The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey

**An ARC of this book was received in exchange for an honest review. Release date April 28th, 2015.**

Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 368

For readers of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones and Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone, The Girl at Midnight is the story of a modern girl caught in an ancient war.

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known.

Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it's time to act.

Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, but if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it's how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.

But some jobs aren't as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.

My Thoughts:
Alright, so it was not City of Bones or Shadow of Bone I was thinking of when I read this book, it was more of Daughter of Smoke and Bone (do you see a bone pattern??? huh.) And looking at other reviews on Goodreads, it seems I am not alone in thinking this.

The reasoning behind the Daughter of Smoke and Bone relation is because you've got two "monsterous" groups of people, the bird people called the Avicen and the dragon people called the Drakharin and they are at war with each other, hate each other. The war has been going on for centuries and they all want blood.

Bring in the legend of the Firebird that could bring order to the chaos of these two groups and you've got this book. I did enjoy the treasure hunt and the hunt for the next clue to bring them closer to finding this supposed Firebird but it took a long time to get there. The first HALF of the book was a little slow and I even put down the book for a while until one night I couldn't sleep.

Echo is a fun character as she left home and she learns to fend for herself. She lives in a library (every book nerds dream) and is a quite good at being a thief. She is spunky and I completely enjoy her sarcasm. She is independent a bit selfish, strong yet relatable at times and I enjoyed that.

The romance wasn't that bad for me but I saw it coming a mile away. So it lost a bit of spark and mystery for me. Even the gay romance of two side characters was obvious.

Some of the side characters were fun while others were a bit annoying. You have all types of characters in this book and you got to see choice, good and evil, kindness and forgiveness, cruelty and pain. It was over all pretty cool and fun.

Overall if you like Daughter of Smoke and Bone you'll like this one as well. I enjoyed the "treasure hunt" and Echo's sassy character.

Sexual Content: moderate (PG knowledge that some characters had sex, kissing)
Language: mild
Violence: moderate (fighting scenes, knowledge that characters have been beaten)
Drugs/Alcohol: mild