Thank you to NetGalley/Kensington for the e-ARC!

It's a gothic gay dark academia! What more could I want? A little bit as it turns out, but I'll get to that.

This story follows James on his journey to becoming a doctor against his family's wishes. Along the way, he meets Nye and becomes willingly tangled up in the business of snatching bodies from fresh graves. It's gritty, gross business, but it pays well.

James is, I'm not going to lie, a bit of a boring character to follow, especially at the beginning. He's not a bad character and I did enjoy seeing his morals rearrange as he gets into the business, but I found myself more interested in Nye, to be honest. And the gentry stuff always loses me, but that's a personal preference.

The writing was very good. It was pretentious throughout and occasionally overwritten, but I think it was appropriate since James was the one telling the story. The atmosphere was nice and gothic, with plenty of gore and guts. As someone who works in a hospital laboratory and often sees blood and body parts (so many amputated toes...) I wasn't bothered at all. But if you don't like hearing about autopsies, maybe pass on this one?

The plot was on the meandering side. It didn't drag, but there's a lot going on in the synopsis and it takes a while to get to some of the points (Burke and Hare, mostly). The romance was a little quick to spark but sweet (and all fade to black, if that information matters to you). The mystery part really wasn't a mystery, and it wasn't particularly thrilling either. More like it was there and gone, like an extended cameo that I wasn't very impressed by because I'm not a true crime girlie. It might do more for someone else.

So it's not really a mystery, not a thriller, and only partially a romance, but it's definitely a historical dark academia.