Owl Abridged
ARC,  Book Review,  Young Adult

Blood and Midnight by Erin Beaty

Rising above the city of Collis is the holy Sanctum. And watching over its spires is Catrin, an orphan girl with unique skills—for she alone can spot the building’s flaws in construction before they turn deadly.

But when Catrin witnesses a murderer escaping the scene of his crime, she’s pulled into the web of a dangerous man who will definitely strike again. Assigned to capture the culprit is the mysterious, brilliant, and enigmatic Simon, whose insights into the mind of a killer are frighteningly accurate.

As the grisly crimes continue, Catrin finds herself caught between murderer and detective while hiding her own secret—a supernatural sight granted by the moon, destined to make her an outcast, and the only thing that might save her and those she loves from becoming the next victims…

In this medieval YA fantasy thriller, an orphan with a secret, magical sight gets caught between a mysterious genius and the serial killer he’s hunting.

Published June 28th 2022 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

I was wanting to get back into YA books this month and this one just has everything I’ve been interested in lately. Blood and Moonlight is a medieval fantasy detective story. There’s a slow-burn romance, magic, and lots of mystery. The story’s primary objective is to stop a serial killer on the loose, but the secretive subplots surrounding Catrin’s heritage and the magic in this land were just as intriguing. While the investigation tied up nicely, there’s enough material left over for what I hope will be a sequel.