I really loved the beginning of the book but unfortunately by around 30% it started dragging a bit and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped.

I’m gonna start with positive aspects of my review.
First of all I really enjoyed the writing. That’s what drew me in at the very beginning and the author really has a way with words. The writing is immersive and descriptive enough but easy to follow.

I also loved the general idea behind the story. The God of Death, deathly trials and gothic atmosphere. I truly loved the idea behind this book and I think the storyline has a lot of potential.

What didn’t work for me was unfortunately the showing and not telling. After passing the 30% mark we had a lot of repetitions that and I feel like the story lost its way a bit.

And unfortunately I didn’t feel much chemistry between two MCs. Yes, it was a slow burn but somehow it immediately went straight to insta love. I much prefer it when the relationship between the characters evolves gradually where the reader feels the tension between and sadly that’s not what happened for me here.

It was a good fantasy book with a lot of potential. Sadly it wasn’t for me but I’m sure many readers will love it so give it a try.

The tropes include:

- enemies to lovers
- dark romantasy
- deathly trials
- morally grey MMC and witchy FMC

I was drawn in by the cover and found the synopsis interesting, but this book just did not do it for me. I got 30% of the way into this book and was still uninterested and skimmed the last 70%.
- Writing Style: 2.5/5
Personally, I did not like the writing style. It came off as trying too hard to be descriptive and seemed more like the writer was trying to reach a certain word count rather than focusing on the quality of the storytelling. Too detailed on things that didn’t matter and a lot of stuff throughout the book is very repetitive. This was more of a tell than show type of writing that never gave me a vivid mental picture.

- Plot/Story: 3/5
The premise of this book seems very interesting and I was excited to read it, but it fell flat. At no point was I ever invested in this story and as a whole it felt fairly anticlimactic and was quite predictable. Again, I feel the writing is what caused the plot to struggle. From where the book starts to how it ends is intriguing, but how it was told did nothing to actually make me interested.

- World Building: 2.5/5
Honestly, I recall so little of this world and never had a good vivid picture painted in my mind of any scene in this book because the writing just seemed to lack. Personally, I feel that too much is left out in regard to Azkiels siblings and what happens and that may be why I was never quite drawn in because I never really knew what was going on. All the reader knows is Azkiel can't let his siblings wake but can't remember what they did for him to put them in the sleeping state. The tributes are chosen to fight but are never really given a reason as to why and just accept it. Then there are the elders who get the powers of all the tributes killed but never seem to use the powers after the fact, so what's the point of the harvest besides being told to do so by Azkiel. It just seems there are several plot points not completely thought through. Overall the whole way this world works and what’s driving the plot seems weakly built and had me confused most of the time or left so much information left out that it failed to provide enough information to interest me.

- Characters: 2/5
I did not care for either of the main characters. The only character I (somewhat) liked throughout the whole book was Drake who was only a side character. The vast majority of the book has you rooting for the FMC Calista and her childhood friend Drake. They finally get to the moment they kiss and both characters say it felt wrong, and that was that. Next thing you know Calista is hooking up with the God of Death (Az). The relationship between Calista and Az is supposed to be enemy to lovers, but there is hardly any change in their relationship. One second they don’t like each other (and she is literally kissing Drake) and in the next Az is helping her “calm her powers” and the next thing you know they’re hooking up and suddenly love each other. Pretty much everything between Calista and Az is the author saying they have feelings for each other, but nothing in the writing shows that or builds their relationship at all. It’s all very sudden and honestly kind of cringey. To make their relationship more convincing and able to get the reader invested, there needs to be more building of it rather than just making the characters do things.

- Overall: 2.5/5
I was excited to read this based on the synopsis and the book itself is so pretty. At no point in the book was I interested in the characters or what was happening and I cannot get into this author's writing style. If it weren’t for the fact that I had received this as an ARC I would have DNF’d this at 30%. This is only the first book in the series so there is a possibility for everything to improve in the other books, but personally based on this one I will not be continuing with the series.

I thought this book had a lot of potential! It has an interesting premise, likable characters, and unique world building. I do think it could have been better executed though. I found much of the book to be repetitive, oddly paced, and a little too prosaic. Over all a decent start, but I'm not sure I'd read more in the series if the writing didn't tighten up a bit.

Night of Death and Flowers by Rebecca L. Garcia is the start to a new series that has me completely hooked into the world created. I adore books and basically anything else that involves witches, and this book delivers exactly the kind of content I adore.

There are unique kinds of magic, and covens that revolve around the type of magic witches and warlocks have and I was super sucked in by the magic system and covens immediately. Something else that immediately intrigued me about this book, and was the initial reason (besides it involving witches) behind picking it up, was that there is a lottery system of sorts that acts as a way to select a group of individuals with magic to compete to the death against one another and act as sacrifices to the Gods.

Azkiel hooked my interest right away. With his lack of memories from before his long sleep, I needed the backstory that brought him to the present day when he plans to kill the prophesied individual who will wake his siblings. I wanted all the story on why he didn’t want his fellow Gods to be awoken as it seemed like there was so much history and strife lurking behind this character. And with his power of death and as a result inability to touch others, his tough, but lonely persona made for all kinds of intrigue.

First off I want to start by saying I do genuinely think this book/world has a lot of potential. I am so enthralled by the world, the magic, the covens, etc. But the book itself could use a bit of work to really get it there. It’s at times very redundant with characters thinking and saying the same things repeatedly. Azkiel being obsessed with Calista and her possession of his power, as well as his siblings and what he has done to them, without bringing any real new information to these ideas. It’s just reiterated time and again without providing more to the reader in the way of details. For Calista it is constantly about how unfair the ritual to induct a new elder into their numbers through the trials. I get that it’s awful but her endless repetition of it becomes so single minded and at times seems like her entire personality. It’s to the point that it’s hard to focus on the admirable parts of her character that might otherwise make her a really compelling person to read about.

Beyond that I felt like there was a whole lot telling rather than showing happening in this book. It felt at times like entire chapters were just inner monologue, particularly with Azkiel which plays into the redundancy as well, as it was often about his siblings, what he had done to them putting them into a slumber, and his focus on Calista and the prophecy she is meant to fulfill. It also made it so the plot felt rather slow because nothing seemed to be happening to further the plot for long periods with so much time being spent on inner dialogue essentially telling the reader what characters were thinking rather than actually furthering the plot through action and events. It’s not even a long book but this made it feel too long because the progression was so halted.

However there are so many things that have me hooked into this world and have me eager for the sequel to see how much better it might get. I am so enthralled by the mystery of the Gods, I want more of their background and information on their powers, why certain magics are so taboo, as well as the connection each different power has to one of the Gods. All this to say I definitely plan on picking up the next book in the series because so much is left up in the air and I really do want to see this world reach its full potential.

The Blub, the title, the cover all drew me into this book.
I was sold with the promise of:
- a deadly tournament
- Villian get's the girl
- Gods and magic
- Cryptic prophecies
- Spice 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

Now I feel like I need to preface that I didn't think it was a bad book, quite to contrary actually.
There was so much potential with the story and the characters, it just however fell a little... flat.

This is a dual POV of Calista and Azkiel. Azkiel is the God of Death who, for a reason he can't remember, trapped his siblings in an enchanted sleep 150 years ago. It is prophesized that the daughter of death will wake his siblings and he'll do everything in his power to stop that from happening. Calista is a witch who somehow manages to hold Azkiels' very own ethereal power (something that should not be possible), but must keep it hidden.

It was a slow read. There was so much telling of the story opposed to showing, which ultimately ended up causing it to feel like there were just so many words, but not a large amount of plot progression. There was large instances of repeated information that weren't entirely necessary (i.e. Azkiel not remembering why his siblings had to stay asleep, just that they did).

The development of the relationship between Azkiel and Calista felt rushed, despite the revelation at the end of the book. They went from despising each other to being madly lustful over the span of a few conversations. There just wasn't enough of a build up to make their relationship feel authentic.
The spice in this book was condensed to 1 scene at the end of the book, that felt forced and a little artificial. I don't think it was a necessary addition to progress the relationship between Calista and Azkiel.

There is an absolutely fantastic story hidden amongst the pages of Night of Death and Flowers. It's just waiting to be refined.

3.5⭐
The concept of this book was so promising, and the plot was interesting. However, I found that this read fell a little short in execution, character development, and dialogue. The transition from enemies to lovers was quite abrupt, and the ending felt rushed.
I didn’t feel any tension and the story didn’t make me feel anything. I’m pretty sure that if I connected with the story more I’d laugh, cry, and kick my feet but sadly the writing didn’t deliver in that regard. Also, I wish there was more action because nothing happened in the last 30%. I just feel like some of the bigger scenes were rushed while the smaller-nothing-ones were unnecessarily long.

Overall, though, it's an okay book with an interesting storyline and magic system. I think there is potential for this to be a really good series, and with the world-building/intro out of the way, I think the second book may read more smoothly.

What you can expect
🖤 Broken Family
🖤 He Falls First
🖤 Deadly Tournament
🖤 Touch Her and ☠️
🖤 Enemies to Lovers
🖤 Fantasy World Building
🖤 Amnesia
🖤 Touch Starved God
🖤 Themes of Sacrifice and Rebellion
🖤 Ancient Gods and Goddesses and Witches
🖤 Badass FMC
🖤 Dark Epic Fantasy
🖤 Fantasy Romance

Witches, Gods, Magic! Intriging begining, a little slow in the middel, but a great ending!

I need more to bond more with the maincharaters, but liked the woulrdbulding and the magic system.

This book had it all…magic, witches, monsters and dark Romance. And, beautifully written. Loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC.

The premise of the book was really interesting, and the beginning was promising.

The descriptions were beautiful and immersive, but it lacked editing (there were typos, repetitions and some things looked like they belonged in previous chapters). This was an ARC, so I am hoping this things were revised and resolved before the official publication.

The world-building seemed overwhelming at the beginning, with a lot of gods and different magic powers and covens, but it was easy to catch-up once you were inside the story.

I couldn't relate or connect to any of the characters, which is not a problem per se, but I felt that they weren't behaving in a cohesive way and it was quite confusing when they kept changing their reasons behind some of their actions.

The cliffhanger at the end fell flat, and I feel this could have been one book instead of two.

This book consumed me! I was all in for the story from the beginning. I really teetered at first between Calista and Drake and Calista and Death before seeing the true slow burn between Calista and Death. I really connected with the aspects of having someone right in front of you who you think might be all that you want, but you can’t fight fate. I absolutely cannot wait until the next installment!

As a redemtion ARC, morally grey MMC girly, this was goooooood.

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice 🌶️

🗡Dark Romantasy (dark themes, dark magic)
🗡Witchy FMC with a deadly power
🗡Conflict with God of Death, Azkiel over an ancient prophecy
🗡Enemies to Lovers
🗡Forced Proximity
🗡Must work together
🗡Romance elements - slow-burn
🗡World building and magic systems
🗡Gods/Goddesses x Witches
🗡Love Triangle (sort of)
🗡Spice very low :(
🗡Morally grey MMC
🗡shadow daddy MMC

Overall I enjoyed this ride.

Thank you Netgalley, author and publisher for this ARC for an honest review. My opinionsss.

I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Kerri Maniscalco's Kingdom of the Wicked & Throne of the Fallen or who was intrigued by the idea of "Lighlark" but was let down after reading it. This one genuinely excels in terms of writing, characters, and storyline. I am curious to see how this will continue, so I will be picking up next book I think.

Night of Death and Flowers" is a compelling start to the Flowers Duet series. Amanda Headlee’s blend of dark fantasy, romance, and mythology creates a captivating and immersive story. Fans of richly detailed fantasy worlds and intricate character dynamics will find much to enjoy in this novel. Despite a few pacing issues, the book’s world-building and character development strengths make it a worthwhile read.

If you are a fan of the Hunger Games, gods, and prophecies, then this may just be the book for you! As for me, I felt like it had such a good idea and so much potential to be great but fell flat in some ways.

The idea of a girl carrying the ethereal power of Death was so intriguing to me, I loved the idea of her trying to defy this unknown to her prophecy in a trial to the death situation. I also loved how the god of death was a going to be a shadow daddy. Where I felt it lost its luster was all the unneeded extra dialogue and information, it also moved so incredibly fast once you hit chapter 35 that it made my head spin. One second the MMC and FMC heavily despise each other and then the next they are saying I care for you/ love you, and not in a love hate feeling more like the sappy kind. It left me so confused and very disappointed that it didn’t add to the story the way it should have.

I think with some fine tuning and a quick grammar edit, this could be such an amazing book and definitely would grip my attention for book two as long as we take all the fluff out.

Spice: .5/5
Trigger Warnings: death, sacrifice, death by trial, explicit scene, parental neglect.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars
🌶️🌶️ spice

There was only one spicy scene, but it gets two chillis given it was pretty descriptive. The wait was worth it for the “good girl” 😏

What to Expect:
💀Gods/Goddesses x Witches
💀Powers inherited from gods
💀Enemies to lovers
💀Forced Proximity
💀Love Triangle (sort of)
💀Deadly trials
💀Destiny/Fated journey
💀Slow burn

“She wears murder and death so well, I cannot help but wonder if she somehow belongs to it—to me.”

“If I have to burn the world down to keep the people I love safe, then I will. Because fuck everyone else.”

Thank the God of Death for the glossary! It was super handy, especially for referencing the gods and different types of powers but the plant section felt a little unecessary. I liked the world building a lot, almost like mythology meets witchy vibes.

Others describing this as The Originals meets Hunger Games are bang on. They involuntarily enter a fight to the death tournament, but everything is not as it seems. Lots of twists and turns.

This was a great start to a new series. I loved all the characters - Drake was 100% Dain coded, in my head they are the same person and you can’t change my mind. He’s the guy you think you want until you’re in forced proximity with them 24/7 and they start to give you the ick, because it turns out they only like the idea of you and not who you actually are as a person.

There were a few moments that felt a little rushed - (small spoilers ahead just here, I’ll try to be as vague as possible). I would have loved to see the rest of the sacrifices have their stories tied up, felt like we got some ominous foreshadow-y character building moments for Alaric that didn’t go anywhere. Then the romance came out of nowhere, one minute they were enemies and the next it was hot and heavy, mostly because they weren’t around each other much until the end.

I’m super curious to see where this goes and will absolutely continue the series! Loved the premise, the writing was beautiful and storyline kept me glued to the page.

“Mock me again, Poison, and I will show you that there are far worse fates than death.” — Night of Death and Flowers by Rebecca L. Garcia

For over a century, Azkiel, The God of Death, has lived a life of isolation, cursed to kill any living thing he touches. His memories of what led him to his current predicament are gone, but one thing he knows for certain? His trapped siblings can never be allowed to be set free. With the prophecy of his downfall set in motion, Azkiel’s only option is to find the witch and kill her before the next Harvest.

Calista is a ruthless witch on a mission to stop The Harvest, a tournament held every 10 years to find a new Elder, from happening to protect those she loves. Because The Harvest isn’t just a tournament, it’s a bloodbath between 12 chosen sacrifices with only 1 winner.

When her plan backfires due to the return of The God of Death, Calista’s only hope to save her loved ones is to sneak into the tournament and use the power she has kept hidden out of fear for her own life, but Azkiel knows her secret and things are about to get much more complicated.

Unfortunately I didn’t finish this book. I found that although i loved the idea of the story it was very hard for me to get into a follow. I was almost 40% through and I felt that not a lot had happened to keep my attention and make me want to pick up this book. I had a very busy month so this could be why and I would love to try and give it another go in the future.

Here’s my review of one of my latest romantic fantasy reads in English: A Death of Night and Flowers by Rebecca L. Garcia. I thank NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

💀 We follow two POVs, Azkiel, the God of Death who has returned in his human form but has lost memories in the process, aiming to stop a prophecy, and Calista, a witch who must hide her deadly power (she can kill someone just by touch). Along with her best friend and her sister, she finds herself participating in a deadly game to become the next ‘Elder’. The atmosphere is dark and the book is intended for an adult audience.

🪻 I had a hard time getting into the book because the beginning takes a while to set up. We receive the same information multiple times but in different ways, making it a bit repetitive, and our main protagonists spend 60% of the book apart, which was a bit frustrating.

💀 Nevertheless, once the plot picks up speed, I was really hooked on the novel. The writing is fluid with beautiful prose. Calista and Azkiel are two protagonists I enjoyed following. They are quite similar as they are both linked to death. Azkiel touched me with his desire for contact, closeness, and love. Calista is strong and willing to do anything to save those she loves, morally grey due to some of her actions and her power.

🪻 The romance is, of course, an enemies-to-lovers trope. The attraction between them is felt from the start, but we remain frustrated for a good while before things progress!

Despite a slow start, the book made a great comeback with a gripping and surprising plot, dark characters, and a pleasing romance!

<i><b>”She wears murder and death so well that I cannot help but wonder if she somehow belongs to me.”</b></i>


⭐️⭐️⭐️

I love Rebecca L. Garcia’s book but for some reason I had a hard time reading this novel in the beginning but I really started to enjoy it ending!

I enjoyed the two characters a lot and loved how ruthless Calista was! Azkiel was the dark morally grey MMC. Always love a good enemies to lovers trope with slow burn romance!

I’m definitely interested to see what will happen next in the sequel!!

<b>Thank you so much Rebecca L. Garcia, and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this e-arc in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts and opinions remain my own.</

This book is absolutely incredible! I loved the dynamic between the two main characters. The world building and magic system was so intriguing. It gave me Belladonna vibes but if it had spice. However, maybe this is just an ick for me, but during the spicy scene why did you have to write semen instead of cum or come 😭 anything else would've worked better, I beg you.