Phantasma (Wicked Games, 1)

This book is DARK! So dark, I had it put it down for a bit the first time I started reading it. It goes from dark to darker to darkest Until finally a light is turned on at the end. And boy, am I glad I picked this book back up! The character development and suspense keeps you on the edge of your seat, until you are wishing for a phantom of your own."Phantasma" is a dark, delicious feast for fans of DARK romantic fantasy. Its strong, evolving characters and unrelenting suspense create an immersive and unforgettable reading experience that will leave you both breathless and eager for more.*SOME SPOILERS*Ophelia Grimm's transformation is at its core. From her initial struggle with taking over the family business of necromancy and the constant inner battle with the "Shadow Voice," her organic growth as she faces terrifying trials shows a character much stronger than we first met.Her internal battles are as compelling as the external threats, making her a deeply relatable protagonist. Blackwell, the enigmatic stranger, adds another layer of intrigue, with his mysterious motivations fueling both tension and Ophelia's journey of self-discovery.The suspense is expertly woven throughout. The deadly competition within the cursed mansion, with its nine hellish levels, ensures constant thrills.Each level presents new, often gruesome challenges, keeping readers guessing and on edge. Kaylie Smith creates a palpable sense of danger, where death is ever-present and betrayals lurk. The house itself acts as an unexpected character, amplifying the sense of claustrophobia and peril. The overarching mystery of Phantasma's origins adds layers of intrigue, making for a truly unpredictable and captivating read.

📚 Book Review: "Phantasma" by Kaylie Smith 🕯️Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️What I loved:1. The gothic and scary vibes 👻2. Ophelia's growth and inner strength 💪3. Ophelia + Blackwell 🖤📖 About the Book:To save her sister, Ophelia must enter Phantasma, a deadly contest inside a haunted mansion, and face nine dangerous challenges. Along the way, she forms an uneasy alliance with Blackwell, a mysterious and attractive stranger who offers to guide her through the trials in exchange for ten years of her life.🤔 Review:When I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it. The concept of Phantasma, with trials each mirrored after a circle/level in hell, gave all the gothic and scary vibes. The setting was perfect for this story, and the scare factors were great and in vivid detail that helped put you in the moment.Ophelia was a great character, and I enjoyed seeing her grow and find her inner strength while facing her OCD. The depictions of OCD were haunting and dark, which really conveyed the struggle Ophelia was going through. I thought each of those scenes was done very well.Now to Blackwell. The dynamic between her and Blackwell was fantastic—the humor and sass were on point, making their interactions some of my favorite moments. Plus, Blackwell's memory loss of his past intrigued me to find out what happened to him. I had a suspicion, and let's just say, I called it! (see image for my reaction to the moment. HA!)The one downside I had with this story was the ending. I felt it was rushed and that things were not fully explained. I can't say much without spoilers, but I would like to know the why behind a certain character's actions. Maybe we will get more answers in the next book. I hope so.Overall, this was a captivating read with a unique premise and strong character development. If you love gothic, spooky stories with romance, this book is for you.

Rating: 4.75 starsSpice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️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!