My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Title: Enigma (Bloodwing Academy, #2)

Author: RuNyx

Format: ebook (Kindle Unlimited)

Pages: 463

Publication Date: 4/29/25

Categories: Dark Romance, Dark Academia, Gothic

Enigma, a twisted Hades and Persephone meets scorching dark academia romance—a tale of love and obsession between two rivals.

There are secrets she must uncover.

There are secrets he must keep.

Salem Salazar is fascinated with death. The black sheep of her scandal-ridden, wealthy family, she arrives at Mortimer University as a legacy on the hunt for answers about what happened to her perfect, older sister. There, she discovers that her sister is far from the only girl to have gone missing at Mortimer. Salem will do anything to discover what dark forces are killing Mortimer’s students…even if it means using herself as bait.

And Cazimir van der Waal has caught her scent. The mysterious artist and teaching assistant has a dark past, a hidden agenda, and a ravenous appetite for a beautiful, golden-eyed girl who seems determined to risk her life.

Where she is ice, he is fire. Where she is organization, he is chaos. Where she is precision, he is passion. Together they are explosive–their fates linked as secret societies and death stalk them both.

Enigma is a sensual, epic love story for those who also crave the frightful, the puzzling, the suspenseful, the dangerous and the dark.

Welcome to Mortimer.

Enigma
*Dark academia romance
*Steamy suspense
*Rivals to lovers
*Secret societies
*Forbidden love

Content Warning: death, mentions of suicide,

I have never read a book by this author and finally got this one since it was on Kindle Unlimited:

+ Our main male character Caz is a tortured soul, he’s a TA, an artist with a pencil always in his hand but he’s got anger issues. When he zeroes in on Salem, it’s over, he is possessive and wants her bad. Salem has the same attraction towards him, but she really wants to wipe that smirk off his face. She can’t stop wanting this bad boy artist.

+ I do think this book was more romance focused but I didn’t mind because I thought Salem and Caz’s relationship was really addicting. He’s filled with passion and anger and she balances him even though she has a cold and icy personate, inside she’s really not and they complimented one another. His possessiveness is kind of toxic but it works out for them! It is spicy but nothing too overboard.

+ The atmosphere was gothic and dark academia which I enjoyed a lot. It was perfect for the mystery of the deaths on campus and rumors of a secret society. I also thought some side characters were really interesting and wanted to see more of, like Baron.

~ Didn’t really see the rivals to lovers between Salem and Caz. Caz is a teacher’s assistant, so I feel like they weren’t really competing for anything in class, maybe the scholarship? But even with that it wasn’t like they were in a fierce competition for it.

~ This story was more focused on the romance, and I feel like it needed more when it came to the mystery of the deaths and secret society department. Salem is studying criminology and I didn’t think she did much with the investigation except for a few things. Baron and Caz kept things really hush hush and there wasn’t a lot of information coming from them either.

Final Thoughts:

I wasn’t sure how I would like this one but it was a nice little escape and I enjoyed the dark romance between Caz and Salem. I also liked the dark academia setting, I just wish there was more about the secret societies and maybe a little more suspense.

Book Links:

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