Are you telling me Death is a man? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find that highly unbelievable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Signa Farrow, it’s her reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Signa Farrow is an orphan that has been bounced around homes since she was a child. Each time, her guardian ends up dead, and she ends up moving onto the next home until she meets the Hawthornes. They’re a family both dark and glittering, with a dark past only she can unravel. The only way she can help them is by teaming up with Death himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signa Farrow is a victim.

She has to team up with the man who killed all of her guardians and isolated her. The entire first half of the book Signa talks about how uncomfortable Death makes her and how much she doesn’t want to be around him. I understand that there may be some fascination with a being as old and timeless as Death, especially if he’s cute, but he’s described as a shadow most times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signa Farrow falls in love with the shadow of a concept, an overwhelming presence, slowly over the course of the entire book. I have a feeling that if he just left her alone she would have some semblance of peace in her life. But no. He meddles and is overbearing and overall very terrifying.

I didn’t find their dynamic cute. Death finally having someone he can touch, someone who can touch him without dying, is a sweet concept. But it’s creepy in this book.

That being said, the book is a murder mystery with gothic vibes. The spooky energy within the book, thanks to its setting in a gloomy manor haunted by ghosts, is perfect for the upcoming fall season.

As far as side characters go, they are unremarkable. I’ve read Foxglove<\/em>, the second book, and the side characters go through a lot of growth in that one. I actually liked the characters and found myself rooting for them. But in Belladonna, they leave something to be desired.

The pacing of the book is off. I know I’m not the biggest fan of murder mysteries, but I had high hopes for this one. It was hard to get through. It was hard to convince myself to pick back up. The romance is a creepy slow burn with a funky love triangle and there isn’t much sustenance to the plot. I was starving reading this book. Where is the tea, the drama, the pizazz?<\/em>

It only got the rating it did because of the vibes. It was atmospheric and I liked that.

3\/5. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Are you telling me Death is a man? I find that highly unbelievable. For Signa Farrow, it’s her reality. Signa Farrow is an orphan that has been bounced around homes since she was a child. Each time, her guardian ends up dead, and she ends up moving onto the next home until she meets the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[175,174,12,8,11],"class_list":["post-1015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-death","tag-fallread","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-youngadult"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/magnoliareads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/belladonnatherightone-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1762&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magnoliareads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magnoliareads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magnoliareads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magnoliareads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magnoliareads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/magnoliareads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1017,"href":"https:\/\/magnoliareads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions\/1017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magnoliareads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magnoliareads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magnoliareads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magnoliareads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}