Starting up right where “Where Dreams Descend” left off, Kallia has been swallowed into the mirror in her magic performances during the Spectaculor, a magician’s contest. On the other side of the mirror is a whole different world where sunlight is obliterated by “devils”, and magicians duel for power and status. Kallia’s power has been depleted and navigating this new world takes wit, courage, and magic. When Night Breaks shows us a different world, where darkness reigns supreme and only the absolute best magicians survive.

Confession time! I struggled with this novel. It’s only because I liked the first one so much that I was able to stick with it and make myself finish. If it had been any other book I would have put it down and picked up a different novel. Maybe it’s because this is my second fantasy novel in a row where the story was desperately dark, a sign of a writer trying to create during a pandemic. I felt that pain too, but my own pain was in trying to see the light and find something positive to talk about in my review. Here’s what I found.

1. Jack- Whereas Kallia felt less interesting to me, her nemesis Jack became even more interesting. He was also confusing, but I’ll stick with why I thought he was interesting. Jack was always a dark horse. The magical being who held Kallia captive in “Where Dreams Descend”, and who she had a love hate relationship. She still does, but in this new world, Jack’s back story is revealed and we see why he is what he is, and how he struggled to break out from the hold Roth (a new character in this book) had over him.
2. Eva- or Vain as she’s named in this novel. The famous Daron DeMarco’s assistant, and sister, who disappeared into a mirror during an act. She is alive and has risen to the top in this new world. She was way more interesting than Kallia and I found myself looking forward to the pages with her story.
3. World building- The author didn’t do herself any favors by having to create a brand new world in When Night Breaks. As it’s ‘through the looking glass’, it runs parallel to the real world from which Kallia arrived. Dark to the other world’s light, the differences were surprising and kept me reading.

Everything in this book led us toward the big conflict at the end, but that conflict was a confused mess. I had trouble following what was going on and the reasons for why these things were happening. The conflict didn’t feel too different from the rest of the book, and therefore not enough of a conflict for me to feel any sort of resolution for the characters, even with the built-in happily, happily. It was just ho-hum.

Despite my overall feelings of doom and gloom, I couldn’t give the novel lower than a three rating. Yes, if I hadn’t loved the first novel so much I wouldn’t have finished this one, but it’s because I loved that first novel so much that I am giving this an average rating. Please feel free to disagree and read this book and pass your own judgement. My bad 4 days of reading this book may be the best in your life. ❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest.

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