Early Review--City of Eternal Night by Kristen Painter

Magic and mystery collide in this second installment of the new urban fantasy series by House of Comarre author Kristen Painter.

Still coming to terms with their unexpected partnership, Augustine and Harlow have a tentative truce. With Harlow slowly working to accept being fae, Augustine still learning how to be Guardian, and feelings growing on both sides though, they do not have an easy road ahead.

But when a young girl is stolen from the Mardi Gras Exemplar Ball -- the biggest far event of the year -- Harlow and Augustine must put all their issues aside to bring her home alive. Harlow's father, Braziano, is of course their number one suspect, but evil lurks in every corner of the city and time is running out. Their only choices: Either find a way to rescue the girl, or Augustine must die. 

I received this early copy from the publisher through the author in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


City of Eternal Night is the second installment in Kristen Painter's Crescent City Series and it was yet another enjoyable read! Like with many reads, I couldn't remember much of the first book at all. That's the trouble with ARCs which is how I read that one as! But for the most part, the important details were rehashed and new story unfolded before me with a few lingering problems from the first book.

Harlow is learning to cope with the fact that she's part fae now. She slowly becomes more intrigued with her heritage and even wants to learn how to use her new abilities. Augustine would be her likely tutor, but then there's Nekai and he is all too willing to help her in this endeavor! Nekai seems to even be a contender for Harlow's heart, but yet, I never got the love triangle vibe and that was definitely appealing. I have the love-hate relationship with love triangles!

There continues to be romantic tension between Harlow and Augustine. Enough so that you just want these two to get together already! Or kiss or go out...something! It's teasingly good!

Soon though a case falls into their laps and they must find the daughter of a powerful fae who has been kidnapped. Naturally, Harlow's estranged and bad guy father is involved in the mix and we also see Giselle and her sister Zara are on the scene as well. The kidnapper's demand is simple, he'll release the girl when Augustine relinquishes his position as Guardian and that can only happen with Augustine's death. So yeah, that presents a pickle to find the girl and the kidnapper before time is up.

I really enjoyed this one! The pacing was exquisite! There's rarely a dull moment! Either there's lots of action on the page, suspense building up and up, romantic tension that makes you giddy as you read...there's nothing wrong about any of it! My only displeasure came from not remembering the first book well enough to give me some footing from the previous reading!

The last quarter of the book was very intriguing indeed! I won't get into reasons why, but it has one of my most feared scenarios in it! One that just leaves you wanting to shout and scream and be terrified all at once! I love and hate that feeling, but knowing the know, it makes it all okay! Yeah, that didn't make sense really, but after you read this one, you'll totally get what I am trying to say without saying it! Needless to say, that does leave us with a bit of a cliffhanger! Thankfully, it was the evil kind for I have seen a book end like that once! About killed me too! 

City of Eternal Night takes place in the fabulous city of New Orleans and was an incredibly amazing read! You don't have to have read the House of Comarre series to fully grasp this one! Our heroes from said series do make another minor appearance in this installment, which is always fun, but it's not like you have to have read the prior series, though it is highly enjoyable as well! Kristen delights this particular reader with yet another enjoyable read that never cease to keep me on the edge of my seat in some matter. So I highly recommend reading the Crescent City series!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars--a little bit of a bumpy start with this one since I couldn't really remember the first book that well, but I quickly came to enjoy this story in the moment!


City of Eternal Night releases December 2, 2014