Midnight's Twins by Holly Race

           In my opinion what doesn't help this book is the fact that Fern, our supposed heroine, is not a particularly likeable character.  I found her to be unsympathetic and verging on the annoying.  Yes, I get that her life isn't particularly great but it just felt like she blamed everyone else for her isolation from society whilst existing in it and did nothing at all to help herself.  No wonder the order of Annwn didn't want her and only wanted Ollie - she is far too self absorbed to make a good protector.

The world building is pretty average as well, you get a bit of a feel for Annwn but it never felt fully fleshed out.  Whilst based off Welsh folklore there is still an awful lot of room for the author to build a full and rich world but it never quite materialises.  There are some interesting details but then it tapers off in to generics again which draws you out of the world again and again whilst in the midst of the "action".  Couple this with a rotating cast of characters that are, on the whole, never properly introduced and it does become a bit of a muddy mess.

It just felt like the whole book was a huge missed opportunity.  It is a real shame as I was looking forward to a ripping YA fantasy and what I actually got was a set of good ideas that were not actualised so left me feeling more than a bit flat.

This review has been a long time coming.  I actually read this book between the 5th and 9th July 2020 so my memory is a bit foggy about all the plot lines.  Fortunately, I have a notebook where I jot some initial thoughts on the book and an overall ranking so between the book blurb and that I did have a reasonable handle on what I thought at the time of reading.