#bookrec

Oops! Clearly, my listening comprehension skills still leave something to be desired ;-;.

Here is a reuploaded version. 🖤 Apologies! @nicosraf

Rafael Nicolás - Angels before Man

Nightshade is a dark academia romance wrapped in gothic tension, murder mystery vibes, and emotionally damaged people making increasingly questionable decisions inside a creepy Scottish university.

The story follows Ophelia Winters, a scholarship student arriving at Sorrowsong University with one goal: prove that billionaire Cain Green is responsible for her parents’ deaths. Her plan is supposed to be simple — stay unnoticed, investigate quietly, and leave. That immediately falls apart when she collides with Alex Corbeau-Green, Cain’s son, who seems arrogant, dangerous, and impossible to avoid. Things spiral even further once anonymous threats, stalking incidents, and murder accusations start piling up around her.

The biggest strength of the book is definitely the atmosphere. Sorrowsong University feels genuinely eerie and immersive, with isolated castle settings, old-money elites, secret societies, and constant tension hanging over everything. The dark academia aesthetic is strong here — rainy highlands, hidden hallways, emotionally repressed characters, the whole package.

The romance between Ophelia and Alex is very much a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers situation fueled by grief, suspicion, and unresolved trauma. Alex is written as the classic tortured rich-boy love interest — intense, protective, emotionally messy — and readers are VERY divided on him. Some absolutely adore the yearning and banter, while others think the relationship becomes overly dramatic and frustrating, especially near the ending.

Reactions to the pacing are mixed too. A lot of readers found the mystery addictive and bingeable, especially with the stalker plot and cliffhanger ending. Others felt the story dragged in places or leaned more YA emotionally than the darker marketing suggests.

Overall, Nightshade is a dramatic, gothic dark-academia romance that prioritizes atmosphere, emotional tension, and mystery over realism or subtle character choices. If you like morally messy characters, obsessive slow-burn dynamics, and books that feel like rainy midnight playlists turned into a story, it’s extremely addictive.

For my upcoming book release!

I swear, every time I pick up an April Kerner book, I tell myself I’ll take it slow and then end up binging the whole thing in one night. Her stories just hit different—they’re emotional, messy, and so real that I feel like I know her characters personally.

After reading Boys with Secrets, I thought, “Okay, there’s no way she can make me feel this much again.” Then I read Boys with Braces, and now I’m just sitting here, fully invested in these fictional people like they’re my actual friends. Lazar? Riley? John? I’d defend them with my life.

I love how Kerner doesn’t shy away from difficult topics but still gives us those heartwarming, swoon-worthy moments that make me believe in love again. Her writing has this effortless way of making you feel everything—the angst, the joy, the absolute devastation (because yes, I did cry).

currently reading: ‘the husbands’ by holly gramazio

The writing is quite good.

I enjoyed gradually discovering the point of the framing device.

The vast majority of the expats are adorable.

Really wish portions of the plot didn't require the protagonist to stop asking pertinent questions and become deeply passive in the middle.

Truly wild that Barack "the arc of history is long but it bends towards justice and thus incrementalism my one true love is the path forward" Obama would recommend a book so firmly of the belief that there is not merely no arc to history but that one must firmly grasp the tiller to amend what has gone wrong.

All of the food Gore makes sounds very tasty.

Recommendation for the general public: it's not very long, and is quite an enjoyable read. It doesn't really care that much about how time travel works, so don't be turned off if you have trouble tracking multiple timelines.

Remember to take care of yourself and check the CW's for these books, especially the horror list.

19.10.24

Reading Japanese classics is so oddly comforting(?) I know it sounds insane as most of them consist of sensitive topics but sometimes some lines are so good, it makes you want to squeeze your own heart until it ruptures, it makes your head spin in circles leaving you numb and unable to think any further while the line that you just read echoes like a haunting whisper in the dark.