*I was sent a copy of Midnight in Everwood in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to HQ and M.A. Kuzniar.*

Synopsis: 

In the darkness of night, magic awaits…

Nottingham, 1906

Marietta Stelle longs to be a ballerina but, as Christmas draws nearer, her dancing days are numbered – she must marry and take up her place in society in the New Year. But, when a mysterious toymaker, Dr Drosselmeier, purchases a neighbouring townhouse, it heralds the arrival of magic and wonder in Marietta’s life.

After Drosselmeier constructs an elaborate theatrical set for her final ballet performance on Christmas Eve, Marietta discovers it carries a magic all of its own – a magic darker than anyone could imagine. As the clock chimes midnight, Marietta finds herself transported from her family’s ballroom to a frozen sugar palace, silent with secrets, in a forest of snow-topped fir trees. She must find a way to return home before she’s trapped in Everwood’s enchanting grip forever.

In the darkness of night, magic awaits and you will never forget what you find here…

Review:

I absolutely adore retellings and when I saw that this was loosely based on The Nutcracker I knew I had to read it. With that being said I didn’t really love this book. I liked it a lot, but something was missing for me. 

Firstly this was nowhere near as festive as I thought it was going to be. It did have its moments of Christmas-like feelings. These mostly during the characters Christmas Eve festivities which wasn’t a large part of the book. 

The setting of this book did lend itself to a winter vibe, but I wouldn’t have said Christmas. Now I may be thinking too much about the Christmas side of this when that isn’t what it is about, but in my head, it should have been a lot more festive if that makes sense? 

Putting that aside this was a beautifully written book. The settings sounded downright gorgeous and the world-building was incredible but you didn’t really get to see a lot of it.

I liked that the story had substance, but I will say that it took me an awfully long time to read. It felt very much like two stories were being forced together and neither really got to take full form. I found it very hard to connect with the story and its characters at first, but when I did the pages soon flew by. 

The ballet element was also a huge part of why I wanted to read Midnight in Everwood. Although having never danced myself I’ve always had an interest in ballet. You do get a few instances focusing on Marietta’s ballet dancing and the technical aspects behind it, but I would have liked to see more. That is definitely a massive personally preference so it wouldn’t affect the average reader’s opinion on this book at all. 

I’m genuinely finding it quite hard to voice my opinions on this book as it did take me such a long time to read. Meaning that I forgot a lot of aspects of the book. I do however remember enjoying the magical elements of this book, but again I wish there was more of it. You got a glimpse of so many magical people and items in the book, but they weren’t really fully explored. 

Overall I did like Midnight in Everwood, especially the bonds formed between characters. The trio of women were wonderful and a blossoming romance is always a joy to read. But why oh why was a ‘steamy’ scene included for absolutely no reason. Up until that point, the book was completely PG so it seemed entirely out of place.

Anyway, I’m digressing from my point. I did like this book, but not enough to really form any shining opinions. I think if I had more time to really just sit and read then I would have enjoyed this more, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.  

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