{"id":873,"date":"2022-06-08T14:22:04","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T12:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/?p=873"},"modified":"2022-06-08T14:24:59","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T12:24:59","slug":"belladona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/?p=873","title":{"rendered":"Belladona"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Adalyn Grace<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this book we follow a young woman called Signa Farrow. She\u2019s lived a life haunted by Death. More or less her whole family died when she was just a baby. But Signa cannot die, which not only made her the sole heir to a fortune, but gave her a connection to Death and the world beyond the living. One by one of Signa\u2019s (very unfitting) guardians is taken by Death, making Signa more and more lonely and angry with Death. But when Signa is sent to Thorn Grove to live with her last remaining relatives, the Hawthornes, she stumbles upon angered spirits, strange illnesses, and an array of eccentric people with plenty of secrets. Soon Signa realizes that the illnesses are in fact unnatural, and that the death isn\u2019t natural. To solve the murder and bring peace back to Thorn Grove, Signa has to make an alliance with Death himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, this was an interesting read with some very good elements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find that the writing is detailed and at times poetic and a bit \u201cold\u201d, which fits the story since it takes place somewhere in the 1800s. I did find it a bit jarring to begin with though because it\u2019s written in an almost omniscient POV. There\u2019s a lot of distance to the main character, which I find odd and I think the story would have been better had we been closer to Signa throughout the story.  Or maybe I just have a hard time with the \u201cbut what she didn\u2019t know was that xxxx\u201d-type of narrative. I want to be there in the moment with the character, and this book isn\u2019t that. However, it didn\u2019t take long to get into the style and after the first few chapters I rarely thought much about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The murder mystery is a very interesting plot that may perhaps not have the tension and \u201chold your breath\u201d-excitement of a really good thriller\/crime story, but it\u2019s suitable for this book. And considering it\u2019s not really the main plot either, it works really well. And the twists here had me surprised, but not chocked. Everything felt well developed and planned out, which is great. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main plot for me in this book is more about Signa and her journey in finding herself and who she is, which also incudes romance. And Signa is a likeable character who\u2019s easy to follow and as a reader I want to know what\u2019s going to happen to her, and I want the best for her. When it comes to the romance, Signa and Death has great chemistry and the romance is beautifully written. I do have a few issues with the romance that I\u2019ll get to later, but I have to say that if I disregard certain things, the romance is good and it develops nicely throughout the novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The core of this novel is really good, and there\u2019s many things to like about it. I\u2019ve read an ARC of this novel, which might explain a lot of the mistakes I found in it. This really needs a final pass with an editor because there are a lot of mistakes. Words missing in sentences, wrong name in dialogues, grammar mistakes etc. But I\u2019m confident those will be fixed before release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also find that it\u2019s too many words in it. Now, this is probably something of a personal preference too. I like fast novels that doesn\u2019t dawdle along with unnecessary details and scenes that really don\u2019t matter. And, well, this book has plenty of those. At least 30% of the book isn\u2019t really necessary, and I\u2019ve honestly skimmed large portions of it because it\u2019s very slow. But I\u2019m sure plenty of people would instead love the book for just this attention to detail and slow development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, onto the final thing. The romance. As much as I like the way it\u2019s written and the chemistry between the characters, I can\u2019t help but feel like this romance is seriously creepy. And not because Death is, well, Death. But because one, he\u2019s as old as creation himself, and she\u2019d 19, but two, she doesn\u2019t even know what he looks like. She\u2019s like swooning over a man cloaked in shadows that\u2019s millennia old and she\u2019s like \u201cI don\u2019t care what he looks like\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure, he\u2019s waited for her a long time and all that, and even though I don\u2019t like the whole old man with young woman thing in YA, I get it. This woman is the first one he\u2019s ever been able to touch. She is his only wish and he loves her. But I would have still liked to have seen his face before they get intimate. I\u2019m perhaps superficial in this, but what if he had a decaying face with worms swirling out of his bloodied eye sockets? I mean, he\u2019s Death after all. How romantic would it have been to wake up in bed with that face, no matter how sweet the man was? So, yes, I would have liked to see his pretty face before any intimate details. 

But that isn\u2019t really by biggest issue either. What I\u2019m concerned about is that Death found Signa when she was a baby. A baby. He\u2019s been watching her since she was a baby in a crib, waiting, grooming (?) and whatever until she was nineteen and then he comes and is like \u201cyou\u2019re my everything and I love you, please sleep with me, be with me, give me your everything because you\u2019re the only woman I\u2019ve been able to touch, and I need you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I find this extremely creepy and inappropriate, and the whole thought that this man has stalked Signa since she was a baby only so he could seduce her and take her for himself as a young adult makes my stomach turn at every line of that otherwise greatly written romance. Couldn\u2019t he at least have met her at 16 or something? This is like Twilight and Jacob and the baby all over again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sorry, but grown men falling in love with babies is wrong, even if they wait until they are adults to act on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But overall, this is a solid read and I’m giving it a 3,5\/5 stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Adalyn Grace. In this book we follow a young woman called Signa Farrow. She\u2019s lived a life haunted by Death. More or less her whole family died when she was just a baby. But Signa cannot die, which not only made her the sole heir to a fortune, but gave her a connection to Death and the world beyond the living. One by one of Signa\u2019s (very unfitting) guardians is taken by Death, making Signa more and more lonely and angry with Death. But when Signa is sent to Thorn Grove to live with her last remaining relatives, the Hawthornes, she stumbles upon angered spirits, strange illnesses, and an array of eccentric people with plenty of secrets. Soon Signa realizes that the illnesses are in fact unnatural, and that the death isn\u2019t natural. To solve the murder and bring peace back to Thorn Grove, Signa has to make an alliance with Death himself. So, this was an interesting read with some very good elements.  I find that the writing is detailed and at times poetic and a bit \u201cold\u201d, which fits the story since it takes place somewhere in the 1800s. I did find it a bit jarring to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[19,32,31,4],"wppr_data":{"cwp_meta_box_check":"Yes","cwp_rev_product_name":"Belladona","_wppr_review_template":"default","cwp_rev_product_image":"http:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/belladonna.jpeg","cwp_image_link":"image","wppr_links":[],"cwp_rev_price":"","wppr_pros":["Great plot","Interesting world","Well developed mystery","Good characters"],"wppr_cons":["Creepy romance","A bit slow",""],"wppr_rating":"73.00","wppr_options":{"1":{"name":"Overall","value":"80"},"2":{"name":"Plot","value":"70"},"3":{"name":"Character","value":"70"},"4":{"name":"Writing","value":"65"},"5":{"name":"Ending","value":"80"}},"wppr_review_type":"Product","wppr_review_custom_fields":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":875,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions\/875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}