The Girl at Midnight
by Melissa Grey
Coming April 28, 2015
Early review copy from NetGalley
4.5 Stars. This story is refreshing and different and a lot of fun! The danger is real and pressing, the odd story strings make sense, the characters are unique... I thoroughly enjoyed it!! Plus, it stands alone even though I seriously hope-hope-hope there's MORE!!
Echo is the main character, although the story jumps inside others' heads, as well. She is a thief, which is FUN and her home is a hidden nook in a library, which totally ROCKS - those are not spoilers. The story starts with that bit o' information.
As the cover suggests, there's opposing sides. The Avicen vs. the Dragons. The Avicen are bird-people who live super-long lives and were in New York long before we moved in, so they haven't moved, just slipped out of visibility. My imagination is still stretched a bit thin about what they look like and how they get around in public. Goggles would not be sufficient for, say, the peacock, who is a super-fun character... I just am a bit hung up on how he is notoriously sneaky. HOW. I love the Avicen's bright plumage, but in my mind, it doesn't ruffle. Feathers go one way, so how do you run fingers through feather-hair? It'd be more like petting.
My other super-small hang up is the "vs. dragons" bit. Dragons trump birds of all sizes in my head. A more even battle might be snakes. I could see snakes and birds preying on each other, but then we'd lose the awesomeness of Caius.
Caius, the dragon prince is a main character and I totally love him. His character is not laid as open as Echo's, so I still have questions, which is a delight. He is so... toweringly dominant with so much heart and looks, too. He zipped up to the top of my "awesome fiction guys" list very quickly. I like powerful types with heart. I am concerned that secrets might cause him issues. A couple centuries of living can't be shared in the cryptic moments he's allowed, only the highlights. So who knows what else he has to uncover?!
I would want to know that there's a very-mostly realistic guy-guy relationship with a couple vibrant characters. (I say "mostly" because there's a very odd negotiation that I didn't quite swallow, but the attraction grows and is so non-instant, it was quite realistic.)
There's one freaky-scary frenemy... the violent twin sister is one of the best nemeses EVER in my opinion. Amazing. *shiver*
And Echo rocks. The itty-bitty clues that mean something through-out the book totally rock. The book has to be amazing because of Echo and the story and I'm sooooooo glad Grey wrote the story down and shared with us!!!! and I cannot wait to read more!
DO NOT SPOIL THIS BOOK!!! Seriously. Don't read spoilers. Follow the clues to the end. It's totally worth it!!! :-D
