SING THE NIGHT

Determined to win a cutthroat competition to become the King’s Mage, Selene Dreshé enlists the help of a devastatingly beautiful man she discovers trapped within a mirror deep beneath the opera house where she studies.

Selene has only one goal: To sing into existence magic unique and powerful enough to win L’Opéra du Magician and help her become King’s Mage, a title once held by her father, the great Giuseppe Dreshé, now known colloquially as the Mad Mage after his violent fall from grace. But in a world where magic seems to be used only for art and entertainment, the competition at L’Opéra du Magician turns cutthroat when a fellow student steals the song Selene has been working on for the last three years, and her chances of winning the King’s Mage position plummet. Selene is exhausted and emotionally drained, but her fate takes an unexpected turn when she discovers a mirror—forbidden within the walls of the opera house—hidden in the depths of the building. Trapped within it is a devastatingly handsome (and nameless) man who offers to teach her a darker kind of magic—one that is strictly forbidden and uses blood rather than music—in order to tap into her full potential and win the competition. As the race to win L’Opéra du Magician becomes more deadly, Selene navigates a tangled web of secrets, betrayal, ambitious practitioners of magic, and an undeniably Phantom of the Opera–inspired love triangle. While Jauregui Eccles’ magic system and its dangerous side effects are intriguing, the characters lack chemistry (either romantic or platonic), some parts of the world feel underdeveloped, and the story leans heavily on standard romantasy tropes.

Music is magic in this cliched fantasy.