Very dark and moody, I was spooked at times. RuNyx is so good at setting a gothic horror dark forest and abandoned lakes environment. I am a big scaredy cat so my hands were clenched through a majority of the book. (Please don’t go a walk alone in the woods in the middle of a windy night with your freaking candlestick—get back in your room, Corvina!!!!)

(although in hindsight the woods seem safer than your room.

The voices come in at perfect times, too!

We get just enough to make me question back-and-forth whether it’s real (and the castle) or not (Corvina). But not too much that it takes away from Corvina and Vad’s story. 

The relationship does move just a little fast into the “you are my destiny”-type of depth. But it’s very romantic if you are wanting the Romance-book side of Romantasy. The sexual content is also well-written. The writing is definitely more modern than “truly dark academia” and there are some times that an editor might have rearranged a sentence or word choices to flow better. But if you are okay with that, the story reads well and didn’t distract me too much. We are here for the interesting plot, peculiar handling of voices, and vibes. 

Fair warning if you have no tolerance for it: there are the times where Corvina describes herself and goes a little into “pick-me” territory with her wardrobe, lipstick, and mentioning her nose and ear piercings. It was also awkward to randomly bring up her breasts in this manner. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  These instances were a turn-off for me because they don’t really add anything to the story or plot. The most important thing really is her  eye color, so unless the size of her heaving bosom or nose piercing and choker necklaces is an easter egg, it wasn’t necessary. 

Sample quote that I kind of bark-laughed/cringed:

“You might be a luring siren but I’m no ordinary sailor. I’m a mad pirate and I’m trying to resist your call. If I land on your shores, I will plunder and take away everything worth having. Be very careful giving me those eyes.””

This was almost when they just met to give you a sense of speed in the relationship. 

I like that most of the story with Verenmore is wrapped up but I am really curious about the main problem of our FMC here—

who is Mo!?

The bonus scene from Vad’s POV is a great way to lead us into the yet unannounced and unconfirmed next book. Though I now know that I’ll probably want to read the rest of the series during the day! 

Mostly great story with memorable characters. Magnificent & mysterious setting. Sex scenes a bit cringy. Unnecessary repetitive descriptions of the same things. A bit too rushed at the end. Unanswered questions. Amateur writing. TERRIBLE editing. 

Steamy and intoxicating with a mystery between the walls of a gothic castle. Highly recommend

I'd like to start by saying THIS BOOK IS BAD! it's really bad... however, I love it. it's such a fun read. I've read it twice now and I like it even more the second time. it's stupid, confusing and poorly written but something about it just makes me happy. I like the character of Vlad (vad is a stupid name) he has some really great moments where he's genuinely a good dude. how he dedicates himself to corvina is really sweet or when she has a panic attack during sex he stops immediately and consoles her. we stan. but he's also a massive cunt. I won't go into detail but there is an element of dubcon and the lack of communication and really asking about corvinas boundaries is very nasty work. like hey! you should talk to her about this first👍 I do like him though like he's an interesting character and i wish runyx went more in depth with his back story his current story and the shit with his alabama half sister. corvina on the other hand... for fucks sake she is so obnoxious... and alexandrias gensis? oh be for fucking real m8. her violet orbs shone in the dark moonlight as the ravens sang their songs of death face ass. she lacks depth and feels like a marry sue tbh. her character gives "im so #deepanddiffrent also we need to talk about the very problematic use of mental health disorders in this book and how they're referred to. using schizophrenia in the way runyx did is well say tacky. it's not done well at all. same with the dementia. as someone who lost a family member to the disease it was very um uncomfortable to read about her mother. 

in conclusion I love this book because it's bad. it's so fun to read and fun to laugh about. runyx you slayed i fear. 

Not for me.

I like dark romance, especially when you add in a spooky or paranormal flare. This book, however, was pretty boring to me. The plot moved really slow. It feels like this, but could’ve been shorter with what happened. The romance was essentially nonexistent until the very end. It was insta love and then just a bunch of alright smut. The plot twist was also pretty obvious.

No one thought to look into the chick that was closest to the two people (roommate and girlfriend) that jumped off the roof? She would have been the prime suspect.

Again, this book just wasn’t for me, but I know other people really enjoyed it. I personally wouldn’t recommend it to a friend.

2 🌶️

Review:
tbh I didn't care for the main character or the smut 
(there was no plot 😭)
___________________
Reread:

I mentally pronounce Corvina name "Corona"

I got through it. Solid 2. The writing was at time pedantic and the plot lacked a lot of substance. I think we I saw “gothic romance” I was thinking along the lines of Adalyn Grace’s “Foxglove” — a slow burn, out of time, dark romance. This was dark. I will give it that. I would strongly advise one check the content warnings before reading. But the ending just lacked so much. It kind of was just there. I felt like we’d been building to something supernatural or even just unexpected. But we instead get a Scooby Do-esq storyline. And I was still left with so many questions. And not in a fun way. This felt, at times, like one big spicy book with words around it in the vague wispy form of a plot. Ironic, I know. Would I recommend? Probably not.

But I will say, the cover, binding and sprayed purple edges are beautiful. The purple and black is such a solid choice. Love the Verenmore gold foil.