My Thoughts on the Belladonna Series by Adalyn Grace

I debated reviewing each book individually, but decided I would review them all together. Since I read all three books in the Belladonna series by Adalyn Grace, I figured it would be better to review them together rather than pausing to write up a review after finishing each book. Adalyn Grace is also the author of All the Stars and Teeth, which I’ve been meaning to read as well. Belladonna, Foxglove, and Wisteria are each of the books in this Young Adult Historical Fantasy Romance series.

I’m going to try something a little different with this series review. I’m going to share my thoughts on each book before giving my overall thoughts. So, collectively, it’s all together. As a note, if you have not read the series, there may be some spoilers, though I will try my best to keep them to a minimum. Hopefully, with breaking it down by book, that will help limit them further. But I will try to keep them out of my overall thoughts. If you would like to jump to specific points in this review, I’m including a table of contents below:

Review of Belladonna

Synopsis

Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each one more interested in her wealth than her well-being—and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy. Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation, and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.
 
However, Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful—and more irresistible—than she ever dared imagine.

Book Details

• Published: August 30, 2022
• Page Count: 417 pages

The first book, Belladonna, starts off on the day that Signa became an orphan. Her entire family is killed during a party, along with most of the guests. When Death goes to collect their souls, he discovers that Signa is the only person he can touch without killing. She doesn’t figure this out until later in life, when she falls down a set of stairs, breaking her neck. Following this event, nearly all the guardians she had been assigned to after her grandmother’s death mysteriously passed away, leading Signa to believe that Death was her enemy. One day, when she’s nineteen, she poisons herself with belladonna to confront Death, resulting in her accidentally killing her aunt. In that death-like state, Signa possesses the same powers as Death. Signa finds herself forced to move to her last-known relatives, the Hawthorns, who have been grappling with their own poison-related problems. Death assigns Signa the task of identifying the murderer to save her cousin, Blythe.

Therefore, the main focus of the book is on solving the mystery of who poisoned Blythe and Lillian. In the midst of all this, Signa is grappling with her identity, having grown up with minimal guidance and relying solely on her mother’s etiquette book for guidance. But as time goes on, she finds herself exhausted trying to mold herself into someone she’s not. Instead, as she learns more about her reaper powers with the help of Death, she feels more like herself. Eventually, this led to her falling in love with Death.

I honestly could not put down the first book; even if it had slow pacing at times, seeing all the pieces come together was *chef’s kiss*. I could have done without Signa learning etiquette and social manners, given that she ultimately decides not to go down that path. I think it would’ve been stronger to skip all that and instead focus solely on investigating the murders. The book excelled in its investigation of the murders, particularly when Signa unraveled the events and made the decision to confront individuals rather than remain a passive spectator.

Review of Foxglove

This book introduces Fate, a deity like Death, who has decided to pose himself as Prince Aris. He arrives on the night the duke is killed and is one of the first individuals to place blame on Elijah for the murder. Only Elijah wasn’t the one who killed the duke, so Signa once again is tasked with figuring out who is behind the poison. At least this time she’s not alone; Blythe is helping her with the investigation. Or is supposed to be helping her with the investigation, though she doesn’t end up doing a whole lot of sleuthing beyond figuring out that Elliot (the duke’s son) and Charlotte have been seeing each other in secret.

However, with the arrival of Fate, Signa is noticing some side effects being around Death. Mainly that she cannot touch him without getting violently ill. And Fate is preventing them from speaking to one another unless he approves of it through a bargain. So, Signa has been cut off from her main supporter and the person that she’s in love with. It doesn’t help that Signa is also struggling with the fact she killed Percy and cannot tell anyone about it. Which ends up causing a rift as Blythe realizes that Percy didn’t just run away, as they were all led to believe by Death.

We learn that Fate is only interested in Signa as he noticed her tapestry (the map of her life) has silver threads, something that his wife (Life) used to have. So, he is determined through any means to make Signa marry him. However, there are clues sprinkled throughout that she’s not his deceased wife reborn. Her interests are completely opposite (she likes autumn/winter not spring/summer, wisteria are not her favorite flower, and she likes darkness over light); she is more called to spirits and helping them move on, and she cannot easily summon the powers of life unless a certain condition is present.

This is technically a spoiler for the next book but I don’t think there’s any avoiding it. Life is Blythe. And though Fate tried to bind Signa to him, Blythe ends up being the one that fulfills that oath after realizing that Signa was willing to give up everything to save her family. So, once again, Fate will end up with Life as his bride, which allows Signa to be with Death without the consequences that Fate was previously forcing on them. It was a solid ending for Signa, as we got to see her fully come to terms with her powers, as she can help spirits move on and she can live happily ever after with Death in Foxglove. Plus, we were introduced to Blythe as a character since the next book follows her.

Review of Wisteria

Synopsis

Blythe Hawthorne has never let anyone tell her what to do—not society, not her overprotective father, and certainly not the man she’s bound herself to, no matter how rude and insufferable he is. In fact, she’s determined to be a thorn in his side for the rest of her days, even as he ensures that her life in his palace is anything but a fairytale. But as Blythe discovers a new side of herself linked to his past, she’ll have to decide if she’s willing to let an unexpected spark ignite…and to discover the truth about who she really is.

Book Details

• Page Count: 432 pages
• Published: August 20, 2024

As I mentioned in my review portion for Foxglove, this book follows Blythe as she navigates her new marriage to Fate (Aris). He is mourning the fact that he thinks he let his reincarnated wife, Life, slip through his fingers and is now married to someone else. Blythe thinks this as well, that Signa is Life, since she saw Signa bring a dead horse foal back to life. However, we as the audience know that Blythe is actually Life reincarnated. She has more of a reaction to Aris, appreciates what he does, has similar tastes as Life in that previous life, says similar things to Aris that his previous wife did, and has her memories to some degree. So, this book is more of a matter of the two figuring that out for themselves.

The marriage rings they wear force them to be together, so they cannot go anywhere without the other. And Signa cannot share what she knows with Blythe regarding Aris and Life. When either of these things happen, the rings lash out, causing them pain. Which leads Blythe to have to figure it out for herself, and while she eventually comes to that realization on her own, she doesn’t immediately tell Aris, as she wants him to fall for her, not because of who she was in the past but for who she is now. As mentioned, we get to see Signa in the background; she is working on her next big mystery of who killed her family. It’s something we never really got an answer to during Belladonna or Foxglove. And the individual who caused that mass poisoning is mad as Blythe now for disrupting the natural balance when she brought back something that had died.

Due to this, Blythe once again falls ill over time, similar to how she had been poisoned in the first book. We see history basically repeating itself as the characters are forced to confront what happened. Does Aris allow Blythe to pass away as was her wish, or does he make that decision for her? I won’t spoil what happened, but I did get teary-eyed at the end. However, I would’ve liked so much more out of the ending, especially as there is a twenty-seven year time jump for the epilogue that left more questions than it answered. I’m going to hide my thoughts on that in case you want to avoid spoilers.

Final Thoughts on Belladonna Series

Overall, I really enjoyed this series and would highly recommend it.

Each book was a quick read full of banter, tension, and mystery. The writing is descriptive, lush, and enthralling with gothic vibes. It is young adult, so don’t be looking for anything spicy on page between the couples. Not to say that there aren’t moments between the characters. It’s just not descriptive or in-depth, even though the scenes are open-door.

While the first two read more as a murder mystery, the second book is more character-focused in undercovering the mystery of the past… where we pretty much already knew the answer and it was a matter of the characters figuring it out.

However, with that being said, I do have to say that the ending of this series was a bit lacking. It was almost like the author was trying to solve all the loose ends of the plot but not having enough time/pages to do it in Wisteria. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the ending or didn’t get a bit teary-eyed at it, but I would’ve loved to see more as it felt rushed. I would’ve loved seeing more time of Blythe and Aris being together after the truth was revealed, but we didn’t get that. And I think the introduction of Chaos could’ve been better. We had mention of Chaos during the second book, but it was never truly established that she was a deity like Fate and Death. It was a throwaway line that was then used to fuel the second half of the plot of Wisteria.

Love ya,

Mae Polzine

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