawn is Book One in The Immortal Orders Trilogy, a blazing hot fantasy romance, set in a contemporary world of magic, deception, and betrayal.
DARK NIGHT, GOLDEN DAWN is a gorgeous, witchy fantasy romance featuring a main character recovering from trauma in a fascinating and complex world. It was one of those books that immediately hooked my heart, one of those stories that you can clearly imagine yourself in; the main character’s struggles and heartbreaks become your own, and you cry and cheer alongside them. I empathised so much with Harlow’s journey that I worried *constantly* about her, about her recovery and her relationships with her family and her feelings for Finn. Her healing journey was so impeccably spot on that I was torn between 'LADY, I'VE BEEN THERE' and wanting to make her a cup of tea and give her a (consensual) hug.
Between my concern for Harlow and my frankly gigantic ship for her and Finn, I could not put this book down. Carr Waechter's prose is lovely, and the world she's created is fascinating and nuanced, full of history, magic, and lore. The romance is a ‘second chance’ story, and it’s wonderful. Both characters make mistakes and learn from them; this is not teenage-hormone-overdrive love, but rather something more mature, complex, and delicious. The world of Nuva Troi is made up of different Orders living alongside with humans, offering an intriguing tension alongside Carr Waechter’s careful and thorough worldbuilding.
If you love magical creatures, complex worlds, and flawed heroines able to work through and learn from trauma, along with some seriously romantic steam, preorder this beauty right now. I absolutely adored it, and will be impatiently waiting for the next book in the trilogy.
Strengths:
A flawed, complex heroine recovering from trauma;
A nuanced and magical world, complete with history and lore;
A mature, steamy ‘second chance’ romance full of understanding and consent;
Lovely prose that will hook its fingers into your heart;
First in a trilogy - more to come!
One-sentence summary:
An emotional, beautifully written, and complex fantasy romance brimming with magic, intrigue, and steam.
DARK NIGHT, GOLDEN DAWN releases March 29, 2022.