Phantasma By Author’s Name

Oh my goodness, I loved this book! It was the perfect dark gothic fantasy romance to get lost in. From the chilling haunted house competition to the intense romance, this story had me glued to every page.

4.5 ⭐️
3 🌶️

Quick Synopsis: In this spooky fall read, our main character, Ophelia, is a fierce Necromancer forced to enter a haunted house competition where she must survive nine levels inspired by Dante’s circles of hell to save her sister. To make it through, she has to rely on our mischievous, utterly swoon-worthy male lead, Blackwell, a Phantom who had me giggling and blushing the entire time.

What you’ll get:
• Plenty of “hot ghost” (yes, the exist! LOL)
• A charming ghost cat (because every haunted house needs one)
• Forbidden romance that burns (Phantom/Necromancer dynamic)
• A relatable FMC with OCD
• Haunted house competition with hellish trials
• A tangle of family dynamics and betrayals
• All set in a fantasy version of New Orleans

Representation Done Right: What truly sets Phantasma apart is its representation of OCD and anxiety. It’s not just a background detail—it’s central to the story and explored with haunting vulnerability. Through the intense world of dark fantasy, the author delves into these themes with care and authenticity, creating a powerful layer of emotional depth.

The Characters: Beyond her OCD, I adored Ophelia as a character. She’s strong, unfiltered, and courageous, and her growth in such a short time was inspiring. And Blackwell… that man! His flirtatious banter and humor were top-tier, and I think I’m crushing on a ghost—no regrets! Their chemistry was off the charts, and the romance was an absolute chef’s kiss with enough tension, sarcasm, and banter to keep me grinning the whole way.

Why Not Quite 5 Stars: I would rate this book 4.5 Stars, but Amazon hasn’t caught up with the times. The only reason this wasn’t a full 5-star read was the ending. It felt a little rushed and predictable, with everything resolving a bit too easily for my taste. But honestly, that didn’t stop me from absolutely falling in love with this book.

Although it’s part of an interconnected series, you get a complete story with no cliffhangers making it the best Standalone read. If you’re craving a standalone romance that’s spooky, emotional, and fun, you’re in for a treat. I absolutely cannot wait for Ophelia’s sister’s story next year!

Rating: 4.75 stars
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Tropes:
🕯️Forced proximity
🕯️Forbidden romance
🕯️Ghost/Necromancer
🕯️Mutual pining
🕯️Cinnamon roll MMC for his FMC
🕯️“Who did this to you?”
🕯️“Touch him/her and die”
🕯️Trials/Battle Royale
🕯️Haunted Mansion
🕯️Gothic New Orleans
🕯️Disability (OCD) representation

“To those who’ve had to claw their way out of the dark and still choose to be a light in this world—I’m proud of you.”

Y’all. This BOOK. This is everything I wanted Quicksilver to be—not that there’s anything wrong with that book, but the hype was just insane and it left me so disappointed. This book just hits. It’s like a cross between The Temptation of Magic (also a great book), Hunger Games, and A Court of Thorns and Roses, and yet it manages to be entirely its own thing. This is gonna stay with me for a minute.

We find Ophelia Grimm the night she finds her mother mysteriously dead on their living room floor in their gothic mansion in New Orleans. She’s always known she would one day have to inherit the necromancer magic that flows through the Grimm family line when her mother passed, but she hadn’t planned on it being so soon. Still, she does her duty and accepts the magic, turning her “cerulean-blue” eyes so ice-blue they are almost colorless. She also inherits, to her shock, a heap of debts her mother hadn’t told her about. To try and save their family home, Ophelia’s younger sister, Genevieve, decides to enlist herself in a trial competition called Phantasma, because the winner is granted any boon by the Prince of Devils. Ophelia chases after her sister and enlists in the same competition, planning to try and convince Genevieve to leave with her, but they’re put into separate groups and cannot meet until after they survive the seventh trial. Whilst there, Ophelia repeatedly finds herself bumping into a phantom called Blackwell, a mysterious person not enslaved by the mansion and yet not free to leave it either. They strike a deal: Blackwell will help her survive and win the trials, if Ophelia will help free him from Phantasma. If she fails, Blackwell will instead steal ten years from her lifespan.

On the surface, this book already had a lot going for it in my opinion. Gothic horror vibes, Old New Orleans, battle royale, disability representation? It sounded awesome. And it completely lives up to that expectation.

The thing was, she didn’t need Blackwell to always be her savior, but it was beginning to dawn on her that he had become her safe haven—someone who made the Shadow Voice go silent whenever he was around. And despite her injuries, and the fact that she was about to be incinerated, she didn’t want him to come save her in this moment. She wanted him to come make sure the Shadow Voice didn’t get away.

Ophelia is the kind of heroine I love reading about. I’m so sick of the badass-with-a-bad-attitude stabby FMCs that have flooded this genre lately. But even if Ophelia isn’t that, she’s also not weak or passive, or different because she’s ~not like other girls~. She’s already used to fighting her own battles every damn day against the horror of true OCD, so when she enters the mansion of Phantasma, she’s almost not sure what are figments of her own imagination and what are real terrors dragged up by the game. She’s lonely, isolated by her mother’s upbringing and her own inherent desire to hide her differences, but she’s not desperate for companionship. She’s funny and smart, and grows to be so damn strong that you can’t help rooting for her.

“In all the darkness, in all the loneliness, you have been my one source of light. My soul will go its grave with your name echoing in my mind.”

Blackwell is just about the best of every book boyfriend rolled into one. He’s funny, he’s full of himself, he’s completely enamored with Ophelia. He’s got his own tragic backstory to work through, but as the book progresses, he becomes more focused on making sure Ophelia and her sister survive even if it costs him his freedom.

“He and Blackwell are sworn enemies.”
“And you kissed them both? I would’ve never pegged you for such a drama queen, Ophie. Though, I sort of get it, the jealousy thing is even hotter than the men. Honestly, I’ve never been prouder.”

Genevieve is a riot. I loved every scene with her in it. She’s the perfect supportive-but-won’t-take-your-shit younger sister, and she’s so real for that. Her relationship with Ophelia is beautiful.

The banter between Blackwell and Ophelia is always spot on, it never crosses that line into annoying or repetitive or juvenile that some romantasy books these days fail to toe. The spicy scenes, while not very numerous or particularly spicy, also thankfully never fall into cringe territory. The trials, even though there are nine of them, each modeled after the Nine Circles of Hell, don’t really ever get repetitive or drawn-out. Each are quite short, and yet the stakes just keep ratcheting up with each one. The downtime between each one was well-appreciated and felt well-earned for the characters, though sometimes dragged the pace a touch.

Issues with the story, after all these glowing commendations? Really, none. How often do I say that?? Sure, I still have no idea when/what world this story is really supposed to be taking place in. We know it’s sort of gothic New Orleans, there’s mentions of the women wearing long dresses and corsets, and carriages; but then there’s also talk of cars, V-necks plunging past belly buttons, and women with explicit sexual freedom. So it falls very much into a sort of ACOTAR-type world, where it’s loosely based on old New Orleans, but also just not. We’re left to fill in that blank on our own, but it’s such a minor thing when the rest of the world feels fairly well fleshed out. And yeah, one of the villains Cade was a bit juvenile in that he seemed to loathe Ophelia from the get-go with almost no reason, but again, could be forgiven given the genres. Same goes for the speed at which our MCs fall in love. It’s not insta-love by any means, but one week? Meh. I’ll allow it. The great writing made it believable. The “twist” at the end was very easily predictable, but was executed in such a wonderful way that I don’t even care.

So yeah. Excellent, excellent book. I had a great time devouring this one in about three hours. I’m just left wanting so much more, I’m not ready to be done with these characters!!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Second Sky/Forever for providing me this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book is amazing. The whole descriptions of the scenes, the places, the people that show up, and so detailed you feel yourself inside of Phantasma and New Orleans. The spicy parts actually have a meaning and a reason (which makes them more special and important), and the characters’ development was so fulfilling, like watching a real-life person growing up. Kudos to Kayile for this masterpiece, and I can’t wait for the next book

I absolutely loved it. I don’t want to say much, it’s best to discover it on your own but the story was quite compelling with an easy – inviting worldbuilding and fantastic characters. It was like reading a classic romance novel in a modern supernatural era, the best of both worlds. Fierce FMC with a charming MMC. Every single element of this book was great. Can’t wait to read the next!