In a castle of thorns, he might be the deadliest. In the shadowy halls of a university choked by roses and vines, Valencia Lennox Vanderbilt arrives with a single ambition: finish her degree and free her mother from poverty. But the deeper she ventures into Castle Thwaite's dim corridors, the more tangled her fate becomes. Professor Craven Belcourt is brilliant, brooding, and bound to the cursed soil he walks. His gaze haunts her. His melodies enthrall her. His mysterious past could ruin them both. But is curing his curse worth tempting fate? In this seductive continuation of The Secret Garden, where dark academia meets gothic romance, nothing is as it seems-except the danger. As Castle Thwaite's secrets begin to bloom, Valencia must decide what she's willing to sacrifice. Some gardens were never meant to be opened. Some love stories are written in blood. Ideal for fans of RuNyx's Gothikana and Keri Lake's Nocticadia, Umbra is a dark academia gothic romance steeped in haunting atmosphere, forbidden love, and deadly curses. Set in an eerie New England fortress brimming with secrets, this new adult novel blends lush prose with obsessive slow-burn tension, magical lore, and a dangerously captivating professor. Meagan Trayler is a Texas-born author with a passion for all things gothic, moody, magnificent, and uncanny. With an associate degree in general music and a lifelong obsession with the written word, Meagan brings a uniquely lyrical and emotionally opulent voice to her storytelling. Making her debut in fiction, Meagan weaves themes of ill-fated love, mysteriously shadowed pasts, and atmospheric academia into romantic rendezvous readers can't put down. When she's not chasing down plot twists, she's evading society in her Texas home, where she resides with her husband and three daughters. You can usually find her curled up in a secluded corner with a new book and a steaming mug of tea, dreaming of abandoned castles, cursed gardens, and someday acquiring a pet raven. (Contact her immediately if you have one for sale.)