Midnight Strikes
by Zeba Shahnaz
Published by Delacorte Press on March 14, 2023
Genres: YA Romance Fantasy
Pages: 435
Format: Audible Audiobook, Hardcover, Kindle, Paperback
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In this explosive fantasy debut with a time-loop twist, a provincial girl must work with a roguish prince to stop an attack on the royal family and escape a nightmarish curse that forces them to relive the same night again and again.
Seventeen-year-old Anaïs just wants tonight to end. As an outsider at the kingdom’s glittering anniversary ball, she has no desire to rub shoulders with the nation’s most eligible (and pompous) bachelors—especially not the notoriously roguish Prince Leo. But at the stroke of midnight, an explosion rips through the palace, killing everyone in its path. Including her.
The last thing Anaïs sees is fire, smoke, chaos . . . and then she wakes up in her bedroom, hours before the ball. No one else remembers the deadly attack or believes her warnings of disaster.
Not even when it happens again. And again. And again.
If she’s going to escape this nightmarish time loop, Anaïs must take control of her own fate and stop the attack before it happens. But the court's gilded surface belies a rotten core, full of restless nobles grabbing at power, discontented commoners itching for revolution, and even royals who secretly dream of taking the throne. It's up to Anaïs to untangle these knots of deadly deceptions . . . if she can survive past midnight.
Midnight Strikes by Zeba Shahnaz is about one girl trying to stop a travesty.
Will Anais stop the attack?
Anais is the only daughter of a Conde, what we would call a Count, and in her world, not even that will stop the people at court making fun of her. You see, the people in Ivarea don’t like certain people—especially ones from Proensa because of the kind of power that some of them can wield. Anais is a Proensan and can perform this power. The power is blood magic. Except for all Proensans, this power weakens in every generation. It comes up in some families. Most of them can’t even call upon their blood magic anymore.
Anais, though, is the unlucky one. She can call upon this magic, but this magic can’t help her stop the horror that she has to live through every single night—until she can finally stop it. Yup, Anais is stuck in a time loop—a very unlucky one—where she has to relive the night that she and a whole bunch of other people die.
Likes and Dislikes
The primary thing I like about Anais is that she is a determined young lady who tries with all her might to stop what will happen. Even if it means that she has to keep reliving the same night over and over again while trying a bunch of different methods to stop it. Another thing I like about her is how hard she tries not to let Leo near her. This is hard since, in some versions, he finds her, and they still get killed. The times I like when they are together are when they talk, and we learn more about Leo and maybe even about Anais before they die again. I also like it when she calls upon her friends to help her.
The one thing that I dislike about Anais is that she doesn’t think she is meant for happiness and tries not to have any.
Five Stars
My rating for Midnight Strikes by Zeba Shahnaz is five stars. I recommend it to anyone who likes to read Young Adult Fantasy Romance. Especially if it has royalty, a ball, and a never-ending time loop where the main character must find out why they keep dying and how she can fix it. I loved this book immensely. Ms. Shahnaz transported me to the Kingdom of Ivarea and within this ball to help Anais stop this attack.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Midnight Strikes by Zeba Shahnaz.
Until the next time,
Happy Reading!
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About Zeba Shahnaz
Zeba Shahnaz writes fantasy full of political intrigue, twisted romance, and a healthy dose of existential angst. A proud Pakistani-American, she translated her love of storytelling into a graduate degree analyzing national identity, culture, and cinema in South Asia. She grew up in New Jersey, which she has yet to fully escape (though not because of a time loop). Midnight Strikes is her debut novel.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2024 Goodreads RC
- 2024 Romance Book Reading Challenge
- 2024 TBR Jar Reading Challenge
- 2024 Young Adult Book Reading Challenge
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