Forestfall by Lyndall Clipstone: A Dark Fantasy Romance

What: Forestfall (World at Lake’s Edge #2) by Lyndall Clipstone

Who: Macmillan Australia

When: August 30th 2022

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Pan Macmillan Australia for review.

Some oaths can never be broken…

The curse that haunted Lakesedge Estate has been broken, but at great cost. Violeta Graceling has sacrificed herself to end the Corruption. To escape death, Leta makes a desperate bargain with the Lord Under, one that sees her living at his side in the land of the dead.

But this world of souls and mist hides many secrets. And when Leta realises she is still connected to Rowan by a tethering spell, she will risk everything – even her soul – to try and reach him.

Torn between power and love, life and death, Leta struggles to keep hold of her humanity as she falls further and further under the spell of the world Below . . . and the Lord Under.

Forestfall was definitely one of my most anticipated 2022 releases because I loved Lakesedge, and I had to know what happened to Violeta, Rowan, and the Lord Under. Forestfall brings in Rowan as a second narrator, and I absolutely loved reading from his perspective. It brought his character more depth than the first book did, when readers could only see him through Leta’s eyes. Rowan’s love for Leta was so pure and strong, and I really felt for him throughout the whole book.

Where Lakesedge was secular in setting, Forestfall introduced the World Below, which was extremely creepy and also beautifully described. I never once wondered what Leta’s surroundings looked like because Clipstone gave me everything I needed for the setting to come to life. I loved the descriptions of the forests, and of the monsters that Leta met along the way (multiple eyes always gives me the creeps!).

Usually, I’m not a big fan of the separation arc, where the two main characters can’t be together for whatever reason. But Forestfall managed to escape the trappings of this trope because Rowan and Leta were never completely alone. They manage to see each other through the magical bond they created in Lakesedge (don’t worry, this is revealed in chapter one so it’s not a spoiler), and I was grateful for that.

Forestfall does introduce a bit of a love triangle, though, which I must admit I wasn’t 100% on board for. Leta would go on about how much she loves Rowan, and how desperately she wanted to go back to him but then would be making eyes at and kissing the Lord Under. After that, I just couldn’t quite invest in either of Leta’s love interests because she’d cheated on Rowan. They never broke up, they were still in love, they constantly told each other this, and then Leta’s just off kissing Lord Under when Rowan wasn’t around. I would have preferred the connection between Leta and the Lord Under to be more covert.

All the magical and spooky elements were ramped up in Forestfall, and I loved that. The spookiness of Lakesedge was delightful, but Forestfall took it to an all new level, with added bits of horror on top of the dark, gothic fantasy elements. The way Rowan and Leta embraced their darker sides in this book was something I hadn’t seen coming, but that I enjoyed nonetheless.

I’m really excited to read whatever Clipstone comes up with next because I’m a huge fan of her particular brand of spooky gothic fantasy romance!

© 2022, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

trigger warning