Night of Death and Flowers

Thank you NetGalley and Rebecca L. Garcia for the arc of this book and being trusted to review it honestly. When I first read the synopsis of Night of Death and Flowers I was so intrigued. It had everything I love in a fantasy, magic, gods, romance, and a trial.

This book follows a witch named Calista who has the God of Death's powers. Calista does not agree with the trial that happens every 10 years and is trying to stop it from happening. What she doesn't know is that after 150 years of being away the God of Death, Azkiel, returns to Dahryst to try and stop the prophecy that is said to destroy him. This is the beginning of their story... or is it?

I really enjoyed the first couple of chapters and getting introduced to our female main character. I did struggle a lot with the authors writing style. I kept having to reread sentences to make sense of the writing and what is being told to me. I was bored for a lot of the time and the pacing was too slow. I felt a lot of it was just them waiting around for something to happen. I also was annoyed that a lot of the chapters end with the female main character either fainting, passing out, or being poison. It was so irritating to have to read basically the same thing over and over again. I wanted to love this, it had all the right ideas for me to love it but it fell short for me.

Final rating:
2.75 stars ✨

Tropes:
Gods
Magic
Trial
Dual P.O.V
Touch her and you die

I enjoyed Night of Death and Flowers, and wished it had kept going!

Callista was a great FMC, I loved her skeptical nature, questioning attitude, and overall boss babe vibe. She has a secret dark power that no one is supposed to know about, and she tries not to let it bother her.

Azkiel is a bundle of joy... I mean a trauma suppressed god of death who is arrogant and bewildered by Callista. I loved it so much, I could live off of their interactions!

The island portion of the book was a-la hunger games style, and I can never get enough of these types of story lines. I just find them so interesting and good!

The way the magic worked was great, I enjoyed seeing how it manifested in each type and character.

While I truly enjoyed the story and the whole island portion of the book, I felt like the relationship between her and Azkiel was forced to progress and it didn't need to. I personally felt like the tension between them was enough for this book, and they did not need to *seal the deal* towards the end. It didn't make a ton of sense to me, but I get it!

I am SO intrigued about what happens in book 2, because I feel like things are about to get so much more interesting!