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.

First of all thank you to NetGalley and Rebecca L. Garcia for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

THE PLOT:
Calista, a witch wielding an ethereal power reserved only for the god of death, decides to put an end to the Harvest, a deadly competition that has been around for the past 150 years.

Azkiel, the God of Death, returns after over a century. Seeking to stop an ancient prophecy, foretelling his downfall at the hands of Calista, from playing out.

In Dahryst there are six covens and each coven worships a different god or goddess. Each coven is blessed by a god or goddess with diluted forms of their magic, meaning each witch or warlock is gifted with a magical ability, relevant to their coven, that they may inherit and practice. Each coven has up to three powers that can be siphoned from the god or goddess of their coven, except for that god’s ethereal power.

Elders hold the power of all six covens, giving them enough power to protect the witches and warlocks against humans (their sworn enemies).

The Harvest comes around every 10 years and is a deadly competition to determine who will become the new Elder. There are three stages to the Harvest: The Offering, whereby volunteers take part in a blood ritual to put their names forward to be chosen to take part; The Choosing, which takes place in Ennismore as it overlooks Tenenocti Island, where twelve witches and warlocks are chosen by the God of Death himself to participate; and The Harvest, where the twelve that are chosen are sent to Tenenocti Island to fight to the death until only one remains, thereby becoming the new Elder.

During the Harvest, secrets are uncovered which force Calista and Azkiel to form an alliance, much to the annoyance of Calista’s best friend Drake and her sister Arabella.
‘In a world where every action can tip the scales, will they fall into salvation or ruin?’

The path ahead holds deceit, passion, betrayal and heartbreak…

POSITIVES💚

To start off with there is a list of trigger warnings, which are as follows - graphic violence, human sacrifice, deaths, blood and gore, religious oppression, profanity, graphic sexual content, snake bite, physical parental abuse, choking, drugging and poisoning.
I love a book with a glossary and this one in particular goes into detail about the gods/goddesses and their powers; the covens, who they worship and which powers they may inherit; the locations within the story; the creatures, where they originate from and what they do; the botanicals, where they’re found and what they’re used for; currency; rituals; tournaments; celebrations etc. All of this was super helpful when I felt a bit lost with the world building.
There is also a pronunciation guide which is also very helpful when starting a new book and being introduced to multiple characters, places, creatures etc.
I love the unique magic system within this book and the fact that each coven has magic from different gods or goddesses, which is broken down into specific magical abilities for each witch or warlock.
This book is a delightful mixture of:
✅dark fantasy
✅enemies to lovers
✅slow burn romance
✅witches/warlocks
✅gods/goddesses
✅shadow daddy MMC
✅badass FMC
✅and a sprinkle of spice✨
Something I love about this story is that Calista and Azkiel contrast each other so well, yet it also feels like they have been destined to find each other since the beginning of time. There is certainly chemistry between the two that makes it an exciting read.
I’m a sucker for a book with dual POV and this has exactly that. I love switching between the two main characters and seeing their thoughts and feelings laid out. It gives the story much more perspective and allows us to see both sides. It also helps to paint a picture about each character in that little bit more detail, that you simply would not get if the story was written from one perspective alone.
I feel that the world building in the start of the book was great and the story didn’t feel rushed. It gave the gothic fantasy vibes that I was hoping for and had an almost eeriness to it that kept me hooked.

NEGATIVES💔

An honest review wouldn’t be that without the need for some criticism, so to begin with I’d like to touch on the large amount of typos/grammatical errors. I understand that I read the ARC and not the final copy so some mistakes were to be expected, however the sheer amount of errors within the book made it very hard for me to follow at times. I often had to reread sentences and piece together what was happening. This being said, I have not read the final copy so these errors have probably been corrected.
I did feel as though some of the writing was a bit ‘flowery’ and that many words had been replaced with another word from the thesaurus, often unnecessarily. Not only that but towards the middle and end of the story, it started to feel very repetitive and I was starting to lose interest due to this. It also felt as though the writing got progressively more rushed throughout the book (as mentioned earlier in my review the beginning of the book did not feel rushed).
There was a ‘twist’ in the story, which I personally felt was quite predictable, so it didn’t have the impact that I think it was intended to.
I also found myself having to skip back and forth to the glossary to remind myself of things within the story as I was feeling a little bit lost at times (although I suppose this is why a glossary is always helpful and why it is there in the first place).
There was a lot of internal monologue in the story which did take away from the story itself and again there was the repetitions of the monologues themselves.
Many endings of the chapters were ‘fade to black’, causing the next chapter to feel like it jumped to a different scene. Using this ending once or twice would have been adequate.
Something I feel would have added more depth to the story would have been giving Arabella or Drake a chapter from their perspective, as they play an integral role in the way the story unfolds but we did not get to experience anything from them firsthand.
It would also have been interesting to have more perspective or background on the elders and in particular, Calista’s father, as it feels as though we know very little about any of them and the story behind the feud between humans and witches/warlocks. Following on from this the threat of humans is mentioned within the story but there are no scenes that depict this threat as far as I can remember, so it would have been good to have a scene where the humans try to harm some of the witches, thereby emphasising the need for The Harvest.

Overall, I did enjoy the story and I think it has so much potential to be a really great book with some minor tweaking.

#nightofdeathandflowers #netgalley

Witchy vibes, dual POV, enemies to lovers. All over, some great themes and features. Really enjoyed this book. The world building is great and the storyline keeps you hooked. Would definitely recommend.

This book was so different than what is currently trending on BookTok, yet it was a mix of all things I enjoy.
This has a mix of dark fantasy with a dystopian witchy society, with deathy trials, a unique coven system, herbalism, adventure, fear, and fate... all with a romance that is slowly unfolding.

This romantasy had everything I wanted
-Dual POV
-Death Personification
-Amnesia
-Prophecy
-Enemies to lovers
-Witches
-World building
-Gods
-Snarky badass FMC
-“Shadow daddy” MMC
-Deadly Competition

Garcia did a great job with the world building, it felt like a fully fleshed out world. My only complaint in this regard is I did feel like there was a lot of info dumping at the start.
Cali was such a fun heroine. She was unapologetically herself and unafraid of showing it. She’s never one to shy away from a fight or conflict and I absolutely loved her.
Azkiel was not what I was expecting for the God of Death and that was a welcome surprise. The mystery surrounding Azkiel and his siblings kept me guessing and I really enjoyed watching how the story played out.

Thank you NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

First of all, I would like to thank Rebecca Garcia and NetGalley for an ARC copy of this amazing book!

I am WOWED by this book! This is a Dark Fantasy, set in a world full of Witches, Warlocks, and warring Gods. Every decade, there is a sacrificial tournament held where witches and warlocks fight to death to appease the gods and show their gratefulness for their freedom. WITCHY HUNGER GAMES !!!!

I’m actually blown away by Rebecca’s world building and character development skills. I need more of this world ASAP. The premise of this book is such a unique take on “deadly games and trials,” and I loved it! The magic system is so unique and the main conflicts are so captivating. Calista and Azkiel are such dense, well built characters and I cannot wait to see where this story goes.

I struggled a little bit through the mid section as it continued to go forward. The story dragged a little bit after the first main conflict resolution, and lost my focus for a while, but the ending? WOW! Talk about being left on the edge of your seat! By the end of the book I was fully reinvested, moving quickly and unable to put it down.

This is for you if you love:
Gods & Goddesses, Deadly Tournaments, Villian Gets the Girl, Soulmates, He Falls First, Betrayal, Shadow Daddy MMCs

I really enjoyed this book. Anything that involves magic, ancient gods, covens, hunger game like competitions and manages to throw in decent slow burn. Yes please! I really enjoyed the world building; I thought it was written well and that it was complex and beautifully imagined. I loved the island and the way that the magic system worked to keep people off it until the harvest. The magic system in itself was by favorite aspect of the book. The different powers that the covens could inherit from their covens God or Goddess were really neat and I liked that there were only three, so it wasn't overly complex. The ethereal magic was really cool, and I thought the Harvest was also really interesting. I liked the characters; I think that there was some development that was written well. There was one thing that kind of got me, and it was the number of times that Cali ground her teeth so hard she was surprised they didn't shatter. Not a deal breaker by any means but definitely something that I picked up on. I enjoyed the story line and the concept of the feuding gods; I do like a good stolen memory trope and this one was executed well. I also thought that the reference guide in the back was a nice touch. There most definitely better be a book two!

Dahryst is supposed to be a safe place for witches - those with magic - to hide away from the rest of the world… that is, until the Harvest rolls around. Once every ten years, young adults are pushed to “volunteer” themselves in a fight to the death, in honor of the God of Death, Azkiel. Calista and her friend, Drake, are determined to end the horrors of The Harvest by destroying the sacred ritual statues but fail, and in turn, draw the attention of Azkiel himself. With his return, a prophecy is revealed that may signal the end of the God of Death - or of Calista herself, who has been hiding the forbidden power of Death from the rest of her family and village.

Night of Death and Flowers twines together a new fantasy world with interesting characters and magical elements. The novel gives the feel of a challenge along the lines of the Hunger Games with magical components. Add in the enemies to lovers vibes and you’re set up for a full blown romantasy. I did appreciate the glossary and cheat sheet of the major gods and powers and characters.

I did find that I was thrown into the world with almost no introduction to it, so I desperately in need of the reference glossary and found myself skipping back and forth to remind myself who was who and who did what. I also found the character interactions were a little stilted and abrupt, and wasn’t too enthused on the abrupt turn from enemies to lovers with our main characters.

Recommended if you like fantasy, Romantasy, and magical elements.

Okay so I gave this book a 3 star rating. I didn’t hate it by any means but it was not my favorite either. This book really reminded me to much of Hunger Games mixed with Divergent. Then it felt like that through those dystopian novels into the dark fantasy. I may be a little bias as I have never really be a fan of those two series. There was also a decent amount of typos throughout this book as well.

What I liked about this book was the unique world and character magic this author created. I really liked how the gods powers were split up between the witch’s in clans. But I also thought it was really awesome the way she took it further and broke each gods power down ever further giving everyone different kinds of abilities within their clans.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Hunger Games and or Divergent. As well as to those you like witchy books and maybe looking for a different kinds of witch novel as well. I dont think this was a bad book just not for me and if the typos get fixed i think it would make even my own rating a bit higher.