Alaska Night by Daisy Sweeney

NEW ADULT ROMANCE
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

Publication date: 12/13/2018
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: Yes

I’m super cautious about new-to-me authors. I approach them really slowly, sometimes squinting through my fingers at them, half afraid something awful could jump out of my Kindle and startle me at any minute. (That’s how I watch horror movies, too, but I digress…) So, when I got a review request from this author, I squinted through my fingers a little because this is a debut effort in a subcategory I’m not normally a huge fan of. But the cover was good, and her request was super well-written, so I thought, what the hell? And overall, I’m glad I gave it a chance. Was it a perfect read? No. But it was good enough that I’ll be watching this author closely in the future, and probably won’t even be squinting through my fingers when I do it.

I’ll start with the positives (just like my mom taught me):

1. I enjoyed the setting. I’ve always liked small town romance, and the descriptions of this small Alaskan town were really vivid.
2. The writing itself was technically very good. Good dialogue, smooth pacing, very few editing errors (no book is perfect, but there weren’t too many problems here), and an interesting plot.
3. I liked how dedicated the heroine, Jules, was to her little sister.
4. The author managed to make me care about the characters enough to keep me engaged through the entire story. That might not sound like a big deal, but I’ve DNFd a lot of books lately. The fact that I finished this one should not be taken lightly.

Now, for the not-so-stellar moments…

1. Jules is an innocent virgin, and Night, the hero, is a manwhore. I think I might have mentioned a time or ten how much I HATE this trope.
2. Unfortunately, Night checks off a few boxes on my “9 types of romance heroes I hate” list:  he’s a manwhore, he stalked the heroine before introducing himself, and he’s all secretive and guilty about a past he couldn’t really do much to control.
3. I hate to harp on the manwhore thing, but Night has screwed pretty much every attractive woman in town before he officially meets the heroine. He doesn’t even remember some of their names. When Jules questions him about it, he shrugs it off and basically says they didn’t matter because they weren’t her. So, I’m supposed to be believe that Jules and her magical virgin vagina cured him of his disrespectful manwhore tendencies? Yeeeaaahhh...right.
4. There’s 3 hot guys mentioned in the story. All of them are in love with Jules. Sigh. I call this Bella Swan syndrome. It drives me crazy.
5. The other women in the story who are around the same age as Jules are portrayed as jealous, slutty twats. Why can’t women just get along in romance novels?
6. The abrupt shift in some of the secondary characters’ personalities (i.e.: people who were awful in the beginning of the story suddenly becoming loving and helpful at the end of the story) was really jarring for me. It struck me as a convenient plot contrivance instead of legitimate character growth.
7. Instalove. Jules knew nothing about Night (other than the fact that he was gorgeous) before she moved in with him and fell in love with him. Night was pretty much in love with her at first sight (back while he was stalking her. Quick PSA: stalking isn’t sexy, guys. Don’t do it. I don’t care if you think you’re protecting the heroine—just don’t invade her privacy like that, m’kay? It’s creepy. End of PSA.)
8. Jules, understandably, wants to know about Night’s past and what he does when he disappears for days on end. He shrugs her off, basically telling her it’s none of her business. Dude, if you’re LIVING WITH HER, it’s her business if you disappear for days on end.
9. I got sick of Jules going to her old boyfriend and his friend for info about  Night. I know Night was less than forthcoming, but that’s no reason to go whining to other dudes about him.
10. Cliffie alert! This story doesn’t really end so much as it gives you a “to be continued.” There’s no HEA, or even a HFN. I’m a firm believer that if a romance ends like this, there should be a cliffie warning in the blurb.  

So, all that said, I’d still probably read the next installment of the story because even though I had some problems with the characters, the story itself was still interesting enough to hold my attention. (And I have a wicked-short attention span, folks) For a debut effort, this is fairly strong, and I have a feeling the author will only get better the more she writes.  

Full disclosure: We received an ARC from the author free of charge.

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
The story itself is stigma free, but a few of the characters are a little stigma-y at times.    

Other reading suggestions
Since this is a debut author, I can’t recommend her backlist like I normally would. But, you might like some of these…

Swoon-worthy small town romances​

Romantic suspense novels you'll love​

​New adult romances even grumpy old readers can love