ARC Review--The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey

For readers of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones and Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone, The Girl at Midnight is the story of a modern girl caught in an ancient war.

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known.

Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it's time to act.

Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, but if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it's how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.

But some jobs aren't as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire. 

I received this ARC from the publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


The Girl at Midnight was on my list of most anticipated debuts this year, and Melissa Grey does not disappoint!! This is such the perfect blend of fantasy and real world life, that I found myself falling so deeply and not knowing which way was up or down! It was written so beautifully and it was such an engaging read that I couldn't get enough of it! And staring at this cover now, I totally see more details that I didn't fully take on before, and that makes the cover even more beautiful and stunning than I thought I prior to reading!

The world Echo lives in, is like our own, except that she was raised by the Avicen. There's never a clear cut definition, but they have feathers amongst their body instead of hair. It's never said if they could fly, at least, I don't recall it coming up. Echo was raised among them, but has never been apart of them. The only ones who ever truly accepted here were Avi, the one who took her in, a girl who becomes her best friend, Ivy, and of course her friend and now boyfriend, Rowen. 

For years, the Avicen have been at war with the Drakharins, people with dragon scales embedded into their skin. Each group does seem to have a special set of abilities, but so far, I don't think shapeshifting is among them. No one really knows how the war started or when it even occurred, it's just been an ongoing and ageless battle between two groups of beings.

Echo is sent on a mission by Avi, her guardian, to find a secret clue of some sort and it soon turns into a long winding mission to find a way to end the war. To end the war, she must find the firebird. But she's not the only one looking, so is Caius, the once leader of the Drakharins who gets usurped by his sister rather quickly. He just wants to end the war. Naturally these two cross paths with one another and the meeting was quite explosive!

Echo doesn't know Caius was the once Drakharin Prince, and he doesn't proffer the information either. Joining them is Ivy, Echo's friend, and Dorian, Caius's head guard and friend.

There's more details to how these four wind up together, but I won't get into all that! What I enjoyed about this one, was that it's told in multiple third person point of view. I enjoy both third and first person when reading. Third person is great, because generally you get more than one person's point of view, should the author go that route, and for the most part, they do! We get all of these character's points of view that I mention, plus one more who joins the foursome.

I like that we get to learn things through each of them, we know long, long before Echo, who Caius is, because we know from his chapter points of view!

The Girl at Midnight is a magical, mystical read set in the midst of our modern day world where a secret war has been raging for centuries. I would be so swept away with this read that I forget where I am! The fantasy and real world blend so seamlessly together in this story that it's remarkable!

The read wasn't without romance either! While Echo does start this book with a boyfriend, we see very little of him and it soon becomes clear that Caius will be the hero of this story. There wasn't full on romance going on between them either, it was the oh so wonderful, budding romance. While there might have been moments of insta-attraction due to circumstances, I felt like this love between them is still in its beginning stages and that's always an enjoyable thing to see in books today!

Perhaps my only complaint was that beginning was a little hard to get through, pacing wise. But this can easily be chalked up to a new author, new book, new world, scenario and I have to adjust to the new styles all around. But other than that, I really have no complaints about this one!

The ending was quite explosive! Just when you think things might be wrapping up to be in a standalone kind of read, we get more than anticipated! I'm not sure how long this series might go, but while we seem to hit a nice kind of pause with the story where it ends, it is by no means over! Oh no! The journey is just getting started! Melissa Grey has quickly hit my watch list as she's one author I will be following from now on!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars  


The Girl at Midnight releases April 28, 2015