Book Review: A Touch of Darkness
Tropes:
🖤Dark Academia
🚫 Forbidden Love
🔮Mystical Curses
🗡️Tragic Backstories
💞Fated Soul Mates
🧛🏼♂️Gentleman Vampires
✍🏻 Plot Heavy
🪄Witchcraft
💥Hidden Powers/Abilities
🤫Secret Society
After losing our parents, my twin sister, Lara, and I enroll at Blackthorne University, clinging to the hope its ivy-ensnared halls will help preserve their memory.
But from the moment I step onto the imposing, castle-like campus, everything changes.
Shadows slither through the corridors, and the rumors I overhear suggest Blackthorne guards secrets far beyond a standard curriculum.
Then, Lara vanishes. Each lead I follow only reveals more violently disturbing truths—about a ruthless secret society wielding influence from the shadows, about supernatural beings hiding behind carefully curated charm, and about the dangerous spark of magic stirring within me. In the midst of it all, I’m inexplicably drawn to Professor Lucian Draedon—a centuries-old vampire whose steady gaze both unnerves and captivates me. As the stakes rise, I’m forced to confront whether saving my sister will demand a sacrifice that shatters my own peace… and takes down everyone I’ve come to care about.
Lucian
I’ve walked the earth long enough to watch empires fall, but nothing prepared me for Sylvie’s arrival at Blackthorne. I’ve waited lifetimes for her, only to find her standing in my lecture hall, defiant and entirely unknowing of the power coursing in her veins.
Bound by an ancient curse and haunted by an enemy determined to erase every trace of the supernatural, I try to keep my distance from Sylvie—and fail. Her unwavering resolve kindles a spark in me I thought long extinguished, and her growing abilities may be our lone defense against a society hell-bent on our destruction. But as I witness her relentless search for her missing sister, I’m forced to confront just how deeply our destinies have always been woven. One devastating twist after another forces me to question the nature of good and evil—and whether, in saving one twin, we might doom the other.
My Review
The bond that Lara and Sylvie share is a strong one. It is cemented even more by their parent's death. This is why Sylvie fights so hard to find her sister.
Lucian is an interesting character. There is a mysterious aura around him that does pull me in and want to know his secrets. Speaking of secrets...what is The Solstice Society and what do they want with Sylvie.
The details are laid out in the first half of the story. So that the second half is where it really picked up and I became more engaged.
I liked the support that Sylvie's classmates Rebecca and Nicole. I thought they were going to be "mean girls" but nope, they were very nice and actually lent a nice addition to the story.
I have read this author's Mafia and contemporary books and loved them. This was a nice surprise to read a PNR from Victoria. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading book two. A secret society, witches and vampires...yes, please!
A Touch of Darkness is a forbidden, age gap, paranormal romance that showcases vampires and witches. There is a cliffhanger at the end of this book that will be wrapped up in book two of the duet (which comes out one week after book 1—so you won’t have to wait long!) Please do check content warnings at the beginning of the book. This book is more of a character-driven novel than a spice-driven novel.
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