Doctor D'Arco, Sorcerer of London

By: Kathryn Colvin

Narrated by: Elizabeth Callens

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.

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.

©2024 Kathryn Colvin (P)2025 Kathryn Colvin

I Really Wanted to Like This

I started reading this on Kindle Unlimited at the beginning of fall and figured it would be a great spooky season read. The first couple of chapters were fantastic so I bought the Audible version to immersive read to add to the ambience. Big mistake. It is now mid-January and I still have not finished this. The narrator’s tone throughout became constantly indignant like she was constantly in shock, and it wasn’t even at appropriate times. Also, don’t get me wrong - I love detail, prose, and atmosphere but this was just way too verbose and listening to the narrator in that whiny (for lack or a better word) tone made it unbearable to continue.

Gothic Romance at it's finest

I love a good candy book every now and again that's pretty straightforward, mostly low stakes and I can breeze through in like a day and a half. This 900 page tome, however, was a sumptuous 7 course meal and I savored every crumb. Kathryn Colvin (who is a Gothic literature researcher in her own right and it shows) deftly emulates the gorgeous language, imagery and pacing of the Gothic classics I grew up on. If you're a fan of Gaston Leroux or Braum Stoker then this will be right up your alley. The romance between Doctor D'arco and Elizabeth might be the most satisfying slowburn I've read in a long time. It's got mysterious characters, a murder most foul and a healthy dose of the occult. This book is woahfully under hyped and deserves way more praise than it's getting. The audiobook is forthcoming and I'm hoping that will help get this author out to more people. I don't think I will be able to continue living my life without a copy of this in every medium and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered going right back to page one and reading it again. (If you've seen my TBR then you know I literally don't have time to do that.... I still might though. 😂) 
I can't wait to see what else this author will come out with in the future. 

Second readthrough update 2026: Ok, I still really like this book. I love a book like this as it is such a great crossover opportunity for romantasy fans to venture into other genres. I hope in reading this it might make more classic gothic novels seem more consumable for modern readers. I did find on my second go around that the romance might be just the tiniest but syrupy at times, but I think that it's in keeping with what one would expect from classic gothic romance. The heroine mentions the size of her hands and feet kind of a lot which got a little weird after the 4th or 5th reminder that she has small hands and feet. I am willing to excuse all of this and more because Vittorio D'Arco is everything a girl could want from a gothic love interest. He is dark and dangerous, deep and sensual. He is the gorgeous villain who loves the heroine completely to the ruin of all else. I did the audio book this time around and while I found the performance perfectly adequate, I require an ensemble performance asap. I NEED to hear Doctor D'Arco's lines spoken in a deep and brooding voice.

This book is amazing!

This is one of my favorite gothic fantasy romances! The story is so wonderfully written and the audiobook is performed so well & brings to life the characters in such a magical way. I will be recommending this book to everyone!

Good start but the book missed the mark

I actually didn't like the spice in this story. It didn't fit the characters personas and the time period she was trying to write in. There was a lot of repetition. I agree with several other reviews online that the writer needs a good editor. I got tired of Elizabeth's inner monologuing that detracted from the story instead of moving it forward. I ended up not finishing it in the last two hours. The spice was not fitting for this story and characters that I skipped through portions of it. I typically like this type of writing but I think it fell flat in this case. The narrator was not terrible but was not particularly good either. I feel that Elizabeth's character sounded surprised all the time in her voice. It was sometimes difficult to detect when other characters were speaking.

Probably better in print, Narrator was very whiny

It was not a bad story but the narrator read the entire book like she was whining and the author badly needed an editor. Lots of questions left unanswered, underdeveloped characters, and rehashing of the main characters repetitive thoughts. If it was half as long (just cut down the ruminating) with some feedback it would have been 5 stars. Otherwise, the idea of the story was great and unique.