The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso

TL;DR: This one caught me by surprise but it’s SO creative!
Source: Netgalley – Thanks you to the publisher!

Plot: Kembral comes to a party to relax and that’s not at all what happens.
Characters: The characters were fun, sometimes over the top but not the strongest for me.
Setting: This was where this book shined. The different settings and where the party ended up? 10/10, I couldn’t wait to see where we went next.
Magic: The magic seems simple on paper but Melissa Caruso does some truly magical things with it. I loved the execution here.

Thoughts:

The Last Hour Between Worlds surprised me. As one of the last books I read in 2024 I really left on what feels like an appropriately themed and executed high note. Kembral is a Hound, someone who can search out and retrieve people and things who fall between dimensions. She’s on maternity leave at the moment and is forced by her sister into getting out of the house and attending a new year’s party. It’ll be fun! It’ll be relaxing!

It was neither one of those things. The party is the stage for a game between powerful beings and as it slips further and further from the Prime dimension and gets weirder and weirder it’s up to Kembral to stop it. This book absolutely shines on how creative and how well executed this idea was. The Prime dimension, where everything is normal is where we begin but after that the following dimensions? Unhinged. From eyeball trees to quicksand streets I loved what Melissa Caruso did here. This felt fresh and unique in her willingness to go there.

Once we started slipping further into the mess of the plot I was hooked, and didn’t want to put this down. If you want something with a fascinating and wild magic system? I can’t recommend it enough. There is a sapphic relationship that plays into it and is actually very important to the overall plot but man, that magic and those settings! It was a great end of year read.

P.S. As a Mom who has lost children I do not usually enjoy reading about other Moms and their kids being at risk. But the way the author executed this? I wanted to cry. Thank you.