VICTORIAN GOTHIC ROMANCE
Kathryn Colvin - Romance Novels
DOCTOR D'ARCO, SORCERER OF LONDON
A VICTORIAN GOTHIC ROMANCE
Gothic genre, romance genre, and literary fiction meet in the eerie, passionate, slow-burn forbidden romance readers compare to Jane Eyre, Faust, and The Phantom of the Opera.
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A dark sorcerer. His widowed apprentice.
A Victorian Gothic Romance for all time.
In the midnight fog of Victorian London, the young widow Elizabeth Buckingham was destitute and alone, sustained only by her vow of revenge against whoever—or whatever—caused her Egyptologist husband’s uncanny demise.
Everything changes when a mysterious encounter at a fortuneteller shop leads Elizabeth to join the Esoteric Order of Magisophists, a secret society and college of magic. But with her new life comes new peril, and even the occultists of the Order dread the infamous Doctor D’Arco: a grim, brooding, demon-summoning professor of sorcery, his imposing presence intensified by his black cloak, steel mask, and the unsettling sensation of darkness that emanates from him like a deep shadow.
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Now the sorcerer Doctor D’Arco seeks an apprentice to join him in banishing a ghastly rival—and Elizabeth proves to have precisely the talent he requires.
Inspired in part by vintage Gothic, Romantic, and Victorian literature and written in compelling, sensual prose, Doctor D’Arco, Sorcerer of London is a tale of mystery, adventure, supernatural thrills, eerie suspense… and most of all, of a young widow’s secret, longing love for the dark sorcery professor to whom she is apprenticed, her fear of him slowly smoldering into a dangerous desire.
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Reader reviews for
DOCTOR D'ARCO, SORCERER OF LONDON
“What an astonishing novel. I feel like Colvin reached into my subconscious, plucked out all the hidden and dark parts that had been shaped by repeated teenage readings of the Brontës and wove them into an irresistible tapestry of pure magic.”
“I am so enraptured, so consumed, by this story—it has so much heart, and I will not be able to read another book for awhile after it, me who always has a book in her hands, because of how alive these characters are to me, and how inanimate everything else will be in comparison. . . . Sometimes you encounter the fruit of a skill so perfect, and know that the maker was born to create.”
“Delivers on its promise and beyond. There’s spooky gothic atmosphere, death and revenge, dark sorcerers and a mysterious brooding love interest. This story gives you the feels of Jane Eyre, Edgar Allan Poe and Sherlock Holmes . . . but with its own distinct voice thanks to the beautiful writing and gripping storyline.”
“…. simply have no words, literally changed my life. this book is so long but so extremely worth it . . . i am at a loss for words. amazing amazing amazing. DOCTOR D’ARCO MAN THAT YOU ARE!!! this was so good, i feel like i changed human after this, my heart is in this book now. . . . in love forever with this book, my heart is so big only to fit this book into it.”
“An atmospheric, slow-burn gothic romance with just the right amount of supernatural intrigue. . . . The mix of fear, fascination, and forbidden desire is written so well it keeps you hooked. With dark, eerie vibes and lush, sensual writing, this is perfect for anyone who loves gothic romance, magic, and a touch of danger.”
“I am drunk on this. I sincerely and deeply love this book. . . . The world building here is amazing, and the language is poetry. The imagery is a mix of bare bones chills and lush decadence; the horror is exactly that, and the sensuality is something I want to glut myself on, forever.”
“I will never stop thinking about this book. . . . This book absolutely drowns you in its gothic Victorian tone and setting with so much detail it actually blows my mind it was written by a modern author. . . . The most well-done, angsty, pining, intense, and GRATTTTIFYING slow burn I’ve ever read, and it was so worth the wait. I loved the feminist themes. I loved the gothic academia vibes. I loved the long-awaited spice.”
“The most well written book I've read in my LIFE. This is what literature should be. . . . Every single sentence in this (long!) book was a sheer delight to read. I'm still reeling from how good the story, characters, writing, everything was. A never before given, but entirely deserved, 10/10. Astounding, but I need MORE BOOKS and I need them NOW!”
From the pages of
DOCTOR D'ARCO, SORCERER OF LONDON
A power rose in me—like a shadow returning, a black tide gathering back into the midnight sea—and I stopped, and let it pass with my silent tears, because it felt too much like him.
I could not risk summoning his phantom to me now; I could not in a thousand lifetimes allow him the sight of these lamentations of a lunatic. He was my professor, the deathly Doctor D’Arco, and I imperiled even now my vow as his apprentice. But cold logic melted in the fire of my heart and my mind, and when I closed my eyes I saw only him, standing alone on the sea-cliff of a foreign shore, the impossible abyss of an ill-starred fate widening between us like a black chasm, a rift in the earth. If only I could call to him—speak his name thrice—
No. A half-dream. A nightmare. The abyss and the sea-cliff faded, but I could not tell anymore my cold sweat from my tears.
And I knew then, for good or for evil, that I could not go on thus—this thing inside me, haunting me, must now have the dignity of a name.
The night would pass, I knew, and my mind surpass this madness, and my strength return. But while the night endured, before sleep made me forget, I would exhume Truth from her burial within my heart, and breathe into her a part of my soul, and allow her for an hour to live:
Against all the will of the world—
All the will of the world but my own. Beneath the bedclothes in the dark I clutched his water-stained grimoire against the beating of my heart, the warmth of my breasts, and the small, convulsive sobs that racked my body.
Against all the will of the world, I was falling in love with Doctor D’Arco.