Amelia's Reviews > The Longest Autumn

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.