Belladonna (Belladonna, 1)

This was such a mesmerizing read, and easily one of my favourite books of the year. The type of book that will run through one's mind forever. I loved the story, the character building, the pace, the way the words were woven together. It was beautiful and evocative, with a perfect amount of slow burn romance and a fabulous gothic-style mystery that kept me guessing until the end. Signa is a girl pursued by Death since she was a baby, and the only one who can match him in every way. They're fated to meet again and again until one dreadful event leads her to discover that she's connected with Death in more ways than she dared to imagine. A story about secrets, ambition, the pain of grief, and the healing power of love. A family shrouded in secrets, a haunted manor, and a young woman on a journey of self-discovery. For me personally, this book felt like a standalone but the ending left room for a sequel, and I'm excited to see what will come next. I highly recommend it!

4/5 Stars Belladonna delves into the story of Signa, a girl who cannot die, and her extraordinary relationship with Death as she tries to find her place in the world (and outside of it) while discovering who is trying to murder the family she has come to know and love. This was probably 1 part romance, 1 part coming-of-age, and 2 parts mystery. While the beginning was dreadfully slow, these aspects start to even out by the end of the first act and comes out as quite the page-turner. Signa is the heiress to a fortune she cannot access until the age of twenty. Bounced around from home to home, her caretakers all drop like flies around her, no thanks to Death, the entity who seems to love nothing more than to make her life miserable. She can't seem to really want him gone though; not when he is the only one who understands the strangeness of her burgeoning power. Taken in by her uncle and her cousins, Signa tries to adjust to the life of high society that she's always dreamed of. But one of her cousins is dreadfully ill, and their mother also died of a mysterious illness that not even her ghost can tell Signa the answer to. Signa suspects foul play as she is well versed in the ways of plants and poisons, she joins Sylas, a farmhand for the family, in trying to find out just who wants her family dead and why all while balancing her growing feelings for Death and her longing to be of the human world she finds herself always trying to fit into. I want to start out by saying that despite the rocky start, I had a really good time with this book. The writing is well done, not overtly full of purple prose, but not so simplistic as to feel insulted. It can be a hard balance to find in a Victorian/Georgian type of setting but I believe this finds a happy medium. The mystery aspect was engaging enough to keep my on my toes. I won't say it was the most GASPIEST OF GASPING twists at the end, but it felt satisfying enough and was buoyed again by the cliffhanger ending that left an obvious opening for Book 2 that I would gladly read. Suspension of disbelief needs to play a big role in this, as it is a romance with Death. The issue that often comes with taking a concept so outside our understanding and trying to personify them is that there isn't a realistic way to do so. You have to humanize them in order for romance to be an option. And if you're anything like me, that's going to grate on you if you think about it too hard. Why would Death, a God in his own right, have any sort of care to understand the frivolous nature of human emotions? Love, lust, guilt, sorrow —it's just hard to make sense out of it. So, I would warn anyone who has a tendency to rip this sort of thing apart to stay clear if you can't just enjoy the story for what it is. Chock full of ghosts, twists, and haunting whispers, I think this book is ju...

I am going to honest here. I originally bought it because the cover and inner covers are so damn enchanting, and the story sounded mildly interesting. I was pleasantly surprised to find the story captivating with it's intrigue and am looking forward to the ghostly mystery solving in the next book.

If you’re looking for a good murder mystery read look no further. Signa has a pretty interesting life leading up to when she moves into Thorn Grove. She teams up with Death to uncover a murderer living there, and tries to stop anymore murders from happening. This was a great book that has a little horror feel for it. It would be a really great read to get in the Halloween spirit. It had a wonderful plot that kept me guessing on who I thought was the murderer, and I was not expecting who it was at all! Lots of new twists and turns with Signa that I’m looking forward to seeing explored more in the next book.

Signa is orphaned as a baby and raised by several guardians who seem to be more interested in her inheritance and the allowance that comes with it. Unfortunately, each of these guardians seem to have met an untimely death. Six months before her 20th birthday she finds herself living with the Hawthorns, the family of her mother's late sister. Signa finds the huge mansion haunted and her cousin sick, dying of the same mysterious disease as her Aunt. It is up to Signa with a little help from others to solve this mystery. It had a gothic setting with some paranormal and romance! I loved it and didn't want to put it down. Even when I thought I knew who did it, I didn't, and I loved how the author left the story open for a second book! I will definitely be watching out for this author!