Gothikana: A Dark Academia Gothic Romance: TikTok Made Me Buy it!

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I highlighted majority of this book just because it was so damn good. It’s was mysterious and spooky and damn hot. Warm- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments. Ever since I was a kid and the first time I finally got my hands on Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, books such as Gothikana have been one of my very favorite things. And with the legends and old wives tales abounding this is giving me everything I could possibly want. So, naturally, the most logical thing for him would be to stare at his new female victim (oops did I just say victim instead of student 👁️👁️) in the class/in the halls/ (insert any public space of the said academy) as if she were an oasis in his personal desert. 🤡 Let the whole world wait and see while he fantasises about his student during his working hours:D This is a dark academia romance featuring forbidden love. I read this book in bed in the dark with just my clip on reading light while it was raining - I had the whole entire dark vibe going and it was such a great experience. I loved how eerie and paranormal the scenes were in this, so descriptive and well written, it makes you feel as if you are right there beside the characters. I could have probably binged this entire book in one night but I had to force myself to read it slowly because I truly did not want it to end. I absolutely loved the characters, the spice, the darkness, everything!

Just some thoughts and things I didn't like about the book, but it was sadly such a disappointment. Corvina Clemm is accepted into Verenmore university, a place where she can finally get out into the real world now that her mother has been placed in an institute due to her battle with Schizophrenia. Set in an ancient castle, Corvina (along with those damn voices in her head), starts a new adventure. Imagine me standing there smoking like Mount Vesuvius, because that's what I like to associate myself with when I'm frustrated and mad.You see me.” Her lips trembled, the realization that this man saw her, truly saw her, and still watched her with that look in his eyes making something inside her shift. “I see you.” His silver gaze seared her. “I’ve always seen you.” Val's possessive love for Corvina built this darker chemistry between them, but it works so well. The chemistry. The attraction. The tension. Everything worked so well. In case anyone wants to inform me of how the whole mystery was resolved at the end, it would be highly appreciated. (why does this sentence sound so formal to me, though?? 😭) RuNyx immerses her readers in the dark worlds she builds and then injects life into them in the most hauntingly beautiful way. Her work is unique and addictive—she really is one of a kind.” ― Hannah Grace, New York Times bestselling author of Icebreaker

Verenmore, a character in it's own right, is the exclusive university where Corvina attends and Vad teaches. It sits atop a secluded mountain, beautiful and terrifying with ghosts of the past haunting the halls and the woods on the castle grounds. This majestic setting and the secrets it holds made the story so much fun and created an ambience both romantic and downright creepy. A lifelong mystery, Vad Deverell likes to be a closed book but he knows exactly what’s going on at the university. As a part-time professor working on his Ph.D., Vad has been around long enough to understand the dangers the castle poses. And he knows that the moment his paths cross with Corvina, she is dangerous to everything he is. It was sad how she was just reduced to the girl with purple eyes when she could've done so much more with the mystery plot of the disappearances rather than the 360 degree turn of never finding out what happened and shifting it all to Jade being the reason for Alyssa/Troy murder-suicide all because Jade's demonic brain thought her and Vad were soulmates lol wtf is up with that wattpad shit??? Personally, I like the age gap to be a bit bigger in teacher/student books for the more taboo aspect, so this was kind of like... Yeah...so what? Staying,” she told him, glancing down at the letter in her hand and stuffing it in the brown leather bag that had belonged to her grandmother. It had been the only thing she had got from anyone besides her mother.Not only that, but the dark academia aesthetic it was apparently striving for was nowhere to be seen beyond needing a reason for all these characters to be in one building. They shouldn't have caught each other's eye. They cannot be. But a chill-inducing century-old mystery forces them to collide. People have disappeared every five years over the past century, Corvina is getting clues to unraveling it all, and Vad needs to keep an eye on her. It fell flat because of that especially because sooooo many things happen. We have the mystery of Corvina and why she is the way she is, the Thesis of Vad, the purple eyes, the ball, the disappearing of students, the witches, the rituals, the lake, the forest, the powder and nothing gets answered or just very broadly explained by saying it is because the mountain is magical.

It’s just … I don’t know. I kind of felt a little bit like I was reading My Immortal? I mean the heroine has purple eyes and is called Corvina and is described like this:As she tries to adjust to life in the haunting and secluded halls of the castle, she finds herself attracting the attention of Vad Deverell, a part-time professor working on his thesis. and if i am? does that make you loathe me? will that keep your pussy dry” being things i also read with my bare eyes. Her mama didn’t talk much but she did hear voices, voices that told her things. They told her to not talk to people, to homeschool Corvina after that incident at the school, to keep her away from everyone. Her mama told her she couldn’t wander or they would take her away. She couldn’t leave her side in town or they would take her away. She couldn’t talk to anyone or they would take her away.

This will last until the day roses on my grave stop sharing roots with the roses on yours,” he declared. “I will have you even in death, little witch. I am your beast. I am your madness. And you, you’re my afterlife.”Vad Deverell and Corvina Clemm. The dark and broody professor we know we shouldn’t want and the raven haired, purple eyed girl who defies everything you thought she would be. The Devil and the Witch. The Lovers. I have never read spice quite like how RuNyx writes it, every scene had me internally screaming “holy sh*t”. The pace is perfect, the dialogue alone is toe curling and their love will leave you envious. I’m also 99% sure my body temperate was a whole 5 degrees hotter for the entirety of this book.