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The Longest Autumn
Win a free print copy of this book!
10 days and 23:44:14
15 copies available
U.S. only
For fans of Ariadne, a spellbinding debut fantasy about a human who gets trapped with the god of Autumn, who brings with him life-threatening danger and a forbidden romance.
Under the right circumstances, would even a god fall?
Tirne is one of four humans rigorously selected to usher the turn of the seasons into the mortal world. Every year, she escorts the taciturn god Autumn between the godly and human realms. Autumn’s seasonal stay among mortals brings cooler weather, changing leaves, and the harvest of apples and gourds until Winter takes his place.
This year, the enchanted Mirror that separates their worlds shatters after Tirne and Autumn pass through, trapping both of them in the human realm. As the endless autumn stretches on, crops begin to fail and the threat of starvation looms. Away from the magic of the gods’ home, Tirne’s debilitating headaches return with a vengeance. Worse, Autumn’s extended stay in the human realm turns him ever more mortal and vulnerable, stirring a new, forbidden attraction to Tirne.
While the priesthood scrambles to find a way to reassemble the Mirror, Tirne digs into the temple’s secrets and finds an unlikely ally—or enemy—in the enigmatic sorcerer and master of poisons, Sidriel. Thrown into a world of mystery, betrayal, and espionage as she searches for the truth, might Tirne lose her morals, her hard-earned position, and the illicit spark between her and Autumn?
Under the right circumstances, would even a god fall?
Tirne is one of four humans rigorously selected to usher the turn of the seasons into the mortal world. Every year, she escorts the taciturn god Autumn between the godly and human realms. Autumn’s seasonal stay among mortals brings cooler weather, changing leaves, and the harvest of apples and gourds until Winter takes his place.
This year, the enchanted Mirror that separates their worlds shatters after Tirne and Autumn pass through, trapping both of them in the human realm. As the endless autumn stretches on, crops begin to fail and the threat of starvation looms. Away from the magic of the gods’ home, Tirne’s debilitating headaches return with a vengeance. Worse, Autumn’s extended stay in the human realm turns him ever more mortal and vulnerable, stirring a new, forbidden attraction to Tirne.
While the priesthood scrambles to find a way to reassemble the Mirror, Tirne digs into the temple’s secrets and finds an unlikely ally—or enemy—in the enigmatic sorcerer and master of poisons, Sidriel. Thrown into a world of mystery, betrayal, and espionage as she searches for the truth, might Tirne lose her morals, her hard-earned position, and the illicit spark between her and Autumn?
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 16, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 381 reviews
February 15, 2024
This book had everything to be a 5⭐️ read for me. A God of Death, a Herald who accompanies the dead to the realm, a mystery that needs solving, migraine representation (which was a big bonus)…
By the 50% mark, the writing became repetitive and nothing was moving along. The portal had been broken for 6 months by that point, and no one sought help from the other gods or the one who created it? I know it was mentioned that he wouldn’t want to help but he wasn’t even asked? People were getting killed by the dead that lingered and Autumn didn’t want to tell them to stay inside because he felt like it’d acknowledge the threat?😐 yeah let them die then? Is it really better? Their souls will just linger like the other ones and more people will be killed by those new souls….?
And the other thing is that clues were dropped nonstop in front of Tirne (sometimes she was even part of the conversation) and she just brushed them off or ignored them completely😂
There weren’t any depth to the characters relationships. I expected more from Autumn & Tirne’s - it felt flat for me. The only character that was somewhat mysterious and interesting was Sidriel
AND ALL OF THIS FOR THAT????? The ending was terrible for me. I’m a sucker for good endings and this was horrible. All of this roller coaster for absolutely nothing. The last third of the book made me want to throw it out the window
By the 50% mark, the writing became repetitive and nothing was moving along. The portal had been broken for 6 months by that point, and no one sought help from the other gods or the one who created it? I know it was mentioned that he wouldn’t want to help but he wasn’t even asked? People were getting killed by the dead that lingered and Autumn didn’t want to tell them to stay inside because he felt like it’d acknowledge the threat?😐 yeah let them die then? Is it really better? Their souls will just linger like the other ones and more people will be killed by those new souls….?
And the other thing is that clues were dropped nonstop in front of Tirne (sometimes she was even part of the conversation) and she just brushed them off or ignored them completely😂
There weren’t any depth to the characters relationships. I expected more from Autumn & Tirne’s - it felt flat for me. The only character that was somewhat mysterious and interesting was Sidriel
AND ALL OF THIS FOR THAT????? The ending was terrible for me. I’m a sucker for good endings and this was horrible. All of this roller coaster for absolutely nothing. The last third of the book made me want to throw it out the window
January 6, 2024
A captivating story that weaves together elements of magic, romance, and mythology.
Tirne was among the fortunate few mortals who had the honor of escorting their season's God between the divine and human realms. Her assigned deity was Autumn, the God of Death, who brought cool weather and the harvest of apples and gourds. (Who may be inspired by the Egyptian God of agriculture and death, Osiris.)
As the season transitioned, Tirne and Autumn would walk through an enchanted mirror to cross the realms. However, on one fateful day, the mirror shattered after they passed through it, leaving them both trapped in the mortal world. This incident had disastrous consequences for the world as crops started failing, and people faced starvation. Autumn's inability to return to his world resulted in him slowly losing his divine powers, which would ultimately strip him of his immortality.
The blame for the incident fell on Tirne. She knew that she had been falsely accused and that the real culprit was still on the loose. With time running out, Tirne made it her mission to uncover the truth and save Autumn and herself from certain doom. Who could have wanted Autumn trapped in the mortal world, and why?
This was a captivating story that was beautifully written. The world and the gods were intriguing, and I found myself invested in the story. However, I think the pacing could have been improved, and the ending seemed a bit rushed. I would also love to see more world-building. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the unique and intriguing tale, and I am looking forward to reading more works by the author.
***Thank you to NetGalley, Amy Avery, and Macmillan Audio for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***
Tirne was among the fortunate few mortals who had the honor of escorting their season's God between the divine and human realms. Her assigned deity was Autumn, the God of Death, who brought cool weather and the harvest of apples and gourds. (Who may be inspired by the Egyptian God of agriculture and death, Osiris.)
As the season transitioned, Tirne and Autumn would walk through an enchanted mirror to cross the realms. However, on one fateful day, the mirror shattered after they passed through it, leaving them both trapped in the mortal world. This incident had disastrous consequences for the world as crops started failing, and people faced starvation. Autumn's inability to return to his world resulted in him slowly losing his divine powers, which would ultimately strip him of his immortality.
The blame for the incident fell on Tirne. She knew that she had been falsely accused and that the real culprit was still on the loose. With time running out, Tirne made it her mission to uncover the truth and save Autumn and herself from certain doom. Who could have wanted Autumn trapped in the mortal world, and why?
This was a captivating story that was beautifully written. The world and the gods were intriguing, and I found myself invested in the story. However, I think the pacing could have been improved, and the ending seemed a bit rushed. I would also love to see more world-building. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the unique and intriguing tale, and I am looking forward to reading more works by the author.
***Thank you to NetGalley, Amy Avery, and Macmillan Audio for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***
October 28, 2023
oh I have THOUGHTS about this one
I picked it up and, while apparent from the beginning that it was a debut, I quickly got into this novel and stayed up late into the night reading it. The court intrigue, magic system, and the romance hooked me. But then it was 5 am and I had work and I had to set it down at about 70%. Around that mark, when I resumed the next day, the book turned for me. The conflict became tedious, as it was not paced as well as it could have been, and then quickly tied up at the very end. And, without spoilers, I did not like the resolution/ending to this novel. With what happened with the romances and even our main character Tirne. It left me wondering what the point of it all was. So that leaves me a bit sad. The Longest Autumn was easily a very strong 4/5 stars in the beginning, but faltered and missed the mark towards the end. Fantastic chronic headache/migraine representation in a fantasy setting though!
I picked it up and, while apparent from the beginning that it was a debut, I quickly got into this novel and stayed up late into the night reading it. The court intrigue, magic system, and the romance hooked me. But then it was 5 am and I had work and I had to set it down at about 70%. Around that mark, when I resumed the next day, the book turned for me. The conflict became tedious, as it was not paced as well as it could have been, and then quickly tied up at the very end. And, without spoilers, I did not like the resolution/ending to this novel. With what happened with the romances and even our main character Tirne. It left me wondering what the point of it all was. So that leaves me a bit sad. The Longest Autumn was easily a very strong 4/5 stars in the beginning, but faltered and missed the mark towards the end. Fantastic chronic headache/migraine representation in a fantasy setting though!
May 30, 2024
This book had potential, if only the characters weren't so boring.
The concept of the seasons being embodied by gods is interesting. The gods must each run the world at certain points in order to keep things going, and the one time one thing goes wrong the world almost ends. However, we were so into the mystery of "who destroyed the magical mirror that acts as a portal" that we didn't even get to explore other things such as maybe giving us some flashbacks into the gods realm in order to see what exactly this woman does with her life the other time she is not being a literal ferry woman in between the realms. It doesn't seem like the gods do anything really, other than pleasure concubines and botch investigations. The "romance" was also major ick between Autumn and the MC, since Autumn is barely a character, they come off as being the biggest prick in history. On the good side, there is a serious enemies to lovers situation going on, like the guy is truly on the shady side, and there are multiple romances that show things such as asexuality rep, multiple partners, etc. So points for the rep, but again why are the characters so damn bland? My plain toast has more spice.
Cool concept, should have explored some things deeper and with more excitement.
PS; I really liked the narrator, if it hadn't been for her voice I probably would have DNFd. Her voice is soothing (I did have to read at 1.75x-2x since she reads a bit slowly, but at the faster speed her tone still comes through without sounding like a robot).
The concept of the seasons being embodied by gods is interesting. The gods must each run the world at certain points in order to keep things going, and the one time one thing goes wrong the world almost ends. However, we were so into the mystery of "who destroyed the magical mirror that acts as a portal" that we didn't even get to explore other things such as maybe giving us some flashbacks into the gods realm in order to see what exactly this woman does with her life the other time she is not being a literal ferry woman in between the realms. It doesn't seem like the gods do anything really, other than pleasure concubines and botch investigations. The "romance" was also major ick between Autumn and the MC, since Autumn is barely a character, they come off as being the biggest prick in history. On the good side, there is a serious enemies to lovers situation going on, like the guy is truly on the shady side, and there are multiple romances that show things such as asexuality rep, multiple partners, etc. So points for the rep, but again why are the characters so damn bland? My plain toast has more spice.
Cool concept, should have explored some things deeper and with more excitement.
PS; I really liked the narrator, if it hadn't been for her voice I probably would have DNFd. Her voice is soothing (I did have to read at 1.75x-2x since she reads a bit slowly, but at the faster speed her tone still comes through without sounding like a robot).
July 7, 2023
First, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
I expected to like this more than I did. That's not to say the book isn't good. I enjoyed it, and was never tempted to stop reading, but I didn't love it. My favorite thing about the story was the world building, as I really like the world Avery has created here, with the mortal and divine worlds connected via a mirror, the worship of seasonal gods, and the customs surrounding multiple religions. I read a lot of fantasy and have never encountered something quite like this. I just wish the main character had been a bit more engaging. Tirne, a Herald of the god Autumn, came off as too passive a character to me. To be fair, that may have been the point, but I found it frustrating at times. She's a pawn in other people's plots so often, and I kept waiting for her to turn the tables or take decisive action, but she never really did. Often she allows herself to be knowingly used by people she is aware are untrustworthy, in some cases even people who directly tell her they cannot be trusted, and then she's surprised when they, predictably, turn on her.
A large portion of the book deals with solving of the mystery of how the mirror broke, but even that mostly amounts to Tirne sneaking into people's rooms, looking for some kind of evidence of something, and not finding much, or not being able to go to anyone about the significance of the one clue she does find. Again, she doesn't manage to accomplish much. She also suffers from debilitating migraines. In some ways, the book is more about someone dealing with a chronic illness than it is the mystery of who broke the mirror or any romantic elements. While I appreciate the representation of chronic illness, another element you don't see much in fantasy, the description of the story made it seem like it was more about solving a mystery (which she doesn't really manage to do) or romance.
Regarding the mention of romance in the book description, I'm actually not that big on romance novels, so I was a little worried that would be too much for me, but while Tirne does have multiple different, let's say relationships (because some are not romantic at all) over the course of the novel, there's very little romantic love to be had in the story. The book description did feel a bit misleading as far as that element - just a heads up for anyone whose interest was caught by the romance element.
Overall, I enjoyed the world-building, and would be interested to read another story set in this world, if given a character that had a little more agency.
I expected to like this more than I did. That's not to say the book isn't good. I enjoyed it, and was never tempted to stop reading, but I didn't love it. My favorite thing about the story was the world building, as I really like the world Avery has created here, with the mortal and divine worlds connected via a mirror, the worship of seasonal gods, and the customs surrounding multiple religions. I read a lot of fantasy and have never encountered something quite like this. I just wish the main character had been a bit more engaging. Tirne, a Herald of the god Autumn, came off as too passive a character to me. To be fair, that may have been the point, but I found it frustrating at times. She's a pawn in other people's plots so often, and I kept waiting for her to turn the tables or take decisive action, but she never really did. Often she allows herself to be knowingly used by people she is aware are untrustworthy, in some cases even people who directly tell her they cannot be trusted, and then she's surprised when they, predictably, turn on her.
A large portion of the book deals with solving of the mystery of how the mirror broke, but even that mostly amounts to Tirne sneaking into people's rooms, looking for some kind of evidence of something, and not finding much, or not being able to go to anyone about the significance of the one clue she does find. Again, she doesn't manage to accomplish much. She also suffers from debilitating migraines. In some ways, the book is more about someone dealing with a chronic illness than it is the mystery of who broke the mirror or any romantic elements. While I appreciate the representation of chronic illness, another element you don't see much in fantasy, the description of the story made it seem like it was more about solving a mystery (which she doesn't really manage to do) or romance.
Regarding the mention of romance in the book description, I'm actually not that big on romance novels, so I was a little worried that would be too much for me, but while Tirne does have multiple different, let's say relationships (because some are not romantic at all) over the course of the novel, there's very little romantic love to be had in the story. The book description did feel a bit misleading as far as that element - just a heads up for anyone whose interest was caught by the romance element.
Overall, I enjoyed the world-building, and would be interested to read another story set in this world, if given a character that had a little more agency.
Read
February 13, 2024DNF 15% - Life's too short for books that don't hold your attention.
March 26, 2024
1.5
Unfortunately, I didn't like this book.
The plot is simple and boring, I was only interested in the mystery created around the breaking of the magic mirror which allows for the gods and their heralds to walk between their world and the mortal one.
The idea is interesting, creating these season gods to control the weather and allowing the changing from one season to another - from one god to another. Yeah, cool. But even this part was so poorly developed. Autumn is a God, and still, he's like a lost boy, I didn't feel at all that he might be a powerful character. Yesh, that's left to his Herald, Tirne... 🙄 ... I couldn't stand her. She's attracted to everyone, wants to please all, even when she is rejected, she wants more and ... ugh, I just want to forget her.
Overall, it's slow, boring, has underdeveloped characters, focuses on bad romance instead of giving more details on the magic and the gods.
Definitely not for me.
Unfortunately, I didn't like this book.
The plot is simple and boring, I was only interested in the mystery created around the breaking of the magic mirror which allows for the gods and their heralds to walk between their world and the mortal one.
The idea is interesting, creating these season gods to control the weather and allowing the changing from one season to another - from one god to another. Yeah, cool. But even this part was so poorly developed. Autumn is a God, and still, he's like a lost boy, I didn't feel at all that he might be a powerful character. Yesh, that's left to his Herald, Tirne... 🙄 ... I couldn't stand her. She's attracted to everyone, wants to please all, even when she is rejected, she wants more and ... ugh, I just want to forget her.
Overall, it's slow, boring, has underdeveloped characters, focuses on bad romance instead of giving more details on the magic and the gods.
Definitely not for me.
April 18, 2024
great gowns cover, beautiful gowns premise, terrible ending
September 12, 2023
The Longest Autumn is a book where a magical artifact breaks and causes terrible consequences for literally everybody, and the main character is the prime suspect. Tirne swears she’ll do anything necessary to restore it, a vow that gets her in trouble. The sheer amount of trouble she gets into is really bold too, there’s no shortage of tension here.
There are a lot of things I really liked about this novel. The worldbuilding was fantastically creative! A pantheon of seasonal gods and myths to support how it formed that seems to have taken inspiration from Greek/Roman mythology, but isn’t a one for one imitation. There are holidays too that aren’t just reskinned fantasy Christmas and New years. Autumn himself is very fleshed out, as most of the characters are. The temple is a living place, with people bustling about. Additionally, there’s a lot of LGBT reps here. A character going by they/them, multiple same sex pairings, and an aromantic character (seriously, props for the aromantic one, I’ve never seen it in fiction before and the A needs some more reps!) These are all treated as normal too. I also really liked how chronic illness was handed. It was respectful, done well, and affected the plot.
My main gripe with the novel is WHY IS IT SO SEXUAL ALL THE TIME?!?!
If I weren’t reading an ARC (Thanks NetGalley!), I’d have stopped at the second chapter. Fire and Shadow, it starts in the second chapter! AND IT NEVER STOPS. Remember the fun worldbuilding I said something about? The holiday in question is one where they basically celebrate sex, all get drunk at a dance and then go have sex with each other after. Remember how I mentioned the temple? Yeah, there are no doors so Tirne tells the reader she can hear everyone having sex as she goes down the halls. Everyone seems to be in an open relationship too, I swear, no one knows the meaning of monogamy. Tirne has sex with three other characters and turns down a fourth, one of which she hates at times but keeps going back to because spice I think??? That one actually goes somewhere plot wise though, not like the first sexual encounter that’s pretty much irrelevant.
None of those things are bad per se, but they make the book very different from what it’s marketed as. The way probably more than half the chapters had some reference to sex WILL turn readers away because it’s not advertised at all in the cover or blurb. It’s a shame, because I really was invested in the mystery, but the resolution was more about the sex which made me a little disappointed. It really fizzled out for me at the end, all this great mystery and character development dumped so Tirne can go have sex one more time. But it was with a different character that time so I think the novel wanted me to want that? Yeah, the way the mystery ended was super disappointing.
Also, the prose isn’t quite doing it for me. It’s like one out of every five words could be cut with nothing of importance lost. To many ly words, I think.
If I knew ahead of time more content warnings, I wouldn’t have bothered.
The Longest Review for The Longest Autumn :)
There are a lot of things I really liked about this novel. The worldbuilding was fantastically creative! A pantheon of seasonal gods and myths to support how it formed that seems to have taken inspiration from Greek/Roman mythology, but isn’t a one for one imitation. There are holidays too that aren’t just reskinned fantasy Christmas and New years. Autumn himself is very fleshed out, as most of the characters are. The temple is a living place, with people bustling about. Additionally, there’s a lot of LGBT reps here. A character going by they/them, multiple same sex pairings, and an aromantic character (seriously, props for the aromantic one, I’ve never seen it in fiction before and the A needs some more reps!) These are all treated as normal too. I also really liked how chronic illness was handed. It was respectful, done well, and affected the plot.
My main gripe with the novel is WHY IS IT SO SEXUAL ALL THE TIME?!?!
If I weren’t reading an ARC (Thanks NetGalley!), I’d have stopped at the second chapter. Fire and Shadow, it starts in the second chapter! AND IT NEVER STOPS. Remember the fun worldbuilding I said something about? The holiday in question is one where they basically celebrate sex, all get drunk at a dance and then go have sex with each other after. Remember how I mentioned the temple? Yeah, there are no doors so Tirne tells the reader she can hear everyone having sex as she goes down the halls. Everyone seems to be in an open relationship too, I swear, no one knows the meaning of monogamy. Tirne has sex with three other characters and turns down a fourth, one of which she hates at times but keeps going back to because spice I think??? That one actually goes somewhere plot wise though, not like the first sexual encounter that’s pretty much irrelevant.
None of those things are bad per se, but they make the book very different from what it’s marketed as. The way probably more than half the chapters had some reference to sex WILL turn readers away because it’s not advertised at all in the cover or blurb. It’s a shame, because I really was invested in the mystery, but the resolution was more about the sex which made me a little disappointed. It really fizzled out for me at the end, all this great mystery and character development dumped so Tirne can go have sex one more time. But it was with a different character that time so I think the novel wanted me to want that? Yeah, the way the mystery ended was super disappointing.
Also, the prose isn’t quite doing it for me. It’s like one out of every five words could be cut with nothing of importance lost. To many ly words, I think.
If I knew ahead of time more content warnings, I wouldn’t have bothered.
The Longest Review for The Longest Autumn :)
December 10, 2023
I was really excited for this one. The premise had me intrigued but this just fell a bit flat. I was hoping for a rich fantasy world with romance and magic. The book started out decently strong with the mystery surrounding the broken mirror pulling me in. I think the middle of the story just was a bit muddled with so many different characters and sub plots all happening. The conflict started to become repetitive and the pacing felt off. We knew there was as the issue with the broken mirror and broken magic but it never felt like there was much progression and the resolution happened very quickly. It was a very much tell you not show you type of story. The romance was basically nonexistent. I would say there is relationships but never actual romance. I also never felt any connection or spark between Tirne and Autumn. I really wanted a sweeping forbidden slow burn romance between herald and god. Overall this was rather disappointing. I did enjoy the unique seasonal magic and mythology but I think this was too bittersweet and a bit of a miss with how this was marketed.
Huge thank you to Flatiron Books for gifting me an ARC
Huge thank you to Flatiron Books for gifting me an ARC
January 6, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.
This book was admissible at best. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the magic system and the world building. That was the best part of the book. It was really unique in its own right. The lackluster of the build up to anything: romance and plot, was just a huge let down. It was like OMG! Finally something going to happen and then it does happen and it’s just dull and ordinary. I felt like Tirne was just running around in circles not really accomplishing anything.
This book was admissible at best. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the magic system and the world building. That was the best part of the book. It was really unique in its own right. The lackluster of the build up to anything: romance and plot, was just a huge let down. It was like OMG! Finally something going to happen and then it does happen and it’s just dull and ordinary. I felt like Tirne was just running around in circles not really accomplishing anything.
January 22, 2024
This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2024, so I had high hopes for it. I loved the concept of Tirne, the human herald of one of the four seasons, ushering in the god of Autumn to the human world, only for them to get trapped there and throw everything off-balance. It was a complex magical system that I'd never seen done before, so it felt very fresh and unique. Avery's writing was lush, and I loved all the autumnal descriptions. My main issue was with the pacing. It was so slow, and not nearly enough happened to keep me engaged, which was a bummer because the mystery element had so much promise. It became tedious watching Tirne go around in circles. I also wasn't a fan of the ending, and I think the blurb is misleading about the romance. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I wanted more from it.
September 12, 2023
The Longest Autumn by Amy Avery is a fantasy standalone novel about Tirne, Herald of the god, Autumn, who gets stuck in the human realm when the mirror, the connection with the realm of the gods, breaks.
The official description says that Autumn brings with him life-threatening danger and a forbidden romance. I have mixed feelings because I thought it would be more mystery and more romance. Tirne has several romantic pursuits throughout the novel and I wasn’t sure which was heading towards being end game, but I actually liked that the romantic elements felt more realistic than a HEA of romance genre books.
Avery lays the foundations of the mystery early, from the first chapter, though it’s not a traditional mystery in which Tirne investigates, but rather an add on while she’s trying to survive stuck in the human world with her debilitating migraines. I appreciated the representation of someone with chronic illness, but Tirne as a character didn’t have much growth nor much in the way of agency. Everything happened to her, nearly to the very end when she made one choice for herself.
Overall, it was an interesting standalone with a satisfying resolution. I’m interested to see what else this author may have coming.
Favorite quote: I hesitate. “I’d be a heretic.” Almost a whisper, his reply. “Then be my heretic.”
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for allowing me to read this book as an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pros:
- Interesting world building.
- Quick read.
- Satisfying conclusion.
- Good representation that felt realistic.
Cons:
- The first person POV is rough at first and Tirne is quite passive.
- The other characters weren’t well developed.
- Yet another rendition of the young woman/ancient man trope with Tirne and Autumn.
- Tirne’s strained relationship with Laereda is told but not really shown. In Chapter 8, Tirne says everyone will see Laereda’s true colors, but as a reader I wasn’t shown what those were so I didn’t understand Tirne’s dislike of her and vice versa.
The official description says that Autumn brings with him life-threatening danger and a forbidden romance. I have mixed feelings because I thought it would be more mystery and more romance. Tirne has several romantic pursuits throughout the novel and I wasn’t sure which was heading towards being end game, but I actually liked that the romantic elements felt more realistic than a HEA of romance genre books.
Avery lays the foundations of the mystery early, from the first chapter, though it’s not a traditional mystery in which Tirne investigates, but rather an add on while she’s trying to survive stuck in the human world with her debilitating migraines. I appreciated the representation of someone with chronic illness, but Tirne as a character didn’t have much growth nor much in the way of agency. Everything happened to her, nearly to the very end when she made one choice for herself.
Overall, it was an interesting standalone with a satisfying resolution. I’m interested to see what else this author may have coming.
Favorite quote: I hesitate. “I’d be a heretic.” Almost a whisper, his reply. “Then be my heretic.”
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for allowing me to read this book as an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pros:
- Interesting world building.
- Quick read.
- Satisfying conclusion.
- Good representation that felt realistic.
Cons:
- The first person POV is rough at first and Tirne is quite passive.
- The other characters weren’t well developed.
- Yet another rendition of the young woman/ancient man trope with Tirne and Autumn.
- Tirne’s strained relationship with Laereda is told but not really shown. In Chapter 8, Tirne says everyone will see Laereda’s true colors, but as a reader I wasn’t shown what those were so I didn’t understand Tirne’s dislike of her and vice versa.
December 24, 2023
Thank you to Flatiron Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for coming through with both an e-arc and an audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review.
This atmospheric little fantasy novel releases on January 16, 2024.
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Me and Autumn? It's a thing.
So when I knew I was going to read this, I was desperately hoping for atmosphere and between chill breezes so visceral I shivered, apple cider kisses, and trails of dead leaves, I got atmosphere in spades.
Tirne is the Herald of Autumn - her duty is to usher him through a magical mirror into the human world to bring on the beginning of that cooler weather, those longer and darker nights, the smell of woodsmoke and fat, orange pumpkins. This is a role that means a lot to Tirne, desperate to be written into her history just like her mother before her.
Only, this year, something happens - that magical mirror shatters when she passes through it. And Tirne? She's the prime suspect for sabotage.
For someone so hellbent on loyalty to her god, we start to see her ambition control her - stripped of her title as Herald, she first beatifically commits herself to doing whatever's necessary to fix the mirror before food and firewood runs out and people begin to starve and infection spreads. But it soon becomes obvious that she'll also do anything to get her position restored, even if it means putting her trust in people she shouldn't.
Meanwhile, a bourgeoning energy is passing through Autumn and Tirne. Illicit touches are hidden, even though those same touches are against the commandments that Autumn himself laid down.
This was dreamy and sexy and mysterious and a super fun, quick fantasy debut. I'm sad to hear that it's a standalone - I'd have loved more of the lore of the passing of the seasons, more about the scions of each seasonal god, and more about the seasonal gods themselves. I definitely think there's an opportunity for a more expansive universe. Amy Avery is a skilled writer and I can't wait to see what she does in the future.
This atmospheric little fantasy novel releases on January 16, 2024.
--
Me and Autumn? It's a thing.
So when I knew I was going to read this, I was desperately hoping for atmosphere and between chill breezes so visceral I shivered, apple cider kisses, and trails of dead leaves, I got atmosphere in spades.
Tirne is the Herald of Autumn - her duty is to usher him through a magical mirror into the human world to bring on the beginning of that cooler weather, those longer and darker nights, the smell of woodsmoke and fat, orange pumpkins. This is a role that means a lot to Tirne, desperate to be written into her history just like her mother before her.
Only, this year, something happens - that magical mirror shatters when she passes through it. And Tirne? She's the prime suspect for sabotage.
For someone so hellbent on loyalty to her god, we start to see her ambition control her - stripped of her title as Herald, she first beatifically commits herself to doing whatever's necessary to fix the mirror before food and firewood runs out and people begin to starve and infection spreads. But it soon becomes obvious that she'll also do anything to get her position restored, even if it means putting her trust in people she shouldn't.
Meanwhile, a bourgeoning energy is passing through Autumn and Tirne. Illicit touches are hidden, even though those same touches are against the commandments that Autumn himself laid down.
This was dreamy and sexy and mysterious and a super fun, quick fantasy debut. I'm sad to hear that it's a standalone - I'd have loved more of the lore of the passing of the seasons, more about the scions of each seasonal god, and more about the seasonal gods themselves. I definitely think there's an opportunity for a more expansive universe. Amy Avery is a skilled writer and I can't wait to see what she does in the future.
September 14, 2023
DNF @ 36%
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would given the description. The worldbuilding was interesting and unique, reminiscent of Greek myth (Hades and Persephone with the passage of seasons). But the pacing was very slow. I'm a patient reader but after many chapters with no much happening, I had trouble staying engaged and caring about the characters. I hate to dnf ARCs but this book dragged so much I kept being simultaneously surprised and discouraged by the read percentage displayed at the bottom of my Kindle. After a while I noticed what bothered me most about the author's writing style: every small action had to be described in great length, which made for a rather boring read:
Deep into the night, I walk back to my room with weary footsteps after my courtyard vigil. Autumn was nowhere to be seen tonight, and I wonder if he loses faith in me. My sandaled feet echo softly in the midnight silence, heavy in the Temple halls.
Every action has a descriptor, every noun has several adjectives, every verb has its adverb... it was way too overwritten for my tastes.
If the quote above appeals to you and you enjoy books with slower pacing, introspective MCs, and well-described worlds, this book might be for you.
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would given the description. The worldbuilding was interesting and unique, reminiscent of Greek myth (Hades and Persephone with the passage of seasons). But the pacing was very slow. I'm a patient reader but after many chapters with no much happening, I had trouble staying engaged and caring about the characters. I hate to dnf ARCs but this book dragged so much I kept being simultaneously surprised and discouraged by the read percentage displayed at the bottom of my Kindle. After a while I noticed what bothered me most about the author's writing style: every small action had to be described in great length, which made for a rather boring read:
Deep into the night, I walk back to my room with weary footsteps after my courtyard vigil. Autumn was nowhere to be seen tonight, and I wonder if he loses faith in me. My sandaled feet echo softly in the midnight silence, heavy in the Temple halls.
Every action has a descriptor, every noun has several adjectives, every verb has its adverb... it was way too overwritten for my tastes.
If the quote above appeals to you and you enjoy books with slower pacing, introspective MCs, and well-described worlds, this book might be for you.
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
Shelved as '2024'
May 29, 2024🎧 Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio
Read
January 30, 2024Avery's novel imagines a fantasy world in which human guides step through a mystical mirror to the realm of the gods and escort back to the world each of the successive calendar seasons. Tirne, the young escort of the beautiful god Autumn, has no sooner brought him through to the human realm he'll rule for the next few months than the portal between worlds shatters behind them, stranding Autumn and subjecting the world to the "longest autumn" of the book's title. Avery does a very assured job of rendering her story and adds a terrific twist: the longer Autumn stays in the mortal world, the more human he becomes - and the more he's attracted to Tirne. My full review is here: https://openlettersreview.com/posts/t...
January 23, 2024
Excellent debut! I don't think everyone will love THE LONGEST AUTUMN, but it genuinely captivated me. I like being surrounded by hope and melancholia, and Amy Avery ensured I felt every emotion Tirne felt. She also did an exceptional job of writing about Tirne's migraines, and as a chronic migraineur, I felt so seen in this book. I only wish I could get some of those potions to help me!
The reason why I thought this would be a book for specific audiences was that it's not your typical fantasy novel, i.e., the romantic leads meet, there's a problem or a villain, the hero/ine fixes it, smushy kissy faces for the romance, all was well. THE LONGEST AUTUMN does not follow that pattern. Some people would not be happy with it veering the typical off-course, which makes Tirne's story fascinating.
It has female empowerment, magic, romance, mythology, and the theme of pushing through pain to survive daily life. It was a winner for me.
Also, Zura Johnson is an excellent narrator who brings Tirne to life.
Thanks, Macmillian Audio, for the gifted audiobook!
Content Warnings: toxic relationship, familial death, death, blood, chronic illness, ableism, grief, addiction
The reason why I thought this would be a book for specific audiences was that it's not your typical fantasy novel, i.e., the romantic leads meet, there's a problem or a villain, the hero/ine fixes it, smushy kissy faces for the romance, all was well. THE LONGEST AUTUMN does not follow that pattern. Some people would not be happy with it veering the typical off-course, which makes Tirne's story fascinating.
It has female empowerment, magic, romance, mythology, and the theme of pushing through pain to survive daily life. It was a winner for me.
Also, Zura Johnson is an excellent narrator who brings Tirne to life.
Thanks, Macmillian Audio, for the gifted audiobook!
Content Warnings: toxic relationship, familial death, death, blood, chronic illness, ableism, grief, addiction
Read
September 4, 2023"The Longest Autumn" is a debut novel, and an impressive one at that. A mixture of mystery and romance, along with a pinch of Greek mythology vibes (vibes, because this is not a one-to-one retelling), "The Longest Autumn" will likely make anyone who is into the "new adult" genre and who enjoys a certain coziness quite content. It certainly kept me interested - I wasn't entirely sure who Terne would end up with, a fact that led to some good character building as she navigates the uncertain world around her. She also suffers from chronic headaches, which I relate to as well (I feel you girl; migraines suck).
I did not vibe with the writing style - first person and slightly purple. The writing felt very YA and overly detailed - if you're into Maggie Stiefvater, you won't have an issue with it. It's not a style that works for me, but there's nothing *wrong* with it.
Once this book was complete, my thoughts were: "That was pleasant", nothing more. It's going to be one I struggle to recount in a few weeks, but wasn't it nice while it lasted.
I did not vibe with the writing style - first person and slightly purple. The writing felt very YA and overly detailed - if you're into Maggie Stiefvater, you won't have an issue with it. It's not a style that works for me, but there's nothing *wrong* with it.
Once this book was complete, my thoughts were: "That was pleasant", nothing more. It's going to be one I struggle to recount in a few weeks, but wasn't it nice while it lasted.
April 29, 2024
This is a book I wished I had dnf-ed. The ending had no resolution for an entire plot line, character relationships felt surface level and pandering, and the twist left me painfully underwhelmed.
March 17, 2024
Idk why I was under the impression this was a fantasy Romance - it's not.
It's a good standalone though. Refreshing (if bittersweet) ending, interesting character journeys. I would have liked to spend more time in this world.
It's a good standalone though. Refreshing (if bittersweet) ending, interesting character journeys. I would have liked to spend more time in this world.
November 17, 2024
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
My Selling Pitch:
Imagine you went to the horniest Sunday school where you were actively boinking all your besties, your professor, and your doctor. Except instead of Jesus, call ‘em Punxsutawney Phil because they’re worshiping the seasons. And your professor’s a god. Also like some murders go on. It’s a messy debut that’s not nearly as smutty as it should be, and you’re not gonna like the ending, but I didn’t hate this.
Pre-reading:
Book box picks are going to be the death of me. So many of them don’t interest me once I get them. If I don't read it now, I won't read it, so we’re locking in, girlypops. I think the cover is heinously ugly.
(obviously potential spoilers from here on)
Thick of it:
I thought this was YA, but she’s actually my age. Go figure. Also, that’s a Pandora charm bracelet, and you won’t convince me otherwise.
Lol, let’s make sure you know her best friend’s gay before you start thinking he’s the love interest.
Oh, the mirror’s always been the center of your life? I give it one chapter before it breaks. (Nailed it!) ((And if you’re like Samantha, that’s literally in the blurb, show me where I’ve ever read a blurb in my life.))
Oh bitch, we’re starting the detritus sins early, huh?
And there's the broken mirror.
Is it the bead on her bracelet? (No, but I did believe I was right all book.)
Oh! A not so gay bestie. A bi bestie.
You know, I didn’t have boinking in chapter 2 on my bingo board for this book.
Not his magic cum lmao!
What if the autumn dude sabotaged the mirror because he wants her to be on his season of The Bachelor?
Of course, it’s occurred to him. He wasn’t born yesterday.
This is like a weird grad school romance.
Oh damn, everyone in this book is bi!
I think this book is an exceptionally average fantasy, but usually average fantasies do not have such a low rating on Goodreads so I’m curious why the general populous is panning this.
It’s very Court of the Undying Seasons and Garden of the Cursed
It has very good chronic migraine rep.
Lol, he’s a walking bath bomb.
… that line was kinda hot. The audiobook narrator’s really doing the most. She’s making me enjoy this book.
It’s a little Mary Sue in that literally everyone in this book wants to fuck main character girly, but I also don’t really care. Like I expected nothing from this book, so yes girl, give us nothing!
You can see the Covid influence in this book as well.
I like how her bestie is like you can’t investigate, and I’m like I opened this book and said you were guilty, my dude. (I like how I was so convinced. But I was also so convinced that the other guy was way too obviously evil to be the villain.)
Hey babe, you took your bracelet off. You’re good to do the mirror work now. Just watch. (Or don’t watch because Samantha is dead wrong.)
Hell yeah! Fuck the doctor Spider-Man with his black lipstick. (I love when fantasy books give one of the main characters this like unpronounceable name, and then I only read it as an audiobook, so I have really no idea how to spell it, and I’m like I’ll just rename them. It’s fine.)
Girlypop is the worst detective.
If their society is so advanced to essentially have genetic blood testing, why don’t they have greenhouses?
I love how the book is like he’s ethically kind of icky, and Sam's like I’m sat. He said, ambitious and honest, and my Capricorn said heard!
This is the horniest Sunday school.
It’s like kind of good and twisty. I don’t understand why it’s getting so much hate. Like it’s not great, but it’s very readable.
The book: he’s so evil. Look, he’s like betrayed her so many times
Sam: still kinda hot though. Still kinda hot though! (This is made even more funny because his character description is like not my type at all, but I did weirdly like the audiobook narrator’s voice for him. Also, they just had chemistry.)
I know they’ve been setting it up all book for her to like be with the human version of this god and like save the world with their love, but like what if I still kind of prefer her with the spider? Throuple?
Dude, she’s like literally starving to death. Time and place for horny.
Dude, he’s fucked how many of your friends? And you're just chill with that?
That’s a bar, honestly.
Hey girl, hey! I’m like so glad you’ve been my servant all my life. Now can you get this dick wet too? I don’t like them together tbh.
You think he could’ve brought some meat in addition to that meat? You know, I’ll leave.
Hey girl, I heard you were starving so I brought you some sausage.
She really doesn’t have the calories available to be burning fucking a god, but go off. In cowgirl, no less.
You guys have had like multiple months knowing that the solution was probably gonna be blood to like fill a blood bank. No one needed to die for this.
Where are we going with this? Is this a standalone or like do I have to read another book?
me: how are we gonna wrap up this book? There’s so little book left.
the author: settle in for an info dump and a villain monologue.
and Samantha’s like goddamnit. We were doing so well.
I love that the book is also like the Spider-Man is still hot.
Girl, I’m getting whiplash. Are we fucking the Spider-Man or not?
Hell yeah, brother!
Like I don’t give half stars and this is not a four-star, but like this is a high, high three. It could use a hell of an edit, but I had a good time.
Hell no, brother! What do you mean? What do you mean?
The author: I know they have unbelievable chemistry, but like I’m sure the audience will never forgive him for being a murderer and like a medical experimenter so like they won’t get together
me: what murder. I don’t care. Let ‘em boink. What do you mean?
I don’t want this fucking vanilla ass scarecrow man. What are we doing? (Never thought I would see the day where I called a religious kink that bites boring.)
What’s she gonna do? Quit her job and let him use her like a broodmare? I don’t like this ending.
What do you mean? Are we getting no boyfriends after like six boyfriends all book? Are you joking? No boyfriends?
It’s really weird that your bestie is carrying your ex-boyfriend’s/ex boss’s baby. Are we just not gonna talk about that???
Literally if everyone’s already starving, why would you want six more weeks of winter? Make it make sense.
An epilogue, what do you mean?
Wow, we’re just like not resolving anything with the shadow people or the other religion. We’re just like bulldozing to the end. Actually, we’re not even solving the whole book. She’s tacking on an epilogue because she ain't solved shit. What the hell, man.
Do you know what’s a little irritating to me? This book is so in on the horny, and the poly, and the gay, and none of the sex scenes are sexy. They all fade to black. Like you really said let’s do religious kink and medical kink but you can’t see any of it, and that’s rude to me!
That really rubs me the wrong way that the lady who was like I don’t really actually want to have kids is forced to have a kid.
How has your rift been mended? Just because you stopped fucking the dude that did medical experiments on her? I don’t know. I don’t think a normal person would get over that.
You can’t just not talk about shit and be like lol we’re besties.
Here’s the epilogue: I’m gonna choose your bestie to fuck for 15 years and not you. Like that’s weird behavior!
The way my mouth dropped at the good girl nonsense.
I’m angry now. What the fuck, you tease! Like four times this book’s been like the spider man’s evil. She can’t fuck him. And then she fucks him. And then they’re still not together in the end? What do you mean?
I feel like she wrote this to get over a break up and this is not how we happily ever after, ma’am!
Wow, goddamn I’m pissed lol.
Post-reading:
You know, I went into this book with the worst attitude. I expected it to be unreadable garbage, and I was so pleasantly surprised at how invested I got in it.
Let’s be clear. At no moment is this a good book. It’s a debut, and it reads like it. It’s a pretty generic fantasy mystery plot. The main character is a Mary Sue. It’s got pacing issues. The plot and the writing get repetitive for good chunks of it. It can’t decide if it wants to be a YA or an adult book. The only thing making this adult is the sheer amount of sex in it, but it’s never actually sexy, so it doesn’t really earn that adult label. The plot certainly isn’t dark enough to fit into that category. The voice of the writing reads young.
So like a lot goes wrong. But miss author girl can really write some chemistry. I was shockingly invested in the wildly problematic romances in this book. And the book’s pretty upfront about them being problematic. It’s like no yeah, this is wrong. They should not be together. There are horribly unequal power dynamics at play… still kinda hot though.
And then it’s gonna piss off its audience because no one ends up together. The audience that is able to read a generic, dime-a-dozen fantasy romance novel and still give that book four or five stars is not going to be happy if you don’t give them a happily ever after!
I think I got through this book so fast because the audiobook was really good. I’m not sure if I would’ve had the same reading experience had I read it on my own. I might’ve gotten annoyed. It might’ve been too slow for me. But the narrator was really good at keeping me engaged. There’s a couple bars in this book that would be wildly effective and horny somewhere else.
It’s got great chronic migraine representation.
As a whole though, it’s just kind of a mediocre book that wraps up way too fast and lacks a satisfying ending. I don’t think you’re missing anything if you skip it, but if you’ve had it on your book box TBR and have been dreading it, I don’t think that dread is really warranted. I’ve read so much worse. I don’t think rewriting this book would ever get it into four or five-star territory. I don’t think the concept is really there. But I would be interested in picking this author up again. I think she’s got a horny book in her. Like write the naughty romance, girl. Don’t be a coward.
Who should read this:
Poly fantasy romance girlies
YA fantasy mystery fans
Ideal reading time:
Autumn. Like duh.
Do I want to reread this:
No, but I would pick up the author again.
Would I buy this:
No, but I went into this book so convinced I was going to get rid of my copy of it and now I kinda wanna keep it.
Similar books:
* Court of the Undying Seasons by A. M. Strickland-this is the same book but in vampire font, horny YA fantasy romance, mystery, magic school, poly, queer
* Garden of the Cursed by Katy Rose Pool-YA urban fantasy romance, mystery
* The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem-fantasy romance, enemies to lovers
* Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente-historical fairytale retelling, romance
* A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft-historical, urban fantasy romance, mystery, dark academia, queer
* The Night Hunt by Alexandra Christo-YA fantasy romance
* This Dark Descent by Kalyn Josephson-YA urban political fantasy romance, ensemble cast
* Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare-YA urban political fantasy romance, ensemble cast
* The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis-YA urban political fantasy romance
My Selling Pitch:
Imagine you went to the horniest Sunday school where you were actively boinking all your besties, your professor, and your doctor. Except instead of Jesus, call ‘em Punxsutawney Phil because they’re worshiping the seasons. And your professor’s a god. Also like some murders go on. It’s a messy debut that’s not nearly as smutty as it should be, and you’re not gonna like the ending, but I didn’t hate this.
Pre-reading:
Book box picks are going to be the death of me. So many of them don’t interest me once I get them. If I don't read it now, I won't read it, so we’re locking in, girlypops. I think the cover is heinously ugly.
(obviously potential spoilers from here on)
Thick of it:
I thought this was YA, but she’s actually my age. Go figure. Also, that’s a Pandora charm bracelet, and you won’t convince me otherwise.
Lol, let’s make sure you know her best friend’s gay before you start thinking he’s the love interest.
Oh, the mirror’s always been the center of your life? I give it one chapter before it breaks. (Nailed it!) ((And if you’re like Samantha, that’s literally in the blurb, show me where I’ve ever read a blurb in my life.))
Oh bitch, we’re starting the detritus sins early, huh?
And there's the broken mirror.
Is it the bead on her bracelet? (No, but I did believe I was right all book.)
Oh! A not so gay bestie. A bi bestie.
You know, I didn’t have boinking in chapter 2 on my bingo board for this book.
Not his magic cum lmao!
What if the autumn dude sabotaged the mirror because he wants her to be on his season of The Bachelor?
Of course, it’s occurred to him. He wasn’t born yesterday.
This is like a weird grad school romance.
Oh damn, everyone in this book is bi!
I think this book is an exceptionally average fantasy, but usually average fantasies do not have such a low rating on Goodreads so I’m curious why the general populous is panning this.
It’s very Court of the Undying Seasons and Garden of the Cursed
It has very good chronic migraine rep.
Lol, he’s a walking bath bomb.
… that line was kinda hot. The audiobook narrator’s really doing the most. She’s making me enjoy this book.
It’s a little Mary Sue in that literally everyone in this book wants to fuck main character girly, but I also don’t really care. Like I expected nothing from this book, so yes girl, give us nothing!
You can see the Covid influence in this book as well.
I like how her bestie is like you can’t investigate, and I’m like I opened this book and said you were guilty, my dude. (I like how I was so convinced. But I was also so convinced that the other guy was way too obviously evil to be the villain.)
Hey babe, you took your bracelet off. You’re good to do the mirror work now. Just watch. (Or don’t watch because Samantha is dead wrong.)
Hell yeah! Fuck the doctor Spider-Man with his black lipstick. (I love when fantasy books give one of the main characters this like unpronounceable name, and then I only read it as an audiobook, so I have really no idea how to spell it, and I’m like I’ll just rename them. It’s fine.)
Girlypop is the worst detective.
If their society is so advanced to essentially have genetic blood testing, why don’t they have greenhouses?
I love how the book is like he’s ethically kind of icky, and Sam's like I’m sat. He said, ambitious and honest, and my Capricorn said heard!
This is the horniest Sunday school.
It’s like kind of good and twisty. I don’t understand why it’s getting so much hate. Like it’s not great, but it’s very readable.
The book: he’s so evil. Look, he’s like betrayed her so many times
Sam: still kinda hot though. Still kinda hot though! (This is made even more funny because his character description is like not my type at all, but I did weirdly like the audiobook narrator’s voice for him. Also, they just had chemistry.)
I know they’ve been setting it up all book for her to like be with the human version of this god and like save the world with their love, but like what if I still kind of prefer her with the spider? Throuple?
Dude, she’s like literally starving to death. Time and place for horny.
Dude, he’s fucked how many of your friends? And you're just chill with that?
That’s a bar, honestly.
Hey girl, hey! I’m like so glad you’ve been my servant all my life. Now can you get this dick wet too? I don’t like them together tbh.
You think he could’ve brought some meat in addition to that meat? You know, I’ll leave.
Hey girl, I heard you were starving so I brought you some sausage.
She really doesn’t have the calories available to be burning fucking a god, but go off. In cowgirl, no less.
You guys have had like multiple months knowing that the solution was probably gonna be blood to like fill a blood bank. No one needed to die for this.
Where are we going with this? Is this a standalone or like do I have to read another book?
me: how are we gonna wrap up this book? There’s so little book left.
the author: settle in for an info dump and a villain monologue.
and Samantha’s like goddamnit. We were doing so well.
I love that the book is also like the Spider-Man is still hot.
Girl, I’m getting whiplash. Are we fucking the Spider-Man or not?
Hell yeah, brother!
Like I don’t give half stars and this is not a four-star, but like this is a high, high three. It could use a hell of an edit, but I had a good time.
Hell no, brother! What do you mean? What do you mean?
The author: I know they have unbelievable chemistry, but like I’m sure the audience will never forgive him for being a murderer and like a medical experimenter so like they won’t get together
me: what murder. I don’t care. Let ‘em boink. What do you mean?
I don’t want this fucking vanilla ass scarecrow man. What are we doing? (Never thought I would see the day where I called a religious kink that bites boring.)
What’s she gonna do? Quit her job and let him use her like a broodmare? I don’t like this ending.
What do you mean? Are we getting no boyfriends after like six boyfriends all book? Are you joking? No boyfriends?
It’s really weird that your bestie is carrying your ex-boyfriend’s/ex boss’s baby. Are we just not gonna talk about that???
Literally if everyone’s already starving, why would you want six more weeks of winter? Make it make sense.
An epilogue, what do you mean?
Wow, we’re just like not resolving anything with the shadow people or the other religion. We’re just like bulldozing to the end. Actually, we’re not even solving the whole book. She’s tacking on an epilogue because she ain't solved shit. What the hell, man.
Do you know what’s a little irritating to me? This book is so in on the horny, and the poly, and the gay, and none of the sex scenes are sexy. They all fade to black. Like you really said let’s do religious kink and medical kink but you can’t see any of it, and that’s rude to me!
That really rubs me the wrong way that the lady who was like I don’t really actually want to have kids is forced to have a kid.
How has your rift been mended? Just because you stopped fucking the dude that did medical experiments on her? I don’t know. I don’t think a normal person would get over that.
You can’t just not talk about shit and be like lol we’re besties.
Here’s the epilogue: I’m gonna choose your bestie to fuck for 15 years and not you. Like that’s weird behavior!
The way my mouth dropped at the good girl nonsense.
I’m angry now. What the fuck, you tease! Like four times this book’s been like the spider man’s evil. She can’t fuck him. And then she fucks him. And then they’re still not together in the end? What do you mean?
I feel like she wrote this to get over a break up and this is not how we happily ever after, ma’am!
Wow, goddamn I’m pissed lol.
Post-reading:
You know, I went into this book with the worst attitude. I expected it to be unreadable garbage, and I was so pleasantly surprised at how invested I got in it.
Let’s be clear. At no moment is this a good book. It’s a debut, and it reads like it. It’s a pretty generic fantasy mystery plot. The main character is a Mary Sue. It’s got pacing issues. The plot and the writing get repetitive for good chunks of it. It can’t decide if it wants to be a YA or an adult book. The only thing making this adult is the sheer amount of sex in it, but it’s never actually sexy, so it doesn’t really earn that adult label. The plot certainly isn’t dark enough to fit into that category. The voice of the writing reads young.
So like a lot goes wrong. But miss author girl can really write some chemistry. I was shockingly invested in the wildly problematic romances in this book. And the book’s pretty upfront about them being problematic. It’s like no yeah, this is wrong. They should not be together. There are horribly unequal power dynamics at play… still kinda hot though.
And then it’s gonna piss off its audience because no one ends up together. The audience that is able to read a generic, dime-a-dozen fantasy romance novel and still give that book four or five stars is not going to be happy if you don’t give them a happily ever after!
I think I got through this book so fast because the audiobook was really good. I’m not sure if I would’ve had the same reading experience had I read it on my own. I might’ve gotten annoyed. It might’ve been too slow for me. But the narrator was really good at keeping me engaged. There’s a couple bars in this book that would be wildly effective and horny somewhere else.
It’s got great chronic migraine representation.
As a whole though, it’s just kind of a mediocre book that wraps up way too fast and lacks a satisfying ending. I don’t think you’re missing anything if you skip it, but if you’ve had it on your book box TBR and have been dreading it, I don’t think that dread is really warranted. I’ve read so much worse. I don’t think rewriting this book would ever get it into four or five-star territory. I don’t think the concept is really there. But I would be interested in picking this author up again. I think she’s got a horny book in her. Like write the naughty romance, girl. Don’t be a coward.
Who should read this:
Poly fantasy romance girlies
YA fantasy mystery fans
Ideal reading time:
Autumn. Like duh.
Do I want to reread this:
No, but I would pick up the author again.
Would I buy this:
No, but I went into this book so convinced I was going to get rid of my copy of it and now I kinda wanna keep it.
Similar books:
* Court of the Undying Seasons by A. M. Strickland-this is the same book but in vampire font, horny YA fantasy romance, mystery, magic school, poly, queer
* Garden of the Cursed by Katy Rose Pool-YA urban fantasy romance, mystery
* The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem-fantasy romance, enemies to lovers
* Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente-historical fairytale retelling, romance
* A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft-historical, urban fantasy romance, mystery, dark academia, queer
* The Night Hunt by Alexandra Christo-YA fantasy romance
* This Dark Descent by Kalyn Josephson-YA urban political fantasy romance, ensemble cast
* Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare-YA urban political fantasy romance, ensemble cast
* The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis-YA urban political fantasy romance
January 4, 2024
A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Flatiron Books for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A fantasy novel where the four seasons are actually gods who enter our world for only 3 months out of the year, and whose presence facilitates is the cause of the changing of the seasons. This novel greatly resembles how the Greeks saw the change of the seasons, with the presence or absence of Persephone in the Underworld, but takes it further to include all four changes - Summer, Winter, Spring, and Autumn.
Our main character, Tirne, is the Herald of Autumn - in charge of bringing the spirits of the dead to rest, and in bringing her god of Autumn into the world when it’s time to change the season from Summer. However, in her sixth year of doing this - when exiting the Mirror to bring the gods into the mortal realm - it breaks, shattering the connection and trapping the world in an endless autumn. Nothing can grow as everything slowly dies, and eventually famine hits the world and the spirits of the dead pile up, with nowhere to go.
Tirne is the main suspect for the breaking of this Mirror, and she must investigate on her own to try to uncover the real culprit before time runs out on the living. With her connection to Autumn, she has a bit of his magic, and the ability to feel his emotions - as the longer he remains in the world of the mortals, the more mortal he becomes.This is dangerous, as if he spends too long in the mortal realm he may no longer be an immortal god, and instead simply a man.
I wanted to like this novel more than I did. Even with its very Greek retelling feel, this novel never fully did it for me. I’ll explain further in detail with more specific spoilers, but as I believe this novel to be a standalone I felt much of the worldbuilding and character relationships left much to be desired. (If there is a sequel, then I will revise my statement.) I think if this book had a sequel, it could account for much of the issues I had with this novel, as much of my issues are things feeling unfinished with questions left unanswered.
There are issues with the religion in this novel - much of which are things assumed to be factual, that Tirne discovers to be untrue - that is simply brushed over at the end of this book as things go back to Square One. In the same way, she has 3 relationships throughout this novel, all of which do not really go anywhere and end with none of them together - which makes the reader feel a bit empty when the book ends. There were also parts of this book near the end that felt rushed, and as I was reading it (and especially after the ending) it felt like a good 100-200 pages of plot was removed and only the main events were kept. However, near the middle there is a bit of a stagnation where nothing really happens, which I think should have been the parts that were edited for brevity instead.
However, overall I did enjoy this novel and would recommend it for a reader who enjoys novels that feel like Greek myth retellings. As I was reading it, I was never bored and I cared about the characters and what happened to them. I enjoyed some of the romances in this novel, and thought the character relationships to be interesting and diverse. I also enjoyed the disability representation with the main character and her chronic headaches.
SPOILERS AHEAD: I kept these at the very end, so you could read my full review without reading any spoilers. These are more specifics with the issues I had with this book, but in describing them I’d be spoiling those events. Also, I may or may not get mean so don’t shoot the messenger, I warned you.
RELATIONSHIPS:
I thought the development and inclusion of some of the relationships in this novel to be unnecessary, and a few times it felt like they were included only to keep this novel from being classified as YA.
Our first look at this is when Tirne returns from the ceremony with the broken mirror, and meets up with her childhood friend. Instead of communicating, they immediately have sex to distract herself from her issues - and apparently, them hooking up when she’s back in the mortal realm is a regular occurrence, despite him having another relationship. I’m not a prude or saying friends with benefits can’t exist, but this felt like an abrupt change of pace when it happened and I was more surprised than anything. Reading this didn’t do anything for me, and I kind of just read it waiting for it to finish so we could continue the novel. (Also, I clearly missed something when he was introduced because I legitimately thought he was her brother before this point, but clearly I was wrong, lol. That’s how out of left field this development was.)
The other relationship that I kind of thought was unnecessary was her attraction to her god Autumn. I have to admit, while this concept drew me in (the relationship between the two developed kind of like in Gods of Jade and Shadow), with Tirne’s other more prominent relationship this never impressed me. The description says this is a forbidden romance between the two, but it’s more of a blink and you’ll miss it - and then, he’s back in the realm of gods and no longer has human emotions so it’s done. We suddenly go from her being his Herald, to her noticing how “attractive” he is, and then as Autumn becomes more human with more and more emotions - he starts breaking the rules to be with her. (Also, this is a personal gripe, but they hook up after she’s had months of starvation to the point she can’t eat without severely watering it down for her stomach - the entire time they had sex I was like “hello???? HELLO???? Miss ma’am, how do you have the energy for this?” It’s just hard to get into the idea of them having sexytimes when she’s described as being sunken and skeletal, okay.)
Her final relationship, and the only one that actually fits in this novel, in my opinion, is with a sorcerer named Sidriel. I was kind of surprised this turned into an actual relationship, because he’s such a morally ambiguous man who at times is a significant antagonist. However, their chemistry develops fairly well from hate sex to something more, and I wish the novel focused more on this than her other romantic entanglements. There’s supposed to be some drama between her being attracted to the other two as opposed to him, but honestly I feel like the drama could have been even if she wasn’t attracted to Autumn, and just him to her. Also, there’s literally no development to this relationship, as after the events of the novel he breaks it off with her and she mopes on her own. And then, she decides she NEEDS closure and goes to see him again - and once again, he just says no and then she accepts it?
Tirne had an entire dynamic where she had to break up with a significant other because she only spends 3 months out of the year in the mortal realm. However, after the events of the novel she has to remove Autumn’s magic and live there full-time. I thought for SURE that would be the catalyst for her and Sidriel to be together, as he had lost one love to the gods, but gained another - and she learned to prioritize being with others over her obsession with being important. But no, they just say “Nah” and move on. Sure I guess?
RELIGION:
I won’t go as in-depth here as I did the relationships, but there were multiple MUTLIPLE times we see the cracks in the facade of their religion after Tirne is cast out of it.
We begin with her having a less than stellar relationship with her aunt, who has rejected the main religion to follow a more offshoot one that focuses on the creatures who remained after the 4 season gods defeated the master of those monsters. Tirne doesn't believe in those monsters at all, and her aunt thinks that the gods are poisoning the world with their magic - and so, their relationship has frayed beyond repair.
However, when Tirne is cast out of the temple and must live on her own, she reconciles with her aunt and slowly starts to see the legitimacy in what her aunt believes. Tirne is told a hidden truth in the history of their religion by Autumn - a secret so major that she can’t tell a single other person - but refuses to see her aunt’s point of view when she says that there are two sides to every story. Even when Tirne begins seeing the creatures and monsters, she only “joins” that religion when she has nothing else to turn to - and even tells Autumn that she never abandoned him or her beliefs. This I understand, but it seems that the second her aunt dies and they fix the Mirror, Tirne goes back to Square One and never even THINKS about the truths she discovered away from the temple, and from her aunt.
This also goes into the conflict caused by the main bad guy, who is the cast away god from their religion origin story. He doesn’t seem to have much of a plan, and then at the very end he simply just tries to stab Autumn as he is fully mortal, rather than killing him in his sleep - as he could have very easily done. His reasoning is that by doing this he proves to the people that the gods are fallible, but I think a god dying would ALSO do that, no? However, because he randomly does this in a crowd of people he’s immediately caught and his blood is drained to fix the Mirror. The End. (What????)
This is what I mean by saying I think this novel would highly benefit from a sequel. As both the relationships and the religion are kind of shuffled back to the same status quo we had at the beginning of the novel, and unless this is further explored it kind of feels like a “what was the point?” to the reader.
A sequel could explore the issues with the religion, now that Tirne is no longer the Herald of Autumn and an important member of it. It could give context to the villain’s motivation (who was in a relationship with her best friend and may have had feelings for him) - where we could find out that using his blood on the mirror to fix it, and “killing” him, was his original plan all along. We could also learn more about the truths of the religion, and whether or not Autumn and the other gods are really as benevolent and trustworthy as they seem. And finally, we could explore her relationship with Sidriel as they both learn to live with one another without the issue of the Mirror or past lies hanging over their heads.
In all honesty, if we get a sequel I think I’d enjoy this first book much more, as my issues are with this novel being a supposed “standalone,” where it brings up a bunch of issues and then never solves them by the end.
A fantasy novel where the four seasons are actually gods who enter our world for only 3 months out of the year, and whose presence facilitates is the cause of the changing of the seasons. This novel greatly resembles how the Greeks saw the change of the seasons, with the presence or absence of Persephone in the Underworld, but takes it further to include all four changes - Summer, Winter, Spring, and Autumn.
Our main character, Tirne, is the Herald of Autumn - in charge of bringing the spirits of the dead to rest, and in bringing her god of Autumn into the world when it’s time to change the season from Summer. However, in her sixth year of doing this - when exiting the Mirror to bring the gods into the mortal realm - it breaks, shattering the connection and trapping the world in an endless autumn. Nothing can grow as everything slowly dies, and eventually famine hits the world and the spirits of the dead pile up, with nowhere to go.
Tirne is the main suspect for the breaking of this Mirror, and she must investigate on her own to try to uncover the real culprit before time runs out on the living. With her connection to Autumn, she has a bit of his magic, and the ability to feel his emotions - as the longer he remains in the world of the mortals, the more mortal he becomes.This is dangerous, as if he spends too long in the mortal realm he may no longer be an immortal god, and instead simply a man.
I wanted to like this novel more than I did. Even with its very Greek retelling feel, this novel never fully did it for me. I’ll explain further in detail with more specific spoilers, but as I believe this novel to be a standalone I felt much of the worldbuilding and character relationships left much to be desired. (If there is a sequel, then I will revise my statement.) I think if this book had a sequel, it could account for much of the issues I had with this novel, as much of my issues are things feeling unfinished with questions left unanswered.
There are issues with the religion in this novel - much of which are things assumed to be factual, that Tirne discovers to be untrue - that is simply brushed over at the end of this book as things go back to Square One. In the same way, she has 3 relationships throughout this novel, all of which do not really go anywhere and end with none of them together - which makes the reader feel a bit empty when the book ends. There were also parts of this book near the end that felt rushed, and as I was reading it (and especially after the ending) it felt like a good 100-200 pages of plot was removed and only the main events were kept. However, near the middle there is a bit of a stagnation where nothing really happens, which I think should have been the parts that were edited for brevity instead.
However, overall I did enjoy this novel and would recommend it for a reader who enjoys novels that feel like Greek myth retellings. As I was reading it, I was never bored and I cared about the characters and what happened to them. I enjoyed some of the romances in this novel, and thought the character relationships to be interesting and diverse. I also enjoyed the disability representation with the main character and her chronic headaches.
SPOILERS AHEAD: I kept these at the very end, so you could read my full review without reading any spoilers. These are more specifics with the issues I had with this book, but in describing them I’d be spoiling those events. Also, I may or may not get mean so don’t shoot the messenger, I warned you.
RELATIONSHIPS:
I thought the development and inclusion of some of the relationships in this novel to be unnecessary, and a few times it felt like they were included only to keep this novel from being classified as YA.
Our first look at this is when Tirne returns from the ceremony with the broken mirror, and meets up with her childhood friend. Instead of communicating, they immediately have sex to distract herself from her issues - and apparently, them hooking up when she’s back in the mortal realm is a regular occurrence, despite him having another relationship. I’m not a prude or saying friends with benefits can’t exist, but this felt like an abrupt change of pace when it happened and I was more surprised than anything. Reading this didn’t do anything for me, and I kind of just read it waiting for it to finish so we could continue the novel. (Also, I clearly missed something when he was introduced because I legitimately thought he was her brother before this point, but clearly I was wrong, lol. That’s how out of left field this development was.)
The other relationship that I kind of thought was unnecessary was her attraction to her god Autumn. I have to admit, while this concept drew me in (the relationship between the two developed kind of like in Gods of Jade and Shadow), with Tirne’s other more prominent relationship this never impressed me. The description says this is a forbidden romance between the two, but it’s more of a blink and you’ll miss it - and then, he’s back in the realm of gods and no longer has human emotions so it’s done. We suddenly go from her being his Herald, to her noticing how “attractive” he is, and then as Autumn becomes more human with more and more emotions - he starts breaking the rules to be with her. (Also, this is a personal gripe, but they hook up after she’s had months of starvation to the point she can’t eat without severely watering it down for her stomach - the entire time they had sex I was like “hello???? HELLO???? Miss ma’am, how do you have the energy for this?” It’s just hard to get into the idea of them having sexytimes when she’s described as being sunken and skeletal, okay.)
Her final relationship, and the only one that actually fits in this novel, in my opinion, is with a sorcerer named Sidriel. I was kind of surprised this turned into an actual relationship, because he’s such a morally ambiguous man who at times is a significant antagonist. However, their chemistry develops fairly well from hate sex to something more, and I wish the novel focused more on this than her other romantic entanglements. There’s supposed to be some drama between her being attracted to the other two as opposed to him, but honestly I feel like the drama could have been even if she wasn’t attracted to Autumn, and just him to her. Also, there’s literally no development to this relationship, as after the events of the novel he breaks it off with her and she mopes on her own. And then, she decides she NEEDS closure and goes to see him again - and once again, he just says no and then she accepts it?
Tirne had an entire dynamic where she had to break up with a significant other because she only spends 3 months out of the year in the mortal realm. However, after the events of the novel she has to remove Autumn’s magic and live there full-time. I thought for SURE that would be the catalyst for her and Sidriel to be together, as he had lost one love to the gods, but gained another - and she learned to prioritize being with others over her obsession with being important. But no, they just say “Nah” and move on. Sure I guess?
RELIGION:
I won’t go as in-depth here as I did the relationships, but there were multiple MUTLIPLE times we see the cracks in the facade of their religion after Tirne is cast out of it.
We begin with her having a less than stellar relationship with her aunt, who has rejected the main religion to follow a more offshoot one that focuses on the creatures who remained after the 4 season gods defeated the master of those monsters. Tirne doesn't believe in those monsters at all, and her aunt thinks that the gods are poisoning the world with their magic - and so, their relationship has frayed beyond repair.
However, when Tirne is cast out of the temple and must live on her own, she reconciles with her aunt and slowly starts to see the legitimacy in what her aunt believes. Tirne is told a hidden truth in the history of their religion by Autumn - a secret so major that she can’t tell a single other person - but refuses to see her aunt’s point of view when she says that there are two sides to every story. Even when Tirne begins seeing the creatures and monsters, she only “joins” that religion when she has nothing else to turn to - and even tells Autumn that she never abandoned him or her beliefs. This I understand, but it seems that the second her aunt dies and they fix the Mirror, Tirne goes back to Square One and never even THINKS about the truths she discovered away from the temple, and from her aunt.
This also goes into the conflict caused by the main bad guy, who is the cast away god from their religion origin story. He doesn’t seem to have much of a plan, and then at the very end he simply just tries to stab Autumn as he is fully mortal, rather than killing him in his sleep - as he could have very easily done. His reasoning is that by doing this he proves to the people that the gods are fallible, but I think a god dying would ALSO do that, no? However, because he randomly does this in a crowd of people he’s immediately caught and his blood is drained to fix the Mirror. The End. (What????)
This is what I mean by saying I think this novel would highly benefit from a sequel. As both the relationships and the religion are kind of shuffled back to the same status quo we had at the beginning of the novel, and unless this is further explored it kind of feels like a “what was the point?” to the reader.
A sequel could explore the issues with the religion, now that Tirne is no longer the Herald of Autumn and an important member of it. It could give context to the villain’s motivation (who was in a relationship with her best friend and may have had feelings for him) - where we could find out that using his blood on the mirror to fix it, and “killing” him, was his original plan all along. We could also learn more about the truths of the religion, and whether or not Autumn and the other gods are really as benevolent and trustworthy as they seem. And finally, we could explore her relationship with Sidriel as they both learn to live with one another without the issue of the Mirror or past lies hanging over their heads.
In all honesty, if we get a sequel I think I’d enjoy this first book much more, as my issues are with this novel being a supposed “standalone,” where it brings up a bunch of issues and then never solves them by the end.
November 11, 2024
E’ un libro con una idea buonissima e totalmente nelle mie corde, peccato si sia perso su alcuni temi, in modo particolare le interazioni tra i personaggi. E’ un libro statico, non succedono molte cose e non ci sono scene d’azione, tutto si sviluppa attorno a un mistero - chi ha rotto lo specchio e perché - e la protagonista, Tirne, è la prima accusata, e assieme ad altri lavorerà per dimostrare la sua innocenza, ma ovviamente c’è chi vorrà tradirla. Il mistero di fondo mi è piaciuto anche nella sua gestione e risoluzione complessiva, quello che secondo me è mancato è la capacità dell’autrice di farci provare empatia per i personaggi, che restano piu’ come delle controfigure nella propria storia, tranne qualche rara eccezione. Sono curiosa di leggere altro di suo (questo dovrebbe essere il suo libro di debutto) e sicuramente l’autrice avrà modo di sviluppare questa sua mancanza, perché le basi dell’intreccio sono molto solide così come il worldbuilding.
Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.
Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.
Shelved as 'dnfs'
January 7, 2025DNF @ 11%
This story was just super slow and I couldn't care about seasonal gods... also the info dump made me super confused.
It was very atmospheric tho... I would probably recommend this to someone who likes Adrienne Young but uh.... maybe borrow it from the library or libby first.
This story was just super slow and I couldn't care about seasonal gods... also the info dump made me super confused.
It was very atmospheric tho... I would probably recommend this to someone who likes Adrienne Young but uh.... maybe borrow it from the library or libby first.
October 24, 2024
I wish the story had been as wonderful as the cover. For a minute, the cover made me forget how much I hate mythology.
December 26, 2023
Full review to come close to publication!
August 10, 2024
3.5⭐️
August 2, 2023
Thank you NetGalley for a copy of The Longest Autumn! This book gave me mixed feelings but I ultimately did give it 4 stars because I did enjoy the story overall! The first half of the book drags and it’s hard to push through but by the end you are anticipating what is to come next. I felt like this story had a lot of back and forth going on with its main character, you didn’t really know who she was supposed to end up with or if there would be romance. I did feel like the final reveal at the end was lackluster and wish the author did something more crazy with it. I enjoyed the characters, loved the world, and seeing the seasons all had gods and the ritual aspects as well!
December 13, 2023
Tirne, a human blessed with magic from the god of autumn, is a herald who escorts Autumn from and to the mortal world during the changing of seasons. After escorting Autumn per usual, the mirror connecting the gods’ realm and the mortal world shatters, trapping her and her god until it’s repaired. Unfortunately, the longer Autumn stays in the mortal world, the more human he becomes, as well as the more the populace suffers due to lack of crops and cattle, and rampant illness. Tirne is desperate to regain her title and rebuild the mirror, so much so that she finds herself working with a sorcerer with questionable motives. As long as Tirne is trapped, she suffers from debilitating headaches she must keep secret, or risk losing her title permanently. In order to find out who cursed her, Tirne must engage in espionage and muddy the waters of her morals.
The Longest Autumn could be best described as a whodunnit, adult fantasy with a smidge of romance and elements of mythology. I really enjoyed this and thought it was one of the most unique reads I’ve had this year! The plot twist at the end caught me totally by surprise, but made absolute perfect sense. Reading of Tirne’s struggles to regain what she lost, while simultaneously changing her relationships with her friends and family, made me tear up at some points and I thought her character growth was incredibly well done. The beginning was a tad slow, but once the plot picked up, I was hooked! The ending was bittersweet, but the focus on friendship was beautiful, so the lack of a concluding romance was completely fine. I’m really surprised by how much I liked this - I cannot emphasize enough how good this book was. I definitely recommend this to any adult reader - there’s something for everyone here!
Thank you to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Amy Avery for providing an early copy, I’m leaving this review voluntarily.
The Longest Autumn could be best described as a whodunnit, adult fantasy with a smidge of romance and elements of mythology. I really enjoyed this and thought it was one of the most unique reads I’ve had this year! The plot twist at the end caught me totally by surprise, but made absolute perfect sense. Reading of Tirne’s struggles to regain what she lost, while simultaneously changing her relationships with her friends and family, made me tear up at some points and I thought her character growth was incredibly well done. The beginning was a tad slow, but once the plot picked up, I was hooked! The ending was bittersweet, but the focus on friendship was beautiful, so the lack of a concluding romance was completely fine. I’m really surprised by how much I liked this - I cannot emphasize enough how good this book was. I definitely recommend this to any adult reader - there’s something for everyone here!
Thank you to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Amy Avery for providing an early copy, I’m leaving this review voluntarily.
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