Title: Deathbringer
Author: Sonia Tagliareni
Genre: Romantasy, Dark Academia, Fantasy Mystery
Format: eARC
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐✨ (3.5★)
Synopsis
Viola was born with the ability to speak with the dead, a power she has spent years trying to ignore. But after her sister dies at the Gorhail Institute of Magic, Viola is forced to step into the same dangerous world she always hated.
At the academy, she meets Sylas, a poison mage tied to deadly serpents and carrying his own hatred toward death mages like Viola. As students begin turning up dead, the two are pushed into an uneasy alliance that slowly pulls them deeper into secrets, forbidden magic, and a deadly conspiracy hidden within the academy walls.
My Thoughts
The blurb for this book? Absolutely my thing.
Dark academia, necromancy, forbidden romance, murder mystery… I saw all that and basically jumped into this book head first.
And honestly? It started really strong.
The premise itself is super interesting. Viola can speak with the dead, but she hates her magic and has spent years pretending she doesn’t have it. After her sister dies at the magical academy she attended, Viola is forced to step into that same world to figure out what really happened.
There she meets Sylas… and honestly, calling him a love interest early on feels generous because this man spends a good portion of the book acting like Viola personally offended him just by existing.
Overall, this ended up being a very mixed read for me.
There were moments I genuinely enjoyed and then moments where the story completely lost me before eventually pulling me back in again. The ending especially? Messy, chaotic and absolutely successful at making me curious for book two.
One thing that disappointed me was the dark academia aspect. Technically yes, the story takes place at an academy, but it never fully delivered that atmosphere for me. We get some library scenes and academic moments here and there, but overall it felt more surface level than immersive.
And then… Sylas.
Oh boy.
This man constantly talks about how much he hates Mortemagi, treats Viola terribly multiple times, and even his apologies always felt weak to me. Because of that, I really struggled with the romance. It leaned too heavily into insta-love while expecting me to move past how badly he behaved at times.
Honestly, if this had been a slower enemies-to-lovers romance where the feelings developed more naturally over time, I probably would have loved it.
Instead, I spent several chapters wanting Viola to leave him behind and enjoy life on her own.
Another frustration was how reckless Sylas is throughout the story. Several people die because of his actions, yet the consequences for him never really feel serious, which made parts of the story harder to fully buy into.
That said, I did enjoy parts of the magic system. The relics, the serpents and some of the magical concepts felt unique and were probably some of my favorite parts of the book.
I also struggled a bit with the 1939 setting because, outside of a few mentions here and there, it never truly felt grounded in that time period.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this was very much an “I liked the idea more than the execution” kind of read for me.
Still, despite all my complaints, the ending absolutely hooked me enough that I know I’ll probably end up reading book two out of pure curiosity.
ARC Disclaimer
Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
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