The Savage Dawn

Please note that this review may contain spoilers for the earlier instalments of this series. You can read my reviews of these novels [here] and [here].

The Savage Dawn was written by Melissa Grey and first published in 2017. It is the final instalment of The Girl at Midnight Trilogy, following The Girl at Midnight (2015) and The Shadow Hour (2016). The novel carries on exactly where the previous instalments left off, so you really do have to read them in sequence if you want to have any idea of what’s going on.

Echo and the Avicen somehow managed to survive their first battle against Tanith’s dark forces, but their victory was at a terrible cost. Caius was taken by his insane sister, who now plans to torture him to allow the Kuçedra to feed off his magic. Just as Tanith was born with the ability to control flame, Caius’s gifts give him power over the in-between and this is exactly what the monster needs.

The loss of Caius rocks Echo’s confidence. Although she holds the power of the Firebird – the entity of pure light – she now realises that the battle against the Kuçedra is likely to cost the lives of the people that she loves. Still, before she can focus on the war, she knows that she must get Caius back and sets off with Dorian and Jasper in tow to do just that.

Meanwhile Ivy and Helios sneak into a human hospital, determined to use the bloodweed to heal the humans infected with the Kuçedra’s blight. However, they soon make a horrifying discovery. The Kuçedra is more insidious than they could ever have imagined, and is growing in power every moment. If they don’t find a way to defeat it quickly, it could mean the end of everything that they know.

The Shadow Hour

Please note that this review may contain spoilers for The Girl at Midnight. You can read my review of this novel [here].

The Shadow Hour was written by Melissa Grey and first published in 2016. The novel is preceded by The Girl at Midnight (2015) and the final book of the trilogy – provisionally titled The Savage Dawn – is planned for release in 2017. The Shadow Hour follows on directly from its prequel and so you really need to read the books in sequence to fully appreciate them.

Following her great personal sacrifice, Echo has been reborn as the firebird – the only being in the world with the power to end the ancient war between the Avicen and the Drakharin. Yet she has no idea where to begin. The firebird’s incredible magic power is difficult for her to control and she now carries with her the spirits of previous potential firebirds, filling her mind with endless chatter. To make things more complicated one of the voices is Rose, Caius’s lost love, which puts a strain on her relationship with the former Dragon Lord.

What Echo really needs is time and space to find out what she has become. Unfortunately, fate is not so kind. The firebird’s existence has caused an imbalance in the world and to correct this, an entity of pure darkness is born. The creature – known as the kuçedra – brings destruction to all that it touches. Its existence sparks the interest of Tanith, who grows obsessed with finding a way to harness its power. If the firebird could be bound to Echo, it only makes sense that she could become the kuçedra’s vessel.

The threat of the kuçedra is not something that can be ignored. When the Avicen nest is attacked by the monster, the survivors – including the Ala – are left stricken with a mysterious and deadly illness. It’s up to Echo and her allies to find a way to cure the disease before it can wipe out everyone that she loves…

The Girl at Midnight

The Girl at Midnight was first published in 2015 and is Melissa Grey’s debut novel. It a fantasy story about a human teenager caught in the middle of a war between two ancient races. While the novel is currently out of print, it is due for re-release next month and its sequel – The Shadow Hour – is expected to be published in July.

Far away from human eyes, a magical war has raged for centuries. The Avicen – feather-haired and bird eyed – have done battle against their sworn enemies the Drakharin, descendants of dragons. The battle has been going on for so long that neither side truly remembers how it began but there is one thing that is believed to bring it to an end: the Firebird. The trouble is that nobody knows what the Firebird is and many believe that it is just the stuff of legends. That is, until Echo finds the map.

Echo is a human teenager who has somehow found herself as part of the magical world. She has been raised by the Avicen since she was a child and, although she has never truly felt welcome in their nest, still relates more to them than she does her own kind. When Echo finds the map, she realises that it is just the first part of a larger puzzle and she follows it to Kyoto to learn more.

The trouble is that Echo isn’t the only one searching for the Firebird. It is believed that the person in control of the relic will be able to decide the outcome of the war. For it to fall into the hands of the military commanders on either side, this would certainly spell even more bloodshed and death. Caius, the Dragon Prince, has grown tired of war and wants to find the Firebird before his savage sister can get her hands on it. However, this means that he will have to join forces with Echo and the Avicen…