I fell in love with Clio Evans’ Creature Cafe series this summer, so when I found out she had a dark academia monster romance coming out, BOY did I jump at the chance to read it. There’s nothing quite like ushering in spooky season with a gothic, academic, monstery, murdery love story, is there?
Highlights:
Nora wants to break new ground in the academic world, but will the strangeness of St. Thorns university and its mysterious creature, or the infamous brooding botany professor, let her?
What I thought:
THE HOLD THIS BOOK HAD ON ME. To start, the range Clio Evans has, it’s impressive. Her Creature Cafe series is light, fun, and mostly smut, but this book really had some depth to it. Evans weaved such a story of angst, trauma, memory loss from each, and created a set of characters that gave me the most delicious whiplash. At its heart, this book was a murder mystery set in 1900s academia, but it quickly progressed into a monster romance with more intrigue than I could have ever imagined. Our MMC was the absolute MOST broody, and didn’t try to hide it for one second – which by the way, I very much appreciated. He wasn’t like… NO I’M NOT BROODY AND TORTURED I’M JUST CRANKY. Nope, he embraced the darkness from day one and our FMC didn’t shy away from it – no, she hit him right back with her own darkness. We LOVE a strong woman, and I personally love an academic one at that. Both characters grew into their own and by the end I didn’t care who needed to die to keep them safe and happy.
P.s. release date is September 10th – better get to it!
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