Dark, lyrical, and atmospheric....Innamorata is Ava Reid doing what she does best: weaving gothic fantasy with aching romance and themes that cut straight to the bone.

The House of Teeth is one of those names that immediately gave me chills (how metal is that?), and the setup! Necromancy, a conqueror’s blade, forbidden libraries, revenge, and treasonous love was everything I could have hoped for.

Agnes, silent but powerful, captivated me from the start. Her bond with Marozia felt tender yet fraught, and her conflicted pull toward Liuprand? Deliciously dangerous.

The romance here is not sweet or easy. It’s sharp, poisoned, and soul deep in that way that only gothic fantasies can be.

This book is moody and rich with atmosphere, a story soaked in shadows and secrets. Reid’s storytelling, as always, is stunningly vivid, and the way she entwines vengeance, necromancy, and forbidden desire made me highlight so many lines.

It’s definitely a slow burn read, with heavy themes and a sense of unease lingering on every page, so if you’re here for action packed fantasy, know this one leans more into gothic mood, political intrigue, and character psychology.

But if you love hauntingly beautiful writing and stories where love feels both ruinous and redemptive, Innamorata is going to stick with you long after you close the book.

Haunting and atmospheric—this gothic tale of necromancy, revenge, and forbidden love drew me in. Lush writing, eerie vibes, and a heroine torn between duty and desire. Darkly beautiful!

This is an ARC review. I want to thank Ava Reid and Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore for allowing me the chance to read this book ahead of release day! This is my first Ava Reid book and how well received her others have been praised I was very excited to dive into this beauty.

However, in the beginning I had a very hard time getting into this book. And don’t even get me started on the list of characters that all immediately went into my “ugly names list to never name my children” such as Agnes, Marozia, Berengar, Liuprand, Waltrude, Widsith, etc.

Goth romances are typically my jam so are dark romances. I am just not even sure where to place this book under genre wise. It’s grotesque at its finest. It is a love story to its core. Even if the two technically are breaking all types of laws with doing so.

I almost DNF’d this book quite a few times as the plot just did not hold my attention as I had hoped. There were small parts of the plot that kept me…on my toes? I’m not sure how else to say the grotesque things that happened kept me entertained but it brought a sense of WTF moments.

I will say, TRIGGER WARNINGS SHOULD BE POSTED ASAP!

If you are against/not your yam in your reading preferences:

- Eating babies
- Necromancy
- Necrophilia
- LGBTQ+
- Child abandonment
- Incest-ish
- Rape

This was a very long winded version of saying: this book was not for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Utterly spellbinding. This book reads like a gothic fairytale carved in bone and blood. An island haunted by the dead, seven fallen houses of necromancy, and one silent heiress carrying the weight of her family’s legacy—it’s the kind of story that lingers like a curse.

Agnes is a breathtakingly complex heroine: quiet, defiant, and driven by vengeance, yet torn by forbidden desire. The political intrigue is razor-sharp, the necromancy deliciously eerie, and the romance with Liuprand feels like watching fire catch in the dark—dangerous, inevitable, and impossible to look away from.

The prose is lush and atmospheric, dripping with tension and gothic beauty. Fans of Gideon the Ninth or The Wolf and the Woodsman will feel right at home here.

This is a tale of power, revenge, and love that defies destiny—aching, treacherous, and unforgettable. I wanted to savor every line, even as it shattered me.

Not sure I even know what I just read! I had a difficult time with how much gore there was. I skipped and skimmed over those and there were a lot. I’ll give stars for a gorgeous cover and a writer who has talent. Thanks to
NetGalley for the ARC.

I received a free copy from Del Rey via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Publish date March 17th, 2026.

I've read a few of Ava Reid's books in the past, and I was cautiously intrigued by the gothic necromancy premise of her latest. In Innamorata, Agnes is the silent shadow of her cousin, who is the new Lady of Teeth after the death of their grandmother. But unbeknownst to Marozia, Agnes has been entrusted with her family's mission: betroth Marozia to the prince, steal forbidden necromantic knowledge from the royal library, and topple the royal family from within.

Innamorata is very much in the line of Reid's previous Lady Macbeth: the slow, brutal, and bloody unraveling of an aristocratic arranged marriage, emphasizing the role of women as mostly helpless game pieces. It's a prose-forward work with stiflingly lush, ornamented language that serves to enhance the sense of creeping rot that suffuses the novel. The outrages are lovingly depicted, the blood described down to the last drop, and even the feasts are sickening and unwholesome. Unfortunately, one of the chief horrors Reid chooses to fixate on is the fatness of cruel King Nicephorus, lavishing page after page on describing his indolence, greed, disgusting bulk etc etc. Fatphobia is common enough in genre to be nearly unremarkable, but it was persistent enough here to stand out.

While the prose was undoubtedly masterful, I found the plot to be a bit lacking. Agnes quickly abandons her scheme to topple the king after a single cursory visit to the library, and the majority of the book is devoted to her affair with her cousin's husband, the prince. Sadly, despite the necromancy-forward worldbuilding, it had a minor role in the actual plot. In addition, I think Reid struggles a bit with depicting sweet passionate heterosexual romance. Liuprand is blond, powerful, and vaguely nice to Agnes, but not much else--and their chemistry is lacking for such a central plot element. Agnes' jealous, incestuous relationship with the cousin who overshadows her had much more real feeling behind it, but their relationship received a fraction of the attention.

A grotesque gothic fantasy with a pervasive sense of rot that spends most of its time on a royal affair. Not recommended if you didn't like Lady Macbeth. Pair with Johanna van Veen's Blood on Her Tongue.

IMPORTANT TW : gore, torture, murder, rape, necrophilia.

What a solid book from start to finish! I couldn’t put it down and read it in only two days, and now starts the miserable wait for book two.
I loved everything about Innamorata. The plot is intriguing and full of twist, the characters are complex and diverse, the prose is as gruesome as it is poetic. It’s comparable to Juniper & Thorns in its heaviness and ability to combine gore with lust. I’m not the best at describing plot without spoilers, so I’ll stick to vibes.

The atmosphere is so eery, it pulled me in instantly. From page 1 we dive right into this bleak world, it sets the mood in such a brutal yet poetic way, I didn’t even know the weather and state of a place could be described in such horrific ways.

I love how other POVs are used to move along the story or give backstory. It makes their world feels more real and diverse, and it gives it this remote, detached fairytale quality, and allows extraneous details to surface.

*BIT OF A SPOILER*
The only thing I disliked is how quickly we went from being focused on Agnes’s legacy to her interest in the prince. I’m hoping we’ll go back to that in book 2, and have the main plot point come back and cause trouble.
*BIT OF A SPOILER*

It’s a strong book in every other aspect, the plot was amazing, every character feel well fleshed out and driven by their own motivations. They’re all complex in their imperfect morality, which is always so much more enjoyable to read about than flat 2D characters who are only clear villains or heroes.
Gruesome scenes were present throughout, I feared it would be absent from the book after they started indulging in their *desire* but I was very wrong. I was squirming from disgust from page 1 to 560.

I hope this book will be correctly marketed, it’s an amazing book but very heavy and gruesome. Since Ava’s work is more often geared towards YA, it will be so important for everyon involved in the promotion of this book to relay correctly the TW of this book.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this ARC, I cannot wait to buy a final copy of this book and recommend it to every reader who feels capable to get through it! Book 2 can’t come fast enough.

4.5/5
Once again Ava Reid does a fantastic job of storytelling and setting up a beautiful immersive world. The gothic elements Reid is known for are here in full force setting up a dark and gloomy world. This was such an interesting read with complex characters, a plot that constantly left me guessing what would come next, and a masterful romance that is full of yearning and longing. From the beginning I was enraptured with the story, eagerly wanting to learn more about main character Agnes and her cousin Marozia after the weird start to the story. Centering around Agnes and The House of Teeth we are exposed to a very interesting world with a gruesome history and darker customs. This is one of the main things that pulled me into the story. I loved learning about all the different Houses and the history behind them and the mainland Seraph kingdom. This history was represented perfectly with Reid's storytelling writing that always jumps out to me.

Overall I really enjoyed this book! Seeing the characters change and grow, especially Agnes' journey, kept me invested in the story. The love story between Agnes and Liuprand was both romantic and tragic. I loved reading about their forbidden love story but wasn't sure how it would work out. I still don't know what to think after that wild ending but I will 100% be reading the last book in this duology!

Necromancers? At times it felt like a book about cannibalism. I mean necromancy comes later, but like--This is labeled as Gothic Fantasy but it's giving horror. Ava I love you I do, but eating babies. Everytime there was a scene discussing it I was mid meal.

-->The summer I turned Vegetarian because WTF.

The ending--I--no words---I felt wrong reading that.

First, I would like to thank Netgalley, the publisher as well as the author for the opportunity to ARC for this book!

Ana Reid has woven a melancholic gothic journey with gruesome imagery and a tragic love story with Innamorata. The characters are all multifaceted, dealing with their own turmoil and inner self workings. The writing was truly beautiful in the select choice of words and imagery created throughout the book. Both the absolute best and worst parts of humanity are shown throughout, making certain parts hard emotionally to read without it taking jagged pieces of you with it. At times, it was hard to stay entranced with the work mainly due to how quickly it would shift from character to character, as well as the quick shift in dynamics without much of a lead up. However, the ending was a complete shock and left on a bit of a cliffhanger of what's going to happen next?! My favorite part would be the imagery the word choice conjures in one's mind

Thank you to Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early.

Innamorata follows Agnes, the heir to the legacy of the House of Teeth who must navigate an unfamiliar court and put everything she was taught about preserving the legacy to good use while she begins to harbor treacherous feelings for her cousin's intended husband.

This book was beautiful. The prose was gorgeous and the story was expertly weaved around the prose. I enjoyed all the characters but especially Waltrude and Pliny. I also found myself captivated by the world and the plot as it unfolded, as well as the twists and turns from the original story.

I did feel we got a little offtrack of the original plot as we got it the second half of the book (with the time jumps) and that section dragged a bit. But the ending more than made up for the slower parts and I still enjoyed the journey. I am very curious to see where the story goes in the next and final instalment.

Thank you again to Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore, and NetGalley for the chance to read this early.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

oh wow. Innamorata was such a gothic and gruesome journey, the atmosphere was palpable and came off the pages in waves and the story was rich with incredibly interesting characters and a crazy good plot. I love love love how Ava writes, and I found myself literally gagging at how descriptive some of the gore and violence was in this, but still loving it. Her writing has such a taste to it, and this book leaned into the darkest and honestly most disgusting of tastes so well?

the characters were so intriguing and felt things so incredibly deeply. Agnes was such a wonderfully unique and gothic character, and I loved reading the plot through the lens of her story.

This book is absolutely not for the faint of heart, it is disgusting and gruesome and incredibly dark at times, but it touches on such wonderful themes of humanity and love through these dark aspects. I really really enjoyed this and I'm going to have such a hard time waiting for the next book to come out.

just wow.

Innamorata is a lush, gothic fantasy that pulses with vengeance, forbidden magic, and an impossible love that feels destined to undo everything. Set on an island once ruled by necromantic dynasties, the story brims with the eerie beauty of a world where the dead once walked and knowledge itself was power. Now, with the noble houses destroyed, only the House of Teeth clings to survival—through the silence and cunning of Lady Agnes.

Agnes is a strikingly unique heroine: voiceless for seven years, yet her silence speaks volumes. She’s charged with reclaiming the lost legacy of her family and securing revenge, but the novel’s brilliance lies in how her personal desires twist against her duty. Her love for her cousin Marozia is tender yet possessive, and her unexpected connection with Liuprand—the heir to the conqueror who shattered her world—is both intoxicating and catastrophic. Every choice Agnes makes drips with danger, as passion collides with betrayal in a kingdom already rotting at the roots.

The atmosphere of Innamorata is intoxicating: grotesque castles filled with forbidden libraries, ruined houses haunted by secrets, and a magic system built on death itself. It reads like a fever dream of necromancy, romance, and ruin. Yet at its heart, it is Agnes’s story—a tale of loyalty and obsession, of a girl who dares to long for something more even as her final order commands her not to.

For readers drawn to dark, romantic fantasies like Ninth House or Kushiel’s Dart, Innamorata offers a richly dangerous world and a heroine whose heart may be the most perilous magic of all. It’s a story of necromancers, conquerors, and forbidden love that proves the greatest betrayal is sometimes falling for the enemy.

4/5 stars

Innamorata by THE Ava Reid was my biggest pull from NetGalley so far and oh my… what a glorious, gruesome book it is. We follow Agnes, the granddaughter of the freshly deceased Mistress of Teeth, as she orchestrates her cousin’s marriage to the future king of Drepane, cementing her house’s power for generations and also seeking to bring back the depraved, necromantic customs of their land. That synopsis had me GAGGED. Alas … it was not perfect, but I’ll get to that.

The characters were so interesting and multifaceted, with the exception of the prince, Liuprand. I think Ava Reid writes the most compelling female characters, but her men leave something to be desired, especially if they are romantic leads. Liuprand was okay, but I wasn’t as connected to him as I was with Agnes and Marozia. Agnes is a mute girl crafted by the abusive hands of her grandmother for vengeance, and ONLY vengeance. She loves her beautiful and vibrant cousin Marozia as though they were twin sisters, connected by something more than blood, more than flesh. Watching their relationship evolve and change was both beautiful and heartbreaking, and I adored the dynamic here.

The romance that dominates the second half of this book was not my favourite. I could tell they were deeply in love, but … I just didn’t care as much as they did. Move it along people, we have dead bodies to reanimate! Sadly this love story heavily carries the plot from the second half, all the way to the book’s grisly and disgusting ending (which I LOVED). I could have done with less romance and sex, but Reid’s writing is so gorgeous that I can forgive it. The lush, gothic world we have here is so interesting that I can forgive almost anything.

And the ending … I cannot wait to see what everyone thinks. I loved this ending. This is the first book in a duology, and the ending is simply stunning. I read it through breakfast (worst decision ever) and was sick to my stomach, terribly sad, and also deeply satisfied. It felt so deserved and fucked up and I cannot wait to see what happens in book 2. We finished on a high note of gore and horror that this book desperately needed after a romance-heavy second half.

Overall, Ava Reid kills it again (as usual) with Innamorata. I absolutely NEED the second book but awaiting the physical release of this one will keep me going. A depraved and fucked up book, if you like gothic horror with (admittedly) some romance, you will need this book.

Innamorata releases March 17, 2026!

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey publishing for an early copy in exchange for an honest review!

Ava Reid’s Innamorata is a gorgeously dark novel that blends Gothic atmosphere with a story of love, grief, and revenge. Set on a decaying Venetian island, the book pulls readers into a world where beauty and ruin exist side by side. The setting feels alive in every detail, the waterlogged palaces, the whisper of the dead, the shadows that seem to move with a will of their own. From the first page, Reid’s writing establishes a mood that is both eerie and intoxicating.

At the center of the novel are Lady Agnes and Marozia, two women whose lives are bound together by fate and by a love that feels as dangerous as it is irresistible. Their relationship is the beating heart of the story, tender and vulnerable but also charged with intensity. Reid doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of their bond, showing how desire, grief, and vengeance can blur into one another. It’s a love story, but one steeped in shadows.

Reid’s prose is lush without ever being overwhelming. She paints vivid images that capture the beauty and menace of her world, while keeping the story moving at a compelling pace. The Gothic elements, necromancy, family curses, restless ghosts are used not just for drama, but to deepen the emotional stakes. The result is a novel that feels both timeless in its atmosphere and refreshingly modern in its emotional honesty.

Innamorata is a book that lingers. It’s haunting and romantic in equal measure, the kind of story that leaves you turning over its images and emotions long after you’ve finished. With this novel, Ava Reid has confirmed herself as one of the most exciting voices in modern Gothic fiction.

holy shit, where do i begin??
the last few chapters had me gagging, on the edge of my seat, and the way it ended? you expect me to wait two years for the sequel, ava??

very different from any of their other novels. still has their signature beautiful prose, but the setting, the story is much more darker and gruesome. i really enjoyed it and the languid pace at which the story unfolded, and i’m more excited to see where it goes in the sequel.

many thanks to the publishers and netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Innamorata is not for the faint of heart, and I would carefully read the triggers before you commit to this book. It is dark, graphic, and has topics that are gruesome and morbid and can disturb a reader who is not aware of what they're getting into. That said the book's vibe is amazingly gothic, based upon political drama and intrigue, affairs, and forgotten necromancy. The beginning is far more heavy in the lore and fantasy than parts 2 and 3 to be terribly honest, and part 1 was my favorite for that and I found I missed getting more lore, especially about Deraphes magic, the past and the Seraphs. When the book turned from yearning and dark secrets to revive the dead to poltics and love affairs, it was fun, but also a loss. However I feel like all the exposition (and that ending what. The. Fuck. I'm horrified, but also morbidly intrigued to know what the fuck happens) Is going to make for an explosive book in the final installment so I don't want to harp too much on the slower pace. The shift from fantasy to historial romance in the middle of the book I feel like is necessary to pull of the rollarcoaster plunge back into fantasy I'm expecting in book 2. The prose gripping and I didn't want to put the book down, that said sometimes the characters shifts were a little ambiguous, but it was pretty easy to figure it out in a couple pages who we were following.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 (rounded up to five stars)
I am so happy to have been able to read this ARC (thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author.) Ava Reid is one of my favorite authors, and I have been looking foward to her newest book.
Fans of gothic fantasy will NOT be disappointed. This was a dark and twisted story with vivid imagery that immediately drew me into the world of Innamorata and The House of Teeth.♥️🦷🥀

I have not been able to stop thinking about this book since I finished it. Every sentence of this book is beautiful, grotesque art. This is truly Ava Reid's finest work, coming from someone who has rated all of Reid's books 5-stars on Goodreads. You can really tell that every single word in this book was chosen deliberately. I loved the language and writing style; it was lyrical, poetic, and rich with imagery. I felt, more clearly than I think I ever have while reading a book, that I could see the scenes as they played out. Every description of a room, building, or person was relayed so precisely that there was no doubt that I was imagining what Reid intended me to imagine. Every character, even less important, side characters, was described so vividly that they felt like real people. One thing that stood out to me in particular was the way that Reid began several chapters with descriptions of the room the scene was set in, or an item in the room, or something notable about a side character that was about to be introduced. It felt like watching a play. (As a side note, I also really loved the inclusion of chapter titles!)
Reid manages to encompass the best and worst of humanity in this book, sometimes within the same person. She explores themes that are incredibly dark and readers should definitely check out trigger warnings before reading, but she also is able to explore humans' capacity for love, and positive growth, especially through the main character Agnes. It's just a masterpiece, and I felt that I was completely transported to this world while reading. I actually had to keep getting up distracting myself by cleaning my house because I couldn't cope with the constantly building intensity and plot twists.
I don't even know what else I can say about this book, other than it is without a doubt going to be my best read of 2025, and I don't know how I'm going to be able to wait until possibly 2027 for the conclusion.

I really wanted to love Innamorata—the premise sounded so intriguing, and I’ve enjoyed Ava Reid’s writing before. The atmosphere was definitely rich and moody, and there were moments where the prose really shined. But overall, I struggled to stay engaged. The pacing felt uneven, and I had a hard time connecting with the characters. Some of the plot twists didn’t quite land for me, and I found myself wishing for more emotional depth or clarity in certain scenes. It’s not a bad book by any means, just not one that resonated with me personally. I think others might enjoy it more, especially if they’re into gothic vibes and lyrical writing.