#autumn woods

Book 10 of 2026: Nightshade by Autumn Woods ⚠️ Warning: This post may contain SOME SPOILERS for the book as I will be sharing the plot, my thoughts, and what happens in the chapters. This will be your only warning before continuing the post. Additionally, this book contains NSFW/sexual scenes. If this makes you uncomfortable, you are under no obligation to read this review. ⚠️ Front cover of the book and the bookmark I’ll be using: Starting date : 19th March 2026 Finish date : 24th March 2026 Plot introduction : Ophelia Winters wants revenge. Isolated in the Scottish Highlands, Sorrowsong University only welcomes students from the most powerful families. Ophelia doesn’t belong, but a rare scholarship grants her the perfect opportunity to investigate the “accidental” death of her parents near the castle grounds. Things get off to a rocky start when she runs afoul of the mysterious Alex Corbeau-Green, son of her prime suspect. As far as she’s concerned, he’s just a younger version of his billionaire father - a monster hiding beneath a beautiful façade. When an unknown tormentor begins to stalk Ophelia, she realises she may not be able to survive Sorrowsong on her own. Alex becomes her unexpected ally - and her alibi for murder. But, as she starts falling for the soft heart that hides beneath his hard exterior, her hunger for revenge wavers for the first time. Can she really bring herself to destroy everything he’s ever known? Let’s uncover this mystery, shall we? Prologue-Chapter 5 : So! First impressions of this book. Although my friends have dubbed this dark romance, so far, I haven’t seen anything from our main characters that even suggests a dark romance. However, I am enjoying the forced proximity between Ophelia and Alex, as well as the setup and build-up for Ophelia’s character and her goals. So far, I have only read one of Alex’s POV, but so far, I am enjoying him as a character as well as already hating how his father speaks to him from just one phone conversation between them. I love the style of Sorrowsong University, such as the people it attracts and the houses named after flowers, I believe. The environment and the whole aesthetic of Sorrowsong University. The dark academia is oozing from this book, and I’m here for it! It reminds me of Swords and Cross from the Fallen series by Lauren Kate. The vibes of both those educational settings are pretty much the same, and I love that. Plus, it’s set in the Scottish Highlands! As someone from the UK, I LOVE that so much! Chapters 6-10 : Another block of chapters down, and we continue to learn more about Alex and Ophelia. We continue to see what Ophelia’s schedule is like in a day while being a student of Sorrowsong, we then see her in her psychology classes, and in social psychology, we get more forced proximity between our two main characters as they have to work on an essay together, much to their displeasure lol. I am deliberately not saying everything because of a big event that is setting up to be a reason for Alex and Ophelia to reluctantly become allies or each other’s alibis, not 100% sure yet, the scene is very emotional and gives a strong insight into Ophelia’s mind and her emotions. One thing I did like from one of Alex’s POV chapters is that we see more insight about his family dynamics, and it seems that not everything is perfect for this family but at the same time, he seems to still be in good relations with his sisters, he also keeps talking about the goals he hopes to gain while being at Sorrowsong but he hasn’t revealed what it is yet and I love that air of mystery around those goals. Chapters 11-15 : So, we continue reading to see Ophelia slowly bringing herself back into the life of Sorrowsong after what happened in her dorm room that night, catching up with missed coursework and reluctantly working with Alex on the essay which she ultimately ends up doing on her own. At the same time, she’s also gained some progress on her plan to uncover her parents murder but also keeps backtracking. In the last chapter I read in this block, we see her having a toleratable date with Shawn, and in the aftermath of that date, she converses with Alex. So far, I am still enjoying the book, but of course, for a book that is dual POV, I still would like more of Alex’s chapters, but at the same time, I understand why there isn’t a lot of his chapters. Chapters 16-20 : WE FINALLY HAVE ONE ALEX POV CHAPTER AFTER READING SO MANY OF OPHELIA’S CHAPTERS! The relationship dynamic between Ophelia and Alex has changed so positively. They’re becoming more vulnerable, trusting, and honest with each other as well as sharing a VERY intimate moment in chapter 20. Overall, for a book with only 416 pages, the pacing of the book is going surprisingly well. When I was looking at the size/thickness of the book, I was a bit concerned about the speed of the pace of the book, but so far, it’s going the same pace as Ana Huang books, which for me feels like a good and near perfect pace for a book of this size. My only nitpick is that, while I understand why Ophelia is hesitant to open up and be vulnerable and honest with Alex, I do wish she would give him some truths because Alex is out here telling her what his plans are while being at Sorrowsong amd yet Ophelia won’t return the same to him even though I believe they both share a common goal! Chapters 21-25 : These chapters… They were such a rollercoaster of emotions. We have Ophelia vulnerable with Alex, Alex confessing his feelings and his thoughts to Ophelia, her telling him about her parents. We get quite a bit of intimate moments between them, the most on page one happening in chapter 24 in a car, lol. It’s only when we come back to Sorrowsong after university that everything starts going downhill because out of nowhere, the killer is revealed! No, I will not say who, but my god… We only have like 5 more chapters left of that book, and I don’t even know what the ending is going to be, but I hope it’s somewhat happy? It is only book 1, and Alex and Ophelia are in book 2, but yeah, I am feeling the high tension as we enter the last few chapters/100 pages, lol. Chapters 26-29 + Bonus chapter : Why did I think this book was going to have a happy ending!?! Maybe due to the fact that justice is finally served for Ophelia but not long until the end, all hell breaks loose with Alex’s family as some information gets leaked, by sounds of it someone else also wants Ophelia and the book ends of a fucking cliffhanger of Ophelia fainting! On a brighter note, the bonus chapter is set in Alex’s POV of the very first chapter of the book of when him and Ophelia first meet at the gates of Sorrowsong University. Final thoughts : Overall, I thought this book was interesting enough to keep me engaged. A few good scenes here and there between Ophelia and Alex, the environment and aesthetic of Sorrowsong, the relationship between Ophelia and the people around her. But, at the same time, the book also felt a bit short, and I’m not talking about the size/thickness of the book. During the book, Ophelia’s and Alex’s relationship was developing rather well and at a good pace, in my opinion. However, during the final act of the book between the killer’s identity being revealed so suddenly to Alex doing a complete 360 on his feelings towards Ophelia in the last chapter and then a new player entering the game. It felt as though the author was trying to wrap things up in these last few chapters as fast as possible, and part of me wishes the book was perhaps longer. I have sung praises for this book previously above while I was talking about the chapters but another thing I want to say is that for a book to have dual POV, I wished we got more of Alex’s POV chapters while reading, and while I understand the reason for keeping an air of mystery around this man, I really do wish we got more chapters in his POV and I hope we get more of hid chapters in the second book. But overall, despite all this, I still enjoyed the book even with these thoughts and the star rating I’m giving it. Star rating : 3.5/5 ⭐️ Spice rating : 2/5 🌶 I am so sorry for posting this review late! When I came back from London on 24th March, I had no WiFi for a week, so I wasn’t able to post any reviews until now! Thank you, everyone, for being patient with me and for reading this very late review!