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After finishing up the Lunar New Year Readathon hosted by LaceyBookLovers and remarkablylisa and the book for the Historical Hellions Book Club, I jumped back into FaRoFeb and Grace Draven's Wraith Kings series. The next book I had was the novella numbered 2.5, In the Darkest Midnight.
This starts in the past and made several time jumps in the series. We start out with our heroine Jahna 15 years young hiding from some mean girls at the winter celebration of Delyalda. Jahna has a large birthmark that covers half her face down into her neck and gets a lot of snide remarks and looks from most everyone she meets. After Radimar chases away the three girls, he speaks to Jahna to come from her hiding spot. I love how he barely reacts to her face and Jahna is very intrigued by the swordmaster. Her father has hired him to train her brother and they are meeting for the first time at the celebration. At the same time Jahna is getting set up to be a chronicler for the king, a sort of record keeping of history.
They are so cute together and I love that he has no qualms about Jahna taking records of his teaching style and customs from Ilfindan. He has her take the lessons in the morning with her brother and they both grow to become great friends. There is an age gap, but it's only 7 years and once they've grown up, it doesn't feel so large. This book is definitely slow burn, but I didn't mind since we started with Jahna so young. The first jump is to the first Delyalda celebration where her borther is to be apart of the fighting exhibitions. During the preparations, Radimar gets challenged by the king's champion. Before the bout he says some very unsavory things about Jahna. They have all become close and both Radimar and her brother Sodrid have to fight to keep their anger in check. Then we have another time jump to a couple years later. Jahna is not ready to become an apprentice to the chroniclers and her brother a member of the king's guard. There are some tensioned filled moments between Jahna and Radimar culminating in a scorching kiss.
The final time jump is 8 years later. Radimar had run away after the kiss, returning (slightly) earlier than planned to return to his homeland. Sodrid is now to be married and Jahna is a competant chronciler. She does meet with Lord Sangion to get his story about fighting the galla and it was fun to see how this novella will fit into the world. Jahna and Radimar are FINALLY reunited and they can't help but act on their attractions. They are going to get married and Jahna will join Radimar in his nomadic lifestyle, sending back her chronicles to the archives. It was so sweet and I loved getting into more of this world. I'm hoping we'll see Jahna and Radimar, even just in passing, in future books. I loved the slow burn and it felt perfect for the who they were both as individuals and as a couple.
I have one more book, The Ippos King (book 3) and one more novella. Then I'm all caught up! I hope the next book comes soon. I just absolutely love this world Grace Draven's concocted and am ravenous for more. I do believe that her Master of Crows is set in the same world, so maybe that'll be my next read? We'll see. The only thing more I want from this book is time with them as a couple after they've come back together. It was just too short once they decided to get married. I would've even loved an epilogue or something!
Have you read In the Darkest Midnight?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: In the Darkest Midnight, Grace Draven, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 121 pages, published 2018
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