I was halfway through The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska when I saw someone on Twitter complain that there weren’t enough books about sapphic villains, girls doing evil and competing while yearning for each other. Which was weird because that describes this book to a T.

Embracing the fairy-tale setting, the main characters are the three servants of three witches. Morning, Midday and Midnight are sent out to steal the hearts of princes to empower their masters. While Morning and Midday will work together on occasion, Midnight works alone, forbidden to socialise with the other two girls. But when they are all ordered to retrieve the heart of a prince during the midwinter festival all three are swept together.

And I do mean swept. There’s magic in the air outside of the spells being cast. The book captures the hustle and bustle of the holiday season with the wild parties and merriment to push back the dark and the cold of the season. The plot drags you along at a fast pace, swirling you along and making you drag the ending. But all stories must end and this one does in the same spectacular way it does everything else.

Set in a fantasy medieval Polish aesthetic this is a book that oozes style. The descriptions of the colourful clothing, the festival, the different activities that are going on and the different types of magic all exude such a vivid feeling that it seems almost gluttonous to your imagination. This is the type of story to read on cold winters night to keep you warm.

By the end of the book I went back and told that person on Twitter that they had to read this. And so should you. Because it’s just that good.