I Will Paint the Night by Sam Muller

Item: I Will Paint The Night
Rating: 3
Author: karenbaron

Posted December 24, 2025 by karenbaron in Review, Series, Young Adult / 0 Comments

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Author. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I Will Paint The Night

by Sam Muller

on August 28, 2023
Genres: YA Fantasy
Pages: 448
Format: Hardcover, Kindle, Paperback
Source: the Author
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Allii has a busy schedule. Stay alive. Find the killer of her beloved stepmother. Stop her father's people from decimating her mother's people. Allii is 17. She has no family to back her, no army to protect her, no manifest destiny awaiting her. Just Spooky, a daemon-dog who thinks humankind is beyond redemption.

I Will Paint the Night by Sam Muller is the cost of Allii finding out the truth of her origins and going a completely different way.

Will Allii find out the truth about who killed her stepmom?

Allii

Allii is a princess when she isn’t on the run. Her father’s people think she’s the one who killed her stepmom, hence why she’s on the run. Along the way, Allii finds out that she isn’t like her dad or the people around her when she’s the princess.

I have to say, I had a hard time getting invested in this character. The biggest reason I didn’t is that she complains a lot about having to get married. The marriage will lead her to leave her only home, and then there is her whole relationship with her father.

The Story

We follow Allii as she discovers more about herself once she leaves the castle. The biggest one is that her whole existence is a lie, and that most of her family wants her out of the way. I liked the book’s basic premise, but I don’t really care for Allii, as she doesn’t seem to grow much throughout. The only thing that changed is that she’s embracing the parts of herself she got from her mom’s side. Allii still didn’t feel like she really changed from the beginning.

Three Stars

My rating for I Will Paint the Night by Sam Muller is three stars. I do recommend it as it could be a book that one of you readers would enjoy more than I did. It’s always a toss-up finding a book and figuring out whether you will enjoy it more than the person who first introduced you to it. Ms. Muller did a good job writing the story; I was captivated, but I didn’t really care for the main character.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of I Will Paint the Night by Sam Muller.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

About Sam Muller

Sam Muller is a murder plotter, dog lover, dragon maker, coffee addict

Dogs and books are her two great loves. Ideal? No, for some of her dogs also love her books. Page edges and spines of old hardbacks for preference – a mystery she hopes to resolve, someday.

The dogs in her stories never chew on books. Spooky, the daemon-dog in her first novel, I will Paint the Night, helps his human partner Allii uncover the killer of her beloved stepmother. Spooky also gives the novel its tagline: How dangerous it is to live among humans, even for humans.

Her short stories have appeared in Deep Magic, Cosmic Roots and Eldritch shores, and Uncharted Magazine among others.

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