I had a lot of fun reading this book. I loved the format. The story's narrative was interspersed with investigation documents. I thought it was unique and interesting and I had a good time with it. By telling the story in this way, things were revealed slowly and in a way that kept me guessing. I wanted to continue reading to find out what happened. I also enjoyed the characters. They had depth to them. I will say, I enjoyed the majority of this story but I did find some of the world and mythology confusing.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for arc.

Great concept but unfortunately not for me. I struggled a lot and had to work really hard to finish it.

A very well written novel that I had a hard time putting down. I cant wait to read the next novel by this author.

Wow this was a complex , fantastical mystery that was action packed . I loved all the magical elements and this book is truely unique . The world building did seem rushed but I enjoyed the party element and all the twists and turns!

The first half of this book was much stronger than the second half, which I found suffered from some pacing issues.

But! It's a lovely atmospheric, dark, magical read. A big cast of characters and quite the jaunt.

flat plot, a lack of world building, it was engaging but nothing special about it. at the end i was a bit confused about it and just feel it like okay done nothing special

This was an ok read, it did keep me engaged but I felt like it was lacking something for me, the world building was not as detailed as I expected and the plot just fell a little flat.

Thank you to the publisher for this Arc.
I had a very hard time with this book; I felt like it was very confusing overall and I didn’t care for some things in it that were considered jokes but were just not things you joke about.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A Wish Too Dark And Kind by M.L. Blackbird is an adult fantasy with an intriguing premise. The story revolves around Arnaud Demeure, an infamous party host who can fulfill your deepest wishes or your worst nightmares. He invites eight immortals to a party one day, and, of course, they all show up. But what is Demeure's plan? Why has he invited the eight of them to the party?

Here is a fantastical excerpt from the opening chapter:

"Here and there, white, black, and red stains, each tens of meters long, covered the streets - flocks of birds caught in whatever happened.
Nobody moved, nobody talked, everyone rested in this cemetery, testimony of a dark miracle.
The world had moved on. The city, now empty, stayed behind.
Paris was dead, and the Great Ones were free."

Overall, A Wish Too Dark And Kind is an adult fantasy that doesn't live up to its intriguing premise. After reading the synopsis, I was so excited to start reading. Unfortunately, even midway through the book, the plot was still going through what was described in the synopsis. I lost interest about halfway through. Personally, I'm also not a fan of books with large casts. I'm sure many readers won't mind that though. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of fantasy books in general, you can check out this book, which is available now!

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

DNF
Not only is the writing extremely confusing and the plot/structure all over the place, this book contains racial slurs and stereotypes as jokes. No thank you, disgusting.
As a person of Romani descent fuck you 🖕

A somewhat confusing and bizarre novel

Demeure is known to be able to fulfill wishes or conjure nightmares. When he invites eight immortals to a party, no one refuses. But why are they summoned - for a party, or a dark ceremony? The attendees start unraveling the details of his plan, and one of the guests seems to be working with the host... Everyone has a secret to hide. Will the guests manage to uncover Demeure's true intentions or will the party turn into an absolute nightmare?

I'm not going to lie, this book was confusing for me from start to finish. I wouldn't say I didn't like it exactly. The writing was quite good and addictive and I kept turning the pages. But the main issue was that I had trouble understanding what was happening or where the story was going. There were a lot of main characters, making it sometimes difficult to keep track of who was here and who wasn't. The plot felt quite long and slow, and it didn't really agree with me, but I think the book just wasn't for me. I however quite enjoyed the dark atmosphere and it was clear that the world is rich and quite detailed, and I'll admit that I was really interested in it. Some of the characters did manage to catch my eye too, and I sometimes laughed or gasped in the midst of action, which I liked. I'm honestly puzzled by what I read and I can't even tell you which genre the book was since there was magic, but also supernatural creatures, and some sort of mystery vibe as well. All I can tell you is that I read it, sort of enjoyed it, but didn't really understand what was going on, which is quite unusual for me, I'll admit.

I don't know if I'd recommend it or not, but I don't think I was the target audience for this book.

"Those words weren't a mere prophecy, but a promise or a curse."

So, number one, the cover art is killer. A+.

Immortal murder mystery, who can ask for more? Atmosphere is off the charts, completely haunting. This book is twisty and turny, a bit confusing at times, but with excellent payoff. It excels at worldbuilding. At times I was reminded of the Atlas Six. I don't think this book is for everyone but if you're into urban fantasy and creepiness, it's worth checking out!

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

a wish to dark and kind was.... confusing. i wish i liked it more. it seems to have everything i like in a book, loads of characters, great worldbuilding, good magic system and it's (sometimes) a historical fantasy. but as i said, it was too confusing for it's own good, and for the last 40% i pretty much didn't care about the plot anymore. i had do reread the first hundred or so pages because even in the beginning i still hadn't had a clue of what was going on. maybe the whole book would be better if i had paid more attention to it, but there wasn't anything keeping me invested.

thanks to netgalley and little blackbird llc for giving me and arc of this book in exchange of n honest review.

I want to start off saying I really loved the writing style and it was very easy to read, but I was very confusing. I had to start over a couple of time just to keep the characters straight. I really wanted to love this book and it was the plot that drew me in. I will pick up more of M.L. Blackbird's books in the future.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read and review this book

I DNFed this one at about the 25% mark.

I think there were some really unique aspects in this. Sadly, I feel like this was not what I was expecting. The book introduces us to a lot of characters at the beginning and I felt like the character voices felt the same. The plot felt very confusing because there was too much going on. I had no idea what was going on with the world or magic system.

Overall, I think this book has good writing but I wasn't enjoying the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little Blackbird LLC!

A Wish too Dark and Kind is such a creative and intriguing tale. The beginning of the book was slightly confusing but it all came together beautifully. I overly enjoyed this story which was chalk full of magic and mystery. It had a great suspenseful atmosphere with interesting characters. A Wish Too Dark and Kind is packed with action and is basically a murder mystery with heavy fantasy elements. There are immortals, some of which are reminiscent of classic fantasy creatures like vampires and werewolves. There is also a really complex and unique magic system that I really enjoyed learning about. I loved that Blackbird was able to build the world and explain the magic system while moving the plot forward instead of just info dumping. I mostly enjoyed the structure of the book which was narrative interspersed with documents from an investigation into the events of the party. This structure allowed for facts and characters to be revealed slowly and kept me guessing at what would happen next. What didn’t work for me with this structure was the introduction of the mythology in this world. I found the mythology incredibly confusing at times and even more so when switching between the narrative and investigation documents. It was difficult for me to keep things straight and honestly understand why the mythology was introduced in the first place. I mostly wish I had more time in the world prior to the party. I think it would have helped immensely to world build and introduce the mythology at the beginning of the book. That being said, I’m giving this 4 stars. If you like mysteries and dark fantasy you should definitely check out this book! It has immortals, action, gore, and just the right amount of creepy - perfect for this time of year. I definitely recommend this as a quick fantasy read!

First I was attracted by the cover then I read the premise and got interested. However I didn't understand it, I couldn't finish the book.

Unfortunately as much as I wanted to love this one, I couldn't get into it. The beginning felt so disjointed with many short chapters, each introducing another new character with a mysterious background. It just got too overwhelming and I had no idea what was going on. It felt impossible to get a foothold in the narrative, and eventually I gave up trying. DNF.