A review by theladysparks
The Night Runs Red by Amber Palmer

4.0

When Calia Darrow, a descendant of fae royalty, learns she is to be wed to prominent vampyre Rion D’arcy, she accepts her fate—not that she has a choice. With an age-old curse binding their families together in an attempt to balance power, Calia and Rion must marry unless they wish to forfeit their lives.

After a tumultuous ceremony, Calia finds herself isolated in a sprawling gothic mansion with a husband who wants nothing to do with her. When a foiled abduction attempt leaves her vulnerable, Calia sees a glimmer of hope that perhaps there is more to Rion than she thought.

As the blood moon approaches, Calia must face an unknown enemy with only the assistance of the mysterious Rion D’Arcy. Will the truth come to light, or will the night run red with Calia’s blood?

"The mind is a deafening place. Even though they may not recognize it, a single person constantly thinks about a hundred different things at once. But you, I can single you out in a room full of thousands. Your thoughts always reach me like the chime of a crystal-clear bell, beckoning me home.”

Who doesn't love a book that has an arranged marriage where there is a curse that forces them together? And between a fae who can't go out at night and a vampyre who can't go out during the day? Where they come from two families that are literally the biggest enemies? With a strung-out slow burn that goes back and forth? This book ticks off so many boxes for things that I love in a paranormal romance novel.

The premise of the book itself was really great and I loved how the plot ended up panning out in the first book and how well it set up for book two. (Thank goodness I picked this one up when the second one came out because this ending??????) Calia is essentially fae royalty that was born with a birthmark that essentially marks her with this curse that her family basically brought into fruition while at war a long time ago with the vampyres. The birthmark sets the precedent that she's going to have to marry a vampyre from her family's enemy's bloodline, and that's where Rion comes into play. He's known as this ruthless, playboy sort of head of his family and they're forced to come together as husband and wife.

Them being enemies is so interesting, specifically with Calia because she's like Oh hey this is the hand I've been dealt and I'm going to try to make the most of it and she tries to bridge the gap so to speak but Rion isn't having it. It definitely makes up for a lot of top tier tension which makes the moments where they finally come together, that much more satisfying due to the back and forth build up between them! The way that Rion talks about Calia is one of my favorite parts of the book because she has a lot of insecurities and I just swoon whenever he speaks to ease her of them.

The plot twists and unanswered questions have me very excited to continue reading and I'm going to be immediately diving into the second book so that I can find out what happens next after the way that this one ended!

- gothic paranormal romance
- touch her and die vibes
- grumpy x sunshine
- enemies to lovers (ish)
- "my wife"
- arranged marriage
- forced proximity
- fae and vampires
- romeo and juliet vibes
- morally grey mmc