**Content warnings from authors website; Emotional, verbal & physical intimate partner abuse and gaslighting, Sexual assault mentioned, Depression & mania, Self-harm, Alcohol consumption, Drug use mentioned, Blood & gore depiction and body horror, Drowning mentioned, Murder, War themes, Famine and plague**
Eagle eyed readers (or my partner who never stopped hearing about it) will remember that A Dowry of Blood made my favourite books of last year. In a first on the blog, I get to read and review this book all over again in a new publication! Long post short, I still love this book with all my heart.
This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. . .
Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things.
Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband's dark secrets. With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.
I am not even being dramatic when I say this book speaks to my soul. Your warning from here is that this review is mostly going to be me gushing about this story. My review of the Indie pub version is here if you want a more structured set of thoughts. And outside of some notes on the different edits and the formating, this one is for my love of this book.
We start off with Constanta, her narration and her starting the story with how she met her lord. This is the same as the last time but the difference here is I did this new version on audio. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC but due to just my brain being a bit melted recently, most of my reading has been audio books. This book on audio? Absolutely flawless, heart breaking and powerful. I never thought of what Constanta, Magdalena, Alexei and the Lord sounded like. Kristin Atherton is honestly terrifying in her talents. I loved the small touches how when the brides meet the lord, they all had accents of their home. And as time went on and his control deepened, they pretty much lost them. I'm not sure if this is intentional to put across his obsession with keeping them all under his thumb or even if it's inevitable if you were a vampire that long? But it felt it and I'm keeping it as a fact I picked up on.
There is of course so much more emotion as well added with the smaller edits made. I always felt deeply for Constanta and the other brides but this was intense. I was fearing for their safety. This might be down to the audio design and choice, but the Lord himself felt old. More threatening. His presence isn't overwhelming, it's selective and silent. He is an ancient, quiet voice here. And he's all the more terrifying for it.
This is so wonderfully gothic as well. It carries so much beauty and sadness as Constanta moves through time. I think the different edits as well, small as they were, made this so much more. Like the change to the mentions of "The Harkers" was much later on. And the time they loved in Vienna. It felt right, it felt good.
S.T Gibson has created a new vampire classic with every bit of modern treatment that it should have. It doesn't compromise on the time, or the story but truly gets to the heart of what can be a parasitic and dangerous relationship. But the point all the way being, hope can make it brighter.
Thank you to Orbit Books and Nazia for sending me a copy for review. You can get A Dowry of Blood now. Thanks for checking on guys, happy reading!!
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