Alicia Jasinska

The Midnight Girls

Jasper

And Marynka, Marynka hated, hated, hated, losing, and she wasn't going to lose again. She wouldn't let the witch trap Zosia. She wouldn't let her give up her freedom for her sake. She wouldn't let herself be used as a hostage.

She caught the saber with both hands, blood ribboning down her palms, and drove the blade into her own chest.

Something dark flashed in his eyes as he loomed over her. 'I am not a good person. I am exactly the things people say I am and worse. And I only need you alive, little monster, so unless you wish me to start cutting small pieces off of you, you'll get up and start walking.'

'You know,' Marynka said slowly, 'in another life I feel like you and I could have been friends.'

'A pity then that I am most certainly going to murder you in this one.' Kajetan hauled her roughly to her feet.

But Marynka knew her. She knew so many tiny, insignificant facts about Midnight that probably no one else in the world knew.

The Wicked Deep meets House of Salt and Sorrows in this new standalone YA fantasy set in a snow-cloaked kingdom where witches are burned, and two enchantresses secretly compete for the heart of a prince, only to discover that they might be falling for each other. It's Karnawa? season in the snow-cloaked Kingdom of Lechia, and from now until midnight when the church bells ring an end to Devil's Tuesday time will be marked with wintry balls and glittery disguises, cavalcades of nightly torch-lit "kuligi" sleigh-parties. Unbeknownst to the oblivious merrymakers, two monsters join the fun. Newfound friends and polar opposites, Zosia and Marynka seem destined to have a friendship that's stronger even than magic. But that's put to the test when they realize they both have their sights set on Lechia's pure-hearted prince. If a monster consumes a pure heart she'll gain immeasurable power and Marynka plans to bring the prince's back to her grandmother in order to prove herself. While Zosia is determined to take his heart and its power for her own. When neither will sacrifice their ambitions for the other, the festivities spiral into a magical contest with both girls vying to keep the hapless prince out of the other's wicked grasp. But this isn't some remote forest village, where a stray enchantment or two might go unnoticed, WarszÃ3w is the icy capital of a kingdom that enjoys watching monsters burn, and if Zosia and Marynka's innocent disguises continue to slip, their escalating rivalry might cost them not just the love they might have for each other, but both their lives.

romance between two rival villains, and one of them is bisexual. it had been a while since i read YA fantasy, so i wanted to give it a chance and it was totally worth it. i found the story so original. i loved everything about this book.

kelsey

3.5*

this just felt lacking a little something but still enjoyable and a quick read

I wasn't quite in the right mood for this and I'm less drawn to YA fiction overall so I don't think I properly enjoyed this as much as I otherwise would have. That being said I think the book was objectively really great and strong in terms of plot, worldbuilding, and characters. I think I would have absolutely loved this if I had read it some years ago.

Cloudface

This was a really fun book to kick off 2022 with. The main characters were entertaining and their rivalry/romance didn’t feel forced like it does in a lot of “enemies to lovers” books. I did get a little confused at times with the scenes jumping around but overall I really liked it and would recommend to anyone wanting a sapphic book about two villain main characters.

brianna

grace richards

i really didn’t like this book at all and i thought i was going to DNF it about halfway through and then it got interesting for like 5 seconds and i continued reading but really i should have put this book down. i don’t think i was in the right mood to read this book and it’s effected my opinion of it because the concept of this book is very good but i just really didn’t enjoy it.

In a snow-cloaked kingdom, two wicked rivals secretly compete for the pure heart of a prince, only to discover they might be falling for each other. Karnawa? season is a time for mischief and revelry. For the next few weeks, all will be wintry balls, glittery disguises, and nightly torch-lit sleigh-parties. Unbeknownst to the merrymakers, two uninvited girls join the fun. Zosia and Marynka are drawn to each other the moment they meet, until they discover they're rivals, who both have their sights set on the prince's heart. If one consumes a pure heart, she'll gain immeasurable power. Marynka plans to bring the prince's back to her patron in order to prove herself. While Zosia is determined to take his heart and its power for her own. Their ambition turns into a magical contest with both girls vying to keep the prince out of the other's grasp, even as their attraction to one another grows. But their attempts on his life draws the attention of the city that would die for him, and suddenly their escalating rivalry might cost them not just their love for each other, but both their lives. Perfect for fans of: The Wicked Deep and A Curse So Dark and Lonely Witchy tales Dark fantasy fiction LGBTQ books Enemies to lovers romance Praise for The Dark Tide: "Striking the perfect balance, The Dark Tide demands to be read in one held breath as its tide bears down on all."—Foreword, Starred Review "A dark scenic adventure, sensitively written for romantics, Jasinska's debut novel is a fantasy of promises, betrayal, unrequited love, and black magic."—School Library Journal, Starred Review "The Dark Tide is the dark, queer fantasy of your dreams that's part beauty and the beast, part something entirely new and original... a lush world that begs to be lived in... It's beautiful, and fast paced, and everything I ever want from a fairy tale."—Cat VanOrder, Bookmarks (Winston-Salem, NC) "Fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope will be ecstatic with this book...The Dark Tide offers an exciting and immersive story with a strong feminist slant that subverts common YA tropes and forges its own original path."—The Nerd Daily

3.5☆

something fun for the girls. i just think i have outgrown the target audience but i still enjoyed it.

i liked the polish ans fairytale elements, i thought they were very smartly interwoven. i also liked that each of the characters had a distinct personality (a lot of books tend to fall short here).

i was not too sure about the b plot of the prince and his soulmate since it seemed a little too similar to the main romance plotline. i also think that the overall worldbuilding and rivarlry could have been expanded a bit - though i absolutely appreciate that this stayed as a standalone novel. 

overall a pretty good and fun experience.

edit: the actor doing the narration was insane though, they absolutely smashed it.

Dilayra Verbrugh

Arc provided by Sourcebooksfire! 
Two girls fighting each other to win the Prince’s heart. Literally.
I absolutely loved this sapphic fantasy book. It has monsters, witches, enemies to lovers trope and the cutest characters who create chaos and shamelessly flirt! 
I only wished to see more of Marynka and Zosia together at the end.

Elizabeth Jones

I couldn't bear to put this down. 
First of all, the cover is beautiful. It was the reason I picked it up, but when I found out it was a sapphic fantasy with villain main characters? Instantly sold. I got home and dug right into it.

The characters were likable and I didn't have the urge to skim or skip any part. I feel there was room for improvement in the background of important side characters. I am looking forward to reading Jasinska's debut novel The Dark Tide.

Love fantasy? get it.
Love sapphic romance? get it.
Love enemies to lovers? get it.

You can't go wrong here.

Emma

A very fun read! I enjoyed not knowing exactly how it would turn out. Love a book about villians.

Hannah Picken

The Midnight Girls is an atmospheric novel with Polish folklore weaved in. Marynka and Zosia are the main characters competing against each other for a Prince's heart, not in the way most people would though. As monsters, they go after pure hearts to take back to their grandmothers who had rescued them when they were younger. 

I enjoyed both of the girls as characters but I truly enjoyed Beata who for me was underestimated by all throughout the novel. She was focused and never let her emotions deter her from her task. Personally, I think that Marynka and Zosia got distracted by their thoughts and emotions too soon in the novel for a book that is marketed as villain x villain. It felt more like rivals than enemies but that could be a personal thing and my preference for morally grey characters. 

The writing was absolutely beautiful and I found it easy to get into the novel. I was entertained the whole time and I liked the various aspects of the magic each character possessed. It added intrigue and variety to a small magic system. The romance was excellent but as stated before, I feel like it got too much in the way of the enemies' relationship. I did find the pacing to be a little bit slow and was hoping for more hearts to take since this was a stand-alone. If it were a series then I would understand the one heart focus throughout the entire novel. but that is a personal preference. 

Overall, this was a good novel. It was great to read about different folklore than the majority of other books and the characters were interesting. Although the romance and pacing did bring my rating down some, I would still recommend this to other readers and my friends. 3.5/5

Jennifer

Happy 2022 and I'm glad to spend my first 2 days of the new calendar year reading The Midnight Girls. This is a wintry and atmospheric book set in the alternate 18th Century Poland. It has an interesting blend of Slavic folklore, magic, as well as morally ambiguous characters.

Being a semi-seasonal reader myself, The Midnight Girls is fitting as a winter read. Personally I'm in love with the Jasinska's charming prose that brings the magic of Karnawal into life. I also felt intrigued about the fascinating magic system: the elementals, the light vs the dark, and the different Yagas.

Another forte of The Midnight Girls is the characterisation - particularly that of Marynka and Zosia's. Jasinska toyed with a few YA tropes (e.g. enemies to lovers romance and morally grey characters) but manages to add an original twists to them. Reading about their mutual pining is quite a refreshing experience that it shows that f/f relationship isn't just all love-dovey & that there are messy sides with regards to the moral conflicts that the characters experienced. 

While story setting & the main characters are pretty solid throughout the novel, I found a few areas of the book a tad lacking. Personally, the pacing was bit uneven (the middle portion dragged a bit) and I would have wished that the worldbuilding details (particularly the interesting magic system that Jasinska has introduced) are more thoroughly explored. 

Despite a few places that slightly derailed my experience, I nevertheless found The Midnight Girls quite a fun read. The f/f relationship is pretty well done, the magic system is intriguing, and last but not least I also learnt a bit about the history of the 18th century Poland (with a healthy dose of magic) from the worldbuilding.

N.B. This book contains following content warnings: blood mention, violence, murder, and abuse

Ipshita Kanungo

This was good & a short read, tho it was most definitely for a younger audience, 13-15(even tho the leads were 17-19, the writing style, the idea wasn't mature & the events felt straight out of a fairytale book, just darker). 10/10 recommended if u 15 or new to reading. If u hv been a reader forever, this would feel like reading some children's novel

✨Sapphic rivals to lovers✨

Got a free copy from netgalley
First thoughts:

This is what was missing in Criers war. The characters *chefs kiss*. Amazing.

Marynka had had to bring a prince's heart to the witch Red Jaga or else she would've been punished. She had gone to complete her mission only to find someone else had already taken his heart. It was Midnight, Black Jaga's new student. Over the years, she keeps besting Marynka and stealing her hearts. Marynka cannot afford to keep losing and is determined that this next heart will be hers. She will make her master proud and prove that she's better than Midnight.

This book was so delightfully gay. I loved it so much! The story follows a very exciting rivalry between two witches' servants. They keep bickering and sabotaging each others' attempts at getting the prince's heart. The tension between them is immaculate. 😌

"She’d never thought of Midnight in that way. Well, admittedly , there’d been that one dream, but who didn’t have dreams like that about their nemesis? Even Beata had dreams like that." 

"Marynka was Midday. Her opposite. Her rival. Her… Was there even a word for a rival who you also wanted to kiss?" 

Karli P

Thank you to Edelweiss and Sourcebooks Fire for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! 

I had recently read the dark tide and gave it four stars as I really liked it, and when I saw this author’s next book, The Midnight Girls, was up for request, I thought I should request because I really liked her writing style and characterization. 

To say I was blown away by this book was an UNDERSTATEMENT. It was absolutely amazing. I was so interested in all three girls and their motivations.

The rivalry between Marynka and Zosia was set up very clearly from the start and really put more weight behind their (amazing, hilarious) banter. I very much enjoy slow-burns and all the things that lead up to exactly what you’re hoping for and this book is to me a great example of how to do that pretty much perfectly. 

This is definitely one of my favorite books I’ve read this year.

Meagan

Everyone always talks about enemies to lovers but what about enemies AND lovers AND best friends? Like I need more books that fit this niche please. The constant competition between these two main characters had me cracking up at all corners and I genuinely loved this book. Lots of fluidity when it comes to sexuality in all of the characters that I loved, monstrous characters that we loved even though they are awful (in the best ways), and side characters that were intriguing and drove the story along with the mains.

The Midnight Girls

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