Until Midnight by Erin Bedford

I’ll start by saying the cover doesn’t do the book justice.  I think the art looks a little trashy (maybe I’m just too judgy… also a totally legit possibility).

Until Midnight follows Clarabelle as she tries to adjust to moving to a higher tier with her new stepmother and stepsisters before getting invited to a ball at the castle of the ruling family.  Clarabelle is forced to navigate yet another new series of social obligations and expectations while competing to win the hearts of the ruling family, avoiding her competitors’ attempts to kill her, and figuring out her true feelings for her country’s leader: the mysterious Patrick Blordril.  Getting on with the nitty gritty…

Not loves:

• In addition to the cover art, the phrase on the front really doesn’t pertain to the book.  I felt like it suffered a little bit of an identity crisis in that aspect.  I don’t recall there being any emphasis on midnight being a hard deadline.  Maybe I just missed it?  If you read it, feel free to call me out on this if that’s the case.
• There’s almost no attention paid to side characters that are somewhat important like the young guy Marsha that Clara goes to the castle with and helps support her (when covered by the Bedford) throughout the process.  There are some romantic feelings that come up a little bit and are covered at the end, but I feel like this was really a missed opportunity for added tension.

Loves:

• The dreamy guy, Patrick is described as pale skinned with white hair and eyes so light it appears he’s blind.  Props for non-traditional beauty standards.
• Holy shocking ending… now you can ask my husband and I’m terrible at anticipating a surprise twist.  I just get too absorbed into what’s being told to think ahead like that all of the time, so maybe you’ll catch on a lot sooner than I did.  But I didn’t, and it was great!  Loved feeling like “What?!?”

I’m so sad the next book isn’t out!  We know I’m not a patient girl.  I’m a greedy reader… Erin Bedford, if you could just be my enabler and finish the next one soon, I’d really like that.