NetGalley Review: Face the Night by Lani Forbes

Hey all, Sam here.

Sorry for not getting this up earlier everyone, but it has been a very long few days at work, and I’m feeling really worn out from it all. It has put me farther behind than I’d like to be…but the nice thing is that I have the next two days off work, so I should have some time to rest and relax, which I definitely need.

Anyway, today I am back with another book review, this time for a soon-to-be released book…and honestly I don’t want to take too much more time with this intro, so let’s go ahead and get into the review portion of this post.

This book will be out in the US on August 15th, so now would be a great time to get your own copy.

On a harsh frontier where good and evil contend for people’s minds, a young woman must fight for her true identity in this scintillating YA fantasy from the author of the award-winning Age of the Seventh Sun trilogy.

Once, Catriona Macgregor led a charmed life. Daughter of a wealthy rancher, pretty and educated, she looked forward to all the world had to offer–until fate took a turn. Now family, home, and even her name have been stripped away. As “Black Cat Whitfield,” adopted daughter of an outlaw, she’s wanted by the authorities. It certainly wasn’t the destiny she imagined–especially as one of the Blessed.

The Blessed, rare people like Cat, are supposed to use their gifts to carry out missions for the Patron Saints, but she can only imagine that Saint Prudentia made a terrible mistake in choosing her. Still, her gift has never deserted her. Whenever danger threatens, Cat receives a vision–just in time to save her life. And when she meets a renegade priest, Father Ignatius, he helps her understand how her ability may be part of a much bigger picture. A picture that involves facing up to the monstrous Baron Caldwell – the one who ordered her parents killed – and his son, Adrian, who betrayed them all.

Cat is torn between guilt over her parents’ death, a longing for vengeance against their killers, and a dismaying new interest in Adrian. It would be easiest to flee the whole situation and never look back. But as someone once told her, you can’t outrun the darkness on your heels. There’s only one way to break through to sunrise – by turning to face the night.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4.5 stars

I didn’t realize that the first book I read by Lani Forbes would be her final book. But this one started with a beautiful foreword from Lani’s husband, talking about the similarities between Cat’s struggles and battles and Lani’s. It was the foreword that announced to those who didn’t already know that sadly Lani had passed away.

This book, Face the Night, is a fantasy western…with cowboy/outlaws and gunslinging and cattle ranching…and just a hint of magic. And, I don’t know, somehow that blend of genres works really well, at least to me.

I liked Cat and Adrian and Father Iggy and Amos and Soap and Pedro and Edith. The characters were all just really cool. Honestly I loved learning about them, and wish there was opportunity to give them each their own stories within this world, because I found the world and the concepts within to be rather interesting.

This is why fantasy standalones make me sad. Yes, they’re great and I enjoy not having to settle in for a lengthy series…but at the same time, I love having a lot of time to explore different regions and peoples and magics. There’s nothing like it.

This book had some action and some intrigue, and even some romance. It was a good time, and I definitely found myself absorbed into the story, and wanting to keep reading so I could find out what would happen next.

I marked my rating down to 4.5 stars just because I would have wanted just a little bit more with this story. Also, because some of the revelations and twists I called a bit too early. Overall though, I had a great time reading this…and it definitely makes me want to go back and read the trilogy Lani Forbes released prior to this.

Well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.