Review: A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
From the publisher:
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.
Review:
I listened to the audiobook--it's free with an audible membership and it's also only like 3 1/2 hours long (at 1.5x speed) and I have been trying to get to this one since I impulse bought the Bookish Box special edition at Apollycon, so I gave it a chance.
The story isn't bad and the narrator knocks it out of the park. The entire book is Constanta recounting everything that lead to her decision to kill her husband, Dracula. It is written in an atmospheric, aesthetic prose detailing their entire time together, from when he changed her to the murder itself. It does a great job showing how you can be enamored by and stay with an abusive partner, not questioning their motives and slowly losing yourself to their constant betrayals until the day you just snap. For Constanta, it started when He brought in another wife to their relationship, but hit its peak when he gave her a "brother" in Alexi. Watching them waste away was what ultimately gave her the strength to end the relationship. I do wish we got to see what their lives were like once they were freed from their master, but overall it was a short and easy read.
3/5 Stars