5 Stars for When Darkness Falls: The Trilogy

When Darkness Falls just scored a glowing 5-star review from Literary Titan, and I am absolutely over the moon about it! 

🎉 Seriously, I've been grinning about this all day. They called the trilogy "richly imagined" with "a generous heart" — which, honestly? That's the whole point of the series, so hearing it land exactly the way I hoped is just chef's kiss. Here's a summary of the review, or you can read the full review here, on Literary Titan.

Alyssa's arrival in Al Khair sets everything in motion, from her unlikely appointment as Royal Scribe to the Sultana to the awakening of Damien, the ancient vampire and demon known as the Dark Lord. The review praised how the story gives Alyssa time to fall in love with her new life first — the markets, baths, palace, Library, and oasis — before the larger supernatural story closes in around her.

The reviewer also loved what Al Khair does as a setting — how the ordinary and the fantastic feel like next-door neighbors there. Vampires in the Catacombs, Magi advising the Sultana, a whole tangle of demons, Djinn, shapeshifters, healers, and gypsies all just... coexisting. They specifically called out the "practical side" of that world — a Dark Lord who inspires terror but also ends up worrying about furniture, horses, and whether Alyssa's happy. (And yes, Alphonse the peacock got a shoutout too.)

But really, they zeroed in on Alyssa and Damien's relationship as the heart of it all — how it evolves from fear and misunderstanding into fascination, protectiveness, and eventually love. They especially liked Alyssa's stubborn moral center, and how she refuses to be intimidated by the Dark Lord everyone else in the city is terrified of — scolding him, teasing him, quietly forcing him to reconsider everything he thought he knew about humans. Damien never had a chance, honestly.

The review closes by calling the trilogy a blend of "fantasy adventure, paranormal romance, court life, found family, humor, and supernatural politics," with a heroine whose joy in finding where she belongs genuinely infectious.

If this fabulous review has inspired you, you can grab When Darkness Falls now!