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The Night & Its Moon #3
The Gloom Between Stars
All I've ever wanted... Nox and Amaris learn their dreams of reunion come at an unspeakable cost. Passion and politics collide as the two young women learn to navigate an unknown future in the kingdom of Raascot. With new titles thrust upon them, Nox and Amaris find themselves more uncertain than ever of who they are meant to become—both to their people and to each other. Humans, fae, and monsters are on the precipice of war, and time is running short in their search for answers. Victory will take more than just battles as alliances shift and new threats emerge. To have a chance at stopping their enemies, securing the continent's succession, and uncovering the truth of their bond, the two women must find a way to break the curse on Raascot's fae and face their fate once and for all…and hope that they survive it.
500 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 18, 2023
367 people are currently reading
7945 people want to read
About the author
Piper C.J.
21 books2,771 followersFantasy author with an M.A. in Folklore, who loves to take pictures, eat french fries, and live my life as an all-around creative forest nymph! I'm so excited to bring you with me on my journey as I step out of our everyday lives and into the new fantasy world within The Night and Its Moon fantasy series!
I wrote these books for an audience of one, and that audience was me. I wanted to see bi representation, love, mental health struggles, religious trauma, and overcoming the of obstacles that I needed to be modeled in my own life. At the end of the day I'm so proud of myself for creating the series that I'd always hoped I could read, and I hope someone is able to connect with them in a way that I have.
I wrote these books for an audience of one, and that audience was me. I wanted to see bi representation, love, mental health struggles, religious trauma, and overcoming the of obstacles that I needed to be modeled in my own life. At the end of the day I'm so proud of myself for creating the series that I'd always hoped I could read, and I hope someone is able to connect with them in a way that I have.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 331 reviews
August 4, 2023
Hello. I finished this book. Here is the video review: https://youtu.be/GpGvD0rAw94
I would like to start by saying, once again, that reviews are for readers.
But alas, I’ve said it before along with “review to come” and yet been reported to goodreads for that so instead of saying “review to come” this time around, for which certain people will ~for some reason~ report me. I have made a list of quotes from this book that made me at a minimum say “huh????” Or at maximum sing in my head, with the voice of Miley Cyrus, “WHAT DOES IT MEAN?”. This list is a large part of why I rated this one star.
The list, which is by no means a conclusive one, is as follows:
“Then *she heard it*. Ten thousand angels. First kisses. Piercing rays of dawn. Tea in the morning. *Promotions in rank*. Taking flight. It was the deep, satisfying, shattering cry of a woman’s orgasm.”
“Though *his equilibrium was bobbing* uncomfortably, he forced his eyes wide open.”
“Instead, *a small adrenaline* motivated him to slide out from under his covers”
“The *silver sounds* of death and horror and power filled the room…”
“Instead, he heard only silence and winter”
“The tail that had seemed to *arc in such an unusual sphere* struck…”
“How much more *medieval* is Farehold than Raascot?”
“…they were a *kaleidoscope* of battle and amusement.”
I would like to start by saying, once again, that reviews are for readers.
But alas, I’ve said it before along with “review to come” and yet been reported to goodreads for that so instead of saying “review to come” this time around, for which certain people will ~for some reason~ report me. I have made a list of quotes from this book that made me at a minimum say “huh????” Or at maximum sing in my head, with the voice of Miley Cyrus, “WHAT DOES IT MEAN?”. This list is a large part of why I rated this one star.
The list, which is by no means a conclusive one, is as follows:
“Then *she heard it*. Ten thousand angels. First kisses. Piercing rays of dawn. Tea in the morning. *Promotions in rank*. Taking flight. It was the deep, satisfying, shattering cry of a woman’s orgasm.”
“Though *his equilibrium was bobbing* uncomfortably, he forced his eyes wide open.”
“Instead, *a small adrenaline* motivated him to slide out from under his covers”
“The *silver sounds* of death and horror and power filled the room…”
“Instead, he heard only silence and winter”
“The tail that had seemed to *arc in such an unusual sphere* struck…”
“How much more *medieval* is Farehold than Raascot?”
“…they were a *kaleidoscope* of battle and amusement.”
March 22, 2023
It's me, the author (I always rate my books 5 stars because if I don't believe in myself, why should anyone else?) This is my personal favorite installment in the series. This is my expression of joy, of salvation, of forgiveness, of times of peace and fun and *yes* also spice. I loved writing the books I always wanted to see, I love my characters, and I love where they are for this installment. If you were worried about the way book 2 ended, all I can say is, book 3 is *very* different, in the best ways.
Book 3 is peppered with spice <3 so purchase, gift and read with caution as it is explicit and not suitable for minors.
Book 3 is peppered with spice <3 so purchase, gift and read with caution as it is explicit and not suitable for minors.
July 19, 2023
Welp, I finished this dumpster fire of a book and just…Piper, why? This book is as poorly written and edited as the self-published version of TNAIM. I know this was technically an ARC, but Piper advertised it as a free ebook. She was handing out bound copies at book signings, so this is the finished work that she plans on publishing. The sheer amount of misspelt words, anachronisms, grammatical errors, etc., was ridiculous. This book reads like the editors just gave up on actually doing their job because they knew Piper wasn’t going to listen to a word they said. And where in the hell were the sensitivity readers?
This book was an absolute MESS, just as overwritten, pretentious and melodramatic as usual. Not only that, but some of the wording is so ridiculous. ‘His equilibrium was bobbing?’ The same handholding was present in the last two installments. Piper clearly thinks very little of her readers, considering the fact that she has to spell things out for them and is unable to leave any room for interpretation. I feel like I’m being talked to like an idiot through all 600 pages of this. Cherry picking from other religions, yet still trying to make it seem like there’s only one religion(the All-Mother), yet there are mentions of Yggdrasil(Norse myth), Seraphim(Christianity), and Bodhi(Buddhism). To be completely honest, I think Piper CJ is one of those authors that if anyone were to tell me they loved her and their books, I would immediately not trust them. These books are racist, ableist, plagiarized, misogynistic, and have absolutely horrid depictions of sex work. She doesn’t think suicide is enough to give a trigger warning but consensual breathplay that was not actually consensual is. And then she goes ahead to make jokes about the “consensual breathplay” like what she wrote wasn’t incredibly harmful. There’s also the fact that those who claim to love Piper and her books are incredibly cult-like with the way they blow smoke up her ass and reject any critiques against her. If you cannot handle criticism, you should not be an author. Sorry, Piper, but it’s true.
I truly wish that Bloom had some integrity and would not allow this fast publishing thing Piper is trying to do. All she is doing is barfing out a first draft and calling it done. She is not doing any of the work that is needed when writing a book, and this crap is what we’re left with. These books are not good at all, but if Piper had actually spent time on them, if she had listened to any feedback, then these books could’ve been good. There is potential in her prose, and she does a good job with sensory detailing, but she goes over the top every time and then, of course, there’s the problematic content that she refuses to acknowledge. This book spends far too much time explaining to us the thought process of everyone’s plans and telling us their feelings rather than showing them to us. It makes for an incredibly dull read. Just an example of how the majority of sentences are phrased in this book. “She thrust out a leg to sweep the stance of the corpse before picking up and continuing her run.” Do you really want to try and tell me that an editor read that sentence and said it was fine the way it was? Really? Anyway, on to the review.
So, we start where TSAIS left off; yet again, there is little to no recapping. Nox & Co. are chasing after Amaris, who has been kidnapped by Nox’s father, King Ceres. Ceres believes that Amaris was born to be his tool to start a war with Queen Moirai since she’s the one who cast the illusion spell over his people and is the reason he lost his wife and child. The writing with this is incredibly convoluted because, in book one, we’re told that Ceres believed he had a son, then in book two, we’re told that Daphne(Nox’s mother and Ceres’ lover) had switched out her daughter for a son with her husband’s complexion. The husband is not King Ceres, so why did the Raascot fae ever suspect that Daphne’s alleged ‘son’ was Ceres’? She spread the rumor that the boy was her nameless husband’s in an attempt to hide the truth from him, but he found out anyway and killed the boy and beat Daphne to death. So, somehow, this nameless husband has vanished after murdering both the princess and her son, and yet nobody seems to be aware of this? We never learn what happened to this guy, and Queen Moirai has literally been acting as if there is a Crown Prince, but it’s an illusion. So who is the Crown Prince that she’s conjuring? Is it the nameless husband? Is it the child who’s really dead? This is why Piper needed a developmental editor because none of this makes sense.
As Nox and her companions follow after Ceres and Amaris, Nox is fuming, hating everyone, and blaming them all for what happened to Amaris. To help, Malik leads her into the woods and goes down on her. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This is the first chapter. As this is happening, Nox thinks longingly of the days she was a sex slave and used to suck men's souls out through their dicks. Nox admits to preferring women, but Malik is the exception—and again, as I stated in my last review, this was so poorly done. Nox has been depicted as someone who is repulsed by the touch of men and has been desperate to escape them so that she can be with Amaris, yet Malik does the bare minimum, and she is all for him. It doesn’t make sense. He didn’t do anything to earn her trust; he just was there. There are no meaningful conversations between them to give us the inclination that they might have feelings for each other. It’s just horniness and sensory details. After this, they try and figure out the fastest way to reach the army—why this didn’t happen in the first chapter instead of Nox getting head, I don’t know. But anyway, Yazlyn and Nox bicker, preparing us for their inevitable enemies-to-lovers arc. Honestly, a lot of this reads like Piper didn’t know wtf to write, so she jumped ahead and never came back to fix any of it. Honestly, that’s what the whole book reads like.
Eventually, they catch up to the army, and they’re attacked by mud demons, but nobody ever does anything useful to defeat them. Gadriel fucks off to go try, and reason with Ceres, who refuses to listen to reason—which, I get, but the way it’s written is just so absurd. They’re fist-fighting and sword-fighting while Ceres’ people are being massacred around them. The others realize that the demons are blind and have super hearing and start shouting to one another that they should be quiet(LMFAO, idiots) and are like, “Sound is our enemy!”. Can anyone think of who might be incredibly useful in this type of fight? I can. Fucking Amaris. Who has a sonic boom power. Gadriel never once considers finding her and having her use her abilities to help defeat these monsters. Not a single person ever considers using sound to their advantage, and these are supposed to be people who are trained in tactics and monster hunting. Yet none of them can come up with a plan to fight the demons. Like, wtf? I think Piper wrote herself into a corner with the whole ‘demons can’t be killed’ thing because we get scenes like this, with people fapping around, looking like absolute morons. There are five pages of Nox freaking out as she tries to cross a river because she’s a demon who can’t cross running water.
At some point, Malik finds a fae who can apparently control the demons. Again, the magic in this series has absolutely no rhyme or reason. The fae have no designated powers; the only thing we know is that the Raascot fae have powers associated with nightlife. And so far, that has been shadow magic, sucking souls out through sex, night vision, can get your neck broken and not die, can warm your body, can fly, etc. (what do any of those have to do with the other?) Why is Yazlyn so much weaker than her fae comrades? She does the same sort of exercise, does she not? Obviously, she has a different build than them, but there’s no reason why Yazlyn can’t be buff af too. Anyway, Malik stops the fae who was controlling the demons, Amaris got burned and is in a ditch somewhere, Nox finds Gadriel with her dad and is like, oh hello, father, and then he finally realizes that Gadriel was right all along, and instead of, idk, trying to make amends, or maybe help his kingdom he just is like ‘omg I fucked everything up here, take my kingdom!’ And kills himself. This was the clumsiest handling of suicide I have ever read. Not only does Piper give us a tw for ‘consensual breathplay’ (again, it was not actually consensual), but she doesn’t give a tw for suicide. Now, while I don’t believe that every book requires tw, I do understand why they’re there and considering Piper set a standard for including them in book 2, they should be included throughout the entire series. But again, doing the actual work is too hard for Piper, apparently.
So, Nox’s father kills himself for shock value and as a lazy way to thrust her onto the throne. They call his death a sacrifice, making it into something noble and historic when it’s not that at all. The way suicide is handled in this is just beyond insensitive, and once again, WHERE ARE THE SENSITIVITY READERS, PIPER?
After this little battle, we return to the Raascot castle. For the next three hundred pages, nothing happens. They hang out in the castle, they train, they talk, and they have poorly written sex. Nothing of substance happens whatsoever. I’ll tell you what does happen. Nox and Amaris reunite for the third time, and instead of being separated by physical circumstances, they have a really stupid fight. Nox, obviously, is traumatized after witnessing her father’s suicide, but Amaris, once again, is thinking all about her horniness and starts trying to make a move on Nox. Nox is like, uh no, wtf stop and Amaris, as usual, can’t handle rejection. They haven’t had a single conversation about what happened during their separation, they have only ever made out during their reunions, and now that they actually have the time and safety to have this discussion, Amaris is more interested in losing her virginity. Nox drops the bomb on Amaris that she is really the manifestation of prayer, and Amaris’ reaction is, WOW, HOW CRUEL ARE YOU TO SAY SUCH THINGS, NOX? Now knowing that Amaris was created solely for Nox, Nox is questioning if their feelings are real. And here is how Amaris chooses to respond.
”You feel confused? You, who has been such a constant in my entire life, even when I’ve had crushes on boys or liked men and spent years questioning what this relationship meant to me, only to finally accept that you are my exception. I love you, Nox. You’re the only woman I’ll ever want. Meanwhile, if the kingdom’s rumors are to be believed, you’ve been off fucking anyone and everything………..You’ve spent your whole life knowing the goddess made your heart for women, haven’t you? That wasn’t me, Nox. Do you know how confusing it’s been for me? I grew up liking boys! I like men. I do. I like fighting with them, I like training with them, I like wrestling and flirting and spending time with them. I’ve tried and failed on more than one occasion to create something with a man. And here you’ve been, destroying my feelings and twisting my head for years. You’ve had years to experience the world, you’ve let goddess knows who into your bed—but you were it for me. I thought that made this special, Nox. Finally, after all this time, I want the same thing you’ve always wanted. But the instant it was my choice in return, you turn me away. Do you know how fucked up that is?… We’ve had our whole lives to adjust! We’ve had two decades of time! Meanwhile, I still can’t get rid of my goddess damned maidenhood while you—”
SO basically, Amaris is a fucking hypocrite. She called Nox a whore, and Amaris wants to lose her maidenhead REAL BAD. “You’ve had years to experience the world” She was locked up in a brothel as a sex slave, Amaris, while you fucked off with the reevers and learned to fight. Are you really that mad that your brothers-in-arms didn’t want to fuck you? Also, confirmation that Nox is a lesbian with an exception for only one man. And Amaris is straight, with an exception for only one woman. That’s not bisexuality, Piper. “You were it for me” You…. literally tried to fuck Gadriel. And Ash. You lying sack of shit. The way Amaris is mad for being rejected and not at all concerned about Nox, who just watched her father die in front of her, learned she was heir to both kingdoms and is now a queen to a kingdom she has no business or knowledge of how to run. Nox deserves far better than Amaris, and I hope this series ends with her(Amaris') death. Because that’s the only way I’ll be satisfied.
After this fight, they decide they can’t be together until Amaris breaks the curse, and they can find out if their love is real. In the meantime, Nox assaults Yazlyn by shoving her forearm against her throat and then asks if she wants to fuck. The sex scenes are described uncomfortably, where the line of consent is incredibly fuzzy. But this is not the first time Piper has had issues with consent in her books, so I shouldn’t be surprised. Also, the written sex is gross It’s written as if the author has never actually been intimate with a woman because I can promise you it is not a bunch of “puddles and wetness and soaked sheets”. You’re not just squirting the whole time. I don’t think Piper has any concept of how to actually write spice because all these are a bunch of flowery metaphors. And then, of course, Amaris and Gadriel are still doing their choking/finger bang sessions because her power is tied to her sense of arousal. WTF? There’s also that last scene with Malik and Nox that will haunt me til the end of my days. ‘The complementary cream that frosted his muscles.” Are you fucking KIDDING?
The fae that Malik caught turns out to be an extremist who thinks the world needs to be purified of all fae creatures with human blood. She doesn’t mind humans as long as they don’t dally with the fae. She calls Ash a mongrel and calls Nox ‘it’. Kinda like how the author calls Nox ‘it’ in her first book title. “The Night and its Moon.” Now, this nazi fae is from Sulgrave, which has been depicted as East Asia…(wow, Piper) (also, how is Gadriel South Asian if his parents are from Sulgrave?) They literally end up treating this racist like a little pet. They give her a special room, give her books when she’s good, call her lovely and adorable and then give her some ‘exposure therapy’ by forcing her to hang out with Ash, who is both half-fae and white. And then….they fall in love. And it makes no sense at all as to why. All we know about Tanith is that she’s a racist zealot, and then she’s depicted as this little flower who needs to be rescued by Ash all the time. There’s a scene where Ash’s dad, Elil, goes apeshit and tries to kidnap the nazi because she’s an ‘enemy of the continent’, and Ash literally calls the statement deranged. Bro…he’s right. Honestly, the fact that I’m siding with the person meant to be depicted as raving is wild to me. Because he is right that Tanith is a danger to them all, and they’re being absolute morons by treating her the way they do. If it were to come back and bite them in the ass, Elil would be completely justified in being like, ‘told ya so’. Like, Ash legit tells his dad the nazi’s life is worth more than his dad’s. By the end of this, they behave as if Tanith has overcome her racism by being with Ash, but there is no evidence of that anywhere in the text. Nox even expresses that she hopes that Ash can ‘turn her’ with his lovemaking skills. Like, oh, you can just stop being racist if you fuck the person you’re prejudiced against! Do you think she’s changed because she asked Ash to stay with her after he rescued her from his dad? That could literally be tactical. She simply learns to tolerate them and hide her prejudice. Both Nox & Ash even say that they doesn’t think Tanith has shown any distance for her radical beliefs, but it’s okay because now she’s their friend—she’s not evil, Ash loves her, he would die for her, but she’s still a zealot.… Nox takes Tanith shopping to buy her a fancy new cloak, and they let her play ‘paintball arrows’ with the rest of their group; Ash falls in love with her in .2 seconds after she says ‘I’m sorry’ for nothing in particular and then crawls into bed with him. He buys her basically a promise ring of her favorite gemstone. Wtf? There were like four POV chapters from Ash with Tanith, and nowhere was there any room for romantic development or even character development from Tanith. Nowhere was there any de-radicalization of her racism. It reads more like the author is telling us we should be sympathetic to racists because they don’t know any better, and we should just be kind to them and befriend them, and eventually, they will learn to tolerate the people they are prejudiced against. But, uh, no. That’s not at all what anyone should be doing. We are told that Ash hated Tanith and then grew to like, then love her but it is never shown on the page at all. Just suddenly, they’re in love and Tanith is still racist.
--
I ran out of room because my review was long af, so if you want to read the rest of it, you can go to my Tumblr, but I'll post the rest in the comments as well.
Also, someone explain to PCJ what the word 'dredges' means because she clearly still doesn't know and hasn't bothered to pick up a dictionary between writing books.
https://www.tumblr.com/taliadevereaux...
This book was an absolute MESS, just as overwritten, pretentious and melodramatic as usual. Not only that, but some of the wording is so ridiculous. ‘His equilibrium was bobbing?’ The same handholding was present in the last two installments. Piper clearly thinks very little of her readers, considering the fact that she has to spell things out for them and is unable to leave any room for interpretation. I feel like I’m being talked to like an idiot through all 600 pages of this. Cherry picking from other religions, yet still trying to make it seem like there’s only one religion(the All-Mother), yet there are mentions of Yggdrasil(Norse myth), Seraphim(Christianity), and Bodhi(Buddhism). To be completely honest, I think Piper CJ is one of those authors that if anyone were to tell me they loved her and their books, I would immediately not trust them. These books are racist, ableist, plagiarized, misogynistic, and have absolutely horrid depictions of sex work. She doesn’t think suicide is enough to give a trigger warning but consensual breathplay that was not actually consensual is. And then she goes ahead to make jokes about the “consensual breathplay” like what she wrote wasn’t incredibly harmful. There’s also the fact that those who claim to love Piper and her books are incredibly cult-like with the way they blow smoke up her ass and reject any critiques against her. If you cannot handle criticism, you should not be an author. Sorry, Piper, but it’s true.
I truly wish that Bloom had some integrity and would not allow this fast publishing thing Piper is trying to do. All she is doing is barfing out a first draft and calling it done. She is not doing any of the work that is needed when writing a book, and this crap is what we’re left with. These books are not good at all, but if Piper had actually spent time on them, if she had listened to any feedback, then these books could’ve been good. There is potential in her prose, and she does a good job with sensory detailing, but she goes over the top every time and then, of course, there’s the problematic content that she refuses to acknowledge. This book spends far too much time explaining to us the thought process of everyone’s plans and telling us their feelings rather than showing them to us. It makes for an incredibly dull read. Just an example of how the majority of sentences are phrased in this book. “She thrust out a leg to sweep the stance of the corpse before picking up and continuing her run.” Do you really want to try and tell me that an editor read that sentence and said it was fine the way it was? Really? Anyway, on to the review.
So, we start where TSAIS left off; yet again, there is little to no recapping. Nox & Co. are chasing after Amaris, who has been kidnapped by Nox’s father, King Ceres. Ceres believes that Amaris was born to be his tool to start a war with Queen Moirai since she’s the one who cast the illusion spell over his people and is the reason he lost his wife and child. The writing with this is incredibly convoluted because, in book one, we’re told that Ceres believed he had a son, then in book two, we’re told that Daphne(Nox’s mother and Ceres’ lover) had switched out her daughter for a son with her husband’s complexion. The husband is not King Ceres, so why did the Raascot fae ever suspect that Daphne’s alleged ‘son’ was Ceres’? She spread the rumor that the boy was her nameless husband’s in an attempt to hide the truth from him, but he found out anyway and killed the boy and beat Daphne to death. So, somehow, this nameless husband has vanished after murdering both the princess and her son, and yet nobody seems to be aware of this? We never learn what happened to this guy, and Queen Moirai has literally been acting as if there is a Crown Prince, but it’s an illusion. So who is the Crown Prince that she’s conjuring? Is it the nameless husband? Is it the child who’s really dead? This is why Piper needed a developmental editor because none of this makes sense.
As Nox and her companions follow after Ceres and Amaris, Nox is fuming, hating everyone, and blaming them all for what happened to Amaris. To help, Malik leads her into the woods and goes down on her. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This is the first chapter. As this is happening, Nox thinks longingly of the days she was a sex slave and used to suck men's souls out through their dicks. Nox admits to preferring women, but Malik is the exception—and again, as I stated in my last review, this was so poorly done. Nox has been depicted as someone who is repulsed by the touch of men and has been desperate to escape them so that she can be with Amaris, yet Malik does the bare minimum, and she is all for him. It doesn’t make sense. He didn’t do anything to earn her trust; he just was there. There are no meaningful conversations between them to give us the inclination that they might have feelings for each other. It’s just horniness and sensory details. After this, they try and figure out the fastest way to reach the army—why this didn’t happen in the first chapter instead of Nox getting head, I don’t know. But anyway, Yazlyn and Nox bicker, preparing us for their inevitable enemies-to-lovers arc. Honestly, a lot of this reads like Piper didn’t know wtf to write, so she jumped ahead and never came back to fix any of it. Honestly, that’s what the whole book reads like.
Eventually, they catch up to the army, and they’re attacked by mud demons, but nobody ever does anything useful to defeat them. Gadriel fucks off to go try, and reason with Ceres, who refuses to listen to reason—which, I get, but the way it’s written is just so absurd. They’re fist-fighting and sword-fighting while Ceres’ people are being massacred around them. The others realize that the demons are blind and have super hearing and start shouting to one another that they should be quiet(LMFAO, idiots) and are like, “Sound is our enemy!”. Can anyone think of who might be incredibly useful in this type of fight? I can. Fucking Amaris. Who has a sonic boom power. Gadriel never once considers finding her and having her use her abilities to help defeat these monsters. Not a single person ever considers using sound to their advantage, and these are supposed to be people who are trained in tactics and monster hunting. Yet none of them can come up with a plan to fight the demons. Like, wtf? I think Piper wrote herself into a corner with the whole ‘demons can’t be killed’ thing because we get scenes like this, with people fapping around, looking like absolute morons. There are five pages of Nox freaking out as she tries to cross a river because she’s a demon who can’t cross running water.
At some point, Malik finds a fae who can apparently control the demons. Again, the magic in this series has absolutely no rhyme or reason. The fae have no designated powers; the only thing we know is that the Raascot fae have powers associated with nightlife. And so far, that has been shadow magic, sucking souls out through sex, night vision, can get your neck broken and not die, can warm your body, can fly, etc. (what do any of those have to do with the other?) Why is Yazlyn so much weaker than her fae comrades? She does the same sort of exercise, does she not? Obviously, she has a different build than them, but there’s no reason why Yazlyn can’t be buff af too. Anyway, Malik stops the fae who was controlling the demons, Amaris got burned and is in a ditch somewhere, Nox finds Gadriel with her dad and is like, oh hello, father, and then he finally realizes that Gadriel was right all along, and instead of, idk, trying to make amends, or maybe help his kingdom he just is like ‘omg I fucked everything up here, take my kingdom!’ And kills himself. This was the clumsiest handling of suicide I have ever read. Not only does Piper give us a tw for ‘consensual breathplay’ (again, it was not actually consensual), but she doesn’t give a tw for suicide. Now, while I don’t believe that every book requires tw, I do understand why they’re there and considering Piper set a standard for including them in book 2, they should be included throughout the entire series. But again, doing the actual work is too hard for Piper, apparently.
So, Nox’s father kills himself for shock value and as a lazy way to thrust her onto the throne. They call his death a sacrifice, making it into something noble and historic when it’s not that at all. The way suicide is handled in this is just beyond insensitive, and once again, WHERE ARE THE SENSITIVITY READERS, PIPER?
After this little battle, we return to the Raascot castle. For the next three hundred pages, nothing happens. They hang out in the castle, they train, they talk, and they have poorly written sex. Nothing of substance happens whatsoever. I’ll tell you what does happen. Nox and Amaris reunite for the third time, and instead of being separated by physical circumstances, they have a really stupid fight. Nox, obviously, is traumatized after witnessing her father’s suicide, but Amaris, once again, is thinking all about her horniness and starts trying to make a move on Nox. Nox is like, uh no, wtf stop and Amaris, as usual, can’t handle rejection. They haven’t had a single conversation about what happened during their separation, they have only ever made out during their reunions, and now that they actually have the time and safety to have this discussion, Amaris is more interested in losing her virginity. Nox drops the bomb on Amaris that she is really the manifestation of prayer, and Amaris’ reaction is, WOW, HOW CRUEL ARE YOU TO SAY SUCH THINGS, NOX? Now knowing that Amaris was created solely for Nox, Nox is questioning if their feelings are real. And here is how Amaris chooses to respond.
”You feel confused? You, who has been such a constant in my entire life, even when I’ve had crushes on boys or liked men and spent years questioning what this relationship meant to me, only to finally accept that you are my exception. I love you, Nox. You’re the only woman I’ll ever want. Meanwhile, if the kingdom’s rumors are to be believed, you’ve been off fucking anyone and everything………..You’ve spent your whole life knowing the goddess made your heart for women, haven’t you? That wasn’t me, Nox. Do you know how confusing it’s been for me? I grew up liking boys! I like men. I do. I like fighting with them, I like training with them, I like wrestling and flirting and spending time with them. I’ve tried and failed on more than one occasion to create something with a man. And here you’ve been, destroying my feelings and twisting my head for years. You’ve had years to experience the world, you’ve let goddess knows who into your bed—but you were it for me. I thought that made this special, Nox. Finally, after all this time, I want the same thing you’ve always wanted. But the instant it was my choice in return, you turn me away. Do you know how fucked up that is?… We’ve had our whole lives to adjust! We’ve had two decades of time! Meanwhile, I still can’t get rid of my goddess damned maidenhood while you—”
SO basically, Amaris is a fucking hypocrite. She called Nox a whore, and Amaris wants to lose her maidenhead REAL BAD. “You’ve had years to experience the world” She was locked up in a brothel as a sex slave, Amaris, while you fucked off with the reevers and learned to fight. Are you really that mad that your brothers-in-arms didn’t want to fuck you? Also, confirmation that Nox is a lesbian with an exception for only one man. And Amaris is straight, with an exception for only one woman. That’s not bisexuality, Piper. “You were it for me” You…. literally tried to fuck Gadriel. And Ash. You lying sack of shit. The way Amaris is mad for being rejected and not at all concerned about Nox, who just watched her father die in front of her, learned she was heir to both kingdoms and is now a queen to a kingdom she has no business or knowledge of how to run. Nox deserves far better than Amaris, and I hope this series ends with her(Amaris') death. Because that’s the only way I’ll be satisfied.
After this fight, they decide they can’t be together until Amaris breaks the curse, and they can find out if their love is real. In the meantime, Nox assaults Yazlyn by shoving her forearm against her throat and then asks if she wants to fuck. The sex scenes are described uncomfortably, where the line of consent is incredibly fuzzy. But this is not the first time Piper has had issues with consent in her books, so I shouldn’t be surprised. Also, the written sex is gross It’s written as if the author has never actually been intimate with a woman because I can promise you it is not a bunch of “puddles and wetness and soaked sheets”. You’re not just squirting the whole time. I don’t think Piper has any concept of how to actually write spice because all these are a bunch of flowery metaphors. And then, of course, Amaris and Gadriel are still doing their choking/finger bang sessions because her power is tied to her sense of arousal. WTF? There’s also that last scene with Malik and Nox that will haunt me til the end of my days. ‘The complementary cream that frosted his muscles.” Are you fucking KIDDING?
The fae that Malik caught turns out to be an extremist who thinks the world needs to be purified of all fae creatures with human blood. She doesn’t mind humans as long as they don’t dally with the fae. She calls Ash a mongrel and calls Nox ‘it’. Kinda like how the author calls Nox ‘it’ in her first book title. “The Night and its Moon.” Now, this nazi fae is from Sulgrave, which has been depicted as East Asia…(wow, Piper) (also, how is Gadriel South Asian if his parents are from Sulgrave?) They literally end up treating this racist like a little pet. They give her a special room, give her books when she’s good, call her lovely and adorable and then give her some ‘exposure therapy’ by forcing her to hang out with Ash, who is both half-fae and white. And then….they fall in love. And it makes no sense at all as to why. All we know about Tanith is that she’s a racist zealot, and then she’s depicted as this little flower who needs to be rescued by Ash all the time. There’s a scene where Ash’s dad, Elil, goes apeshit and tries to kidnap the nazi because she’s an ‘enemy of the continent’, and Ash literally calls the statement deranged. Bro…he’s right. Honestly, the fact that I’m siding with the person meant to be depicted as raving is wild to me. Because he is right that Tanith is a danger to them all, and they’re being absolute morons by treating her the way they do. If it were to come back and bite them in the ass, Elil would be completely justified in being like, ‘told ya so’. Like, Ash legit tells his dad the nazi’s life is worth more than his dad’s. By the end of this, they behave as if Tanith has overcome her racism by being with Ash, but there is no evidence of that anywhere in the text. Nox even expresses that she hopes that Ash can ‘turn her’ with his lovemaking skills. Like, oh, you can just stop being racist if you fuck the person you’re prejudiced against! Do you think she’s changed because she asked Ash to stay with her after he rescued her from his dad? That could literally be tactical. She simply learns to tolerate them and hide her prejudice. Both Nox & Ash even say that they doesn’t think Tanith has shown any distance for her radical beliefs, but it’s okay because now she’s their friend—she’s not evil, Ash loves her, he would die for her, but she’s still a zealot.… Nox takes Tanith shopping to buy her a fancy new cloak, and they let her play ‘paintball arrows’ with the rest of their group; Ash falls in love with her in .2 seconds after she says ‘I’m sorry’ for nothing in particular and then crawls into bed with him. He buys her basically a promise ring of her favorite gemstone. Wtf? There were like four POV chapters from Ash with Tanith, and nowhere was there any room for romantic development or even character development from Tanith. Nowhere was there any de-radicalization of her racism. It reads more like the author is telling us we should be sympathetic to racists because they don’t know any better, and we should just be kind to them and befriend them, and eventually, they will learn to tolerate the people they are prejudiced against. But, uh, no. That’s not at all what anyone should be doing. We are told that Ash hated Tanith and then grew to like, then love her but it is never shown on the page at all. Just suddenly, they’re in love and Tanith is still racist.
--
I ran out of room because my review was long af, so if you want to read the rest of it, you can go to my Tumblr, but I'll post the rest in the comments as well.
Also, someone explain to PCJ what the word 'dredges' means because she clearly still doesn't know and hasn't bothered to pick up a dictionary between writing books.
https://www.tumblr.com/taliadevereaux...
April 26, 2023
Greetings, reader and likely Piper Cj; I would like to make it very clear that in this review, I will not be at my kindness regarding the text and the author. It is no secret that I have a dislike for these books. Still, the author has broken my brain because The Gloom Between the Stars is an eldritch horror of sorts that has clawed its way out of Piper's mind until somehow it made its way to being published and truly made me regret ever learning how to read.
Implications
As a queer woman of color, I want to start this review talking about the fact that books don't exist in a vacuum; the words put on to the page by Piper are something that needs to be addressed by more than waving around a degree on tik tok or sending fans after reviewers. On a fundamental level, these books are racist and perpetuate the idea that women of color exist only as an object within a story to be played with. The novel's foundation makes me sick because all the POC characters live to be objects for the white to desire or experience trauma. A rather strange example of Piper's racism takes place in a bar in which all the characters are people of color, minus Amaris, who everyone is enamored with, not because of her actions but because of her whiteness. Her beauty and power all stem from her literal whiteness.
The people from the northern part of the country are given a reason why everyone else believes them to be monsters after leaving the mountains. A man was abusive and horrible to a woman who then cursed the whole land; these are the only nonwhite characters from the North. The idea that this group of people is inherently violent and abusive makes it clear that Piper may, in fact, know what she is doing in creating a world that is built on a foundation of people of color being violent.
Plot
Like the previous two books, the plot could be more explicit; Piper fails to create even the bones of a story. For most of the novel, the characters spend their time in a castle doing nothing until the last 50 pages, when something finally happens; even then, the battle is poorly described and has no consequences whatsoever. No one is injured or dies. For an over 400-page book, I expect something of substance to happen, but Piper has no interest in creating a novel with a plot because that would mean her having to leave the 30-plus pages of poorly written smut on the editor's floor.
Amaris
Let's start with Amaris; as a character, she is just as dull and bland as ever, the perfect hero. However, this book also places a strange fixation on Amaris being pure in conversion about her as a person and sex. Outside of that, her magic is intermixed with a kind of godhood that gives her an unbelievable set of powers that, outside of compelling people, allow her to create shockwaves that destroy buildings with little to no practice. All of which I could excuse if not for the treatment of Nox, which could have made Amaris a villain of the series, someone, the hero, once loved but realized the abuse and terrifying situations she was in. But the reader is meant to support Amaris throughout her treatment of someone she apparently loves.
Nox
Of all the terrible treatment given to characters throughout the books, Nox's character could become genuinely harmful. A woman of color who exists only to be an object of desire and whose magic is tied to sex appeal, Piper took every horrid stereotype about women of color and placed them upon Nox. From the moment Nox begins to gain control over her succubus powers, the novel makes it out that she is some monster demonizing her through sex scenes that focus on how she only takes from those around her. When the reality of the novel is that she has been given nothing, and without Amaris, she is nothing. Even the name of the series, The Night and its Moon makes the implication that Nox does not exist without Amaris; this book had me wanting Nox to snap at Amaris because the life of this woman has been to be abused in place of a girl who truly never cared about her.
Other characters
My criticisms of the other characters remain the same; however, I want to comment on adding two characters. One is Tanith, who is a nazi referring to characters as half breeds and is placed in the care of Ash, who ends up falling for her, which is not enemies to lovers but rather some twisted idea about how you can fall for someone who believes in an ethnic cleansing that would lead to your death. The other is the return of Milicent, the brothel owner, and is some of the most ableist characterization I have ever seen; evil because of her disability.
Nox & Amaris
Piper began promoting this book on tik tok by saying it was about the love between two girls but not; Nox & Amaris have no romantic relationship, minus a kiss in the first book and a brief moment in the second. I bring this up because this novel was marketed as a WLW romance between the two main characters. Instead, readers were stringed along for 1,000-plus pages. I also would like to clarify that the love between these two characters is not what you think. So let's explain: these girls do not love each other; Nox is a punching bag made to take the fall for Amaris since she was a young child. The love between them is far closer to that of an abuser and the abused; there is not a moment in which Amaris realizes that what she has done for years to Nox could possibly traumatize her. One character lives through trauma repeatedly and is told that the one person in her life who she believed loved her does nothing but watch her suffer.
Final thoughts
Piper has openly spoken about how she wrote these books within fourteen days and it shows; I understand that she used these books as a means to coming out but maybe that's all they ever should have been something to live on a google doc or a fanfiction site but never published. The only thing that these books will bring is harm to women of color who are hypersexualized because of their bodies; many people reached out to Piper about this telling her using these tropes in her writing are harmful. Yet she ignored them, choosing to dive deeper into the racism and never ending nightmare of alphabet soup she called a novel.
Implications
As a queer woman of color, I want to start this review talking about the fact that books don't exist in a vacuum; the words put on to the page by Piper are something that needs to be addressed by more than waving around a degree on tik tok or sending fans after reviewers. On a fundamental level, these books are racist and perpetuate the idea that women of color exist only as an object within a story to be played with. The novel's foundation makes me sick because all the POC characters live to be objects for the white to desire or experience trauma. A rather strange example of Piper's racism takes place in a bar in which all the characters are people of color, minus Amaris, who everyone is enamored with, not because of her actions but because of her whiteness. Her beauty and power all stem from her literal whiteness.
The people from the northern part of the country are given a reason why everyone else believes them to be monsters after leaving the mountains. A man was abusive and horrible to a woman who then cursed the whole land; these are the only nonwhite characters from the North. The idea that this group of people is inherently violent and abusive makes it clear that Piper may, in fact, know what she is doing in creating a world that is built on a foundation of people of color being violent.
Plot
Like the previous two books, the plot could be more explicit; Piper fails to create even the bones of a story. For most of the novel, the characters spend their time in a castle doing nothing until the last 50 pages, when something finally happens; even then, the battle is poorly described and has no consequences whatsoever. No one is injured or dies. For an over 400-page book, I expect something of substance to happen, but Piper has no interest in creating a novel with a plot because that would mean her having to leave the 30-plus pages of poorly written smut on the editor's floor.
Amaris
Let's start with Amaris; as a character, she is just as dull and bland as ever, the perfect hero. However, this book also places a strange fixation on Amaris being pure in conversion about her as a person and sex. Outside of that, her magic is intermixed with a kind of godhood that gives her an unbelievable set of powers that, outside of compelling people, allow her to create shockwaves that destroy buildings with little to no practice. All of which I could excuse if not for the treatment of Nox, which could have made Amaris a villain of the series, someone, the hero, once loved but realized the abuse and terrifying situations she was in. But the reader is meant to support Amaris throughout her treatment of someone she apparently loves.
Nox
Of all the terrible treatment given to characters throughout the books, Nox's character could become genuinely harmful. A woman of color who exists only to be an object of desire and whose magic is tied to sex appeal, Piper took every horrid stereotype about women of color and placed them upon Nox. From the moment Nox begins to gain control over her succubus powers, the novel makes it out that she is some monster demonizing her through sex scenes that focus on how she only takes from those around her. When the reality of the novel is that she has been given nothing, and without Amaris, she is nothing. Even the name of the series, The Night and its Moon makes the implication that Nox does not exist without Amaris; this book had me wanting Nox to snap at Amaris because the life of this woman has been to be abused in place of a girl who truly never cared about her.
Other characters
My criticisms of the other characters remain the same; however, I want to comment on adding two characters. One is Tanith, who is a nazi referring to characters as half breeds and is placed in the care of Ash, who ends up falling for her, which is not enemies to lovers but rather some twisted idea about how you can fall for someone who believes in an ethnic cleansing that would lead to your death. The other is the return of Milicent, the brothel owner, and is some of the most ableist characterization I have ever seen; evil because of her disability.
Nox & Amaris
Piper began promoting this book on tik tok by saying it was about the love between two girls but not; Nox & Amaris have no romantic relationship, minus a kiss in the first book and a brief moment in the second. I bring this up because this novel was marketed as a WLW romance between the two main characters. Instead, readers were stringed along for 1,000-plus pages. I also would like to clarify that the love between these two characters is not what you think. So let's explain: these girls do not love each other; Nox is a punching bag made to take the fall for Amaris since she was a young child. The love between them is far closer to that of an abuser and the abused; there is not a moment in which Amaris realizes that what she has done for years to Nox could possibly traumatize her. One character lives through trauma repeatedly and is told that the one person in her life who she believed loved her does nothing but watch her suffer.
Final thoughts
Piper has openly spoken about how she wrote these books within fourteen days and it shows; I understand that she used these books as a means to coming out but maybe that's all they ever should have been something to live on a google doc or a fanfiction site but never published. The only thing that these books will bring is harm to women of color who are hypersexualized because of their bodies; many people reached out to Piper about this telling her using these tropes in her writing are harmful. Yet she ignored them, choosing to dive deeper into the racism and never ending nightmare of alphabet soup she called a novel.
October 2, 2023
ayo. i finished this. it was not good.
January 13, 2022
The third book in the Night & Its Moon series spins us into a complicated setting of leadership, trust, friendship, and loyalty. We also get some of the spiciest scenes of the series so far and let me tell you, I AM HERE FOR IT. There are very very few books that I have read with such a positive point of view of unconventional relationships and I saw myself in this story. It really is wonderful to relate so much to a complex character and it's honestly both a blessing and a curse to have both your good and bad reflected back at you. Nox has become important to me in the way a true friend is. I would want her by my side for everything life throws at me and if that doesn't tell you how well Piper writes characters, I don't know what will.
April 25, 2023
0.5 stars
Thank you to Netgalley for an eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
CW: Discussions of suicide, racism, ableism, sexism and misogyny, physical and sexual assault
I wanted to DNF this book so many times, but I pushed through just to be able to write a comprehensive review. I’m not sure it was worth it... Like last time, I’ll have a section without spoilers and with spoilers.
SPOILER FREE
I’m going to rapid fire the most frequent of the technical issues, because, unlike the author, I’m tired of repeating myself. There were countless anachronisms, noticeable changes in prose style, incorrectly used words, superfluous sensory details, repetitive and redundant descriptions and thoughts, etc. As per usual, this installment needed major line- and copy-editing. I understand the version I read is not the finished product, but I was surprised by the considerable drop in writing quality compared to TSAIS. This was reminiscent of the self-published version of TNAIM.
The narrative structure of this book (and the other books in this series) is also super wonky. We’ve all seen that diagram of a plot arc that’s a graph of growing conflict over time with a peak for the climax. That’s not happening here. There’s a small spike within the first 15% of the book, a mostly flat line for the next 300+ pages, and then a big spike at the end. There is no increasing sense of urgency until suddenly it’s time for the mandatory climax.
I learned in a writing workshop that it’s often helpful to think of a plot arc as having three distinct lines or layers which are, arranged from top to bottom, as follows: character actions, character wants, and character needs. As the characters’ needs build in tension, they will necessarily increase the tension of the characters’ wants, which will in turn push the character to act. The climax can be thought of as when the character actions, wants, and needs finally all intersect at peak conflict.
A major problem with this book series is that the actions of the characters are not being driven by an underlying need. They want to break the curse, but what do they need and how does it connect to breaking the curse? Do they need to create a stable and peaceful world to live in after living in turmoil for so long? To fulfill the prophecy? To achieve their full potential? Thinking about what each character needs and wants (sometimes the same thing but often not) would help the story 1) progress more naturally, 2) avoid stagnation, and 3) focus on what’s truly important to progressing the story.
Some of these characters do have wants that nudge the plot forward at times, but it’s not enough to sustain the story. When these characters are actually doing things, it’s because they have to, otherwise the book would never end. Most of the events in this book don’t logically lead to one another, and you could probably cut or rearrange many of the chapters without impacting much of the story. I joked at one point to my partner while reading that I could skip 50 pages without missing anything, and I was totally right.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Somehow almost nothing important happened for a good 70% of the book, and yet I have so many thoughts. Aside from generally questionable writing choices for the plot, prose, and characters, I’m impressed by how Piper continues to include new problematic content with each installment. I’m assuming that she’s not intentionally being harmful, but this is a consistent problem and really needs to be rectified.
Starting off, this book absolutely speedruns the plotline of Ceres capturing Amaris from the last book. The Raascot troops are attacked by mud demons as they march south, and by the end of the battle, Ceres dies (so I guess Amaris is free now?). The previous book feels mostly unnecessary when the conflict created by its climax is resolved within the first 75 pages of the following book. It feels like Piper didn’t want to deal with the narrative consequences of what she had already written and interfered with the plot to make it easier to write. Moreover, it feels cheap to kill off a character that’s actually creating interesting conflict. Also, the way this character was killed off is really uncomfortable.
Basically, Ceres commits suicide right in front of Nox, and it’s almost entirely for shock value and convenience. It’s almost immediately swept under the rug, and no one actually mourns him. This is extremely insensitive to those who have lost loved ones to suicide. People don’t get to just move on easily from something like that. Furthermore, the only reason this happens is so that Nox can become queen and Amaris can be freed. I don’t like the implication that Nox and Amaris benefit from someone else’s poor mental health and death. Also, there’s no discussion of the ramifications of Ceres’ death such as how it differently affects the larger community versus his inner circle, how Nox deals with seeing her father die, how Raascot views and supports individuals with mental illnesses, etc.
The battle with the mud demons also introduces a new character and plot line basically out of nowhere. The demons were summoned and controlled by a Sulgrave fae named Tanith, a religious extremist and eugenicist who wants to purify the world of humans and half-fae in the name of the All-Mother. This is a pretty interesting plotline, but I would have liked some foreshadowing or set up, especially in previous books. We’re told that there’s been more demon attacks recently, but they don’t seem targeted as if they’re part of a larger plan but rather as unrelated one-off attacks. There could have been rumors about crusades or congregations of demons, and in this book, we could have finally found out that both those phenomena are connected and tied to Sulgrave. This plotline, however, wastes its potential to unpack and discuss religious extremism and cults, but I’ll talk about that a bit more later.
The gang returns to Castle Gwydir and then proceeds to do BASICALLY NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE for the next 300+ pages. Amaris and Nox do have an argument because they refuse to communicate with each other, and both of them come across as whiny and arrogant, in my opinion. This book keeps up the trend of separating Nox and Amaris only to have them reunite for a short period of time at the very end of the book before being separated again, but this time it’s emotional distance instead of physical distance. I’m not sure why the characters that are supposed to be endgame spend so little time together.
In terms of “plot” for this section, we get gratuitous details about the characters’ everyday lives for the next few months as they eat food, have sex, drink alcohol, walk around the city, comment on the weather and scenery, vaguely train for nothing in particular, and talk about how they need to save the continent but don’t actually do anything proactive. Nox is expected to rule Raascot now, but we never see her undergoing any diplomatic training (but don’t worry, the narration assures us she’s getting tutored). Gadriel gives her a pep talk, and suddenly, she is very knowledgeable in politics and a competent ruler. Piper wanted to write a book with fantasy politics but didn’t want to actually, you know, write the fantasy politics, so she just deals with it off-page. A lot of the actually important things in this book happen off-page, like unnamed people making artifacts that nullify the effects of the curse, Nox getting tutored, or Ash and Tanith interacting.
Keep in mind that they have Tanith as a prisoner of war in the dungeons but wait a stupidly long time before trying to get information out of her about the impending invasion from Sulgrave as if it’s not a major concern. Wouldn’t you want to quickly uncover why this random person staged a massacre? Even after learning Sulgrave’s plans, they don’t seem concerned at all and continue just hanging out. I was honestly hoping Tanith would escape and kill everyone in the castle just for something interesting to happen.
Instead, Ash has to chaperone Tanith in an attempt to change her views about people with mixed fae heritage since Ash is half fae. We see maybe three scenes total with Ash and Tanith, and yet somehow at the end of the book Piper tries to convince the reader that Ash loves Tanith. Excuse me, what? Tanith never actually understands the problems with her beliefs nor does she renounce them. I don’t understand how Ash could fall in love with someone who is so against a fundamental aspect of his identity and who has shown no changes in behavior. I was hoping Tanith’s character arc would involve her starting to come to terms with her indoctrination, but that simply doesn’t happen because no one actually tries to support her in exploring other world views. They just tell her that she’s wrong and pat themselves on the back for a job well done. By the end of the book, Tanith is still rooted in her hateful ideologies but just doesn’t share them aloud anymore, but the book treats it as if she’s overcome everything and rewards her with a new partner. I also don’t get why everyone in this book needs to have a partner.
I’m white so I am not qualified to talk on this topic or its nuances at length, but there’s some other questionable stuff with Tanith in terms of her race. She is coded as East or Southeast Asian and is the only character of that race seen so far. Her skin is described as “gilded,” which brings up connotations of the color yellow. I get what Piper was going for, but the wording is just slightly off. I think it would have been better to say something like “golden brown” so the information we get about her skin color isn’t solely related to being yellowish. Also, she is often described as submissive or obedient and “a model prisoner.” This reminded me a little too much of the “model minority” stereotype. I think she could have been coded in more nuanced or substantive ways. East and Southeast Asian cultures vary quite significantly, but it felt like Piper just wanted diversity points for having different looking characters.
We also don’t really get a sense of how any of the countries are culturally different from each other. There’s no indication of how their clothes, food, traditions, music, lifestyle, etc. differ from one another. We just know that their skin tones are different. Skin tone, race, and culture are not the same thing! I’m also not sure why everyone on this continent follows the same religion with seemingly no deviation. Most religions have different branches or subsects with varying beliefs and practices. This book’s religion is also such a hodgepodge of actual religions with no blending or cohesion.
I’m just going to skip to the climax where Amaris is off to kill the queen of Farehold to break the curse (also, I don’t understand why everyone is under the impression that killing her will break the curse. Is that how curses work in this world? Who knows because Piper never explains it) and the Gwydir castle is attacked. The climax had the potential to be really engaging— and this was probably the best part of the book just because things were actually happening— but fell flat.
Firstly, Amaris’ group basically goes in with a barebone plan and no contingencies to overthrow a monarch, so we’re off to a great start. A skeleton/zombie army shows up and attacks the castle. I like that this added more chaos and urgency, but the repetitive descriptions of the zombies ultimately dragged down the pace. Amaris corners the queen and uses her goddess-given sonic boom power to knock the queen’s protective crown off her head. We know the queen can cast powerful illusions and create curses because of it, but it’s unclear if she was the one who made the enchantment on her crown. I’m not sure if she has any other powers, and if she does, why doesn’t she use them against Amaris?
Back in Raascot, Nox and her gang are invaded by the Farehold troops, and they’re absolutely taken off guard. I get that their troops are depleted after the mud demon massacre, but after the ascension of a new ruler after 20 years of political turmoil, you would expect they would have extra protections? Leading the attack on the Gwydir castle is the former brothel owner Millicent, known as The Hand, and a completely random guy, known as the Hammer. Um, why is Millicent’s title based on her disability? Nox ultimately cuts off Millicent’s arm that is described as “fuel[ing] her wickedness for so many years,” inextricably tying her disability to her evilness. This scene equates defeating evil to removing a disability. This was so gross and ableist. Disabilities are not something that need to be fixed!
In the end, Amaris and Nox defeat their enemies with relative ease. Millicent monologues, allowing Nox to just throw her axe, and the queen doesn’t even try to fight back against Amaris even though she can’t be physically hurt.
I also don’t like that both of the ‘big evils’ in this story are women with little nuance. These women are basically cartoon villains who want power for the sake of power without any underlying motivation, and this feels like internalized misogyny against women. Systems of misogyny often force women to treat each other as competition as a means to keep men in power. I’m not saying Millicent and the queen were justified in their actions (partially because Piper didn’t write any motivations), but Nox and Amaris call them sexist insults like ‘bitch’ to the point where their gender is connected to their evilness. Ultimately, the queen and Millicent are just arbitrary obstacles for Amaris and Nox instead of actually realized characters. We could have had an engaging examination about how and why women pursue power with parallels between Amaris and the queen and between Nox and Millicent, which would already fit thematically well with Amaris going off with the reevers, the queen’s political ruthlessness, Millicent’s exploitation of other women, and Nox’s ability to manipulate men.
This book ends incredibly abruptly with absolutely no resolution. Amaris is left comatose (she got scratched by a zombie or something, and I guess she’s tired from using her sonic boom powers), and I worry this might be a contrived set up for Nox and Amaris to finally have sex where Nox gives Amaris some of her life force. I really hope this doesn’t happen. I don’t want their first sexual experience to be non-consensual.
Speaking of which, this installment continued the trend from the previous book of dealing with consent poorly. At one point, Nox propositions Yazlyn for sex, and Yazlyn technically consents with “a half-hearted attempt at a pathetic shrug” and a nod, but this is after Nox has slammed Yazlyn into the wall and puts her arm over her throat. The actual sex is very aggressive with Nox throwing Yazlyn around.
I understand that different people have different preferences in the bedroom, but this doesn’t read as Yazlyn being an enthusiastic participant. There was no discussion of safewords or setting expectations. This scene is passed off as a fit of passion but just as easily reads like someone being assaulted and just accepting what’s happening to them. Yazlyn does return in the future for more sex so I guess she enjoyed it, but I certainly didn’t.
That’s a good summary of my experience with this book: the characters were vibing, but I was suffering.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m not sure what book 4 is going to even be about if the two main antagonists are gone, and I shudder to think it will be another 500 pages of just sitting around. That’s a problem for future me, though. This series absolutely does not need to be 4 books. All of these books could have been heavily trimmed down, and the remaining content could probably fit into a duology.
I worry that Piper won’t bother to improve her craft if she knows the industry will publish whatever she writes. I think, with the proper practice and support, Piper might become an author I could actually enjoy, but she is shooting herself in the foot with whatever her current arrangement is. I don’t care that she wrote all of these books in a very short time. I do care, however, that these books were beta-read, sensitivity read, revised, and edited in a proportionally short period of time. I think each of these steps was a quick pass over, and that was it. The turn around rate for these books doesn’t provide proper time for critical feedback at every step of the process. As a result, these books are messy at their best and downright insensitive at their worst.
Thank you to Netgalley for an eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
CW: Discussions of suicide, racism, ableism, sexism and misogyny, physical and sexual assault
I wanted to DNF this book so many times, but I pushed through just to be able to write a comprehensive review. I’m not sure it was worth it... Like last time, I’ll have a section without spoilers and with spoilers.
SPOILER FREE
I’m going to rapid fire the most frequent of the technical issues, because, unlike the author, I’m tired of repeating myself. There were countless anachronisms, noticeable changes in prose style, incorrectly used words, superfluous sensory details, repetitive and redundant descriptions and thoughts, etc. As per usual, this installment needed major line- and copy-editing. I understand the version I read is not the finished product, but I was surprised by the considerable drop in writing quality compared to TSAIS. This was reminiscent of the self-published version of TNAIM.
The narrative structure of this book (and the other books in this series) is also super wonky. We’ve all seen that diagram of a plot arc that’s a graph of growing conflict over time with a peak for the climax. That’s not happening here. There’s a small spike within the first 15% of the book, a mostly flat line for the next 300+ pages, and then a big spike at the end. There is no increasing sense of urgency until suddenly it’s time for the mandatory climax.
I learned in a writing workshop that it’s often helpful to think of a plot arc as having three distinct lines or layers which are, arranged from top to bottom, as follows: character actions, character wants, and character needs. As the characters’ needs build in tension, they will necessarily increase the tension of the characters’ wants, which will in turn push the character to act. The climax can be thought of as when the character actions, wants, and needs finally all intersect at peak conflict.
A major problem with this book series is that the actions of the characters are not being driven by an underlying need. They want to break the curse, but what do they need and how does it connect to breaking the curse? Do they need to create a stable and peaceful world to live in after living in turmoil for so long? To fulfill the prophecy? To achieve their full potential? Thinking about what each character needs and wants (sometimes the same thing but often not) would help the story 1) progress more naturally, 2) avoid stagnation, and 3) focus on what’s truly important to progressing the story.
Some of these characters do have wants that nudge the plot forward at times, but it’s not enough to sustain the story. When these characters are actually doing things, it’s because they have to, otherwise the book would never end. Most of the events in this book don’t logically lead to one another, and you could probably cut or rearrange many of the chapters without impacting much of the story. I joked at one point to my partner while reading that I could skip 50 pages without missing anything, and I was totally right.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Somehow almost nothing important happened for a good 70% of the book, and yet I have so many thoughts. Aside from generally questionable writing choices for the plot, prose, and characters, I’m impressed by how Piper continues to include new problematic content with each installment. I’m assuming that she’s not intentionally being harmful, but this is a consistent problem and really needs to be rectified.
Starting off, this book absolutely speedruns the plotline of Ceres capturing Amaris from the last book. The Raascot troops are attacked by mud demons as they march south, and by the end of the battle, Ceres dies (so I guess Amaris is free now?). The previous book feels mostly unnecessary when the conflict created by its climax is resolved within the first 75 pages of the following book. It feels like Piper didn’t want to deal with the narrative consequences of what she had already written and interfered with the plot to make it easier to write. Moreover, it feels cheap to kill off a character that’s actually creating interesting conflict. Also, the way this character was killed off is really uncomfortable.
Basically, Ceres commits suicide right in front of Nox, and it’s almost entirely for shock value and convenience. It’s almost immediately swept under the rug, and no one actually mourns him. This is extremely insensitive to those who have lost loved ones to suicide. People don’t get to just move on easily from something like that. Furthermore, the only reason this happens is so that Nox can become queen and Amaris can be freed. I don’t like the implication that Nox and Amaris benefit from someone else’s poor mental health and death. Also, there’s no discussion of the ramifications of Ceres’ death such as how it differently affects the larger community versus his inner circle, how Nox deals with seeing her father die, how Raascot views and supports individuals with mental illnesses, etc.
The battle with the mud demons also introduces a new character and plot line basically out of nowhere. The demons were summoned and controlled by a Sulgrave fae named Tanith, a religious extremist and eugenicist who wants to purify the world of humans and half-fae in the name of the All-Mother. This is a pretty interesting plotline, but I would have liked some foreshadowing or set up, especially in previous books. We’re told that there’s been more demon attacks recently, but they don’t seem targeted as if they’re part of a larger plan but rather as unrelated one-off attacks. There could have been rumors about crusades or congregations of demons, and in this book, we could have finally found out that both those phenomena are connected and tied to Sulgrave. This plotline, however, wastes its potential to unpack and discuss religious extremism and cults, but I’ll talk about that a bit more later.
The gang returns to Castle Gwydir and then proceeds to do BASICALLY NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE for the next 300+ pages. Amaris and Nox do have an argument because they refuse to communicate with each other, and both of them come across as whiny and arrogant, in my opinion. This book keeps up the trend of separating Nox and Amaris only to have them reunite for a short period of time at the very end of the book before being separated again, but this time it’s emotional distance instead of physical distance. I’m not sure why the characters that are supposed to be endgame spend so little time together.
In terms of “plot” for this section, we get gratuitous details about the characters’ everyday lives for the next few months as they eat food, have sex, drink alcohol, walk around the city, comment on the weather and scenery, vaguely train for nothing in particular, and talk about how they need to save the continent but don’t actually do anything proactive. Nox is expected to rule Raascot now, but we never see her undergoing any diplomatic training (but don’t worry, the narration assures us she’s getting tutored). Gadriel gives her a pep talk, and suddenly, she is very knowledgeable in politics and a competent ruler. Piper wanted to write a book with fantasy politics but didn’t want to actually, you know, write the fantasy politics, so she just deals with it off-page. A lot of the actually important things in this book happen off-page, like unnamed people making artifacts that nullify the effects of the curse, Nox getting tutored, or Ash and Tanith interacting.
Keep in mind that they have Tanith as a prisoner of war in the dungeons but wait a stupidly long time before trying to get information out of her about the impending invasion from Sulgrave as if it’s not a major concern. Wouldn’t you want to quickly uncover why this random person staged a massacre? Even after learning Sulgrave’s plans, they don’t seem concerned at all and continue just hanging out. I was honestly hoping Tanith would escape and kill everyone in the castle just for something interesting to happen.
Instead, Ash has to chaperone Tanith in an attempt to change her views about people with mixed fae heritage since Ash is half fae. We see maybe three scenes total with Ash and Tanith, and yet somehow at the end of the book Piper tries to convince the reader that Ash loves Tanith. Excuse me, what? Tanith never actually understands the problems with her beliefs nor does she renounce them. I don’t understand how Ash could fall in love with someone who is so against a fundamental aspect of his identity and who has shown no changes in behavior. I was hoping Tanith’s character arc would involve her starting to come to terms with her indoctrination, but that simply doesn’t happen because no one actually tries to support her in exploring other world views. They just tell her that she’s wrong and pat themselves on the back for a job well done. By the end of the book, Tanith is still rooted in her hateful ideologies but just doesn’t share them aloud anymore, but the book treats it as if she’s overcome everything and rewards her with a new partner. I also don’t get why everyone in this book needs to have a partner.
I’m white so I am not qualified to talk on this topic or its nuances at length, but there’s some other questionable stuff with Tanith in terms of her race. She is coded as East or Southeast Asian and is the only character of that race seen so far. Her skin is described as “gilded,” which brings up connotations of the color yellow. I get what Piper was going for, but the wording is just slightly off. I think it would have been better to say something like “golden brown” so the information we get about her skin color isn’t solely related to being yellowish. Also, she is often described as submissive or obedient and “a model prisoner.” This reminded me a little too much of the “model minority” stereotype. I think she could have been coded in more nuanced or substantive ways. East and Southeast Asian cultures vary quite significantly, but it felt like Piper just wanted diversity points for having different looking characters.
We also don’t really get a sense of how any of the countries are culturally different from each other. There’s no indication of how their clothes, food, traditions, music, lifestyle, etc. differ from one another. We just know that their skin tones are different. Skin tone, race, and culture are not the same thing! I’m also not sure why everyone on this continent follows the same religion with seemingly no deviation. Most religions have different branches or subsects with varying beliefs and practices. This book’s religion is also such a hodgepodge of actual religions with no blending or cohesion.
I’m just going to skip to the climax where Amaris is off to kill the queen of Farehold to break the curse (also, I don’t understand why everyone is under the impression that killing her will break the curse. Is that how curses work in this world? Who knows because Piper never explains it) and the Gwydir castle is attacked. The climax had the potential to be really engaging— and this was probably the best part of the book just because things were actually happening— but fell flat.
Firstly, Amaris’ group basically goes in with a barebone plan and no contingencies to overthrow a monarch, so we’re off to a great start. A skeleton/zombie army shows up and attacks the castle. I like that this added more chaos and urgency, but the repetitive descriptions of the zombies ultimately dragged down the pace. Amaris corners the queen and uses her goddess-given sonic boom power to knock the queen’s protective crown off her head. We know the queen can cast powerful illusions and create curses because of it, but it’s unclear if she was the one who made the enchantment on her crown. I’m not sure if she has any other powers, and if she does, why doesn’t she use them against Amaris?
Back in Raascot, Nox and her gang are invaded by the Farehold troops, and they’re absolutely taken off guard. I get that their troops are depleted after the mud demon massacre, but after the ascension of a new ruler after 20 years of political turmoil, you would expect they would have extra protections? Leading the attack on the Gwydir castle is the former brothel owner Millicent, known as The Hand, and a completely random guy, known as the Hammer. Um, why is Millicent’s title based on her disability? Nox ultimately cuts off Millicent’s arm that is described as “fuel[ing] her wickedness for so many years,” inextricably tying her disability to her evilness. This scene equates defeating evil to removing a disability. This was so gross and ableist. Disabilities are not something that need to be fixed!
In the end, Amaris and Nox defeat their enemies with relative ease. Millicent monologues, allowing Nox to just throw her axe, and the queen doesn’t even try to fight back against Amaris even though she can’t be physically hurt.
I also don’t like that both of the ‘big evils’ in this story are women with little nuance. These women are basically cartoon villains who want power for the sake of power without any underlying motivation, and this feels like internalized misogyny against women. Systems of misogyny often force women to treat each other as competition as a means to keep men in power. I’m not saying Millicent and the queen were justified in their actions (partially because Piper didn’t write any motivations), but Nox and Amaris call them sexist insults like ‘bitch’ to the point where their gender is connected to their evilness. Ultimately, the queen and Millicent are just arbitrary obstacles for Amaris and Nox instead of actually realized characters. We could have had an engaging examination about how and why women pursue power with parallels between Amaris and the queen and between Nox and Millicent, which would already fit thematically well with Amaris going off with the reevers, the queen’s political ruthlessness, Millicent’s exploitation of other women, and Nox’s ability to manipulate men.
This book ends incredibly abruptly with absolutely no resolution. Amaris is left comatose (she got scratched by a zombie or something, and I guess she’s tired from using her sonic boom powers), and I worry this might be a contrived set up for Nox and Amaris to finally have sex where Nox gives Amaris some of her life force. I really hope this doesn’t happen. I don’t want their first sexual experience to be non-consensual.
Speaking of which, this installment continued the trend from the previous book of dealing with consent poorly. At one point, Nox propositions Yazlyn for sex, and Yazlyn technically consents with “a half-hearted attempt at a pathetic shrug” and a nod, but this is after Nox has slammed Yazlyn into the wall and puts her arm over her throat. The actual sex is very aggressive with Nox throwing Yazlyn around.
“Yazlyn’s cry was a mix of pain and protest as her top was torn to shreds. Much to Nox’s delight, Yazlyn was a fighter.”
I understand that different people have different preferences in the bedroom, but this doesn’t read as Yazlyn being an enthusiastic participant. There was no discussion of safewords or setting expectations. This scene is passed off as a fit of passion but just as easily reads like someone being assaulted and just accepting what’s happening to them. Yazlyn does return in the future for more sex so I guess she enjoyed it, but I certainly didn’t.
That’s a good summary of my experience with this book: the characters were vibing, but I was suffering.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m not sure what book 4 is going to even be about if the two main antagonists are gone, and I shudder to think it will be another 500 pages of just sitting around. That’s a problem for future me, though. This series absolutely does not need to be 4 books. All of these books could have been heavily trimmed down, and the remaining content could probably fit into a duology.
I worry that Piper won’t bother to improve her craft if she knows the industry will publish whatever she writes. I think, with the proper practice and support, Piper might become an author I could actually enjoy, but she is shooting herself in the foot with whatever her current arrangement is. I don’t care that she wrote all of these books in a very short time. I do care, however, that these books were beta-read, sensitivity read, revised, and edited in a proportionally short period of time. I think each of these steps was a quick pass over, and that was it. The turn around rate for these books doesn’t provide proper time for critical feedback at every step of the process. As a result, these books are messy at their best and downright insensitive at their worst.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2022
Countless times, I’ve attempted to write an accurate and comprehensive review since I initially read The Gloom Between Stars as a beta reader. Every attempt of mine has fallen short of doing the novel justice, due to its sheer brilliance and ability to engage the reader. I have concluded that since it is such a timeless work, it may be impossible to properly review, but here’s my attempt.
The Gloom Between Stars changes the reader from the first, enthralling paragraph. The dynamic characters are unbelievably tangible, and their beautifully orchestrated development results in deep reflection within the reader. The characters are real; they’re flawed and relatable and beautiful. Combined with the vivid imagery CJ has become known for, the reader is once again pulled into a world and is heartbroken to have to leave.
The plotlines are complex yet accessible in a way rarely seen. We become even more invested into the story of Nox, Amaris, and the others we’ve fallen in love with along the way. It’s gripping and unpredictable in the best possible way, and is impossible to put it down regardless of how many times you’ve read it. Reading this story makes it hard to read anything else, as very few works are half as stunning as TGBS.
I now tend to read Piper’s writing shortly after it hits the page, and reread her works frequently. However, my love for this novel remains unparalleled as it is truly an incomparable creation. The themes it explores, the emotions it elicits, the portrayal of the queerness is something I previously could not comprehend to all be in a single novel (also it’s EXTREMELY hot). Being able to read Piper’s works, especially The Gloom Between Stars, is an utter privilege.
The Gloom Between Stars changes the reader from the first, enthralling paragraph. The dynamic characters are unbelievably tangible, and their beautifully orchestrated development results in deep reflection within the reader. The characters are real; they’re flawed and relatable and beautiful. Combined with the vivid imagery CJ has become known for, the reader is once again pulled into a world and is heartbroken to have to leave.
The plotlines are complex yet accessible in a way rarely seen. We become even more invested into the story of Nox, Amaris, and the others we’ve fallen in love with along the way. It’s gripping and unpredictable in the best possible way, and is impossible to put it down regardless of how many times you’ve read it. Reading this story makes it hard to read anything else, as very few works are half as stunning as TGBS.
I now tend to read Piper’s writing shortly after it hits the page, and reread her works frequently. However, my love for this novel remains unparalleled as it is truly an incomparable creation. The themes it explores, the emotions it elicits, the portrayal of the queerness is something I previously could not comprehend to all be in a single novel (also it’s EXTREMELY hot). Being able to read Piper’s works, especially The Gloom Between Stars, is an utter privilege.
March 14, 2022
“The Gloom Between Stars” perfectly encapsulates why I love each book more than the last! Utilizing the beautiful foundations of TNAIM and TSAIS’ world-building and self-realization, a phenomenal home, safe for the topics touched upon in previous books to be laid out and explored, is built.
Stunningly clever, witty, heartbreaking and healing, “The Gloom Between Stars” holds strong the delightful hallmarks of Piper CJ’s writing: painting intricate details of the world in impressive detail; full immersion as we join as silent companions; keeping true to the complicated realities of the world, and an uncanny ability to keep track of every person, place, and connections across all of the books showing the long-term development of ideas.
As we are continue a deeper dive through complex topics, the plot progresses in a natural and extraordinary way that allows readers a full experience of both action and emotion. Mental illness, trauma, and religious trauma are approached with an intentional empathy and patience from the author, encouraging readers to move beyond initial judgements as we learn of the experiences that brought each person to who they are today - without dismissing any irrevocable harm that was done.
The weight of processing and growth is balanced with clever banter and comebacks, shocking plot twists, and incredible innovations from characters that kept me laughing, crying, yelling, and squealing in delight - especially the end! If you have animated reactions, read the last ~20% of the books either with a solid grasp on the book or set on a solid surface as you read. And read in an area void of breakables!
If you’ve enjoyed TNAIM, or you’re considering reading the series because any part of a bi-fantasy addressing mental illness and trauma speaks to you, “The Gloom Between Stars” is an incredibly satisfying addition to the series.
Stunningly clever, witty, heartbreaking and healing, “The Gloom Between Stars” holds strong the delightful hallmarks of Piper CJ’s writing: painting intricate details of the world in impressive detail; full immersion as we join as silent companions; keeping true to the complicated realities of the world, and an uncanny ability to keep track of every person, place, and connections across all of the books showing the long-term development of ideas.
As we are continue a deeper dive through complex topics, the plot progresses in a natural and extraordinary way that allows readers a full experience of both action and emotion. Mental illness, trauma, and religious trauma are approached with an intentional empathy and patience from the author, encouraging readers to move beyond initial judgements as we learn of the experiences that brought each person to who they are today - without dismissing any irrevocable harm that was done.
The weight of processing and growth is balanced with clever banter and comebacks, shocking plot twists, and incredible innovations from characters that kept me laughing, crying, yelling, and squealing in delight - especially the end! If you have animated reactions, read the last ~20% of the books either with a solid grasp on the book or set on a solid surface as you read. And read in an area void of breakables!
If you’ve enjoyed TNAIM, or you’re considering reading the series because any part of a bi-fantasy addressing mental illness and trauma speaks to you, “The Gloom Between Stars” is an incredibly satisfying addition to the series.
June 15, 2024
The third installment of this series is, in my opinion, the greatest so far. It starts strong and stays strong through its nearly 500 pages.
The Gloom Between Stars takes you on a beautiful journey where you get to spend even more time with all the characters you grew to love in books 1 and 2 and even introduces you to some new ones!
As always, my favorite thing about this series is the three dimensional approach the writes has to every character and the complexities and quirks of every one of them. It frustrates as think I finally understood them and suddenly everything I believed to be true changes drastically.
I am forever grateful to Piper for gathering the courage to make her dreams come true and bringing her books into the world.
The Gloom Between Stars takes you on a beautiful journey where you get to spend even more time with all the characters you grew to love in books 1 and 2 and even introduces you to some new ones!
As always, my favorite thing about this series is the three dimensional approach the writes has to every character and the complexities and quirks of every one of them. It frustrates as think I finally understood them and suddenly everything I believed to be true changes drastically.
I am forever grateful to Piper for gathering the courage to make her dreams come true and bringing her books into the world.
October 26, 2023
I got an ARC of this book, and am so happy I did because I loved it! I literally replaced my long-lost kindle to read the ARC, and I have no regrets. This was my favorite book in this series so far. It was awesome to get to know some of the supporting characters better while seeing how Nox and Amaris interact after each of them has experienced so much apart. This book ties up some loose ends while leaving plenty of room for more story in the next book. I am so thrilled that I was able to finish it soon after reading the previous book, and can’t wait to get my preordered copy with the novella in July!
May 29, 2022
“And yes, I’m a whore. But I’m also a fucking queen. I hope the All Mother pities you more than I do.” The Gloom between Stars is the ultimate love letter to every character within the TNAIM series. Every chapter encapsulates the world building and character introductions from books 1 and 2 and gives us this beautiful gift of found family and mesmerising growth. From their childhood misadventures to the grown women they have become, our beloved Nox and Amaris navigate through the peak of their life’s purpose as they stumble and fall into realising who they are meant to be. Reading along with our family of fae, reevers, royalty, and humans, we pull up a spare chair at the table and are welcomed into the loving embrace. There are no superiorities within antagonists and protagonists, there are no ‘love interests’; Piper CJ has created a world that encompasses every character in their entirety. No one is left without their complexities that make them full rounded and well developed entities. It is so magical how these incredible characters then interact with each other to form gorgeous relationships and bonds. Although Gyrradin may be a world of magic, creatures, and fae, it is alive, human, breathing and real. Aside from the literacy excellence and extremely talented descriptions and techniques that I have grown wonderfully used to in Piper’s writing, there is also a political narrative that explores mental health, gender diversities, religious combats, hierarchies and power struggles and the complicated world of discovering one’s self. I never want to leave this breath taking world even after the roller coaster of emotions it has sent me on, even after the tense and heart stopping battles it has captured me with. I can read on knowing the respect and care that the author gives her narrative and know that at the end of each book I feel wholly lucky to have been able to experience it.
November 20, 2022
Wow. I sat in stunned silence for a long while after finishing this masterpiece.
Intense heartache, fiery passion, childlike joy, and anxious fear permeate the pages of The Gloom Between Stars. The structure of this book felt new and unique and unexpected. TGBS gives what we all want more of from our favorite fantasy series, more exploratory time with the characters, and many opportunities to better understand them and witness their tumultuous emotions, complicated bonds and witty (oft-hilarious) banter. Somehow every character is interesting and complex. I'm a giant sucker for found family and this book strikes home. With beautiful scenery depictions and carefully-crafted perceptible details, reading TGBS was just as immersive an experience as reading the first 2 books in this series. I found myself longing to stay in the world, not wanting to put it down while simultaneously intentionally dragging out the reading process so it wouldn't end.
Once again, the queer rep is fantastic and the spice is exquisite. The broader theme of questioning internal beliefs and the status quo continues in TGBS and we get to dig even deeper into what this means for the individual characters and their divided world. Lastly, without spoiling, there is a character that I particularly appreciated and related to as someone with intense religious trauma and a cult background. I've never encountered a fictional character like this one who was so well written and in a way that so accurately depicts that experience. I'll be forever grateful for that representation.
I'm so anxious and excited to read book 4, yet also devastated that it's the final book in the series. I'm not ready for it to end!
Intense heartache, fiery passion, childlike joy, and anxious fear permeate the pages of The Gloom Between Stars. The structure of this book felt new and unique and unexpected. TGBS gives what we all want more of from our favorite fantasy series, more exploratory time with the characters, and many opportunities to better understand them and witness their tumultuous emotions, complicated bonds and witty (oft-hilarious) banter. Somehow every character is interesting and complex. I'm a giant sucker for found family and this book strikes home. With beautiful scenery depictions and carefully-crafted perceptible details, reading TGBS was just as immersive an experience as reading the first 2 books in this series. I found myself longing to stay in the world, not wanting to put it down while simultaneously intentionally dragging out the reading process so it wouldn't end.
Once again, the queer rep is fantastic and the spice is exquisite. The broader theme of questioning internal beliefs and the status quo continues in TGBS and we get to dig even deeper into what this means for the individual characters and their divided world. Lastly, without spoiling, there is a character that I particularly appreciated and related to as someone with intense religious trauma and a cult background. I've never encountered a fictional character like this one who was so well written and in a way that so accurately depicts that experience. I'll be forever grateful for that representation.
I'm so anxious and excited to read book 4, yet also devastated that it's the final book in the series. I'm not ready for it to end!
July 23, 2023
Raising my hand because I HAVE BEEN PERSONALLY VICTIMIZED BY THIS BOOK. … how long until book 4?
August 14, 2025
From the dedication, Piper had me hooked. I've never seen or read such a beautiful and varied representation of bisexuals, specifically, and queer people, generally. Beyond the representation, I love how Piper writes every character and describes every place, situation, and interaction. Her illustrative language and extensive metaphors combined with her "Listen Along" song list has created a fantasy book that is incredibly immersive. All the characters are real and act exactly as I expect according to their trauma and lived experience. And yet, the story Piper has created is constantly surprising me in the best way. She naturally and seamlessly intermixes character development and world-building with foreshadowing so every twist is unexpected but never contrived.
Though the book is primarily about Nox and Amaris and their continued journey to break the curse separating Raascot and Farehold, it's also very character driven. It vividly describes the complex growing and changing of relationships between the core characters. It explores found family, all the forms of love (from platonic to familial to romantic), and all the complexity (good and bad) that can come from loving someone. And most importantly, this book is about loving, accepting, and finding yourself in a world that didn't see your value.
If you like queer stories, fantasy, women saving themselves, found family, and vivid language, this series is for you. Every book has only gotten better. The Gloom Between Stars is my favorite book in the series and I can't wait for the 4th book to come out. I plan to reread this and all books in the series many many times.
Though the book is primarily about Nox and Amaris and their continued journey to break the curse separating Raascot and Farehold, it's also very character driven. It vividly describes the complex growing and changing of relationships between the core characters. It explores found family, all the forms of love (from platonic to familial to romantic), and all the complexity (good and bad) that can come from loving someone. And most importantly, this book is about loving, accepting, and finding yourself in a world that didn't see your value.
If you like queer stories, fantasy, women saving themselves, found family, and vivid language, this series is for you. Every book has only gotten better. The Gloom Between Stars is my favorite book in the series and I can't wait for the 4th book to come out. I plan to reread this and all books in the series many many times.
April 19, 2023
I absolutely adored this book, the best one in the series yet!
The book was rich with character development. We learned so much about the characters and saw real growth. I loved that the book touched upon mental health struggles with Nox and had very dynamic character relationship developments. It felt very organic.
I thoroughly enjoyed the mixture of plot-driven events and character development driven. We finally see the characters enjoy themselves and let loose a little. It gave a great perspective into who they are when they aren't in an immediate crisis. Do not be fooled though, there is plenty of combat and crisis to satiate everyone.
The depth in which magic was explained was also really amazing. I'm so intrigued, I need to learn more! I need more.
The book was dynamic, intriguing and fun to read. I cannot wait to see what happens next, I'm on the edge of my seat after that cliffhanger. I NEED to know who lives.
Thank you to Net Galley and Bloom for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
The book was rich with character development. We learned so much about the characters and saw real growth. I loved that the book touched upon mental health struggles with Nox and had very dynamic character relationship developments. It felt very organic.
I thoroughly enjoyed the mixture of plot-driven events and character development driven. We finally see the characters enjoy themselves and let loose a little. It gave a great perspective into who they are when they aren't in an immediate crisis. Do not be fooled though, there is plenty of combat and crisis to satiate everyone.
The depth in which magic was explained was also really amazing. I'm so intrigued, I need to learn more! I need more.
The book was dynamic, intriguing and fun to read. I cannot wait to see what happens next, I'm on the edge of my seat after that cliffhanger. I NEED to know who lives.
Thank you to Net Galley and Bloom for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
July 19, 2023
I wasn't a fan of The Night & its Moon, this one is better and I liked it. I appreciated the world building and the plot was well written.
3.5 uppped to 4
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
3.5 uppped to 4
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
May 2, 2024
OMGGGGGGGG I CANTTTTT.
If I could give a 6 star rating I would ⭐️
If I could give a 6 star rating I would ⭐️
March 5, 2024
This is the third book of four, and I need the fourth book now! Going deeper with the characters, and watching them continue to grow was a joy. For me, especially Ash. Something I see in this book is how we see things our own way, but as we are around others with varying beliefs, we can come to some level of overcoming our own biases, racism, and even understanding when you have to let go of toxic family members.
I would give anything to see a picture of the throne room. I know how I see it in my head, but I know I don’t do it justice. Once again, the visualizations are so detailed. The spice level is definitely ramped up!!
There is love, passion, blood, gore, and some scenes that can be hard for some. You will laugh, cry, need to cool down ;), and at one point I wanted to put my phone (since it’s on my phone as an ARC) in the freezer (if you don’t get that reference, please don’t make me feel older than I already do). We are left waiting for the fourth book with baited breath. It will be worth every second I have to wait.
I would give anything to see a picture of the throne room. I know how I see it in my head, but I know I don’t do it justice. Once again, the visualizations are so detailed. The spice level is definitely ramped up!!
There is love, passion, blood, gore, and some scenes that can be hard for some. You will laugh, cry, need to cool down ;), and at one point I wanted to put my phone (since it’s on my phone as an ARC) in the freezer (if you don’t get that reference, please don’t make me feel older than I already do). We are left waiting for the fourth book with baited breath. It will be worth every second I have to wait.
August 27, 2023
This was the book that I had been eager to read, yet at the same time worried. Book one gave you the characters, or the skeleton descriptions of who they are, as well as important locations. Book two set up this book so well. Also minor characters from one, are not that at all. Everyone means something. I love in a world that is built in a clear, believable way, that even characters you thought that were just passing, had some greater reason. This was a book steeped in complex feelings and betrayal. By the end of the series, I hope that both are clear. As it stands it was a book of important relationship layers. I am here for it all! Sprinkles of spice, and thoughts throughout. Action and just wing it strategies make the story a fun read. This is again, the third installment of the series, so by now you are well versed in the locations and topography of the locations this takes place. This makes you feel much like characters in the book, finding and creating home between the covers. IYKYK Thank you to Netgalley for having this one the site to read.
May 21, 2023
Oh my om very thankful to bloom & NetGalley for this arc 😭
What a journey we’ve been on with Nox, Amaris and their gang of bandits. I love each and every bean in this book but I have to admit that Malik holds my heart.
So the book kicks off right where sun & shade left it and it’s an amazingly written adventure. There’s a bit more of intimate scenes which I actually enjoyed and were fitting in the story and not too much. Well done, Piper.
We make friends with new people in this book and we will thoroughly hate the ones we already know. (Not for long)
This is so brilliantly constructed and Piper has made sure all the emergency exits are covered and leave you gasping for answers. (Especially at the end, thank you. Like I already told you Piper, I hope you stub your toe)
The character development was once again amazing and I didn’t think my babies could become even more real as people. Chapeau.
I’m not going much into the story as for the people who have read the previous books know what it’s about, but if you’re doubting after book 1 or even 2, please continue!
What a journey we’ve been on with Nox, Amaris and their gang of bandits. I love each and every bean in this book but I have to admit that Malik holds my heart.
So the book kicks off right where sun & shade left it and it’s an amazingly written adventure. There’s a bit more of intimate scenes which I actually enjoyed and were fitting in the story and not too much. Well done, Piper.
We make friends with new people in this book and we will thoroughly hate the ones we already know. (Not for long)
This is so brilliantly constructed and Piper has made sure all the emergency exits are covered and leave you gasping for answers. (Especially at the end, thank you. Like I already told you Piper, I hope you stub your toe)
The character development was once again amazing and I didn’t think my babies could become even more real as people. Chapeau.
I’m not going much into the story as for the people who have read the previous books know what it’s about, but if you’re doubting after book 1 or even 2, please continue!
October 4, 2024
I would like to thank Netgalley for providing me with an ARC copy to review this book.
Let's start with the cover photo. I absolutely love it and it is what caught my eyes and intrigued me into reading the book. I don't know why I am seeing so many negative reviews about this book but to be honest I really enjoyed reading it.
The writing skills of the author is really nice though there were some mistakes in the book but it is understandable as it is an ARC. The character development and the plot development all have been written pretty well. The world development though could have been better but I still feel it has been an enjoyable read.
#NetGalley
Let's start with the cover photo. I absolutely love it and it is what caught my eyes and intrigued me into reading the book. I don't know why I am seeing so many negative reviews about this book but to be honest I really enjoyed reading it.
The writing skills of the author is really nice though there were some mistakes in the book but it is understandable as it is an ARC. The character development and the plot development all have been written pretty well. The world development though could have been better but I still feel it has been an enjoyable read.
#NetGalley
April 24, 2023
Oh wow… I am so hooked and absolutely enamored with this story and it’s characters. I am so happy I was able to snag a preview digital copy while I impatiently await my signed copy with the novella!
The way this third book builds on the first two feels so seamless. I loved the character growth and relationship evolutions going on. And of course, the spicy bits are excellently written.
CANNOT wait for the next book!!
The way this third book builds on the first two feels so seamless. I loved the character growth and relationship evolutions going on. And of course, the spicy bits are excellently written.
CANNOT wait for the next book!!
June 3, 2023
Best yet in the series! And that ending 🤯
Can I have book 4 yet?!
Can I have book 4 yet?!
June 20, 2024
The Gloom Between Stars by Piper CJ ✨
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
This was magical and honestly the greatest of the 3 books so far. I’m so intrigued by everything!! The magical system and the lore in this book is just so perfectly balanced and not too complex to understand. It is written beautifully and I’m so here for the LGBT representation! Also the spice in this book 🔥 was definitely worth waiting out for! Left me in a chokehold *quite literally* 😂
That ending also had me crying soooo muchhh! And it left me on the edge of my seat for the final part 5. It’s literally called “The Fall of Everything”. Even me 🙋♀️. I felt as though I was in this story alongside Amaris and Nox and I can’t get over how much I am in love with this new ‘family’. I’m so glad Yazlyn has had more show time because I’m now in love with her 😂. Just in general the character progression in this book deserves a round of applause itself. Especially towards the end and you’ll know what I mean when you read it! I knew Nox had it in her ❤️.
I can’t write to much without spoiling the whole plot of this book but I’m just so glad I’ve been apart of Gyrradin and I can’t wait for the journey to continue. I’m looking forward to what else Piper writes and the next book 📚
I highly recommend this series for anyone to read 🥰
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
This was magical and honestly the greatest of the 3 books so far. I’m so intrigued by everything!! The magical system and the lore in this book is just so perfectly balanced and not too complex to understand. It is written beautifully and I’m so here for the LGBT representation! Also the spice in this book 🔥 was definitely worth waiting out for! Left me in a chokehold *quite literally* 😂
That ending also had me crying soooo muchhh! And it left me on the edge of my seat for the final part 5. It’s literally called “The Fall of Everything”. Even me 🙋♀️. I felt as though I was in this story alongside Amaris and Nox and I can’t get over how much I am in love with this new ‘family’. I’m so glad Yazlyn has had more show time because I’m now in love with her 😂. Just in general the character progression in this book deserves a round of applause itself. Especially towards the end and you’ll know what I mean when you read it! I knew Nox had it in her ❤️.
I can’t write to much without spoiling the whole plot of this book but I’m just so glad I’ve been apart of Gyrradin and I can’t wait for the journey to continue. I’m looking forward to what else Piper writes and the next book 📚
I highly recommend this series for anyone to read 🥰
April 8, 2024
i am actually emotionally attached to these characters more than i should be. if it weren't for that, these would be really difficult to read because this one had so much of absolutely nothing going on..... i understand that their time in the castle was preparing for the last part and doing rapport building between certain characters... but 350 pages of it was a lot. it really bothered me how nox and amaris were basically in a huge fight the entire time just for the reasoning of it to be diminished with really no particular reason very randomly before the separation to go on the "quest" at the end. that felt lazy. i don't mind that they fought, but the make up was weird to me. i feel like i had so many thoughts while reading but forget them now.... at least there were no spelling errors (that i caught!) this time!
i'm eager to see what happens in the last book. i don't know how it's going to be 500+ pages, but we shall see!
i'm eager to see what happens in the last book. i don't know how it's going to be 500+ pages, but we shall see!
July 31, 2023
Another incredible journey into the world Piper has built here. I love each and every character and being able to follow and emotionally invest in each of their lives is no easy feat but she smashed it. I absolutely loved how the start & end were intense and twisty turny, but the middle section being so filled of relationship building and seeing the characters just navigating life was a refreshing change to the series' you typically see in fantasy. I always wish to see more of characters living outside of the fights & action, this book gave that and more while still keeping you desperate to absorb it all in one sweep. Still remains the series I pined for as an LGBT+ Fantasy Reader teen. So begins the wait for the next (& last) one
January 31, 2025
Blijft een erg leuke serie! Heb hiermee een nieuwe afkorting verzonnen voor mijn favorite boeken genre. GFF: Gay Feminist Fantasy
July 26, 2023
I think this might have been my favorite so far?? This series is my first real foray into the fantasy romance space and I’ve soooo enjoyed the series so far! Preordered this one as soon as is finished the second and read it cover to cover in like 3 days as soon as I got my copy in the mail 😅 already itching for the final installment I can’t believe I have to wait until January!!
Also- I’ve spoken with the other over IG dms, not sure why everyone feels the need to leave such nasty comments about her because she was SO nice 🖤
Also- I’ve spoken with the other over IG dms, not sure why everyone feels the need to leave such nasty comments about her because she was SO nice 🖤
July 26, 2023
Gloom was amazing. Such amazing growth for all of these wonderful characters. The warm and fuzzy parts just make the scary and hard parts feel even scarier. I even love Tan tan ;) and dont get me started on Yaz, she started growing on me earlier than I expected! I adore her and her hopeless romantic heart!! Her novella was wonderful and horrible and happy and sad and a perfect way to learn so much more about her! Congrats on another wonderful book, I’m so excited for what’s next!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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