Belladonna (Belladonna #1) by Adalyn Grace

Gallery of Shadows is the first prompt in Amber Heights, the last town in the Romanceopoly — 2025 Reading Challenge, I have loved this challenge. It’s been great for blog content but also for making me branch out of my comfort zone when it comes to my reading. Belladonna is a good example of that.

I know myself well enough to know that I would have been tempted by this cover, then read the YA tags, and decided it wasn’t for me. I have nothing against YA, I’m just not the target audience, and sometimes the characters portrayed in YA remind me too much of how dumb I was when I was their age, but sometimes you can get lucky and pick up a YA with characters who don’t make you want to scream. Signa had some moments that annoyed me, her referencing that fucking book, A Lady’s Guide to Beauty and Etiquette, every second chapter being one (I exaggerate, it’s only mentioned 25 times) and she made some really bad decisions more than once, but I mean she had a lot of dark shit to reconcile so I guess I can forgive it. 😀

Something I particularly love in my PNR is Death being a love interest. This is a trope I usually lap up and Belladonna was no exception. I know Death meeting her as a baby and following her throughout her life is problematic, but it felt like he only knew she was special and he wanted to protect her during that period, and it wasn’t until she killed her aunt that he started to develop romantic feelings for her. That’s at least how I saw it, and as result I didn’t find their relationship creepy. However, I can totally see why people didn’t like this aspect of the story.

Belladonna is very much an enemies to lovers, this wouldn’t be one of my favourite tropes, and I often find that the enemies part of that trope isn’t really enemies at all, more like a vague dislike, not in this case though! I really believed that Signa hated death, I mean she had every right to hate him, but once she understood him, and her powers, she began to fall and I thoroughly enjoyed the process.

I also very much enjoyed the found family aspect of this book. Signa had been taken advantage of for so long, and was ultimately alone for much of her childhood, that her finding a family that wasn’t after her fortune, and a family that made her feel like she belonged, was wonderful to read. I mean they are in a bit of a state when she gets there, grieving widower, angry heir, dying daughter, but they were still more of a family to her than anyone had been before.

Signa and Blythe’s friendship development felt particularly special, Blythe has so much spunk, and I can’t wait for what’s to come with her.

Ultimately I had a lot of fun reading this, it was wonderfully atmospheric, and is a great book for this time of year. It’s making me want to pick up other gothic romances, after I mainline the next two books that is.

Signa may be addicted to Death but I’m addicted to Signa and Blythe!

A novella, Holly, has also just been published, but it’s a ‘Christmas’ novella, and part of me wants to save it. I suspect I’ll end up reading right away though. I’m obsessed I tell you!

Synopsis:

For as long as Signa Farrow has been alive, the people in her life have fallen like stars….

Orphaned as a baby, 19-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each more interested in her wealth than her wellbeing—and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy.

Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realises that the family she depends on could be in grave danger, and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.

Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer, though, is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful—and more irresistible—than she ever dared imagine.