Thank you to NetGalley for a eARC in exchange for a honest review.

This story had a lot of promise – an interesting outline, a creative universe, and high stakes - but ultimately struggled with the delivery. It falls apart at the introduction of the male main character’s POV, where it’s too much exposition all at once, something which would have been more effective spread throughout the book.

The female main character starts off strong, however it becomes more difficult to understand the motivations behind her actions. Although it becomes quickly repetitive that the Harvest is evil, the Harvest must be destroyed, and she has decay magic, her character depth doesn’t go much beyond that. There are tons of unanswered questions that would’ve been interesting to explore, and might have explained why the character acts a certain way, however this was not fully addressed in the book.

This weaker character development also comes into play during the set up of the love triangle between the MMC, FMC, and best friend. This is introduced as insta-attraction at first, which is fine, but it’s not believable because it fails to build beyond repetitive death threats and harmful proclamations between the two characters until the last 25% of the book.

Overall, the book had a strong promise, but would’ve benefited from a few more rounds of editing for redundancies, as well as more character building. Thank you so much for the ARC.

First it all, thank you @netgalley & @rebeccagarciabooks for this incredible beta read opportunity, I devoured it in less than a week. If you're into ancient (angry) gods, deadly trials, magic wielding witches and a cliffhanger ending that will have you counting down the days until the second installment, this book is a nonstop thrill. I telt like there were some plot jumps in the beginning, but over time blended together nicely. The writing is wonderful, the concept, (while beginning a bit slow) blends to excitement with the characters painfully, emotionally relatable. Leaving you with the only burning question remaining, what lengths would you go to save the ones you love? Or avenge to them?

I seriously loved the concept of this book, I thought it was so unique and the right level of mystery to keep you guessing but you still had an inkling of things that were coming. If you love Klaus from TVD/ The originals I think you’ll love this book!

The only downfall for me was the writing style just wasn’t personally my favourite. It was very very descriptive throughout, it was definitely tell not show, and I usually do like it when an author can trust the reader to come to conclusions and remember things on their own. Either way though I did really enjoy the different characters and learning more about them, as well as uncovering the mysteries of Azkiel’s past and what had got them to this point. I would definitely recommend just be prepared for a lot of descriptive writing.

I love a dark romantasy that has intense world-building and strong characters, and Night of Death and Flowers has just that. It is the first book of a duology and the author was kind enough to gift us with an extensive glossary and pronunciation guide, which came in handy while reading this novel. Rebecca L. Garcia takes us deep into a dark world, one creatively crafted that is filled with dark magic, blood oaths, and gods and goddesses - everything that makes a fantasy worth reading.

The Harvest is coming - a tournament where 11 witches will be killed in order to find Dahryst's new elder. Dahryst is home to witches with many different powers, ranging from dream magic to creation magic, and for Callista Bellevue, it is a place she must protect. Callista is the only one of her kind, with a magic so dark she only shares it with one other being the God of Death. Callista is determined to stop this vicious, inhumane cycle and end the tournament for good, but then she is met by Azkiel, the God of Death himself, and things take a turn.

The world-building in this book is outstanding! It is carefully crafted, slowly depicting the layers and darkness to this immersive world. The characters are all different, with unique powers that set them apart. And of course, with such strong characters, we will almost inevitably see strong character development in a book such as this one. Callista and Azkiel have an enemies-to-lovers relationship, and it is intense (with him being the God of Death). The plot was thick and escalated at a steady pace, which made this book an easy page-turner for me. I enjoyed everything about this book, however, when the plot started to take off and with every twist, I found myself continuously asking one question- did the people not know of the prophesy? It seemed a bit absurd considering how dependent the people of Dahryst were on their gods and goddesses. Aside from that, this book was entirely captivating and consumed me from the very first page! I am already anticipating the next book of this duology!

Thank you NetGalley and Rebecca L. Garcia for such a riveting read!

I loved that this was a dual pov between our main character and the god whose powers she has. Seeing both of their povs was so awesome and had me binging the book. Can’t wait for book 2

3.5 ⭐

I really enjoyed the beginning and the end of this story, but struggled a bit through the middle. That being said, I was captivated by all of the characters and their story arcs. There were definitely a few reveals I did not anticipate.

The world building is a bit intense but the glossary at the front of the book was extremely useful and well-thought out. The world and magic system felt unique, and I was intrigued by all of the rituals, gods and way of life.

The trial element in the middle of the book (the part I struggled with), gave me Hunger Games vibes and felt a little lackluster.

The FMC and MMC and their enemies to lovers chemistry + banter was enjoyable. I look forward to reading the continuation of their story.

I was lucky enough to get a ARC copy through Netgalley. This was a great mixture of hunger games and the divergent series with touches of magic! I saw down and read this within a day, I was absorbed into the world and their lives!

This story is centered around The Harvest, a battle to the death for witches who reach a certain age. The prize?? To be the next Elder! We meet Calista, her sister Arabella on the eve of the harvest. No one expected the God of Death to return this year or Calista to have similar abilities as the god himself…

Enemies to Lovers
Strong Female Lead
Self Discovery
Risking it all for family

I’m between 2 and 3 stars tbh. This book had interesting themes and great world building but I just didn’t think this one was for me. It was fairly slow but I did like the hunger games vibes that was in the book.

This book had a lot of pieces or elements that had the potential to weave into a FANTASTIC dark romantasy read. It is dual pov (which I often really enjoy), we've got morally grey characters (say less!), and strong hunger games vibes. Grab your copy on 06.26.2024 and let me know what you think!

My first minor issue came when the first 4% of the book was a glossary of sorts for terms and characters for the book. On eBook I knew this was going to be hard to "flip" back and forth and there's no strong desire to read that many pages and memorize when you aren't yet even into the story. I feel like world building needs to be eased into and entice the reader to want to learn more. So it took me a minute to start to get into the actual storyline.

I began to like the MFC, Calista, I liked that she had a dark power and wanted to protect those close to her. I enjoyed her meeting, Azkiel, the god of death. They both seemed to be starved of touch and connection and feeling like they have a place.

As the book continued on, I felt like the story didn't quite piece together. I wanted to just get gripped when suddenly a story line connected or made sense. I kept going because I felt like there was hope this was going to all come together and just nail it (like SJM the last 200 pages of her books).

**potential spoilers**
There's a bit of a love triangle here with childhood friend Drake and Azkiel and though I knew she was going to end up falling for the morally grey guy, I got annoyed that Drake turned out to be the "Tamlin" or "Dane" of the book.

I also like some spice in a book, but for some reason the spice in this one just didn't feel right. We are supposed to believe he hasn't ever been able to touch someone but he sure knew what to do (I know this ties into the memory plot line but still). Just didn't feel like a slow burn lead up to this romance - kinda quick and dirty.

The ending - was ABRUPT. Not a great cliffhanger where you are like "GIMME BOOK 2!!!!" but literally "The End... for now..." I feel like it could've been edited better.

All that said - I think that I would pick up a physical copy of this book and see if I enjoyed it more when I can flip back to glossary. I'm curious if book 2 could work it's magic and really finish this story, weaving together the pieces in all the right spots.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 (goodreads - we need half stars!)
Spice: 2 out of 5

Shout out to Netgalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for providing this ARC - these honest opinions are my own!

3.5 Stars
If you like dark fantasy themes, this book is worth checking out! The story follows Calista, a witch who has Death’s powers – which is a secret she has to keep due to the powers being against the laws of nature. We also have Azkiel’s (the god of Death) point of view throughout the book as he tries to stop a prophecy involving Calista. The two form an unexpected alliance and must work together (while trying to figure out how she has his power to begin with). There is a lot of world building throughout this book, as it is the first book in a series (the book ends on a major cliffhanger). There were elements that dragged a bit, but it wasn’t too bad and may have been intentional to set the stage for future books. There was a bit of a ‘Hunger Games’ feel to the Harvest tournament, but I like how the author creatively leverages magic in a way that makes the tournament different. I look forward to reading the next book to see what happens. Thank you Victory Editing and NetGalley for the eARC.

This book has a great start and finish, but the middle drags a bit and could have been shorter. It kicks off with some cool death magic and the God of Death, but loses steam once they get to the island. It kind of reminded me of "The Hunger Games" but without the same thrill. Things get interesting again around 85% in, with some good chemistry and secrets coming out. It's like Greek mythology meets "The Hunger Games." The main characters are awesome, and the dual POV works well. The cliffhanger isn't too shocking, but it’s still a fun ride. I’d recommend it, especially if you like Kerri Maniscalco's books or were let down by "Lightlark." My main gripes are that it feels a bit too long and repetitive, and the romance speeds up too quickly once it starts. But overall, it's a magical, action-packed read with great characters and hidden secrets.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC of this book. This in no way affects my opinions.
Review date: 6/20/24, Release date: 6/27/24

If this had been the author's first book, I would have rated it higher because the plot sounded absolutely amazing. The premise was that 12 people are chosen to go out and basically murder each other until there is one standing who gets to become one of the leader's of the society. Whenever you murder someone, you get their power. And if they killed others, you get whatever power they inherited too. Cali starts off strong with a secret power from the God of Death- the power of decay. Any living thing she touches (mostly when she wills it) turns to ash.

Unfortunately, we didn't even get to the part where people get chosen until about 48% through the book. Some reviews said that it had a lot of world building, but I really didn't see much. We know nothing about the rest of the world other than this city. I found the first half to be tediously slow and I set the book down at least a dozen times. It finally picked up after all the chosen head out to the island to compete, but it still felt slow all throughout the book to me.

In the ARC I received, I have 35 grammatical errors and other typos highlighted which really made the story stop and go for me. I'm really hoping that these errors got fixed before it went to print (since it releases in one week). The author used the same phrase (clench my thighs) repeatedly when talking about the FMC Cali being aroused and it was enough for me to start counting (I read either 4 0r 5).

Azkiel, the MMC, had about as much personality as a piece of cardboard. He's a shadow daddy, so anyone who is really into that is going to love the spicy scene here. The rest of him was severely lacking, other than anger that Cali has his power when she shouldn't. It ends on a cliffhanger, so maybe he'll get fleshed out more now that we got a little back story on him near the end?

I found the romance between Cali and Az to be very similar to the Kingdom of the Wicked trilogy by Kerri Maniscalco, which isn't a bad thing because I loved that series.

Overall, I don't really know how to feel about this. It wasn't at a pace that I like my books and I had a lot of complaints. But the story was very intricate and I loved that they claimed others' powers and that whole magic system. Cali is vengeance and fury and ready to make heads roll.

Some tropes include:
-Shadow daddy
-He can touch ONLY her
-Strong sister relationship
-Dual POV
-Enemies to lovers
-Deadly competition
-Lost memory

I really enjoyed the magic system and world building in this one. The beginning was bit confusing but once I kept reading everything made sense.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

The premise of this story was good, I was very excited to read this one. However I found the beginning to be a bit confusing for me, it jumped around a bit so it was hard for me to get into and overall wasn’t for me.

I enjoyed the story and the concept of this book. The world it is set in was definitely right up my alley. I only wished that the romance stuck with the slow burn all the way through the end of the book or that the romance between Calista and Azkiel was developed a little quicker throughout the book(I would have preferred slowed down). The romance at the end just felt rushed. I loved the cliff hanger at the end and cannot wait to see what happens next.

Also just a side note I do hope there was one more go at the editing before going to printing because there were some areas of grammatical issues and weird phrasings through out.

Thank you for the opportunity but unfortunately this is a DNF for me.

I was a little overwhelmed by the intro with all the information. Imo it may have been better for it to be in the back, at least for a book one. I could have gotten past that but I DNF somewhere between 50-60%. If felt repetitive and like nothing had really happened. I also had no clear idea who the love interest was going to be.

It also may not hurt to have some closer editing done. I found a few cases where pronouns switched around when describing the same person.

Such a beautifully written fantasy book! This was captivating and I was drawn in by the cover alone, to find that the blurb was giving high fantasy vibes meet Hunger Games and I couldn’t wait to pick it up.

The author does a great job with her world building, with intricate storytelling and amazing characters. I would have loved a map to be included, as is always the case with a fantasy book, but I devoured this in a couple of days and will definitely be picking up book two.

A spectacular book drenched in both myth and magic, a Night of Death and Flowers is a must read for all romantic fantasy fans.

Told from a dual narrative between Calista and Azkiel, this book does take quite a while to get going, but the first half sets the scene and builds tension for when the action peaks later on in the novel.

I felt a bit overwhelmed by the glossary at the beginning depicting characters, worlds and pronunciations and feared that I'd have trouble reading if I couldn't commit all of the information to memory. However, this wasn't the case as the world building throughout the novel still included enough information relating to people/places etc. Though I am grateful for the glossary as I most definitely would never have known how to pronounce Nyxara without it!

The ending had me gripped to read more, and I can't wait for the next installment.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this one. The competition of who would become the next elder was interesting and fun. I really loved the lore of the gods and the themes of darkness and light within a person. Anything having to do with a sister bond is a big plus for me as well.

I did find the book to be a bit repetitive and I wanted some more of the gods - hopefully this will happen in the next book!

This is not effect my star rating but there was a LOT of typos, duplicate words, and things that didn’t make sense grammatically. I’m hoping that it gets edited more before publication, it was really distracting.

I’ll be reading the sequel for sure. Thank you to the author, publisher; and Netgalley.

3.5 stars

I liked the magic system in this, with a whole island protected by the dead. The beginning is really cool too with the festival with good descriptions as the sisters sneak around.

I really liked Azkiel, the God of Death, as a character, but I actually found the chapters from his PoV a bit hard to get into at times and hard to connect with. It's almost as if the author didn't have a clear fix on his voice. I felt that I saw him more clearly through Cali's eyes.

Calista is a great character. I love the morally grey ones.

Pacing was pretty good throughout, although there were a few areas where it was a bit slower.