abby10 's review for:

Nightshade by Autumn Woods

2.5

reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I picked Nightshade up for book club and it definitely sounded right up my alley. However, I found the execution of this book to be lacking. The story itself was interesting enough, as were the main characters. But I think that this book felt way too YA. There was really no reason for this to take place in a university and it felt like it was a boarding school the whole time anyway (what prestigious university sorts its students into 4 houses like a British secondary school??) Perhaps the author originally wrote it as a YA book and then changed it partway through to justify more swearing and some relatively light smut. The characters other than the MCs all felt like very shallow caricatures - the friend group included a goofy and lovable mafia heir (??), a vapid but kind Swiss royal, and other similarly rich but troubled (and surface level) people. Like I said, the overall story intrigued me enough to keep me going and I might pick up the sequel as I thought the cliffhanger was interesting, but I think this book was trying way too hard to be something it’s not.