Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Fantasy Romance
Length: 496 pages
Author: Lynette Noni
Publisher: Knopf Books
Release Date: June 2nd, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Never bargain with a reaper.

The city of Aravell is in peril, plagued by a deadly blackmist that kills all it touches and reapers who roam the streets, stealing magic from innocent children in their thirst for power. Seventeen-year-old Viridia Solace has trained for years to hunt these reapers, but their ranks keep growing, led by the man who murdered her parents: the notorious Reaper Priest.

When the Priest’s most loyal follower, Reeve Ashton, is captured, he offers Viri a chance to avenge her parents . . . for a price. She knows better than to bargain with a reaper, let alone this reaper, but his offer is too good to resist.

Soon she’s breaking him out of prison, colluding with his crew of magic thieves, and following him deep into the blackmist forest in search of an ancient legend, all so they can stop the Reaper Priest’s plot to doom the city. Viri is staking her life on Reeve’s plan, but how can she trust a silver-tongued criminal to keep his word? And how can she trust her own heart when a buried secret could shatter everything?

Full of relentless twists, enemies-to-lovers romance, found family, and high stakes action, Shadow Reaper is the start of a breathtaking new duology from international bestselling author Lynette Noni.

Thank you PRH Audio for the audiobook and Get Underlined for the gifted copy.

GOOD START.

I’ve continually enjoyed Lynette Noni’s books over the years and have been so excited to see what a new series would hold! And not surprising, this was a great start and I’m excited to see what the next book holds.

It definitely leans darker in regards to how the antagonist operates and the threat to children throughout. I liked Viri’s character and the change she is showed as she processed new information flying at her. She makes mistakes and figures it out and learns. And those are always solid FMC’s to read about.

The romance is full of banter with an enemies to lovers vibe that holds more tropes I wont divulge here but that I enjoyed seeing too. There’s an air of mystery to the world building that is unveiled well and keeps you going and wanting to know what would happen next. I loved the found family characters and the unlikely partnership created in order to help save their world.

🎧 I listened to a lot of this on audiobook and loved it! Fantastic narrators. Easy listen. Definitely recommend that format.

Overall audience notes:

• YA Fantasy
• Language: low
• Romance: kisses
• Violence: moderate+
• Content warnings: kidnapping children, murder, near death experiences

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