In Under the Midnight Sun, the eldest son of Thunderhill’s warrior-kings, Otto Johanson lives for battle but has forsaken love since the death of his partner three years ago. Still when the Midsummer festivities bring nomadic reindeer herders back to town, Otto can’t help but notice the handsome, if sullen, Lukas.
Goodreads
Tension rises between them during the annual tournament, but when a terrible attack devastates Thunderhill, Otto and Lukas must put aside their burgeoning rivalry to embark on a dangerous quest that may be the town’s only hope of survival.
I received an eARC of Under the Midnight Sun from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Lore Graham and I are part of the same writer’s group.
I was excited to read Under the Midnight Sun when I learned it was going to be released. This is an enemies-to-lovers m/m romance with great worldbuilding. I loved the magic ze built into the world and built their plot around.
Under the Midnight Sun needs content warnings for multiple explicitly sexual scenes, scenes of graphic violence, and depictions of animal death.
While Graham is skilled at building a world, I think that ze could have put more into the development of the roles of zir female characters.
It’s very typical in Under the Midnight Sun for men to marry another man, and then to take wives to raise children and care for the household. There are a few female characters that are warriors and green mages, but there’s no romances discussed for them or any discussion of their options in this society. I think that this would be a simple thing to change about the portrayal of this universe, and would make it a much more pleasant reading experience for me.
Overall, I liked this book. I thought there were too many sex scenes for its length (no pun intended), but I was feeling particularly meh about sex when I read it, so take that with a grain of salt. I would definitely read another book in this universe – perhaps about Petra or Britta. If this sounds more your thing, you can pick up a copy on Amazon or through the publisher.
