Darkness Births the Stars by Sarah Lee Wohn
- biblio.dragon
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
A Haunting Romance Forged in Divinity - ARC Review
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Darkness Births the Stars is a lush, slow-burn fantasy romance that pulled my in with its quiet intensity and left me aching in the best way.
From the very first chapter, I was caught up in the complicated, ancient bond between Rada and Noctis. Their reunion crackles with unfinished business, a history that feels both intimate and devastating. Why was Rada cast out? What pushed Noctis to betray her? The answers unfold slowly but deliberately, the kind of storytelling that keeps you reading just one more chapter... until suddenly it's 2am and you're ruined.
The flashback chapters were some of my favorites. They offered rich insight into their tragic, passionate past while breaking up the quieter moments of Rada's current life. Watching them wrestle with who they were versus who they are now felt like peeling back the layers of an old scar - painful, yes, but deeply human.
By the end, I was fully immersed in this sweeping, emotionally layered world. Rada and Noctis are two powerful being torn between duty and desire, and when their fire finally ignites? It burns with the force of the gods.
Sarah Lee Wohn's writing is methodical, immersive, and emotionally charged. Every reveal lands at the right moment - never rushed, never dragging. The world building is vast yet grounded in character, filled with elves, dragons, dwarves, and gods. And that glossary in the back is goated.
Tropes you'll love:
⚔️ Enemies to Lovers
💔 Forbidden Love Spanning Millennia
🏡 Gritty Cottagecore Meets War of the Gods
👑 The Queen Gets the Villain
🔥 Forced Proximity
🖤 He Is Soft Only For Her
⏳ Slow Burn Steam into Sizzling Spice
🔀 Dual POV, Dual Timeline
💬 “I had nowhere else to go.”
🐉 Elves, Dragons, Dwarves & Epic World building
Darkness Births the Stars is a haunting, epic romance that lingers long after the last page. If you love slow-burns with high emotional stakes, if you crave fantasy worlds where love is both ruin and salvation, this one belongs in your TBR.
Thank you to the author for the ARC - I can't wait to see where Sarah Lee Wohn takes us next.
✨ Thanks for stopping by the Den for this ARC review! If you’ve read Darkness Births the Stars (or if it’s now on your radar), tell me: are you more drawn to the enemies-to-lovers tension or the forbidden love ache?
🐉💜 ~ Madeleine // biblio.dragon