A Dowry of Blood: THE GOTHIC SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

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This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. I suppose both are a sort of gentle violence, putting down in ink what scorches the air when spoken aloud.

Constanta soon becomes lovers with the other members of her husband's harem and begins to truly find out the depths of evil he's capable of. As things begin to unravel, Constanta will ultimately have to choose whether she wants the love of her husband and her own liberty. Really 700 Years Old: Dracula looks like a handsome, romanesque young man, but in reality he's over a thousand years old as vampires can only gain the ability to sire others into other vampires after they reach that age. Part love letter and part confession, A Dowry of Blood is an epistolary written by Dracula’s longest bride Constanta detailing her long life and relationship with him. Every detail that led to his murder; every detail that ever slowly pulled the wool from her eyes to show her the truth. 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. Stand up, my dark miracle," you said, pulling yourself to your feet and holding your hand out to me. "Come and face the night."Stunningly gorgeous and devastatingly romantic, you won’t want to miss this one!’ Katee Robert, author of Neon Gods You swept your hands over my cheeks, cupping my face and taking me in. The intensity of your attention was staggering. At the time, I would have called it proof of your love, burning and all-consuming. But I've grown to understand that you have more of the scientist obsessed than the lover possessed in you, and that your examinations lend themselves more towards a scrutiny of weakness, imperfection, any detail in need of your corrective care. Asshole Victim: As a vampire, Constanta only targets the most odious of victims to feed on, including general jerkasses like guys who will spit on a beggar or sexually harass a woman by grabbing her arm. I think it would be perfectly natural if Constanta were to struggle with polygamy or being in a polycule, but I also think it’s perfectly reasonable that she doesn’t. She slaughters humans like rabbits; even for an erstwhile churchgoer like her, what’s an open marriage to the toll of her dead? Her casual embrace of non-monogamy is refreshing, and I like very much that Gibson did away with the hand-wringing. Rice already did the tormented vampire, and the unrepentant one. We already know—oh, do we know—vampires under threat from hunters or from their own guilt. Here we see the vampire at home, at rest. Their natural habitat is luxury, and it turns out their natural inclination is to form groups, albeit rather dangerous ones. War is never valiant, only crude and hideous. Any left alive after the rest have been cut down do not last long exposed to the elements.

This definitely seems like a book produced in 2020, not just because of descriptions of plague (they’re not overwhelming, don’t be deterred) but because of descriptions of a megalomaniacal narcissist who wants control at the cost of everyone else’s life and joy. There is a passage late in the book that really hit the nail on the head about the thousand violations of abuse, the ones that go unremarked as they grind you down or make you finally rise up. Orbit UK and US will publish simultaneously in October 2022, with a further book from S. T. Gibson set in the same world as A Dowry of Blood following in 2023. This stunning cover was designed by Duncan Spilling. I’m not only talking about the incestuous undertones of calling lovers “sister” and “father” and so on. This book is also about power dynamics and abuse of those dynamics. The unnamed “father” wields his power with a veneer of elegance, but he’s really a common variety opportunist and manipulator. “We feast on the ruins of empire,” he declares with a grand flourish, forgetting that it makes him a scavenger, not a sovereign. He opened his mouth to shout. I wrapped my fingers around his upper and lower sets of teeth and wrenched his jaw apart before he had the chance.Though Gibson can occasionally stray toward the purple with her prose, it’s more in a “first novel” sort of way. She’s just so excited for and by her characters that it’s hard to critique any little instances of faux pas. They’re elegant, savage, and above all, grandiose. She doesn’t tie them to the minutia of time or place because they are so very out of time and place, creatures who defy mortality—and conventional morality. Evil Genius: Dracula is fascinated with learning more about not just his own vampirism but human intellect. He has, over his long immortal life, carefully sought to learn and improve as much as he can and now is a genuine genius. He intentionally surrounds himself with intellectual minds in a search for more and more knowledge. A Dowry of Blood is a vampire novel that sparkles of gothics, decadence, and delights but hits hard with a sexy bite.

You will learn, little Constanta," you said with a fond, patronizing smile. "I'm going to open whole worlds to you."But I am not your wife anymore, my lord, and I don't think you ever truly saw me as a whole woman. I was always a student. A project. An accessory in the legal and decorative sense. Where are we going?" I asked, already staggering after you. The bodies lying in a desiccated heap around the still-smoldering fire were hideous, but not half as gruesome as what had been done to my entire village, my family.

Vampire's Harem: Dracula keeps three vampiric spouses that he sired personally. These are two women named Constanta and Magdalena and a young man named Alexei. At its core, A Dowry of Blood is an exploration of abusive relationships. The narrative style carries both the naivete of youth and the knowledge of hindsight as Constanta documents their life together and the slow realization of all the little things one easily brushes off but together paints a picture of abuse. Dracula’s insidious power plays, manufacturing consent, and gaslighting control every aspect of the polycule’s life without them even noticing. How abuse masquerades as love. My mouth watered, aching gums screaming out. My stomach twisted into painful knots, as though I hadn't eaten in a fortnight.So determined to live," you breathed, as though you were witnessing something holy, as though I was a miracle. "I should call you Constanta. My steadfast Constanta." I heard you before I saw you, the clink of mail and crunch of debris underfoot. My grandmother always said creatures like you made no sound when they descended onto battlefields to sup on the fallen. You were supposed to be a night terror made of smoke, not a man of flesh and blood who left footsteps in the dirt. Dracula's immortal harem, which consist of two women named Constanta and Magdalena and a young man named Alexei, are lovers not just with him but with each other. You tipped my face and pressed your thumb down against my tongue, peering into my mouth. An urge to bite swelled up within me, but I smothered it. Fully-Embraced Fiend: Dracula enjoys being a vampire and killing his victims, having embraced being a beast. Notably his harem indicate he could feed off the guilty or not kill his victims, but he chooses not to and preys on innocents because he likes it.