To put it mildly I’m obsessed with Ashley winstead’ books. I’m so happy that I get to live in the same world as hers where I’m able to read and enjoy her books. Because omgg not only this was an addictive, propulsive read that I wasn’t able to put down but also it was engrossing and had me kept on my toes through and through. Undoubtedly one of my top reads of the year!

Midnight Is The Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead is the perfect book to read if you've been fascinated (and horrified) by the Murdaugh scandal. Small Southern town, good-old-boy network, haves and have-nots, secrets hidden for generations. Ruth and Everett are the sweetest couple, and watching them go up against the Reverend Cornier and the entire town of Bottom Springs had me on pins and needles. Highly recommend!!!

This book is a bit of everything. Romance, horror, mystery and thriller. To be honest I didnt think I was going to like it and it went above and beyond my expectations.

In this dark, Southern gothic, Ashley Winstead does a wonderful job of detailing the small, suffocating Louisiana community. Rumors of witchcraft, the local legend of the Low Man, and a controlling local preacher from Holy Fire Baptist Church are all kindling for this close-minded town to ignite with hatred. Her main characters, Ruth and Everett, are social outcasts who build an unlikely friendship from a deeply traumatic shared history. And while the bond between these two friends is perplexing to outsiders, it proves to be unshakable in the face of adversity. Ruth’s devotion to Everett provides her with the strength to stand up against the true demon in town, and it is not the Low Man of local legend.

The Twilight vibes are on-point. I've been going through a bit of a Twilight phase, so this book really hit the spot. The pacing and dual-timelines was done so well. I loved the atmospheric nature of the writing and how dark the book was. This is probably Winstead's best book to date. Plus, the ending was just perfect.

I absolutely LOVE Winstead's writing. She just has a way of sucking you in and holding you in her clutches until the very last page.

I loved how creepy and atmospheric this was, and I loved the semi-romantic subplot. I could have done with a few less Twilight mentions, but it worked for the story.

I wish that I liked the ending but I just can't. I'm still upset about it.

This was such a wild ride in the best way possible. My second novel by Winstead and by far my favorite! The writing was truly atmospheric, I feel like I could smell the forest, hear the mosquitoes, and taste the Louisiana air. I absolutely loved the Twilight references and thought the overall question or concept of morality/justice was asked in a really provocative and intriguing way. There was romance, mystery, really good twists and a killer ending. Really enjoyed it!

Hello 2023 Twilight, is that you? Okay Okay, not quite. But with all the Twilight talk and references, it's hard not to joke about it! Winstead is one of my favorite authors, I wanted to love this so so so so much. But I didn't. I just loved it! lol.

This was such a bingeable beach read for me this summer, but it will be the PERFECT spooky season read when it hits the shelves soon!!

Rating: 4.5⭐️
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 400
Publish Date: 10/3/23
By: @ashleywinsteadbooks
Author of: In my Dreams I Hold a Knife, The Last Housewife, & more!

What I liked:
- super unique thriller! As someone who reads a lot of thrillers, it is so exciting when you find a book like this that’s premise and characters are so different than others you have read before!
- I love when thrillers are full of drama, and this small town setting had tons of it
- some romance too!
- the twilight references made me laugh 🧛🏻‍♂️
- Super atmospheric. Had the creepy spooky vibes and seriously would be a perfect fall read.
- The theme of religion and power in a small southern community!!!!
- That ending 🤯

This book was such a delight to read with a building level of dread that I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved how well-written this story was, but with a title like "Midnight is the Darkest Hour", how could it have been otherwise?

We follow young protagonist Ruth Cornier through different significant stages of her life that come together to form a poetic whole. With great twists along the way, although the reader is uncomfortably aware of where her story is heading at all times...

Ruth gets rescued from a would-be rapist by a dashing loner-outsider named Everett/Ever as she calls him and from there on the two of them are almost inseparable... Well, at least he always comes back for her... Well, maybe he has other motives too. It's complicated, but that's what makes this book so delicious. Is Ever all that he seems or is there something more to his beauty? His canine teeth? His pale skin? Ruth certainly thinks so, but is she right or is she wrong? Is her mind playing tricks on her and is it just wishful thinking? And what about the skull in the swamp? Or the weird signs carved into the trees? Or the disappearance of a certain town member? Or the involvement of her father in the discontinuation of a certain town newspaper? How are these things connected?

I wholeheartedly recommend this book. It's long, but it's worth it. Especially for fans of 'Where the crawdads sing'.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and Ashley Winstead for the gifted advanced copy of Midnight is the Darkest Hour!

It's no secret that I'm an Ashley Winstead stan so take that for what it's worth going into reading this review.

You will want to read this one if you are into:

-Twilight
-Whodunnits
-Pagan rituals
-Stories centered around religion

Worth noting: there is a list of trigger warnings in the beginning of the book, and one does deal with religious trauma. This isn't a happily religious book.

Be prepared for that ending, you will have big feelings about it! Midnight is the Darkest Hour will be on US bookshelves October 3rd.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC to read and review!

I’m new to Ashley winstead and I appreciate how she can write multiple genres.

This one is for fans of thrillers with religious tones, where the crawdads sing, and twilight. I also recommend reading the authors note at the end because it did change my appreciation for this book and what themes were included and why. Very creative execution.

I’m unsure if I enjoyed the female main character but she was so heavily influenced by her external world that it was sad for me. I found the beginning gripping and intriguing but her development almost gave me second hand embarrassment.

I did appreciate the grit. Content warnings include but not limited to death, domestic abuse and violence, mentions of abortion, and child abuse.

I think I’ll be in the minority so I do recommend checking this one out.

Wow. This was a superb page-turner with an excellent atmosphere -set in the Louisiana marsh lands south of New Orleans in a religious community rife with superstition and criminality. Ruth and Everett, the preacher's daughter and the local outcast, rumored 'Low Man" serial killer, are bonded together by a shared secret and their simmering desire. This was a spooky mystery with a very slow burn romance, but the chemistry between Ruth and Ever was burning up the pages. The ending leaves the reader with a lot to think about. Highly recommended. 5 stars. Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS for a complimentary ARC copy of this novel!

There’s Everett, the rebellious outcast boy; and Ruth, the preacher’s daughter in the small Southern town of Bottom Springs, Louisiana. An unlikely bond forms between the two. There’s occultism and witchcraft under the ruse of a Southern Christian church. Strewn along are a few murders as well.

Unfortunately, I had a hard time finishing this novel. I finished it, but felt that is would never end. Just when I thought it would pick up, it didn’t. When I did finish it, the ending just left me feeling empty. I was expecting some big finale because most of the book did not have the thrills I was expecting. I have read this authors two previous works, The Last Housewife and In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, and thoroughly enjoyed these. But this newest novel did have the bang that the previous ones I read had. There were some surprises in the book here and there, but nothing to keep me on the edge of my seat.

This review is my personal opinion. Even though I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would, another fellow reader may thoroughly love it. So I still recommend and encourage the purchase of this novel. Available October 3, 2023!

While I didn't love this one quite as much as IN MY DREAMS...it was still incredibly compelling! It was gritty, dark, and wholly mesmerizing. If you're a fan of stories that explore themes related to cults and religious fanaticism, definitely pick this one up.

Ashley Winsteads books are my automatic buy. I truly enjoyed the book, and the small town vibes, the abuse of religion power and the characters pulled me in!

Definitely recommend if you’re into dark thrillers.

So far I would say, The Last Housewife was my favorite out of all her thrillers!

Thank you to Ashley Winstead and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Absolutely excellent. One of my favourite reads from the whole year. Ashley winstead continues to be one of my absolute favourite authors. I’ll read anything and everything she writes. This book was SO unexpected in so many ways; it’s a thriller, but it’s so much more. I don’t want to say much to give it away, but just know it’s best to go in knowing nothing. You won’t be disappointed!

PS; this is my all time FAVOURITE friends to lovers that I’ve ever read.

Thank you to Ashley Winstead and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved The Last Housewife and was so excited for this book, but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. Honestly, I think I am just over the “religious man bad” trope in thrillers. It is predictable and boring and often leaves the plot lacking for me. I felt like we spent more time having expose on how awful the religious culture in Bottom Springs was than the actual thriller part of the book, which just did not have me pulled into the story at all. I hated Ruth. Like I was not connected or into her character at all. The Twilight references got old fast for me, and the fact that one of the big climatic moments was her trying to turn Ever into Edward Cullen just ruined her even more for me. I feel like from the very beginning we knew Everett committed the murders and that the Reverend was the big bad of the book, so the ending was a let down for me because I didn’t really feel like there were any twists. I also was not a fan of the open-ended conclusion to the story. I did feel like the action picked up in the last 20% of the book and was able to keep my interest better. I know a lot of my friends have enjoyed this one, so hopefully it will be for you, but it just wasn’t for me!

I mean, are we surprised? Ashley Winstead has become my queen and I will hear no words about it.

This book, ah this book, reignited the dark little corner in my heart that used to be a good little catholic girl but grew up to realize the church has no power over strong women made of words and iron. Every one of Ashley's works deals the reader with a new well thought out idea that challenges our way of thinking about the world and our place in it.the one thing that she showcases in every novel is how powerful women are and the lengths that women will have to go to prove ourselves and if that makes us rebels then so be it.

The lore, the friendships, the library as a setting but also a character itself, the atmosphere, the spooky vibes, the twilight references 🤣 and honestly the fortenot fishing wives gossip group made this whole book for me.

I look forward to more from my queen.

Also, side note. Listening to Paint the Town Red by Doja Cat on repeat while reading this set up the whole atmosphere.

This is a strange one to review or talk about because of just how much was going on in the story and how much came together to make the story work. And I think that may be part of the issue I had with the book. At its core, this is a book about religious trauma, people in power abusing their power, and young love that felt like Where the Crawdad's Sing mixed with Midnight Mass and the Hotshot community from True Blood.

Yeah.

I think this could have done with another round or 2 of editing before hitting the shelves (the whole potentially supernatural aspect because Ruth read "Twilight" when she was younger...cut it. Nothing really comes of it and it wasn't developed well) because I never felt wholly compelled to pick the book back up again after I would set it down for the day. While I was reading I was entertained, it certainly wasn't boring, but I have so little motivation to pick it up again beyond that and it's hard to pinpoint why. I don't know if there were too many plot lines, I don't know if it was too anti-climatic of a storyline, I don't know if it was just too...it's not exactly predictable, but each reveal/discovery that happens felt very "ahhhh yes. That makes sense" and opposed to shocking or unexpected. So like many thrillers this year, this almost felt safe.

Ranking among Winstead's other books: The Last Housewife, In My Dreams..., Midnight is...

My thanks to SOURCEBOOKS via Netgalley for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.