#devryck bramwell

ᯓ curious moth x doctor death

devryck bramwell and lilia vespertine from nocticadia by keri lake

AMAZON

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Lilia Vespertine is a diamond in the rough: beautiful, intelligent, resilient, impoverished, and traumatized from losing her mother to a horrific incident. She finds herself strolling onto Dracadia University's campus on a red carpet that various university staff have laid down for her, seemingly thread-by-thread. While studying at Dracadia, Lilia investigates her mother's death and starts connecting the dots in this book's thoroughly fleshed-out and interconnected plotline. Devryck Bramwell, one of the professors, is dark, mysterious, and is one of the only human beings alive who could help Lilia figure out what happened to her mom. While researching together, Lilia and Devryck get a little ~frisky~ and both of their dark, twisted histories come to light as more twisted together than they ever could have imagined.

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Lilia Vespertine

Having come from a background of poverty and trauma, Lilia is fully aware of where she likely fits into the cogs of the world. She is incredibly resilient and hardworking. After being dealt a sh*tty hand of cards, Lilia has no choice but to take advantage of a crazy opportunity to enroll as a student at one of the nation's top universities. Honestly, she faces questions that so many college girls face -- how do I pay the bills? I was impressed when she took on an on-campus job and research assistantship in addition to a full-time course load. When she decided to try other ~creative~ ways of earning money, my respect for her peaked! Despite committing herself to her sister, mother, studies, work, and research, she somehow had the bandwidth to advocate for her romantic and sexual needs as well. Lilia is the smart, hardworking, loyal, and sexual woman we all strive to be.

Devryck Bramwell

You now, Devryck grew on me. When Keri Lake first introduced him, he seemed like he used his medical condition as an excuse to be an absolute raging prick. Sure, he's privileged with old money, novel research he inhrited from his father, and enough autonomy from the university to do whatever the hell he wants without question. But the moment he started realizing the hardship his most underprivileged student was going through, he went waaaay out of his way to help in the only ways he knew how. Of course, this was only after he scammed her out of her ~other~ way to make money. (I mean really, the least he could have done is pay her for the video 🤷‍♀️) He generally takes a back seat compared to Lilia plot-wise. But Professor Bramwell in the bedroom? HEYOOO he tooootally got off on the professor/student kink even though he kept teasing her about HER liking it. I love a hot, slightly older man who is well-groomed, rich, logical, and "touch her you 💀"-type.

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Would I recommend? 10/10 YES

I wasn't sure what I was getting into with this one -- especially after Haunting Adeline. The plot was way more interesting that I thought it would be, and clearly Keri Lake put a good amount of thought into it. I am impressed with the whole fictional parasitic infection, history of the parasite, how it connects with American colonialism, and modern medicine. I am biased, working in infectious disease. But that should make Lake's work all the more impressive, right?

As far as the 🌶️ goes, SHE'S SPICY. You're not going to get anywhere close to the 🔫 scene in Haunting Adeline, but the spice is just crazy enough without me wondering if I need medication.

Ultimately, I think Nocticadia is a great book as we approach 🕷️👻 spooky season. This was a pretty lengthy read (~700pgs) but plot, spice, character development, and pace was wonderful!

Paperback and hardcover available on AMAZON