A lyrical and dreamy reimagining of Dracula’s brides, A DOWRY OF BLOOD is a story of desire, obsession, and emancipation.
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.
Title : A Dowry of Blood
Author : S.T. Gibson
Format : eBook
Page Count : 248
Genre : historical fiction fantasy
Publisher : Nyx Publishing
Release Date : January 31, 2021
Reviewer : Hollis
Rating : ★ ★ ★ ★
Hollis’ 4 star review
Maybe had I not been disliking so much of what I have been reading this wouldn’t have been as memorable. Or maybe it just is that good. I can’t tell anymore.
I should have paid more attention to the convenience with which you arrived. There are no angels in this world to accompany the dying in their final moments, only pickpockets and carrion birds.
A Dowry of Blood is a sorta epistolary/memoir-style recounting of what basically amounts to the brides of Dracula, even though she never names him, and their undead lives over the course of centuries. Much like the first bride, Constanta, I was enthralled. Not only in the story but how it was told.
This isn’t very long, there are passages of time we only get vague explanations for, but the retelling of events centers around three specific brides, and how the arrival of each changed the dynamic of Constanta’s relationship and inevitably led to its downfall; by unmasking the abuse hidden just below the surface of a suffocating love used as an excuse for control. Each bride responds to it differently and I thought the author’s choices in this regard were so well done.
It’s not only all that and a bag of chips but it’s also sapphic, it’s also queer, and it’s almost novella-like. The winning just doesn’t quit.
Definitely recommend if this seems like your jam.
A Take from Two Cities 