Nocticadia by Keri Lake is a dark, gothic, forbidden romance with horror-esque elements. This novel begins with background from the island itself where Dracadia University sits upon, and we immediately begin to follow our spicy FMC, Lilia. She's been through a lot, including witnessing her mother succumb to a mind altering and mysterious illness. With the determination to figure out what happened, she is more than pleased when she receives an acceptance letter to Dracadia. This campus has many whispers and rumors, some creepy and some haunting, but the one the most daunting is about a brilliant professor, Devryck Bramwell. Why is his nickname Doctor Death? Despite the horrific rumors that follow him, Lilia is determined to get into his midnight lab and not just because his dark gaze speaks of the delicious things he'd do to her.

With similar tones of Mary Shelley who wrote well-known Frankenstein, Keri Lake does a magnificent job of combining multiple elements: dark academia, gothic, forbidden romance, science fiction, and more.