Adalyn Grace is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Stars and Teeth, which was named "2020's biggest YA fantasy" by Entertainment Weekly, and it’s sequel, All the Tides of Fate. Prior to becoming an author, Adalyn spent four years working in live theater, acted as the managing editor of a nonprofit newspaper, and studied storytelling as an intern on Nickelodeon Animation's popular series The Legend of Korra. Local to San Diego, Adalyn spends her nonwriting days watching too much anime and playing video games with her two dorky dogs. She invites you to visit her on Instagram @authoradalyngrace or her website, AdalynGraceAuthor.com. You can find more of my reviews of her work here.
Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each more Interested in hear wealth than her well-being—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 realizes 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. However, Signa's best chance of uncovering the murderer 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. From New York Times bestselling author Adalyn Grave, Belladonna brings to life a highly romantic, Gothic-infused world of wealth, desire, and betrayal.
This book is incredibly atmospheric. You can't go one page without feeling like you're right there in Thorn Grove, surrounded by meandering ivy and wandering haunted halls. Like V.E. Schwab's Gallant, Belladonna is obsessed with depicting an old house and all the familial dysfunctions that come with a haunted manor. I feel like right now, there is a niche spot in YA fantasy that Belladonna fills: for readers that love Jane Eyre or Gothic stories, for readers that love when the setting of a book is just as important as the characters, for readers that love haunted stories. Belladonna checks all those boxes, and more.
The prose is incredibly lush and detailed, a true testament to Grace's growth as a writer. You simply cannot miss a single sentence—they are all important in the building of a story. Feeling that each word is chosen deliberately, that each sentence is crafted in a specific way to make a reader feel like they're in this world is truly one of Belladonna's great strengths. If you pay as close attention as I did to the prose, you may be able to guess some of the plot twists, but trust me when I say that you will still be surprised by the cliffhanger ending and the twists in the chapters before. I love reading Grace's work because even though I think I've outsmarted the book, she still finds a way to completely surprise me, and I love that feeling as a reader. It truly makes for an exciting, engaging read.
Just as the writing was strong, the way Grace depicted all the characters was strong. It feels like there's a wide range of characters—from Percy and Blythe to Elijah and Lillian to Signa and Death—yet each one is introduced so deliberately that it's easy to keep track of everyone. This is what helps make the murder mystery that much more shocking and twisty as well—you truly believe you knew everyone's motivations, so that when the reveal comes, you're just as shocked as Signa herself. I enjoyed how the murder mystery was a larger and longer plot line than just romance. While I love romance, I loved how that was influenced by the action at Thorn Grove, and how both of Signa's love interests were the ones helping her towards finding the answers.
When Grace was promoting this book, there was a lot of hype surrounding Signa and Death, the main love interest, so I was completely surprised when it seemed like there was another love interest: Sylas, a stable boy at Thorn Grove. This was a pleasant twist, because it made the romance element of the novel more complicated than I originally thought. I have mixed feelings about a love interest who is a thousand years old (I think Sarah J. Maas makes me nervous about this trope) but Grace handled this with great care. I loved her depiction of Death, and appreciated the care that went into developing Signa's and Death's relationship. In order to keep this a spoiler-free review, I can't say much more on the topic, other than to say that it was a swoony relationship for sure, and one that makes me eager to see how it'll all play out in the sequel, Foxglove.
With that cliffhanger, I am so glad that there will be resolution in Foxglove, the sequel to Belladonna, but I can't believe we have to wait a full year for that to come! Either way, I will definitely wait with bated breath, and get my hands on Foxglove the moment it comes out. Stay tuned for my review. Until then, you can find Adalyn Grace on Instagram @authoradalyngrace or her website, AdalynGraceAuthor.com. You can find more of my reviews of her work here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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