Tag: dark romance

Book Review: Nightshade (Sorrowsong University #1) by Autumn Woods

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Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: New Adult Romance
Length: 416 pages
Author: Autumn Woods
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: June 24th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

When Ophelia Winters accepts a scholarship at a prestigious Scottish university to prove that her parents’ death was the fault of Cain Green, an American aviation tycoon, her plan is simple; keep her grades up and her head down. The last thing she wants is to wind up in a mafia war or step on the toes of royalty.

Her plan gets off to a rocky start when the mysterious man that almost kills her on her first day turns out to be Cain’s eldest son. As far as she’s concerned, Alex Corbeau-Green is a younger version of his billionaire father. A monster hiding beneath a beautiful facade.

Loneliness has been Ophelia’s only dependable companion for years, but when anonymous threats and mysterious occurrences start to haunt her time at Sorrowsong, she wonders if she really can survive there on her own.

Between being paired together for a project and ending up as each other’s alibi for a murder, avoiding Alex becomes increasingly impossible. She begins to fall for the soft heart that hides beneath his hard exterior.

Tormented by a malicious stalker and growing closer to Alex, Ophelia’s desperation for revenge wavers for the first time. Can she really bring herself to pull the trigger on Cain now that she knows the family it’ll split into two?
__________

Dark Academic Romance – Enemies to Lovers – Slow Burn – University Setting

This work is dark in places and contains several triggers throughout. Please heed the warnings before reading.

I THINK I LIKED THIS?

I’ve decided that I will continue with this duet. It’s got the dark vibe I love and things started to grow on me in the second half. It kind of has Maxton Hall vibes? But with a much darker angle. Did anyone watch My Fault: London? Kind of on that wavelength.

This had a dark academia mood that I thought was balanced well with the characters. I loved the brewing found family and getting the backgrounds on many of the students.

Ophelia and Alex had a good connection and I thought the banter worked well between them. I wish there would have been more of them in the first half. I loved how many interactions they had in the second half of the story. THOUGH, the ending made me a bit cranky, but I can’t explain it without spoilers so it is what it is.

I feel like reading the next book? It was different than the usual rom-coms I read so it was nice to mix it up. I have many questions and want to see the fallout from the ending.

Overall audience notes:

  • NA Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: open door, low explicit; innuendo
  • Violence: moderate – high
  • Content Warnings: murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, loss of parents (recounted), declining mental health of a parent, anxiety, drowning

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ARC Book Review: What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 357 pages
Author: Tricia Levenseller
Publisher: Feiwel
Release Date: September 23rd, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

#1 New York Times-bestselling author Tricia Levenseller makes her adult debut in What Fury Brings, a sexy, empowering romantasy featuring a warrior general who must kidnap and train a husband in order to take her rightful place as queen.

Let’s get something clear, Prince. I have claimed you. That means you belong to me now.

There’s a shortage of men in the kingdom of Amarra. After a failed rebellion against the matriarchy, most noblemen in the country are dead. Now the women of Amarra must obtain their husbands (should they want one) by kidnapping them from other kingdoms.

Olerra, a warrior princess vying for the throne, is determined to prove her worth by kidnapping a husband. And not just any husband. To outmaneuver her treacherous cousin, she needs the best. Fortunately, the second-born prince of their greatest enemy is widely known for both his looks and his sweet, docile temperament. He’s the perfect choice to secure her claim to the throne.

Sanos, heir to the Kingdom of Brutus, has nothing but contempt for the idea of a society run by women. Trained from birth to fight, lead, and follow in his father’s overbearing footsteps, his path has always been set. Until he takes his younger brother’s place in a drunken prank and finds himself kidnapped, carted off to the Amarran Palace, and informed that he is to become the husband of Queen Potential Olerra. Sanos needs to escape before anyone learns his real identity, but the more he gets to know his captor, the less sure he is of what he truly wants.

Thank you to Feiwel for the gifted ARC.

OH WHERE DO I BEGIN.

I am a HUGE fan of Tricia Levenseller’s young adult romance. They are all gems and I highly recommend going to go pick those up first.

But if YA isn’t you’re thing, here are some of my thoughts on why this book was a miss for me.

I understood where TL was trying to take this story and what the book was trying to do. It really alllllll boiled down to execution. What the Fury Brings is only 350 pages and that was not enough time to feel satisfied by the end.

I feel like both of these societies had too many unredeemable qualities. There were luckily a few good characters that felt differently which kept this from becoming a hate read (one of those being the FMC, Olerra).

The romance had a Stockholm syndrome vibe that might have worked better spread out over more books. It seemingly grew too fast and was headed by physicality rather than emotion. Don’t even get me started on the spice and innuendo, it was not for me on any level.

While there were some thought provoking moments and the ending brought together some idea of peace and resolution I wish this had more going for it.

I would be very curious to see another adult romance from TL before deciding if those just aren’t for me anymore.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: 3+ open door; innuendo throughout
  • Violence: high
  • Content warnings: mentions of sexual assault, physical/emotional abuse, dubious consent, kidnapping & bondage, mentions of grooming, animal deaths, war themes

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ALC Book Review: Enigma by RuNyx

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Dark Academia Romance
Length: 463 pages
Author: RuNyx
Publisher: Bramble
Release Date: April 29th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A new breathtaking tale of unforgettable romance, set in a dark academia world of secret societies, lush suspense and sizzling sensuality, from RuNyx, the New York Times bestselling author of Gothikana.

Salem Salazar comes to Mortimer University to get to the bottom of her sister’s mysterious death. There, obsessed with forensics, she discovers there have been a lot more unexplained deaths on the campus. Her search leads her down a dark and dangerous path to a secret society and to Caz.

Cazimir van der Waal is in her way and another mystery to unravel. Is he just an art student, a man living a double life, or a murderer? While also at the university seeking answers for another death, Caz has a lot more to him than meets the eye.

Secret forces are at play in Mortimer and no one is safe. As Salem tries to go under radar and Caz tries to block her path, somehow, they both end up in the crossfire of a powerful, secret society. They are forced to work together to discover the truth or risk losing their lives.

In this magnificent, steamy dark academia romance from RuNyx, sparks will fly, rivals will become lovers, and terrible secrets will be unleashed.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for the gifted audiobook.

WELL THAT WAS INTERESTING.

I read dark fantasy fairly often, I like dark fantasy, I liked dark academia, but I’ve neve read a dark romance. And this email caught me in a mood and that mood wanted to try this author out. Will I read another one?? I don’t think so, even though I did like this book.

What I loved circled around all of the mystery and atmosphere. This is quintessential dark academia and I loved the vibes. It felt haunting and the suspense elements alongside the secret societies are what I expect and what I like when I pick up a dark academia book (though this is being tagged as fantasy and there’s no fantasy elements FYI).

And I will say there were pieces of the romance I did like. I am who I am and I love a good jealousy moment so those worked for me. The spice though? Yeah, that’s not for me. And there were more scenes than I had anticipated needing to skip which took me out of the book often too.

I do think this wrapped up things well for a standalone and that you got the overall answers you needed. I loved that there was a epilogue at the end to get that happy ever after feeling. This book had good writing and story telling, and I’m not upset that I tried it out.

Overall audience notes:

  • Dark academia romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: 5+ open door
  • Violence: moderate – high
  • Content warnings: child exploitation, grooming, death, dubious consent, non-consensual drugging, murder, sexual assault and trauma, suicide

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Book Review: The Ever Queen (The Ever Seas #2) by L.J. Andrews

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 450 pages
Author: L.J. Andrews
Publisher: Indie Published
Release Date: January 22nd, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The Songbird:

Captive. Challenger. Queen.

Enemies took her from the man who holds her heart. They might see her as weak, as a pawn in wicked games, but they’re no match for the first Ever Queen.

Let them think they’ve won. Her heart belongs to a beautiful monster, and she will never stop fighting until she’s back in his arms.


The Serpent:

Captor. Villain. King.

His enemies stole the woman who claimed his soul. They betrayed him out of greed and desire for the crown, but they won’t die for that betrayal. No.

They’ll die for touching her.

His heart belongs to a stunning little bird. He will never stop searching for her light across the skies. Not until the blood of his enemies spills at her feet, and his queen wears their bones around her neck.

WHAT A CONCLUSION.

Who knew I’d be obsessed with this dark fantasy? I didn’t and I’m so glad my friends reviews convinced me to pick it up! I loved the way this went. I usually don’t love when a couple is separated for too long in a book, and I think the way the action and intrigue was kept up I was not bothered at all. Everything came together as it should. The slower middle actually worked beautifully because that was the bit of peace the story needed before the action packed, deadly conclusion.

I LOVE Erik and Livia so much. Both on their own and together. There’s incredible growth and I love watching their relationship blossom and thrive. Erik had so many swoony lines that I had to keep highlighting because can you EVEN??? It was the perfect kind of contrast with the darkness of the book. And this whole cast?! I adore them. Side characters can make/break a book and these MADE it.

Fantastic book. I loved it. I am very excited to see that there will be more books in this series (following a different pair!!).

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: 4+ open door
  • Violence: very high; high blood/gore
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: torture, sexual assault (brief, on page), war themes

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