Phantasma (Wicked Games, 1)

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!

Phantasma by Kaylie Smith will immerse readers in a dark fantasy world. A world that is atmospheric and gothic and that forces one into high stake game of survival. A game where one needs to stay alive and most of all do not fall in love.Phantasma is a game with two outcomes, survival or death. A game that takes place in a haunted mansion and uses your greatest fear against you. Winning requires surviving the nine levels of the game centered around the seven deadly sins. Upon completion of the nine levels, the lucky winner's wish is granted. Ophelia Grimm wished to find her sister and so began her journey in the high stakes game of Phantasma.After the sudden death of their mother, Ophelia and Genevieve faced eviction from the only home they knew. As the eldest, Ophelia inherited her mother's necromancy magic which worsened her current situation. While grappling with the changes in her life her sister went missing. While trying to figure out where she could have gone, Ophelia learned that she went to take part in Phantasma. Therefore, finding her sister meant her participation in this high-stake game where survival is not guaranteed.Prepare for a world where magic and danger abound. A world where only the mentally strong and fittest stands the chance of survival. The trials Ophelia faced tested her physical and mental capacity. Despite the dangers she faced her venture into this world brought out her inner strength and helped in honing her magical powers. She did have help though. Help that came from a phantom, (Blackwell) a resident of the haunted mansion. Despite her initial distrust of him, Ophelia depended on his protection. This dependence would later lead to her breaking the rule of not falling in love.The story was captivating from the intense trials faced by the participants to the romance between the main characters. Ophelia and Blackwell were an interesting pair. Their interactions delivered some interesting and intense moments. I loved the world building and how the rules of Phantasma worked. I found it unique and engaging. The secondary characters, from the mortals to the supernatural beings added to the excitement. Phantasma ended on a high and surprising note. While unexpected it left this reader happy with the outcome