Gothikana is for readers who want a mountain-top castle university where a sheltered young woman, a secretive part-time professor and a century of disappearances are all tied to the same mystery. RuNyx calls it a dark academia gothic romance, and the publisher’s version is explicitly erotic, so the question is whether the atmosphere and the secret history keep up with the forbidden attraction.
Corvina, Vad and the University of Verenmore
Macmillan’s page for the Bramble edition calls the book an erotic dark academia story that pairs the romance of Beauty and the Beast with the gothic suspense of Dracula. An outcast her entire life, Corvina Clemm treats an admission letter from the mysterious University of Verenmore as a sign from the universe. She does not expect an old, secluded castle on top of a mountain, riddled with secrets, deceit and death.
The other lead is Vad Deverell, described as an enigma and one of Verenmore’s greatest secrets, a part-time professor working on his thesis who has been around long enough to know the castle’s dangers. The page says he knows the moment their paths cross that Corvina is dangerous to everything he is. They shouldn’t have caught each other’s eye, the page says, and they cannot be, but a chill-inducing century-old mystery forces them to collide: people have disappeared every five years over the past century, Corvina is getting clues to unraveling it, and Vad needs to keep an eye on her.
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What the excerpt adds
Macmillan carries a long excerpt, and it supplies atmosphere the blurb only names. It opens with a short prologue in which a young Vad is grabbed in a garden by a blind old woman who tells him he will go to a castle where none go and warns him that it is a matter of many deaths. Then it jumps ahead to a young Corvina, raised in a cottage by a mother who is not liked by the town, who feeds crows with her each morning and is told she was born under an Ink Moon that comes once every five years.
Chapter one finds Corvina at twenty-one, holding a handwritten letter offering her a full scholarship to a two-year program. She travels by train and taxi up a mountain in thickening fog, where the driver warns her about rumors and the signal worsens as they climb. She hopes the university will give her a clean slate among people who do not know her history. At the gates a guard checks her name, and she mentions her contact there, the recruitment specialist Kaylin Cross. She then meets Jade, a talkative returning student who offers to room with her. The excerpt ends with Corvina taking in the castle, towers and gargoyles included.
Do the mystery and the romance work together?
Structurally, the official description makes them inseparable. The thing that forces Corvina and Vad together is not a coincidence: it is the disappearances, and his reason for watching her is her proximity to the answers. The excerpt reinforces that by setting up deaths and a five-year rhythm before the two have met. A reader might notice that the Ink Moon recurs every five years, as do the disappearances in the blurb, although the sources do not say whether the two are connected.
Whether the mystery stays interesting once the romance heats up, or the reverse, is the balance the book has to strike.
The professor question
The description makes Vad a part-time professor and Corvina a newly admitted student at the same university, and it says they shouldn’t have caught each other’s eye. It does not say whether he teaches her, so the sources do not say how much of a student-teacher dynamic the book uses. The excerpt establishes Corvina as twenty-one, an older student than usual. If dark academia appeals to you mainly for libraries, ink and stone, check whether you are also comfortable with a romance between a professor and a student. That is a material feature, not something the setting’s beauty resolves.
Series position, editions and format
Macmillan places the book in The Verenmore Volumes, and RuNyx’s site lists Gothikana among her books that can be read as standalones. Her site also announces Arkana, a prequel set in 1872 at the same university with a healer named Lenore Emmeranne and the dean, Lord Draven Constantine, scheduled for January 12, 2027, so more of the world is on the way. The excerpt’s opening is third person, with sections headed by Vad and Corvina, and the author’s FAQ says she likes third person for suspense. The Bramble paperback listed is a deluxe edition with sprayed edges and interior art, 416 pages, on sale in February 2025. The author’s site notes that the first indie edition is no longer available, and it lists separate Bramble/Tor and Solaris editions for different territories.
What readers and critics praise about Gothikana
Readers on major book-review sites most often praise the eerie gothic-castle atmosphere, which several describe as immersive dark academia, and the mystery of the disappearances, with a few saying the late reveals caught them off guard. Some admire the heroine as curious and independent and the hero as magnetic, many cite the intense chemistry and sexual tension, and a number say they could not stop turning pages. Devoted fans call it a favorite and want more stories set in the Verenmore world.
Trade reviewers quoted by the publisher say it will appeal to fans of dark, steamy haunted-school tales, and a starred trade review calls it a brazen, page-turning love story. One blogger enjoys its literary nods to classic gothic novels and calls it an energetic ride.
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Content notes
RuNyx’s FAQ says all her books carry a content warning in the author’s note and advises readers to read it before continuing, and her standalones page repeats that. Macmillan does not list warnings. The publisher’s page does describe the book as erotic and as a story of secrets, deceit and death, and the excerpt includes rumors of people killing themselves and going missing, a mother who hears voices, a mother and daughter treated as outcasts by their town and a reference to psychiatric care in the admission letter. Read the author’s note in the current edition before deciding.
Fit and what to watch for
Gothikana should suit readers who want a castle, a creeping local legend and a heat level the publisher calls erotic. It may not suit you if you prefer an equal-footing romance, a plot-first mystery or a lighter tone. As you start, look for:
- The atmosphere: do the fog, the mountain road and the gargoyles feel specific enough to carry the book?
- Corvina’s expectations: does her wish for a fresh social start interest you alongside the mystery?
- Vad’s perspective: the prologue gives him a voice; does his hidden knowledge intrigue or frustrate you?
- The five-year pattern: are you curious enough about the disappearances to keep reading?
Reading alongside
Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House is a different kind of university book. Macmillan lists it as an adult fantasy debut in the thriller genre about Galaxy “Alex” Stern, called the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Like Gothikana it puts a newcomer inside an elite institution with a hidden side, but it is presented as adult fantasy and a thriller, not as an erotic romance with a teacher.
A different way into an elite institution
The Savage Merit by Alisson Bento begins with a forged identity at Sterling Institute and a heroine investigating her brother’s death. It connects through dangerous institutional secrets, but its infiltration premise and why-choose structure differ from Corvina and Vad’s advertised relationship, so choose it with those distinctions in mind. Explore the dark romance shelf for the mood you want.
The Harbor We Chose follows a marine surveyor and three men around a boatyard. Its adult why-choose notes specify no M/M, with kissing and a closed-door scene. This original group appears before Queen of the Deck, not The Savage Merit, and the setting is maritime rather than academic. Read online; email access unlocks later chapters.
Sources checked 20–21 October 2026. Reading suggestions compare advertised premises; they do not promise matching heat, consent dynamics, relationship structures, content or endings.
