✩ Yaz ✩'s Reviews > Nightshade

5 - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“The only torment I wish to inflict is my own. Touching you, and knowing that you will never belong to me. You will never be mine to keep from the world. I want to be good. If for no one else, then for you.”

Nightshade is hauntingly beautiful and a heartwrenching story of star-crossed lovers whose love transcends time and space. Even death bows to such love.

It is an exquisitely rendered gothic fairytale imbued with the paranormal that promises to create a story and a world layered in lush fantasy and sinister mysticism.

Be warned: this book is emotionally devastating but promises to deliver an unforgettable epic romance.

A love so forbidden, it would shake the heavens . . .

For starters, Nightshade is the first book in a duology and it's an adult gothic paranormal romance. The book includes some dark themes and you'll find the trigger warnings at the end of the review.

This book was... phenomenal.

I read the blurb but went in semi-blind with very little expectations. I knew by the end of it I'd be emotionally wrecked, I mean, that's a Keri Lake signature for those that are familiar with her books.

"You no longer belong to the church or these people. You are not bound by the laws of their world. From this night forward, I am your church. When you are lost, I am your shelter. When you are in pain, I am your elixir.”

Keri's intricate writing and storytelling never fails to blow me away and she elicits such strong emotions from me for her stories and characters.

I will refrain from writing a detailed summary of the story because dear reader I will not rob from you the utterly beautiful reading experience and I want you to allow the story to unfold itself to you.

The author does a fantastic job of playing with the dark/light themes. The hero is intense and extremely morally grey whereas the heroine is a of a pure heart whose life is belittled and shamed for being the child of a cursed woman. The hero seeps his darkness and sins into the heroine and she embraces it all.

"We were fated to be together. It is your light to which I am drawn. It feeds the dark thoughts in my head."

The story spans hundred of years and so you will experience this story from another heroine's POV taking place in the present day. All her life, 25-year-old Farryn was haunted by the mysteries and secrets about a world known as Nightshade her father was obsessed with. Nightshade is said to be a shadowed world likened to purgatory—but Nightshade nothing but a myth. Perhaps a myth no longer when the line between reality and fantasy begins to fade and it eventually brings Farryn to a raven-winged Harbringer known as Jericho Van Croix.

“You are a mystifying enigma, Mister Van Croix.” His gaze swung back to me, devouring me in one sweep. “And you are a frustrating distraction, Miss Ravenshaw.”

The characters in this book are richly multilayered and complex. If there is anything Keri Lake perfects, it's writing morally ambiguous characters. She does not shy away from writing characters that may not be redeemable.

“My love for you will never fade. Not even when this wretched world ceases to exist and the sun dies out to an everlasting darkness. My life, my soul. It is yours eternally.”

By now your are probably wondering about what to expect from the romance?

• It's deliciously angsty
• There are many heartfelt moments
• Prepare to be emotionally wrecked
• Sizzling chemistry
• Hot scenes (expect Light BDSM)
• A hot-as-sin brooding and morally grey/villain love interest (with black wings and tattoos)

She was trouble and temptation wrapped in a scent that would eventually drive me mad, unless I could stay away from her. Force myself, anyway. Nothing like having an enticing little snack, a vibrant soul, innocently cavorting about when you’re fucking starving.

The book does not end on a cliffhanger if you're wondering but the story does pause until the next book comes out.

Trigger Warnings: death, suicide, drug abuse, graphic content, sexual assault, violence, strong language.