BLURB
Her grandmother left her a painting. Her father and her stepmother left her everything else.
Theodora Vidauban comes home to Marseille after her first year at the Aster Academy wanting one quiet summer before any of it starts again.
What she doesn't expect is Kallistos Korvinian at her father's Sunday lunch table.
Heir to the Marseille-Italian Korvinians. The boy who kissed her in a doorway at seventeen and walked away, and who has not spoken to her in two years.
The small panel her grandmother left her, carried to Aster and back in the bottom of Theodora's trunk, looks like an ordinary Provençal devotional piece: three Marys at an empty tomb, an angel on the rolled-back stone. It can be read three ways, and only the third one explains why patient men with patient money have spent decades hunting for it. One of them is already sitting at the Vidauban table.
Theodora has spent five years being told her body is the problem. She is about to find out what the real problem is.
Some inheritances hang on a wall. Hers sat down at the table.
The Vidauban Inheritance by Claudia Gabanich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
BOOK: The Vidauban Inheritance by Claudia A. Gabanich
(Format: eARC)
The Vidauban Inheritance picks up with Theodora returning home to Marseille, bearing the mysterious painting brought from Aster Academy in Book 1.
TITLE: The Vidauban Inheritance
Author: Claudia A. Gabanich
Genre: Dark Academia Romantasy
Status: Read | Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3 / 5 Stars)
Progress: Read | Total Pages 356
QUICK IMPRESSION
While the sequel promises ancient family secrets, hidden bloodlines, and dark institutional conspiracies, much of the narrative is weighed down by overly descriptive prose, slow pacing, and a frustratingly passive romantic dynamic.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS &TROPES
Atmosphere vs. Slow Pacing
The story features lush, atmospheric world-building, but long descriptive passages, alongside repetitive internal monologues for me as a reader stall the plot progression.
Family Trauma & Body Image: The initial seven chapters heavily center on Theodora’s return home and her toxic stepmother’s sly, persistent digs about her body size and eating habits. Now I am happy that our protagonist is someone with curves and the author is highlighting societal body issues, but it was 7 chapters before we actually got any momentum to the plot. Theodora is a mostly passive protagonist, never pushing always waiting. (Until one scene she's not!)
(view spoiler)
QUOTES TO KEEP
• 'My body had recognized hers before my mind had caught up. My heart had not raced — that was a cliché for children and poets. My body had simply stopped. The air had become too thin. The silence had become too loud. I had looked at her and I had known. She was mine.'
• "They were the eyes of a man who had seen empires rise and fall, who had taught me that a lie told well was a weapon, but a truth told at the wrong time was suicide.
KEY CHARACTERS
Theodora Vidauban heiress to the Vidauban art-house at Marseille; home from Aster for good, after a year she does not talk about.
Kallistos Korvinian heir of the Marseille-Italian branch of the Korvinian lineage.
Marcel Vidauban Theodora's father; head of the Vidauban art-house. Hélène Vidauban Theodora's mother. Deceased. A Konoe-by-birth healer who married into the Vidauban line. Beatrice Beaumont-Vidauban Theodora's stepmother. Marcel's second wife.
FINAL THOUGHTS
• The Good: POV Shift & Plot Movement (Chapter 7): The story finally gains some momentum when the narrative shifts to Kallistos (Korvinian).
• The Bad:While The Vidauban Inheritance improves on some of the issues I had with from the first Book and delivers compelling quotes surrounding the fated-bond lore, the overall scope feels overly stretched for a 350+ page novel. Plus the setting for this book was a totally different, we went from candles/oil lamps and steampunk machines to bedside lampshades and expresso machines and cell phones? And it didn't really give me Mafia vibes other than the Italian and French language used.
• Verdict:Final Thoughts
Readers looking for deep atmospheric Dark Academia and slow-burn fated mates will appreciate the aesthetic, but the combination of low-stakes middle-book stasis, hands-off romance, and a quick resolution may leave some wanting more active progression. But I kept reading and wanting to know the outcome, so it's a solid 3 star for me.
View all my reviews
BOOKLINKS
BOOK 1
REVIEW
The Vidauban Inheritance by Claudia GabanichMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
BOOK: The Vidauban Inheritance by Claudia A. Gabanich
(Format: eARC)
The Vidauban Inheritance picks up with Theodora returning home to Marseille, bearing the mysterious painting brought from Aster Academy in Book 1.
TITLE: The Vidauban Inheritance
Author: Claudia A. Gabanich
Genre: Dark Academia Romantasy
Status: Read | Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3 / 5 Stars)
Progress: Read | Total Pages 356
QUICK IMPRESSION
While the sequel promises ancient family secrets, hidden bloodlines, and dark institutional conspiracies, much of the narrative is weighed down by overly descriptive prose, slow pacing, and a frustratingly passive romantic dynamic.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS &TROPES
Atmosphere vs. Slow Pacing
The story features lush, atmospheric world-building, but long descriptive passages, alongside repetitive internal monologues for me as a reader stall the plot progression.
Family Trauma & Body Image: The initial seven chapters heavily center on Theodora’s return home and her toxic stepmother’s sly, persistent digs about her body size and eating habits. Now I am happy that our protagonist is someone with curves and the author is highlighting societal body issues, but it was 7 chapters before we actually got any momentum to the plot. Theodora is a mostly passive protagonist, never pushing always waiting. (Until one scene she's not!)
(view spoiler)
QUOTES TO KEEP
• 'My body had recognized hers before my mind had caught up. My heart had not raced — that was a cliché for children and poets. My body had simply stopped. The air had become too thin. The silence had become too loud. I had looked at her and I had known. She was mine.'
• "They were the eyes of a man who had seen empires rise and fall, who had taught me that a lie told well was a weapon, but a truth told at the wrong time was suicide.
KEY CHARACTERS
Theodora Vidauban heiress to the Vidauban art-house at Marseille; home from Aster for good, after a year she does not talk about.
Kallistos Korvinian heir of the Marseille-Italian branch of the Korvinian lineage.
Marcel Vidauban Theodora's father; head of the Vidauban art-house. Hélène Vidauban Theodora's mother. Deceased. A Konoe-by-birth healer who married into the Vidauban line. Beatrice Beaumont-Vidauban Theodora's stepmother. Marcel's second wife.
FINAL THOUGHTS
• The Good: POV Shift & Plot Movement (Chapter 7): The story finally gains some momentum when the narrative shifts to Kallistos (Korvinian).
• The Bad:While The Vidauban Inheritance improves on some of the issues I had with from the first Book and delivers compelling quotes surrounding the fated-bond lore, the overall scope feels overly stretched for a 350+ page novel. Plus the setting for this book was a totally different, we went from candles/oil lamps and steampunk machines to bedside lampshades and expresso machines and cell phones? And it didn't really give me Mafia vibes other than the Italian and French language used.
• Verdict:Final Thoughts
Readers looking for deep atmospheric Dark Academia and slow-burn fated mates will appreciate the aesthetic, but the combination of low-stakes middle-book stasis, hands-off romance, and a quick resolution may leave some wanting more active progression. But I kept reading and wanting to know the outcome, so it's a solid 3 star for me.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary advance reader copy of this book. All thoughts, opinions, and observations expressed in this review are entirely my own and offered voluntarily.
View all my reviews
