Midnight on the Celestial

Overall Rating: 5/5

Rosaline "Roe" Damarcus has never been afraid of the dead.

Her power to summon lost loved ones has always delighted guests at her family's galas.

Her future seems set in stone, to gleam alongside the rest of the Damarcus legacy...

That is until the day of her trial, and she fails it spectacularly.

She is deemed a danger to society, as are all the other Morphics who fail their trial.

She is given the choice... to give up her Morphia, give up her powers to summon back the dead...

Or serve a punishment aboard the Celestial.

But the grand ship that she remembers vacationing on as a small child may not be as grand as her memory recalls...Roe assumes her role as a concierge to the Stallard family... where she quickly learns that she must not only make a good impression on the family that she is a concierge for, but that she also must fulfill the demands of the cruel and ghastly bosses.

Her mentor infuriates her, a silk dancer named Ivander who seems to have the adoration of all the guests...

There is only one rule that is firm for guests, and cautious for staff such as her.

Do not leave your room after midnight.

For the ship is not so much the paradise that it appears to be in the day...and soon Roe finds herself wrapped in dark history, wrapped in accusations of killing a guest... and facing the worst truth of them all... her family's dark secrets.

There is so much I could say about this, as Midnight on the Celestial stole my heart more and more the more I read it... and then I fell deep for the story in the pages, and I finished this in a little under two days. For a debut novel, Julia will absolutely blow you away with mystique, fantastical, twisty, and wonderfully original world. From dazzlingly different worlds of the rich and the less fortunate beneath them, to the enchantingly delicious food, inventions, and the entertainment on the Celestial... I almost felt like I too were living in this world, instead of merely reading words off of a page. If I were to go on with how much I loved this novel, my review would be far too long to keep most people's attentions... but I especially adored how unique the magic system that Julia has created is, and also how the characters feel so alive... and so relatable at the same time.

Most importantly, thank you to Julia Alexandra, for allowing me to sail on the Celestial early. Thank you for taking me on a magical journey that stole my breath away that I never would've expected and yet fell deeply in love with. Thank you for your beautiful writing... and I look forward to reading the next part of this series.