A review by aleciatalbot
A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

5.0

“I lost myself so entirely in charting the contours of my love for you that there wasn’t any room for tracking time. There wasn’t any room to examine the past or the future, there was only the eternal now.”

This book was INCREDIBLE. I truly do not know how I’ll pick a top read for this month because I’ve loved almost every book I’ve read so far.

A Dowry of Blood is the story of Dracula’s first bride, Constanta and is written from her perspective as if she’s writing a letter to Dracula detailing their time together. It has a very gothic feel and starts in the 1400s after a town is ransacked by military men, and Dracula saves Constanta by turning her. The way that he speaks to Constanta is deep and captivating and she quickly falls for him, but she realizes that he’s not what he initially seemed.

This book is DARK. The language and descriptions are absolutely beautiful, and ST Gibson is a master at immersing you in Constanta’s story and expressing the feelings of intense hatred and sadness, but also love that she felt for Dracula. Constanta never loses her strength and is an absolute powerhouse main character. The other characters in the story were also so well-developed, and I love the different relationship rep that Gibson puts into her books. The writing style had me completely hooked, with lots of alternating chapter lengths and some small cliffhangers at the end of chapters. I can’t wait to keep reading more by this author.

Check tw for this one. They are listed at the front of the book.