Between Blood and Darkness

by Lili Mastronardi

All Adara Goodman wants is to survive senior year of high school without issues, but when a shadow with her appearance lands a student in the hospital after a fight, graduating and preparing for college are the least of her worries. The darkness that’s followed her since childhood is resurfacing, and once its volatility causes the deaths of her loved ones, she’s forced to seek help from the source of her curse—the Devil himself.

Desperate to restore life to those dearest to her, Adara agrees to a bargain: she must pass The Sixes, a series of trials created to grant Satanials, the soldiers of Hell, an opportunity to win back their souls. To qualify, she needs to be trained as one—not exactly a breeze judging by the rising tensions with her illusive mentor, the Daemon Prince Asmodeus, who seems determined to sabotage her.

Although Adara is fighting to complete her trials, they aren’t her only battle. The longer she’s surrounded by depravity and corruption, the more she struggles not to succumb to her own dark impulses. If she fails to complete The Sixes, not only does she lose her one chance to right her wrongs and defy her emerging monstrosity, but her soul will land in Praeteritus, the endless void separating the Nine Circles of Hell… until which time she’ll return to the Circle of Treachery to serve as the Devil’s Satanial for eternity.

Genres: Fantasy

430 pages, Paperback

Expected publication April 15, 2026

About the author

Lili Mastronardi is a fiction writer from Montréal, Canada. Although her first language is French, she is fluent in English, knows (decent) Italian, and is trying her hand at Spanish. While obtaining her degree in Analytical Chemistry from Dawson College, she drafted her first full-length novel, BBAD, and finished its sequel BSAS in university after drafting a second book from a new series, nicknamed VWIP. As it stands, she has completed 7 novels centering queer female protagonists in fantastical settings who are morally grey or villainous, thereby showcasing the extent of their rage and power. Whenever she’s not busy drafting yet another book (and ignoring her phone), she’s either drinking unhealthy amounts of iced coffee despite the weather, info-dumping Game of Thrones lore on anyone who cares to listen, or cooking up some pasta dish since her Italian heritage runs red as tomato sauce in her veins.

Reviews

[grace!! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to the lovely author for an ARC, in exchange for an honest review <3

3 STARS

“I could see myself in him, not some distorted version he’d created of who and what I should be, but a reflection of every aspect of what made me me—aspects that he understood and acknowledged as intimately as his own. His darkness found familiarity in my shadows in return, both captivated and grateful.”

If you enjoyed Percy Jackson, Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel, and A Court of Thorns and Roses, this would be an excellent next read!

Between Blood and Darkness is a whirlwind of dangerous fun, captivating romances, and above all, heart. You can really feel the author’s passion for her characters, her book, and the literary inspirations—notably Dante’s Inferno—that infused the work. The watertight plot felt easy to follow most of the time, and a number of twists in the middle and the end were satisfyingly clean. BBAD also brims with exquisitely intentional allusions that symbolize, foreshadow, and overall unify the work’s architectonic themes.

For me, the main romantic relationship between Adara and Michael, and Michael’s character were exceptionally well-executed. Their push-pull dynamic, wrought with toxicity, chaos, and brokenness from both sides was complicated but incredibly realistic and cathartic to read. Michael’s characterization I felt was a breath of fresh air among male fantasy leads; every time I thought he would fall into a trite archetype, such as “bad ex-boyfriend” or “dumb jock plot device”, he proved me wrong over and over again. He was truly fleshed out with his own fears and internal conflicts, and all of his flaws and actions felt organic and believable. Each mistake he made I truly sympathized with and understood his rationale; he was in my opinion the most well-written character in the entire book, and the continuity of his relationship with Adara truly showcased all the toxic glory that accompanies two damaged and deeply flawed people. Big kudos to Lili for executing him nigh-flawlessly!

That being said, I feel the stand-out elements of this book were overshadowed by four glaring flaws: the tone, the plot structure, the world, and the protagonist’s characterization. Ultimately, while the high concept has much potential, it was executed in a way that simply did not deliver on the promise of its premise.

First: the tone. One of my main gripes with this book is that through its marketing and synopsis, it promises darkness, psychological heaviness, explorations of hell, horror, grief, trauma, female rage, and overall many deeply mature and uncomfortable themes that should perhaps leave readers darkly enchanted, disturbed yet captivated, or just any type of sombre. It does not deliver. 80% of the attempts at maturity and complexity are drowned in the main character’s perpetual snarky, witty comebacks and absolutely mood-shattering commentary.

The plenitude of quips got to a point where canned laugh tracks played in my head whenever Adara would say something characteristically sarcastic during a serious situation, completely ruining the atmosphere. Moments of gorgeous, lush, and dark description make you expect a certain type of work and tone, and draw you in the way the author promised, but then we cut to the protagonist doing or saying something goofy—it had me thinking about the clashing nature of the work rather than being immersed in it itself. Unfortunately, the glimmers of beauty and genius are too heavily offset by the frankly crude and overwhelming attempts at humor that seemed prima facie like an imitation of Percy Jackson, but once prolonged, is more reminiscent of 2010s Wattpad fanfiction than anything else.

See these examples:

While participating in one of the dangerous, supposedly serious hell trials:
“Fuck this!” I punched and kicked the walls around me. “Fuck! Fuck! FUUUUCKKKK!”

Being told she is different by her love interest:
“The point is: the way you went on a tangent about Hamlet, the way you knew all of these background details not many people were aware of? You were—”
“You better not say ‘different,’” I cautioned. “It makes me feel as if I’m a protagonist in a 2010s Young Adult novel.”
Veering toward the corner, I glared upwards. “You better not make me into Y/N.”
Michael popped in next to me. “Who are you talking to?”
“My author, obviously.” I waved, and faced Michael. “I’m back.”
(This one gave me such pause)

During another supposedly serious trial:
“The rules of this Stage are straightforward.” Lucifer’s voice skated across the surface. “Stay in your seat.”
It sounded simple enough; I’d been nervous for no reason. I relaxed in my chair. “Do I not get any bathroom breaks?”
Levi and Asta laughed.

During a parent reveal that would logically be devastating and traumatic in light of its impact on Adara’s life, her being from a Western, Christianized society where she would even subconsciously be perturbed by this demonized figure even a little bit, as well as due to the nature of his power (I would expect him to radiate some sort of fear-inducing aura at least. Even good angels such as Gabriel or Michael did, and Lucifer is said to be able to rival them to some extent):

Adara: “I wanted to meet you.”
Literal Lucifer: ”How thoughtf—”
Adara: “Again… sarcasm. I didn’t actually come here for a father-daughter reunion. Frankly, I don’t care that you’re my father, even though I probably should, considering you’re the literal Devil.” To an extent, I did care, but I wouldn’t admit that.
Lucifer: “I prefer Emperor of He—”
I waved a dismissive hand. “Yeah, no. I don’t give a shit.”

We are promised female rage, and this is what we get:
“I meant to take another of Michael’s knives, this time to carve Az’s face off and toss it at Lucifer’s feet, but Michael hauled me onto his shoulder and carried me from the training room, kicking, screaming and swearing.”

During another trial:

Adara: “I’m not supposed to be here right now, so if you could take it e—”
Ammar advanced in the blink of an eye, slashing a dagger around as he tried to grab at the symbol on my chest. I managed to dodge his next attack, which had almost sliced open my cheek.
“Dude, what gives?” I shouted, my arms shooting out. “Did you not hear what I just sai—”

Talking with her love interest:
“Close your mouth,” I said, reaching him. “You’re going to catch flies.” (I have encountered this countless times on Wattpad and Fanfiction.net)

I believe the point is clear; too much of this book read like an amalgamation of Marvel and Hazbin Hotel dialogue without any pause, barely any breaks, and felt slightly like a juvenile high school drama novel even while the protagonist went to hell which I felt was quite inappropriate for the tone we were promised. There is a very thin line between a badass/cool/girlboss/smart protagonist and a brat/immature one, and Adara came off overwhelmingly like the latter. Female rage felt largely absent.

Next: structure. This was one of the worst issues for me: two-thirds of the synopsis focuses on Adara’s precarious trials in hell, and it is one of the main selling points used for marketing. In reality, the trials begin around 50% of the way through the book, which is simply unacceptable from a premise delivery standpoint; the first half takes place in Adara’s high school and largely features typical high school drama (e.g. trite mean girl, getting a boyfriend, jealous guy best friend) with hints of Adara’s inner darkness which are unfortunately overwhelmed by the juvenile tone and equally immature plot points. Even if one argues that it is simply a slow start, readers will expect the central conflict to be introduced much earlier; the slow start still needs to centre the story around its core premise. The action can scale up slowly, but with not even a mention of the trials, the entire first half feels narratively directionless and unintentionally cumbersome. It almost feels like there are two starts to the story—an interminable fake-out at the beginning that reads less as authorially clever and more unskilled, and the actual start halfway through.

Plot-wise, the actual trials themselves were underwhelming; out of the six, three lacked potential and seemed trite and boring, one was executed outstandingly well, one was executed relatively well, and another had potential but was not executed well. I do believe that if the trials were more personally tailored to an individual’s own greatest struggles, as two of them were, they would have had far more potential. Either that, or the broad trials being far more challenging than they were. While there were no plot holes and each event made sense architectonically, the plot itself could have been greatly improved.

Third: the world. We are promised hell in all its dark, infernal glory, and yet the protagonist stays in a comfortably furnished apartment when she first descends to hell and lodges at a luxurious guest suite throughout her katabasis. The first place she meaningfully engages with in hell contains a coffee machine, comfortable beds, pillows, and a couch, a flat screen TV, a stocked bookshelf with classics such as Dorian Gray and Wuthering Heights, and of course is inhabited by a gorgeous e-boy-esque demon prince and his equally attractive brother.

She is afforded showers and canopied beds during her trials, which made the environment feel more like some ersatz red dimension that tortured people often rather than the real deal. These glaring negative similarities with ACOTAR were immensely disappointing for my experience; even the demon love interest Asmodeus (which I will elaborate upon further) reminded me heavily of Rhysand. Overall, the world did not evoke any of the expected atmosphere one would like from a book heavily based on Inferno. It essentially took as much inspiration from Dante’s Inferno as Vivienne Medrano’s Hellaverse did, which, while entertaining, is absolutely not known for faithfulness to the source material. Nor does it need to be—it is acceptable because Medrano does not cite Inferno as a main influence or artistic basis in the way BBAD does. I can recommend this book to enjoyers of the proudly kitschy Hellaverse, but not so much to enjoyers of the Inferno or Paradise Lost, which it is supposedly heavily based on.

Furthermore, none of the demons felt remotely threatening. Based on their descriptions of simply being extremely attractive, having some basic special powers (like being prolific at writing, creating gadgets, sensing emotions, etc.), and talking almost like contemporary teenagers, they were practically powerful e-boys or models and not demons at all. Overwhelmingly, they also did not match their domain; Mammon, the demon of greed, is a vans-wearing writer who brings a writing setup with him wherever he goes; Asmodeus, the demon of lust, is a recluse who spends time reading in his apartment and contemplating the inadequate ending of Romeo and Juliet—ironically enough, his brother Leviathan, historically a serpentine embodiment of chaos, secular politics, and envy, embodies lust more adequately as he actually comments frequently on sexual matters and entertains his partners; Belial, traditionally associated with pure wickedness and lies, is only meaningfully mentioned pranking his brother by tattooing Andy Warhol on his lower back; and so forth.

Their power further seems to diminish as none of them really shut down Adara’s antics (when powerful, dominion-obsessed demons would more than likely do so) or do any demonic activities—even basic ones like torturing or inducing fear. The only glimpse of this we are given through the premise is that her demon mentor is trying to sabotage her—this is quickly disproven around halfway through her trials as he admits that he only pretended to sabotage her to secretly help her, which paves the way for their inevitable tryst later on.

We are given the excuse that Adara is Lucifer’s sole daughter, and thus they must treat her like royalty; Lucifer himself seems not to care about her well-being and actively sabotages her, and with the inherently demonic character of, well, demons, one would assume they would try to exact at least petty revenge in secret ways such as at least inconveniencing her or scaring her. Because the book is in first person, we experience the story through Adara, and as she is not threatened, I do not feel threatened either. However campy, Helluva Boss unironically does a better job characterizing its demons; at least their designs are quite representative of the sin that they personify.

Finally: the protagonist’s characterization. Adara is by far the most insufferable character in the entire book—even more so than her mean girl bully—not only because of her tone (as expounded on above) but her behavior, as well as how she is characterized.

For example, when her earthly parents reveal their identities to her—a demon father and a mother knowledgeable about hell and how to summon demons—and summon Asmodeus, a high-ranking and powerful demon, her first reaction to seeing this powerful entity spawn from a magic circle on her floor after being summoned by blood is to punch him in the face. Personally, this did not achieve what I assume was the desired effect of characterizing Adara as a capable, fearless girlboss, but instead made her seem stupid with no self-preservation instincts at all. Similarly, her poor choices to talk back and insult entities far more powerful than her—including Lucifer himself, literal ruler of hell—not only makes her seem immature and careless, but also unintentionally characterizes these demons as far less threatening, powerful, and overall hellish as they should have been. I had to suspend a mountain of disbelief to accept not only that she could win the trials, but that her father would not simply smite her for…whatever reason, because he clearly does not display any love or favoritism towards her. He even openly prays on her downfall and rigs trials—what is stopping him from killing her outright? If he intends her to suffer anyway, why can’t he just directly harm her himself? Is Lucifer, the literal Devil, bound by some laws of fairness or integrity? If so, it is never explained, and would make him seem much weaker than narratively suitable.

Furthermore, she is characterized with a juvenile amount of telling and not showing, reminiscent of middle grade writing that caters to reluctant readers. Here are a few examples:

“Now that, I hadn’t expected. Not his admission and acknowledgement, not the gentle earnestness of his voice, Hell, not even the sincerity bleeding from his expression. This wasn’t a sort of validation I needed; I wasn’t in search of it from him or anyone else, for that matter. His accountability and respect, on the other hand? That meant more to me than I cared to admit.”

“Unfortunately, there were no harnesses here and there certainly weren’t any fun-coloured rocks to grab onto. I didn’t have the skills for this. I had no upper body strength and no love for advanced cardio. I could barely see the damn walls.”

“Did he think so little of himself despite shedding part of his aloofness, taking accountability, and placing himself in a position of vulnerability through his honesty?”

Her commentary is often incredibly on the nose, and her characterization could have improved by miles if readers were given space to infer these (rather obvious) sentiments through better-written actions and subtext in dialogue.

She also too rarely displays true vulnerability, grief, or rage beyond bratty childishness; I highly enjoyed moments where those sides emerged, and felt immersed in the story I had originally been sold, but they were too often drowned in a sea of poor characterization and unnecessary, atmosphere-breaking commentary.

Ultimately, the high concept plot could have been much better had there been serious structural editing, a pass for characterization, style, tone, and world, as well as just rewriting certain plot points. While entertaining and lacking large plot holes, the book simply sins by not delivering what it promises on a premise level. Due to the unserious attitude of the protagonist towards almost everything, I was unable to feel the stakes or the danger, and could not be immersed properly. It read almost like a parody of all the tropes it employs, certainly not as a sophisticated upper-YA dark fantasy. As one character put deftly, Adara is for all intents and purposes “a five-year old” based on her attitude and how she reacts to situations. The book’s first person perspective greatly aggravated the impact of the unseriousness, and left much to be desired—had she been more genuine and treated her matters more seriously, that alone would have greatly elevated this work. Instead, I followed a bratty, immature, and sometimes downright stupid protagonist who seemed like a crude imitation of every Helluva Boss character, through an unrealistically comfortable hell with demons that were not nearly as threatening as they could have been.

This review does not even address some glaring questions regarding backstory and the necessity of certain characters, but I am willing to give grace to the idea that “it will be addressed in the sequel” despite the lackluster execution of planting these seeds (for example, the protagonist does not even question how she was conceived at all as the sole daughter of Lucifer—it’s fine if this is not deeply explored and answered in this book, but the lack of any mention makes her seem more unpleasantly daft, and the story poorly plotted). Unlikeable and unreliable antiheroes can be some of the most interesting and memorable characters to follow; unfortunately, Adara was insufferable in the way that made me not want to follow her at all, and I found myself only continuing to read for the premise and the plot. This book would have been much better served as a romantasy instead of dark fantasy, as the main romance was truly so much stronger than any other element in the book.

That being said, it was not the worst for a debut novel; several gorgeously written passages gave me exactly what I expected, and I wanted to stay immersed so badly. The romance and Michael’s character were also incredibly fun to follow. The author shows much promise! I will absolutely look out for their next release (BBAD is part of a series, so this is quite exciting), and I think you should be too!

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Lili for the eArc of Between Blood and Darkness!🫶🏼

How dare you wreck my heart this way, Lili? What have I ever done to you?😭💔

In all seriousness, I loved this story. Lili’s writing is just so witty and beautiful. I am not familiar with Dante’s Inferno, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the story and its characters. It was humorous, heartbreaking and stress-inducing all at once.

Those deamons can GET IT. I do love a villain, and Lili introduces him perfectly and made me fall in love with (unfortunately) 🥲
But what I love even more is a bad bitch who embraces the darkest parts of herself and learns to thrive in it. Give me more of it!!

I think the plot twists were fun and unexpected, especially that ending (Re: HOW DARE YOU)…

If you loved Blood and Betrayals, Kingdom of the Wicked or Ninth House, you’ll really enjoy this!

I can’t wait to read what’s next for Adara!

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Give me the second one like now please, I need to know what happens!
Love a feisty FMC. Amazing twists towards the end, and a good old enemies to lovers trope. Such an enjoyable read 😍