A Song of Ash and Moonlight by Claire Legrand is the continuation of The Middlemist Trilogy, a gothic fantasy romance series following a trio of sisters living in a dangerous magical world.
*this review contains spoilers for A Crown of Ivy and Glass*
The Ashbourne sisters defeated the evil force that cursed their family, but the war is far from over. Farrin Ashbourne is the oldest sister, carrying the weight of her family and their household. Her best friend is the high queen, Yvaine, but while Yvaine runs the kingdom, Farrin lives a lonely existence.
The Ashbourne family war with the Bask is finally at peace, but something worse might be on the horizon. Shadows are making people disappear, the mist that protects the human realm is weakening, and creatures from the other side are breaking through. Farrin has no choice but to work with Ryder Bask, a man she was raised to despise, to save everyone they love.
I remember nothing of the first book in the series but this book does an excellent job of subtly reminding readers what happened in the previous story. A Song of Ash and Moonlight picks up a few weeks after the events of A Crown of Ivy and Glass.
The first book in the trilogy was Gemma’s story, but this book follows different main characters — Farrin and Ryder. This choice was an excellent one. Taran and Gemma’s story felt finished, and Farrin was an intriguing character from the start, so I was glad to read more of her.
Ryder cannot actually read Farrin’s mind, but he gets close. He understands her and her irritable outbursts in a way that is undeniably appealing. Farrin, much like her sister before her, is in many ways unlikeable. She overthinks, and the result is an outward thorniness that can be perceived as just being a bitch. And exactly like her sister before her, I love that about her. She is flawed and frustrating. Stiff and cold.
Ryder and Farrin have significantly more chemistry than I felt Taran and Gemma had, but still, there was almost something lacking there. I think in this case it wasn’t a lack of chemistry between the characters, but a lack of development of Ryder’s character. It felt like the readers never truly got to know him, and in such a long book with such extensive descriptions, there was no reason for that. That said, I loved the eldest sister loving the youngest brother dynamics.
Something I’ve been encountering in books lately is characters getting angry and refusing to forgive or feeling betrayed about something they already knew about or something they shouldn’t have such a strong reaction to, simply for the sake of the third-act breakup. I’m getting a little over authors forcing these fights that don’t seem natural. Not every book needs a third-act breakup. To avoid spoilers I won’t get specific, but this book suffers from this phenomenon.
A Song of Ash and Moonlight suffered from such a slow start, just like its predecessor. It’s not that the plot is slow, but the language is very descriptive, sometimes to excess. It made this book a very slow-paced read, despite the high stakes.
This is a solid middle-ground fantasy. I loved the magic here, and I loved Farrin, but it just didn’t quite hit the full mark for me with the pacing and the character development.
Writing: 3
Spice: 2
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