Gorgeous photo by @thefearlessreader!
Hey fairy friends!
Ok fairies, final section, let’s go, are you ready to find out how Belladonna ends? (I am nervous)
Today we’re reading from Chapter 37 to the end of the book.
Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for Belladonna by Adalyn Grace, from chapter 37 to the end of the book. Please only read on if you’ve finished Belladonna!
-!SPOILERS!-
Well, this is a sad way to start today’s section… Death tells Signa it’s Blythe’s time. When Marjorie barges in, Signa orders her to remove her gloves and when she does, they’re stained from the belladonna. Elijah orders her to leave… but Marjorie is adamant they’re making a mistake. What do you think, fairies? Did she do it?
Death strives to show Signa that there’s more to death than she believes, that she can’t play god in the way she’s forced him to do with Blythe. She asks why he agreed and it’s essentially all for her. She’s his salvation. Every person he’s touches he sees memories as they die, he touched her and saw a future, a future where he held her in his arms and they danced beneath the moonlight.
Signa tells him she’s always been his, they were made for each other. Signa is ready this time.
When Signa sits down with Elijah and Byron the next day, she starts to question her accusation towards Marjorie. Percy is the son of Marjorie and Elijah, this was why she was enthralled in scandal and forced to work as a governess at Thorn Grove, not only because she had to but because it would give her a life where she could be close to her son and give her son a life where he was more than a bastard.
Death interrupts them, and tells Signa something is wrong with Percy. He thinks he can see Lillian. He eventually starts to recover, but he disappears for long turns at night. Sylas accompanies Signa as she ventures out into the nighttime to find out what Percy is doing. They split when they find footprints. The footprints lead Signa to Charlotte. She’s out foraging. When Charlotte mentions that Percy often visits his mothers garden, and that a stable boy used to accompany her, Signa becomes wary of Sylas. As Signa tells Charlotte she should get back to Thorn Grove, they notice a fire ahead.
When they find Percy, he has a tinderbox in hand and he’s not ok. He says Lillian is haunting him. Signa realises Percy poisoned himself. Not only that, he started the fire in the library. Signa allows Lillian’s spirit to take hold of her body. She asks Percy why he did it, what she did to make him hate her… and he says it was never her that was supposed to die.
It was supposed to be Marjorie, but Lillian drank her tea and she became ill and Percy panicked and kept feeding her berries to end everyone’s suffering. Then he turned to Blythe to try and bring sense back into Elijah. Then Lillian tells Sylas that Percy is his to do with as he wills… What?
Percy goes to stab Signa and Sylas steps into the firing line… but he’s not hurt. I think I see where this is going…
“This wasn’t how I intended to do this. I’m sorry, Little Bird.”
An EPIC mic drop moment from Adalyn Grace!
Death/Sylas gives her a choice: let Percy run or claim his life as her own and give Percy’s remaining life to Blythe.
I mean… I vote option two… and Signa does too.
Don’t mind me absolutely balling my eyes out at Lillian saying a final goodbye to Elijah, and Elijah asking Signa if Lillian is there and saying goodbye in turn.
Sylas never existed. From the very first moment when he picked her up, it was Death. Sylas stayed because he wanted to know her, and then because she asked for his help. He couldn’t do that in his most common form because at that time she was afraid of him. He tells her he’ll be with her every step of the way to figuring this out if she’ll have him. She holds his hand and tells him neither of them will ever be alone again.
Death tells Signa they won’t be able to see each other as often now that Blythe is healing. He doesn’t want her to poison herself just to be able to see him. He wants to enjoy her life while she is alive.
In the epilogue, Everett introduces Signa to his father at a ball and she tells him her unusual eyes allow her to see spirits. As they dance, Blythe makes her entrance into the ballroom. Elijah takes the attention of the crowd and asks them to toast to Everett’s father becoming an official partner in Grey’s. Julius signs the contract in front of the crowd… and then bodies begin to gasp and drop around them. Death appears over Julius to strip his spirit from his body and Julius realises Signa wasn’t joking about the whole “seeing spirits” thing! Death isn’t alone though, our parting note is Fate arriving and telling Signa it looks like she has another murder to solve…
What an ending!
I need book two, very soon preferably! What did you all think? Let me know in the comments below!
As always thank you all so much for joining us, and I hope to see you all very soon for our next FairyLoot readalong!
Love,
Shannon
Well as soon as Marjorie became the scapegoat with a decent chunk of the book left to go I had some suspicions about who else might have had a hand in this and Percy did come to mind for all the attention he wasn’t getting.
I’m so glad we picked the Sylas = Death reveal though! Thanks for the book, I thought it was a great read! Looking forward to Foxglove and another special edition!
I suspected it was Percy, but was hoping I was wrong. Some people are just evil I guess.
I’m guessing now that the killer in the next book is going to be Charlotte, she just seemed so bitter and resentful, but I’m probably reaching. Anyways I enjoyed it, can’t wait for book 2!
What a masterful ending! What a turn of events! Although I still suspected a hidden child and that Sylas was both a little too helpful and a little too invisible to other people!
Is the release date of the tome already announced? Please, I need to know the sequel.
Thank you for this great Readalongs !
Wow the plot twists! My guess was close enough that I feel triumphant but wrong enough that I’m completely shocked! I also love love love that the ending was complete and there was teaser for the next book. None of this “cliffhanger” nonsense that really means there was zero ending at all. This last day really sold me on the book and I’m definitely picking up book 2!
Belladona’s weakest point was the ultimate resolution of the mystery. It pulled a Stalking Jack the Ripper on me—and that wasn’t sufficient motivation (or a good plot twist, actually) then and it was certainly not good enough now.
And while, alas, neither the mystery nor the plot twist were particularly opaque to my way-too-early deduction, I did find myself contemplating, for far longer than was advisable, how Death — personification of finality and very much not a human being that would evolve genitalia to procreate — is capable of sex. It is a question that begs examination, for I have never been more confused in my life than when I read Death experience a little death.
All in all, it was a five star read. If not for originality, then for excellent vibes and because I want more content like this in my life. It’s the book Darklina girlies were looking for; we’ve got ‘I’ve waited a long time for you’, power sharing, and hero embracing the darkness.
While I really enjoyed parts of this, it was ultimately a book that let me down and the feeling is sadly still here the second time around. The book is somewhere around a 3 star, maybe 3,5, for me. But it could easily have been a four, if not five star, had the whole situation with death been different. Either if he wasn’t her lover of if he hadn’t practically watched her grow up.
I wasn’t overly attached to the characters, but I nevertheless enjoyed Signa’s development and I’m excited how much further it’ll go in the sequel.
I also found the twists to be quite predictable, but I don’t really mind that to be honest, since a lot of that was the author making good on vague promises, though they could have been more vague. Especially the Death/Sylas bit.
But overall I found this to be quite a solid fantasy book and quite enjoyable too. It had wonderful gothic vibes, great prose and an excellent set up for the sequel at the end. I’m curious what a sequel would do, since I do feel like the book could have been fine as a standalone. Either way, I’m quite excited to read the sequel.
Omg so much happened! I knew something was up with Percy, and I cannot believe that Sylas was Death. I’m so glad Blythe is healing and I cannot wait for the sequel
I loved the book so much. Thank you for hosting this amazing readalong! It’s been a blast. I’m looking forward to book two and hopefully we will get a se sequel. ????????
I finally finished this morning and I enjoyed this book so much! The perfect autumn/winter read!
I’m looking forward to Foxglove where Signa continues to solve Julius’ murder and, hopefully, her own family’s murder. I’m also excited to read about her entrance into society and her first season. And will it take her to her death where she and Death can be together?
So much to anticipate! But I give Belladonna Five Stars despite it getting a little slow near the end and the audiobook was exceptional! One of the best performances by a narrator!
Thank you, Shannon & FairyLoot, for an excellent readalong and an exquisite book!
So… I was half right. I still think what turned out to be the red herring of Charlotte being behind it would have been better. Percy poisoning Blythe doesn’t make much sense to me because he really seemed to care for her.
Percy being a piece of poop was disappointing.
I did really like the ending with the next murder.
The reveal that Sylas was Death I know people assumed but I feel sort of let down like in that one season of Dexter where that one character was only a figment of someone’s imagination…. (Sorry if I’m spoiling Dexter for you…save yourself the hassle though and stop after season 4 if you do happen to be watching it)…
Anyway, overall – really looking forward to Foxglove and hope we get another gorgeous Fairyloot edition to match!
I did not see the Sylas IS death thing coming at all. Possibly because for much of the book I thought Sylas was the child of Elijah and Majorie and thus the killer (I had the motive etc right just had the wrong person… Sylas instead of Percy) but I’m glad because I liked Sylas and was genuinely torn in the Sylas/Death/Signa love triangle so was pleasantly surprised when there was no triangle after all.
The question I really want answered which was never addressed was who murdered Signa’s mother and her guests at the party right at the beginning of the book? Also why were they murdered? I hope it is addressed in book two.
I did not know there was going to be a second book! But that is amazing because I really loved this book and want more!
And ooo the ending, another mystery to solve, I’m excited for it!
I did not know that Percy was going to be the suspect at all! That was surprising. And Sylas didn’t exist to anyone else, he was actually death!! That was unexpected.
Ok, so I didn’t see the Percy thing coming. I honestly feel like Sylas being the bad guy would have made soooo much more sense and if he was Marjorie’s child I would have loved this book. Even hearing Percy’s explanation of why he did all of this was bizarre. Marjorie showed him nothing but love, so his motivation seemed strange. Not only that, but when he realized that Lillian was getting the poison instead he was like, oh well, guess I’ll just kill her faster to get it over with. What a silly reason to kill someone. I am going to read book 2 because I enjoyed the mystery and atmosphere. This made a fun October spooky read though!
I really loved this book! ALthough I did have a lot of theories, some including Percy, I was still kept guessing until the end and I love that! And I did not expect it to end this way with Percy and him being so cruel… I am a also little bit sad about how Signa’s romance with Sylas is going… I hoped they would be together now. But that ending! I need book 2 nowww. SInce Fate had been mentioned a couple of times I suspected we would see a sign of him in this book. I kind of hope the next book will become a romance between Fate and Blythe…? Haha no clue, but I just want to know what happens with Signa and Blythe… I loved reading about them!