Verity is a talented painter who longs to see the world and leave the stuffy walls of Highmoor, so, when she receives an invitation to stay as a guest at the Bloem estate in order to paint a portrait of a duchess’ son, she jumps at the opportunity. However, once she arrives, she begins to realize that dark secrets lurk in Bloem’s gardens. House of Roots and Ruin by Erin A. Craig paints an eerie and disorienting gothic fantasy that hits so many of my favorite niche tropes and appealed to me on so many levels. There’s trippy, nonsensical architecture and doors appearing where they weren't before. There’s a bit of mad science thrown into the mix, and, without giving too much away, the story even veers into cosmic horror/ Bloodborne territory. Unfortunately, the weakest element of this book for me was Verity's relationship with her love interest, Alex. At first, he starts off as a person with interesting philosophical ideas, but then his personality quickly devolves into simply ...