Phantasma (Wicked Games, 1) Paperback – September 3, 2024

Rating: 4.75 starsSpice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️Tropes:🕯️Forced proximity🕯️Forbidden romance🕯️Ghost/Necromancer🕯️Mutual pining🕯️Cinnamon roll MMC for his FMC🕯️“Who did this to you?”🕯️“Touch him/her and die”🕯️Trials/Battle Royale🕯️Haunted Mansion🕯️Gothic New Orleans🕯️Disability (OCD) representation“To those who’ve had to claw their way out of the dark and still choose to be a light in this world—I’m proud of you.”Y’all. This BOOK. This is everything I wanted Quicksilver to be—not that there’s anything wrong with that book, but the hype was just insane and it left me so disappointed. This book just hits. It’s like a cross between The Temptation of Magic (also a great book), Hunger Games, and A Court of Thorns and Roses, and yet it manages to be entirely its own thing. This is gonna stay with me for a minute.We find Ophelia Grimm the night she finds her mother mysteriously dead on their living room floor in their gothic mansion in New Orleans. She’s always known she would one day have to inherit the necromancer magic that flows through the Grimm family line when her mother passed, but she hadn’t planned on it being so soon. Still, she does her duty and accepts the magic, turning her “cerulean-blue” eyes so ice-blue they are almost colorless. She also inherits, to her shock, a heap of debts her mother hadn’t told her about. To try and save their family home, Ophelia’s younger sister, Genevieve, decides to enlist herself in a trial competition called Phantasma, because the winner is granted any boon by the Prince of Devils. Ophelia chases after her sister and enlists in the same competition, planning to try and convince Genevieve to leave with her, but they’re put into separate groups and cannot meet until after they survive the seventh trial. Whilst there, Ophelia repeatedly finds herself bumping into a phantom called Blackwell, a mysterious person not enslaved by the mansion and yet not free to leave it either. They strike a deal: Blackwell will help her survive and win the trials, if Ophelia will help free him from Phantasma. If she fails, Blackwell will instead steal ten years from her lifespan.On the surface, this book already had a lot going for it in my opinion. Gothic horror vibes, Old New Orleans, battle royale, disability representation? It sounded awesome. And it completely lives up to that expectation.The thing was, she didn’t need Blackwell to always be her savior, but it was beginning to dawn on her that he had become her safe haven—someone who made the Shadow Voice go silent whenever he was around. And despite her injuries, and the fact that she was about to be incinerated, she didn’t want him to come save her in this moment. She wanted him to come make sure the Shadow Voice didn’t get away.Ophelia is the kind of heroine I love reading about. I’m so sick of the badass-with-a-bad-attitude stabby FMCs that have flooded this genre lately. But even if Ophelia isn’t that, she’s also not weak or passive, or different because she’s ~not like other girls~. She’s already used to fighting her own battles every damn day against the horror of true OCD, so when she enters the mansion of Phantasma, she’s almost not sure what are figments of her own imagination and what are real terrors dragged up by the game. She’s lonely, isolated by her mother’s upbringing and her own inherent desire to hide her differences, but she’s not desperate for companionship. She’s funny and smart, and grows to be so damn strong that you can’t help rooting for her.“In all the darkness, in all the loneliness, you have been my one source of light. My soul will go its grave with your name echoing in my mind.”Blackwell is just about the best of every book boyfriend rolled into one. He’s funny, he’s full of himself, he’s completely enamored with Ophelia. He’s got his own tragic backstory to work through, but as the book progresses, he becomes more focused on making sure Ophelia and her sister survive even if it costs him his freedom.“He and Blackwell are sworn enemies.”“And you kissed them both? I would’ve never pegged you for such a drama queen, Ophie. Though, I sort of get it, the jealousy thing is even hotter than the men. Honestly, I’ve never been prouder.”Genevieve is a riot. I loved every scene with her in it. She’s the perfect supportive-but-won’t-take-your-shit younger sister, and she’s so real for that. Her relationship with Ophelia is beautiful.The banter between Blackwell and Ophelia is always spot on, it never crosses that line into annoying or repetitive or juvenile that some romantasy books these days fail to toe. The spicy scenes, while not very numerous or particularly spicy, also thankfully never fall into cringe territory. The trials, even though there are nine of them, each modeled after the Nine Circles of Hell, don’t really ever get repetitive or drawn-out. Each are quite short, and yet the stakes just keep ratcheting up with each one. The downtime between each one was well-appreciated and felt well-earned for the characters, though sometimes dragged the pace a touch.Issues with the story, after all these glowing commendations? Really, none. How often do I say that?? Sure, I still have no idea when/what world this story is really supposed to be taking place in. We know it’s sort of gothic New Orleans, there’s mentions of the women wearing long dresses and corsets, and carriages; but then there’s also talk of cars, V-necks plunging past belly buttons, and women with explicit sexual freedom. So it falls very much into a sort of ACOTAR-type world, where it’s loosely based on old New Orleans, but also just not. We’re left to fill in that blank on our own, but it’s such a minor thing when the rest of the world feels fairly well fleshed out. And yeah, one of the villains Cade was a bit juvenile in that he seemed to loathe Ophelia from the get-go with almost no reason, but again, could be forgiven given the genres. Same goes for the speed at which our MCs fall in love. It’s not insta-love by any means, but one week? Meh. I’ll allow it. The great writing made it believable. The “twist” at the end was very easily predictable, but was executed in such a wonderful way that I don’t even care.So yeah. Excellent, excellent book. I had a great time devouring this one in about three hours. I’m just left wanting so much more, I’m not ready to be done with these characters!!!Thank you so much to NetGalley and Second Sky/Forever for providing me this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I’ll admit, I didn’t think Phantasma would be my type of book at first, but from the very first chapters, it drew me in completely. Kaylie Smith has crafted a story that blends rich character arcs, perfectly timed reveals, and a tension-filled narrative that’s impossible to put down.One of my favorite aspects of this novel was the character growth—especially with Ophelia, Genevieve, and Blackwell. Each of them evolves in ways that feel both natural and deeply satisfying, and I found myself invested in their journeys far more than I expected. The dynamic between Ophelia and Blackwell, in particular, was superb; the tension and space between them were masterfully done, building an emotional pull that kept me turning the pages.Smith’s pacing is another highlight. The slow release of backstory and the gradual answering of looming questions was executed with precision, keeping the mystery alive while giving just enough to satisfy my curiosity. I rarely felt lost or overwhelmed, which speaks to the author’s skill in balancing the story’s more intricate layers.If I had one critique, it would be that I wished some of the levels and challenges were a little more thrilling. They were intriguing and served their purpose in the narrative, but I wanted a bit more heart-pounding excitement in those moments.Still, this is a minor note compared to how much I enjoyed the overall experience. Phantasma surprised me in the best way, and I can confidently say I recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy with strong characters and a beautifully paced storyline. I’m already looking forward to diving into book two, Enchantra, and seeing where Kaylie Smith takes these characters next.

Book Review: Phantasma by Kaylie Smith⭐️ 5/5, 🌶️ 5/5THIS BOOK! Words cannot describe how much I love this book, but I shall try. One of my top reads so far this year!Phantasma is a game in a haunted mansion where ghosts, devils, and more roam to try and kill the players or make deals with them with super steep prices for their payment for their “help” to get through the game (like years off your life, memories… or perhaps even worse). There are only two rules: Stay Alive. And don’t fall in love. Easy, right?When Phantasma shows up in New Orleans, Ophelia Grimm follows her younger sister Genevieve to be a contestant in this very deadly game. Ophelia does have a bit of an advantage, though; she is a necromancer, but she just came into her powers and doesn’t know how to use them.Lucky for her, she meets Blackwell, who seems so familiar. He is charming, super attractive (with the ego to boot) ways make her seal a deal with him for her protection – but she has to help him, too. She shouldn’t trust him, but with how the trials are going, she doesn’t have much of a choice if she wants to survive.Ophelia and Blackwell make excellent partners (in more ways than one), but after seeing what happens to another player who fell in love, she realizes she is in more danger than she ever realized with Blackwell.The world building is gothic romantasy at its best and I ate it up! I’m a sucker for anything haunting with New Orleans, so I fell for this one hard. The MMC and FMC were chef’s kiss perfection! It had the forced proximity, forbidden romance, deadly trials, and “touch her and die”, “who did this to you?”, “good girl”, “look at me”, and plenty more tropes/favorite lines to bring sparks to even us mere mortals simply living through the pages before us.Phantasma also has delicious spice that doesn’t just feel thrown in and awkward. It makes sense and is out of this world electric between Ophelia and Blackwell. I’d say it has just the right amount, as this book is more plot driven than spice, but it still hits in all the right spots.The twist at the end I had predicted long before it appeared, but did I mind? Not in the slightest! This was such a great book, I was lost in it each time I picked it up, and was only devastated that it ended and I could never read it again for the first time. Yup. One of THOSE kinds of books.Highly recommend this book! It was downloaded on my Kindle (available in Kindle Unlimited) last year, and I never read it until now. Don’t be me. Read this now!