Nocturn

Book: Nocturn by Allie Santos

Reviewed by Your_bookish_fantasy

Rating: 4/5

𝓝𝓞 𝓢𝓟𝓞𝓘𝓛𝓔𝓡𝓢
⚜️𝔻𝕖𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕕 𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨 𝕠𝕗- Nocturn by Allie Santos

⚜️ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕤-
(out of 5 stars, my rating scale is at the end)
📚 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25 / 5

🌡️ 𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗲 MF 🌶🌶🫑 / 5 -𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑦 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑠

Which books have I also given this same rating? (𝑠𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑦𝑙𝑒𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛)

5⭐️ Fourth wing / Bound by inked flame / Anathama / The Lies of Lena / Of silver and Curses
4.5⭐️ Bitten / The Female / Quicksilver / Bride / Lights Out / A Bargain so Bloody
4⭐️ ACOTAR/ Spellcaster / One Dark Window / From Blood and Ash / Phantasma / Butcher & Blackbird
3⭐️We Who Will Die / The Wolf King / Daughter of No Worlds / The Ex Hex

⚜️𝕂𝕖𝕪 𝕀𝕟𝕗𝕠:
Genre- Dark Fantasy Romance / Dark Romantasy / High Fantasy / Gothic Fantasy

📖 331 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 -

𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝗣𝗢𝗩 / Solo POV- Amara

𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 - August 28, 2026

𝗣𝗹𝗼𝘁 or 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿 driven? 𝒜 ℳ𝒾𝓍, but definitely plot-heavy

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲 & 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗻𝗼 - Book 1 of a connected duet/series

𝗔𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 on 𝗞𝗨 ? ✅

𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗲 - ℱ𝒶𝓈𝓉! This was ridiculously easy to devour. There was almost always another secret, danger, twist, character or unanswered question pulling me into the next chapter.

𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 ? ✅𝒴ℯ𝓈! I stayed up until god knows what time reading it, eventually forced myself to sleep, dreamt about the bloody thing and woke up wanting to immediately start reading again! If a book follows me into my dreams, I’d say it has made itself pretty memorable. 😂

𝐀𝐧𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ? FMC is described as having bronze/brown skin and thick black hair. There are also strong themes surrounding class oppression, prejudice and persecution.

ℳℴℴ𝒹𝓈 ; 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌, 𝑻𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆, 𝑻𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒚, 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝑴𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔, 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒚, 𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒔𝒕𝒚, 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒖𝒎𝒂-𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒚, 𝑮𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒄, 𝑨𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆-𝒇𝒖𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔

𝒟𝒾𝒹 𝒾 ℯ𝓃𝒿ℴ𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 ? ✅ ABSOLUTELY. It consumed me.

𝒲𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒾 𝓇ℯ𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓃ℯ𝓍𝓉 𝒷ℴℴ𝓀 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓈ℯ𝓇𝒾ℯ𝓈 ? ✅ Is this even a question after that ending?! GIVE IT TO ME.

𝒲ℴ𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒾 𝓇ℯ𝒶𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 ℯ𝓁𝓈ℯ 𝒷𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓊𝓉ℎℴ𝓇 ? ✅ Yes. Allie Santos is very good at giving me exactly the sort of darkness, secrets, morally questionable characters and emotional chaos I apparently enjoy inflicting upon myself.

𝖂𝖍𝖔 𝖜𝖔𝖚𝖑𝖉 𝖎 𝖗𝖊𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖙𝖔 ? Readers who want their romantasy genuinely DARK. If you like morally-black MMCs, downtrodden but strong FMCs, oppressive fantasy societies, political intrigue, class systems, mysteries, betrayals, forced proximity, possessiveness, questionable morality and spice that very deliberately wanders across the consent line, this is for you. If you need your MMC to display green flags before you fancy him, Cassiel would like to respectfully decline your application. 😂

🚨🅲︎🅷︎🅴︎🅲︎🅺︎ 🆃︎🅷︎🅴︎ 🆃︎🆆︎!🚨
Seriously. CHECK THEM. This isn’t cute dark-romance window dressing. There is non-con/dub-con, coercion, captivity, attempted sexual assault, choking, forced sexual acts, sexual violence/threats, torture, gore, murder, beheading, disembowelment, corpse/body horror, animal death, child death/burned bodies, forced injections, forced branding, self-harm/suicidal thoughts, blood drinking, physical assault, psychological manipulation, oppression, extermination/persecution, rough sex causing injury and other potentially distressing content.

⚜️𝕊ℙ𝔼ℂ𝕀𝔼𝕊 𝕀ℕ 𝕊𝕋𝕆ℝ𝕐:
💋𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑑𝑠 / 𝑀𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑠
🩸𝑅𝑒𝑑𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑠
🖤𝐵𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑠
👑𝑊𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠
🦴 𝑊𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠
🧟‍♂️ ᕼOᒪᒪOᗯՏ

⚜️𝕊𝕡𝕚𝕔𝕖 𝔽𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕤:
🤍 𝑉𝑖𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛 𝐹𝑀𝐶
🗡 𝙀𝙣𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 -ish
🧩 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒙𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒚
🌡 𝕐𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 , 𝔸𝕟𝕘𝕤𝕥 , 𝕋𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟
👀 𝘝𝘰𝘺𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘮
🥵 𝒟𝒾𝓇𝓉𝓎 𝒯𝒶𝓁𝓀
🩸 Blood drinking / feeding
🫦 Pleasure & pain
⛓️ Restraints / captivity dynamics
⚠️ Dub-con / non-con elements
🍆 Knotting
🔥 Possessive sex / jealousy
🧸 Aftercare elements

⚜️𝕋ℝ𝕆ℙ𝔼𝕊
😈𝕊𝕖𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕤 & 𝔹𝕖𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕪𝕒𝕝𝕤
🔮𝔓𝔯𝔬𝔭𝔥𝔢𝔠𝔦𝔢𝔰 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔐𝔶𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔢𝔰
🪧Pᴏʟɪᴛɪᴄᴀʟ Iɴᴛʀɪɢᴜᴇ
👑𝓡𝓸𝔂𝓪𝓵 𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓻𝓲𝓰𝓾𝓮
☯️ℝ𝕖𝕝𝕚𝕘𝕚𝕠𝕟/𝔻𝕖𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕖𝕤
🪦𝕳𝖔𝖗𝖗𝖔𝖗 𝕰𝖑𝖊𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖘
🏰Gothic
🧸𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦
🤩Epic Side Characters
🧐Aɢᴇ Gᴀᴘ
🧩𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒙𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒚
🤬 Feminine Rage
🐶 Underdog
⏳𝐃𝐚𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬
⌚𝔸-𝕙𝕠𝕝𝕖
🩸 𝑩𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅-𝒃𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒔𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎
👸 𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒏 𝑶𝒏𝒆 / 𝑽𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒍
💰 𝑹𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒗𝒔 𝑷𝒐𝒐𝒓
🔗 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝑰𝒎𝒃𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆
🕵️ 𝑼𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝑨𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔
💘 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑩𝒐𝒏𝒅?
🖤 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝑩𝑳𝑨𝑪𝑲 𝑴𝑴𝑪
🪢 𝑲𝒊𝒅𝒏𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 / 𝑪𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆
🧙‍♂️ 𝑵𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓
❓ Is anything actually what it seems?

✨ TᕼᗴᗰᗴՏ ✨
Classism • Oppression • Prejudice • Power • Control • Survival • Freedom • Identity • Bodily autonomy • Possession • Exploitation • Loyalty • Betrayal • Desire • Jealousy • Political corruption • Secrets • Deception • Morality • Consent • Love versus ownership • Destiny versus choice

📝Cliff Notes Review-
I genuinely could not put this down; I stayed up stupidly late reading, dreamt about it and woke up wanting to immediately dive back in. It was deliciously dark, fast-paced and unpredictable, with a properly morally-black MMC, brilliant side characters, political intrigue, secrets and twists that kept changing what I thought I knew. My biggest problem was the unexplained logic surrounding Amara being the vessel, because I couldn’t understand why such a supposedly precious body wasn’t protected or how the bondmate soul-transfer was even believed to work. That repeatedly pulled me out of an otherwise completely addictive read and is ultimately what kept this at 4.25 ⭐️ instead of five.

😥 𝕎𝕙𝕪 𝕟𝕠 𝕗𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕤?
For a book I genuinely could not put down, there was one surprisingly large problem that kept pulling me out of the story: I couldn’t make the logic surrounding the vessel and bondmate work.

Everyone believes the FMCs body will become the permanent vessel for the Warlord King’s long-awaited bondmate. Amara’s soul is supposedly going to be destroyed and another soul will inhabit her body. So even if Cassiel couldn’t give a flying fuck about Amara the person , surely Amara the body should be one of the most valuable and heavily protected things in the entire realm? So…. Why is her body allowed to be harmed? Why isn’t her health and physical condition paramount? Why isn’t she guarded like the bloody crown jewels? Why are other people allowed access to or even sight of the body supposedly destined for the King’s beloved?

The same question kept coming up with Cassiel’s other women. I completely understand him sleeping with whoever he wanted during the years or centuries before his bondmate was found. But once Amara has been identified and Nocturn is approaching, doesn’t he believe his bondmate is effectively on her way? If this is the person he has supposedly waited for, why wouldn’t he now be faithful? Maybe sexual fidelity means absolutely nothing within a Warlord bond, but if so, I needed the lore to tell me that.

And then there’s the biggest question: what does everyone actually believe is going to happen at Nocturn? I understood that Amara was the vessel and Cassiel’s bondmate would take her souls place. But who is this bondmate supposed to be? Where is her soul currently? Is she dead? Is she living inside another body? How is she identified? How is the soul transferred? Who performs the transfer? What physically happens to Amara?

I don’t need the book to reveal the truth early, particularly because the ending changes how we look at everything. I just needed to understand the accepted version of events that Amara and everyone else believed was true . Because the vessel is the foundation of the entire plot, those missing mechanics didn’t feel like tiny pieces of unexplained lore. They affected my understanding of character choices and repeatedly interrupted the otherwise fantastic flow.

That’s ultimately what knocked an incredibly addictive book down to 4.25 ⭐️.

🌍 𝕎𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕 𝕓𝕦𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘, 𝕨𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕡𝕒𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕘:
This is where my feelings get interesting because, aside from that enormous vessel-shaped question mark, I thought the worldbuilding was bloody good .

Allie Santos throws us into a society divided by blood. Redbloods are registered, controlled, medically monitored and effectively attached to powerful Bluebloods. Then you’ve got Wraithlings, Hollows, ancient languages, Necromancy, blood feeding, political tensions, underground alliances and Nocturn itself.

There is a lot here, but I never felt as though someone had slapped a fantasy encyclopaedia onto my Kindle and told me there would be a test on Friday. Most of the information comes naturally through Amara experiencing the world. The class system is particularly effective because it isn’t simply explained to us. We see how differently people behave depending on the colour of someone’s blood and how deeply those prejudices have become embedded in everyday life.

The setting also has this strange combination of old-world fantasy and unexpectedly modern conveniences and magical inventions, which gives it its own identity rather than feeling tied to a particular historical period.

The pacing was one of my favourite things. It MOVES. Secrets lead to more secrets, answers create questions and just as I thought I understood where the story was heading, something else shifted underneath me.

And THAT ENDING.

Absolutely diabolical behaviour, Allie. 😂

The frustrating thing is that the vessel lore is arguably the single most important piece of worldbuilding in the entire book , and that’s where I needed considerably more information. The rest of the world felt efficient and surprisingly easy to absorb, which made that omission stand out even more.

🧝‍♂️ ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕤:
Amara was incredibly easy for me to root for. She’s been raised at the bottom of a society that has spent generations telling people like her exactly how little they’re worth, and suddenly she’s dragged into the centre of a world she barely understands because her body has value to powerful people.
And that’s an important distinction: her body has value. Amara herself apparently doesn’t.

That makes what happens to her particularly uncomfortable and effective. She’s vulnerable without being completely helpless, naïve without being empty-headed, and watching her begin questioning what she’s been told about her world was one of my favourite parts.

Then there’s Cassiel Draven.
FINALLY. A morally-black MMC who appears to have actually read the job description. 😂
He’s ruthless, possessive, powerful, cruel, arrogant, dangerous and at several points completely fucking irredeemable. This isn’t a man who growls at someone in chapter three and spends the remaining thirty chapters secretly running an orphanage.

I didn’t always like him. Good. I wasn’t supposed to.

What I did love was that Allie gave us enough through Amara’s POV to make me constantly watch him. There are tiny behaviours and moments that suggest considerably more is happening beneath the surface, without suddenly sanding all his sharp edges off to make the romance easier.

Their chemistry is dark, uncomfortable, sexually charged and riddled with an enormous power imbalance. There were moments where I could see something beginning to develop between them, only for another action, revelation or outside force to stomp all over it.

I also briefly started wondering whether this was wandering towards love-triangle territory , which had my little drama-loving brain immediately pulling up a chair. 👀😂

The side characters were brilliant , too. Several feel as though they’re carrying information, loyalties or potential storylines that haven’t remotely finished unfolding yet. I’m particularly interested to see which seemingly secondary characters become much more important in book two.

And I absolutely loved the Wraithlings (animal familia) as a concept. Being born alongside your own little familiar, physically connected to you from birth, is wonderfully strange fantasy lore and I wanted even more from Amara’s relationship with hers.

⏳ 𝕎𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕚 𝕣𝕖-𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕 𝕠𝕣 𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕕?
RECOMMEND? Absolutely, but check those bloody trigger warnings first.
This is not something I’d hand to someone wanting a fluffy fantasy romance with a slightly grumpy hero. Cassiel would eat that recommendation for breakfast.
But for readers who enjoy dark romantasy, genuinely morally-black men, oppressive fantasy societies, political intrigue, blood magic, mysteries, betrayals, power imbalances, possessiveness, complicated consent and heroines discovering that everything they’ve been taught might be complete bullshit?
Yes.

Would I reread it?
Apparently my subconscious already started without asking permission because I DREAMT ABOUT IT. 😂 Seriously though, yes. I think this is actually a book that could become more interesting on reread because there are so many little details that may mean something completely different once you know the ending.

🪧𝔽𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕝 𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤:
This book had me in a chokehold.
I kept telling myself I’d stop after another chapter. Then another. Then apparently time ceased to have meaning, I eventually went to sleep at god knows what hour, dreamt about Nocturn and woke up wanting to immediately go back into the story.

THAT is what I want from a fantasy book.

It was dark without pretending its MMC was secretly a cinnamon roll. The society was oppressive and fascinating, the side characters actually interested me, the mysteries kept multiplying and the political elements gave the story far more substance than simply dangerous man + innocent woman + horny thoughts .

I loved Amara. I wanted to throttle Cassiel, investigate him, understand him and occasionally throw him directly into the sun. The side characters had me suspicious of absolutely everyone. At one point I was preparing myself for a love triangle. Then the story casually wandered off in another direction while I chased it carrying my theories like a deranged conspiracy board.

My only major problem is unfortunately attached to the central premise .
I needed to understand what everyone believed a vessel actually was, why Amara’s body wasn’t treated as extraordinarily precious, why Cassiel continued sleeping with other women once his supposedly long-awaited bondmate was imminent and how this mysterious soul transfer was expected to happen.

Those aren’t questions I could simply tuck away for book two because the characters already believe they know the answers . I didn’t need the truth. I needed their version of the truth so their behaviour made sense to me.

That missing information repeatedly interrupted an otherwise ridiculously smooth and addictive reading experience. And yet here I am, still thinking about it.

𝐹𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠;

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𝕄𝕪 ℝ 𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕊𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕞𝕤 :

⭐️ DNF

⭐️⭐️
I managed to finish it but it was rubbish. I won’t keep a physical copy and won’t recommend it, but it’s a shame as the plot could have made a good book in another author’s hands.

⭐️⭐️.5
It was OK. I wish I didn’t start this one as it didn’t do it for me as I struggled to read it. It had an interesting premise that fell flat but I had to see what happened in the end.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
I don’t regret reading it, and I will read the next one, but this one did have a few flaws. [These could be repetitive writing, gaps or plot holes, better character growth or world building, areas needing more detail.] Generally, the book lacked depth and became confusing. The plot resonated with me even though it annoyed me on the whole.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
I’m glad I read it. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to the right people, but I wanted more! Sadly, it’s easily forgettable with a few issues I just couldn’t overlook/get past.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Good book! I loved it, but… I needed more! I really did enjoy it, but it had a few parts that needed more detail or added history/background or lore. But that’s because the story or characters were memorable, and the plot was strong with brilliant twists. I would re-read if I needed to catch up for the next book and would recommend.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Great book! I truly wish the story had been thought about more, or the author had been given more time as this book is so close to brilliance! I will likely read again and will definitely be recommending it to all!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
WOW! Absolutely amazing book! Well written with great characters and a plot so memorable that it will stay with me. I will definitely read this again, I will be recommending it and sharing it with the whole world! Also- I NEED A PHYSICAL COPY!

🔥⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🔥
This is my God level tier. The book must be perfectly memorable. Even after reading 50+ more books, I will remember character names and emotions along with the plot. If there is a special edition, then I need to own it! If there is a conversation on books- I’m talking about this!

SPICE SCALE:

🌶️ – segsual language and a little on-page action / fade to black

🌶️🌶️ – a lot of segsual language and some on-page open door action, may be occurring a couple of times

🌶️🌶️🌶️ – a lot of explicit action and dirty talk, occurring frequently with 2/3 lurvers

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ – super graphic and explicit, occurring 4 or more times, can be more grey and taboo themed.

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ – Kinks and Fet!shism, explicit and super graphic. It is likely to be tushy play, toys, playrooms, and more dark / taboo fantasies and realities.

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