Nocticadia

By: Keri Lake

Narrated by: Aaron Shedlock, Stella Hunter

Length: 18 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Mortui vivos docent. The dead teach the living.

After watching my mother succumb to a mysterious illness, I promised myself two things. I'd find the cure for what ravaged her and leave the godforsaken city where she abandoned me.

Four years later, I received an acceptance letter from Dracadia University, one of the oldest most prestigious schools in the country. Nestled on a secluded island off the coast of Maine, it's rumored to be haunted by the souls of the mental patients exiled there centuries before, those whose bones are said to make up the island's white sandy shores.

And restless ghosts aren't even its most daunting peculiarity.

Devryck Bramwell, known on campus as Doctor Death, is a brilliant pathologist in charge of the midnight lab. He's also my devastatingly handsome professor, who seems to loathe tenacious first-years like me. Except his dark and enigmatic gaze tells me all the ways he'd devour me if given the chance, and his stolen kisses burn my lips with forbidden jealousy.

I crave his authority.

He aches for redemption.

Together, we're toxic. Delicious fodder for the prying eyes hellbent on exhuming the rotted skeletons of our pasts.

For the dead have much to teach, and it's only a matter of time before Dracadia's most depraved secret is resurrected.

Nocticadia is a standalone dark academia tale of deadly secrets and forbidden love.

©2023 Keri Lake (P)2024 Podium Audio

EVERYONE NEEDS TO LISTEN TO THIS

Ahhhhhh I love this story so so much & to hear the narrators bring it to life IS EVERYTHING!! The angst, thrill & emotions they portrayed was *chefs kiss* amazing story & audio.

That was fantastic!!!

The Narrators truly brought this story to life and it was soooooo good!!! 🔥 🔥 🔥

"You're the first thing I've felt in years, Lilia. All I want to do is touch you."

Keri Lake has done it again with Noctacadia!! It’s a riveting dark gothic romance mixed with academia to create complete perfection!

The plot to this story in itself was very unique. There was a scientific piece that brought a complexity unlike most others with so many mysteries to unravel. This book sinks its claws in to you from the start and refuses to let go until you’re turning the very last page, and even then, I wanted more!

Professor Bramwell, otherwise known as Doctor Death, has had so many tragedies in his past making him who he is today, a cold and withdrawn male with no feelings. He has a genetic disease that doesn’t allow him to feel physical touch which only adds to his cold untouchable nature.

Lilia is a strong, smart and determined young lady that lost her mother a few years back and questions what she believes she witnessed that day. She captures the attention of a professor at her school, earning her a full scholarship to the elite Dracadia University, where a specific project matching her mother’s symptoms is being researched. She is determined to reveal her mother’s true cause of death.

When Lilia and Bramwell meet, they both try to ignore the intrigue they have with each other but it’s relentless. This romance is a torturous slow burn with intense passion that will absolutely consume you!

“And so the moth befriended the flame.”

Dr Death is drool worthy

Dr. Death is going to be hard to top for 2k24. The fmc was cool at first but became a whiny brat by the middle. The story was really good though. Highly recommend

Interesting dark romance!

I really enjoyed this Audiobook. The narrators are great! The story is gruesome at times, but very interesting and spicy. I liked the twist on a paranormal romance. Would highly recommend!

LOVED IT!!!!

Story was amazing, spice, once it happened was delicious, narration was perfection. Wish there were more books to this tho!

Phenomenal

Phenomenal! What more can I say. I am slowly working my way thru Stella Hunter's back catalog and discovered this audiobook and decided to give it a try. This duet is a narration with Aaron Shedlock who I absolutely love, and boy did they deliver. I am not familiar with Keri Lake (this is my first book by her) and really enjoyed the plot and cast of characters. Stella and Aaron did a fantastic job in bringing these characters to life. They are two of my favorite narrator pairs and their voices just belong together. I was so engrossed in the story that I wasn't even mad about the lack of spice. I give it a one pepper on the spicy scale, but the story made up for it in spades.

If you're a huge Stella Hunter and Aaron Shedlock fan I implore you to give this audio a try. I promise you won't be disappointed. It's the best 18 hours and 37 minutes I've spent listening to a book.

Good but a slight miss

3.25 ⭐️

Tropes:
•dark gothic
•romantic suspense
•professor/student
•age gap
•touch her and you die

Thoughts:

I usually love Keri lake and her books because they are some of the best spicy books that have amazing plots. But this book felt SO LONG. this was almost 700 pages and it felt like 700 pages. The spice was really good when we finally got to it but it took so long to get there and the the mmc was being so broody I wasn’t as into it. I almost dnfd this book a couple times at the end because I just didn’t care as much and I wanted it to be done.

Amazing writing

Imagine if The Ritual by Shantel Tessier and Gothikana by RuNyx merged into one with a parasitic twist.

Slow Beginning

Nocticadia is a goth dark academia romance.
The romance is between a student and a professor, and is very slow. The first 50% feels like backstory and establishing the characters. It is also grotesque where the morally gray hero infect people with worms to study them. It picks up after the 50% point with the romance really beginning and the plot becoming interesting. Plus, we found out more about the secret society that ruled the small island and the school. It just didn’t make up for the first half.

Plot twist

Eventually most of this genre starts to sound the same- so I didn't have high hopes for this one at first. ITS SO GOOD! the narration is amazing, the lend threw me for a loop, and it's well basically great!!! I will def be reading again!