A Dowry of Blood is a letter from wife, Constanta, to Dracula in which she recounts their journey together- from her immediate love through to her eventual loathing. The story spans centuries, during which time two “siblings” (an aristocrat& an artist) are picked up to complete the poly 4 person vampire relationship.

This is a beautifully written queer Gothic; poetic, dark, and haunting. We experience love&sex, blood&gore, fun&misery, freedom&chains. This tale is so all consuming. The prose are immaculate. I found myself dreaming of these characters. A truly breathtaking, heart-wrenching twist on Dracula.

Darkly intoxicating and told through luscious prose, A Dowry of Blood by S.T Gibson reimagines Dracula from the perspective of his one of his brides: Constanta. It’s written as her final love letter to him, recounting the time they first met up to the events ultimately leading to her freedom.

Over the course of centuries, the story follow a polyamorous vampire coven's blood-soaked bonds and family melodrama as they live under the shackles of their tyrannical sire. It’s a pensive look at all the hedonism and delights of immortality as well as all the loneliness, ennui, and yearning that comes along with it

Now, this book doesn’t reinvent vampire lore by any means, and it doesn’t need to either. It pays homage to classical vampires in the vein of Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, and Sheridan Le Fanu—certain to delight lovers of the gothic and macabre.

A captivating, haunting reimagining of Dracula's brides with a centuries long quest for self-determination. The beautiful writing draws you into this world so completely that it is hard to put the book down until you reach the final words. It is a story of power, control, trust. fear, loneliness, self-worth, choice and also of love that knows no gender boundaries. The story begins as a young girls village is attacked and she lay mortally wounded, when a man finds her and tells her he can help her. So begins her life as Constanta, the bride of an immortal. taught by him, loved by him and chained by him. As the centuries pass and they move through the world, other brides are brought into the fold, Magdalena and Alexei. Each addition to the family brings love, tension and a growing sense that it may all come apart at any moment, as it has in the past. Finding the secrets he has hidden from them allows Constanta and the others to begin to dream of the freedom that each craves.
I loved how this story works on so many levels, from being just a wonderful story of vampires and how they lived their lives to an empowering story of finding your way through doubt and fear to a place where you can determine the life that you want to live. The ebbs and flows of the relationships and the sudden turns keep the tension throughout, and the flow of the story will keep you hooked all the way to the powerful ending. This is a wonderful novel for fans of vampire/gothic stories, just please be aware of the content warnings.

Thank you to Netgalley and Xpresso Book Tours for providing me with this book.

It feels like I’ve been holding my breath while reading this book. The dark and oppressive atmosphere; Dracula’s power over his consorts, his hold on them was so palpable that when I reach the end, I finally breathed, felt relieved and smiled. I also had tears in my eyes because the ending really pleased me. (And I do want more if I’m being honest, but the way it ended was perfect).

The way the story is told was amazing as it’s an open letter to Dracula - a letter written by Constanta, one of his wife, in which she explains why she did what she had to do. Constanta was such an intriguing and lovable main character. Reading from her perspective was a unique experience and I loved seeing her inner turmoil. Sometimes, she made decisions I didn’t agree with but deep down I understood why and I was rooting for her, always.

The sides characters - Dracula, Magdalena, Alexi - touched me for different reasons. The complexity of their relationship, the dynamic between all of them, their bond, their love and fear for each other, the abuse: all of these things were well-depicted.

It’s not the type of book I usually go to but thanks to netgalley and Xpresso Book Tours, I discovered the story of a tormented and devoted love - one so deep-rooted that you cannot go against it despite its wrongness, one that enslaved you until one day you decide to fight for a better future and your freedom.

The author's blurb describes S.T. Gibson as a poet first and I think that is the best way to describe her and this book. Reading "A Dowry of Blood" is like reading poetry in verse form. Every word seems carefully chosen yet also effortless. This book was truly a pleasure to read.

The book itself is a queer retelling of Dracula's brides from one of their perspectives. One of the most powerful points of the narrative is that Dracula is never named, so it almost feels like I shouldn't use his name in my review either. His lack of a name is very intentional on behalf of the narrator, Constanta, who refuses to give her abuser any more power. She only refers to him as "you" throughout her account and this creates a disquieting sort of second person narrative that made me feel like she was talking to me and thus I was responsible for what she was describing. I of course don't know if this was the intention, but it was successful either way.

I wish I knew how to put into words how impactful I think Gibson's description of abuse is in this book. She really perfectly describes manipulation, gaslighting, honeymooning, creeping normality and gradualism. I think it could be misconstrued in parts as a love letter to an abuser but I think that would be intentionally dense. I made the mistake of thinking of it that way before getting very far into it. Instead, I think it's a love letter to self-preservation. To resiliency. To friendships and platonic love and doing whatever you have to to get through each day. To queer identity. To destroying abusers. Thinking about this book makes me feel powerful. I already can't wait to read it again.

This is a very poetic take on gothic fiction, for sure. It reads almost like a novel in verse, with more impressionistic writing than finely tuned details and plot. I was intrigued to see it was written in second person, and I thought that mechanic was well employed. I wish the characters and settings had been more fleshed out, though I do also understand that these kinds of things can be slight when you're leaning on the genre itself to fill in some of the gaps. The one thing that was a little disappointing to me was that the book began by telling us the ending, and I was hoping for something unexpected about the way that ending played out, but there really wasn't

A Dowry of Blood is a story about Dracula and his brides, from the point of his first bride, Constanta.
The whole book is written as a confession from Constanta to him (him meaning Dracula but his name is never mentioned in the book - he does not deserve it). From the beginning we know he is dead, killed be his brides, and Constanta unravels the story of how she became the first bride and how came the others.
I found this narrative style difficult to connect with, at first. But once you'll get used to it, it offers you a very intimate look into the character's head. We only get this point of view from Constanta, which is enough. She was the first and suffered through life with him the longest.
It's a story about love, but it's a terrible kind of love, love which suffocates, makes demands and only takes. Constanta never really had a choice, though he certainly made it look like he was giving her options. Life with him is full of emotional abuse and gaslighting which the writting made it very real and vivid. In a stark contrast to his love are the comforting relationships between the brides.
Honestly, the writting was the best part for me. There isn't that much going on in the story - they move, find a new bride, he gets bored, they move again. But the lush language and great characters made it very enjoyable.

The mythos around vampires has always fascinated me. From reading the classic novel Dracula at a young age and subsequently the offshoots of lore around such a figure (Dracul, Castlevania the show, the more recent Route of Ice and Salt, etc), I tend to be drawn towards any further takes and retellings of this classic tale.

Dowry of Blood is the first Dracula retelling that is from the perspective of one of his wives, and this book does not shy away from commenting on the nature or even existence of consent in a relationship between an immortal predator and the object of his desires. Full of toxic relationships and messy characters, Dowry of Blood details cycles of abuse while maintaining the classic existential vibe of the Dracula lore- what is the meaning of life when life never ends? What is an individual reduced to in that situation?

This book has beautiful prose and was a really fast read for me (I read it over a couple hours on a day off). This book is everything a gothic horror can provide and more-- I'd recommend Dowry of Blood to anyone who enjoys the genre and are familiar with the Dracula mythos.

Thank you to Nyx Publishing and Netgalley for a copy of this Arc in exchange for an honest review!

There were parts of this book that I really loved and parts that really, really didn't. The premise is fantastic, of course, and the characters drawn with a power and immediacy that almost makes up for the fact that the book is written in long letter form, in second person past.

I've read several epistolary books that I have not only enjoyed but loved (most recently, This is How You Lose the Time War), but all of them were written by two authors and if they weren't comedic the whole way through, they at least had a lot of humor. The two books in letter form that I have not enjoyed as much were The Tiger's Daughter, which I ultimately DNF'd, and this one. Both are long, somber, highly stylized letters with no back and forth and a lot of the time it's just a slog to read through.

Dowry of Blood managed to save itself for me with truly lovely prose when the character wasn't addressing her letter's subject directly. The pacing was also set really well, helping to pull me along even when I wasn't engaging with the way Constanta was addressing "You" directly.

I enjoyed the evolving relationships between the four characters and I thought the ending was good. I was promised sapphic yearning and sapphic yearning I received.

All in, it barely squeaked into the four star category for me, but readers without my pet peeves will likely be more receptive.

“What is more lovely, after all, than a monster undone with want?”

“I still wanted to believe I was living in a fairy tale, that I laid down every night with a prince instead of a wolf. I wanted to believe you.”

A beautiful and dreamy reimagining of Dracula’s brides, as told from one of the brides. It recounts her death, her rebirth, her life, and ultimately the ending. It deals with the bonds of love, of family, of trust, and above all, the bonds that are tested when love is corrupted. The story follows Constanta, a medieval peasant turned into bride, into Dracula’s Bride. It shows how her love is twisted and turned, of how it went from first love to obsession, to hurt, and ultimately to survival and freedom. She slowly starts to see under the veil of her new life and how her prince, her husband, is not as princely as he seems. It was a gorgeous book to read. I absolutely adored it! It even had a little name drop of our favorite victorian family, the Harkers, haha. It’s a great read for fans of Dracula and gothic romance! It’s a story of family, of survival, and of the love that twist and turn in all of us. If we love a monster, does that in turn make us monsters?

*Thanks Netgalley and Nyx Publishing for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Not only is A Dowry of Blood beautifully written, with an enchanting, lyrical style that immediately sweeps you off your feet, but it also tells an incredible story full of blood and beauty. This novella is incredible, and I wish I could read it for the first time over and over again.

The writing is the highlight of the entire book. It flows and was a standout in a lot of books I’ve read. I’ve never read writing like it and loved it.

The book isn’t a long read but that doesn’t stop it from having a lot of emotional weight. We’re introduced to Dracula although his name is never said. He finds his first wife on a battlefield and the story starts there.

It’s written similarly to the epistolary style of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, although without dates and is in three parts. So you’re reading letters addressed from one wife to her husband. His name is never said—and there’s a reason for it—it’s always ”you”. ”You said this, you said that”.

There is sexual content and it isn’t really explicit. There also isn’t much swearing. Not only that but no one in the book seemingly has a preference for one gender over the other. Which I always love to see. That’s a bonus for me.

With all that said, the story hinges on abuse. Suffering and overcoming it and the way people will disguise it as love in an attempt to control others. It’s about protecting yourself but also the others you love and how hard it is to overcome the cruelty and pain that abuse is wrapped up in.

It could be very triggering to anyone who has suffered abuse.

We don’t get a very good look at how the other partners feel about their relationship because the story is told in first person from one character. The writer does a good job of letting us know how this character feels about her life.

While a quick read, it’s a good one.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. I loved the read.

Reading this felt like Mozart's Lacrimosa was written to be a soundtrack to this book.
It also felt like standing alone on an abandoned forest road in the middle of a winter night when there's no moon- or starlight and you dip your toes in a cold stream.

Thank you to netgalley for a copy of this book - I've read and seen a few Dracula retellings so far and this one might be my favourite. It got the tone right in a way none of the others ever did.

Did I read a different book to everybody else? The writing is Anne Rice levels of florid. Ugh. And I thought this was going to be a sapphic romance but as far as I have read it ain't. And the sex? Eye-roll worthy. I'm afraid that I could not take the writing seriously. I found it funny when it tried to be dark and empowering. Judging by the rave review for this book I am in the minority so don't let my not so enthusiastic review deter you from picking this novel up.

4 stars.

I consumed this book in one sitting in 2 hours on a Friday afternoon. I found myself unable to stop reading as Constanta long love letter is nothing short of beautiful poetry. Her story to date lasts longer than she can even recall, the dates beyond her when she was enthralled by her savior. But as time goes on, she begins to see him as not a quasi god but a cruel and unrelenting captor. For gods do not come to aid people at their times of death.

But she lives on, with no money nor life of her own. This story reads clearly as one of a abused wife, with the cycle of love bombing over the ages. Even with her future lovers (love the poly rep), they all grow to want more than the control nature and irrational moods. So when the climax comes, with a murderous mob on their doorstep, what better time to escape?

What I find really well done in this book is that even after she is free, she still worries and fears about her captor possibly following. That valid and gnawing paranomia is never early to escape, so it should be no different for a vampire. And while her captor was never named in the letters - only a constant usage of "you", I'm sure we've all heard enough stories to know.

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The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"We've waltzed through a hundred tiny apocalypses, you and I, walked unharmed through the ash of countless crumbling regimes. We feast on the ruin of empires, Constanta. Their destruction is our feast day."

This was a fascinating, heartbreaking read that I read over the span of a few hours; I simply couldn't look away from it and its tragedy. From my understanding, this is a retelling of Dracula (but, as I have not read that text, I am not sure how similar it is to the original). It at least has the similarity of being somewhat epistolary as the original Dracula was, but rather than written in letters it is as though the whole book is addressed to "You"--the Dracula character, whom the narrator chooses not to name. Considering he renamed her after siring her, she had every right to erase his name from history.

This is one of the best vampire stories I have ever read. It was a perfect mix of lyrical paragraphs and gut-wrenching truths. This was a narrator (named Constanta by her sire, her husband) who had lived hundreds of years by someone's side--seeing their cruelty and command, and still being unable to escape the cycle of abuse. For, while the fantastical element of vampirism is at the heart of this book, it stands side-by-side with surviving an abusive relationship; it is especially hard for Constanta to stand up for herself and her husband's other spouses when he never physically hurt them, when he manipulated them to think his abuses were for their own good.

I was completely enraptured by this novel, and I highly recommend it. Not only is it a Dracula retelling, but there is queer and polyamorous rep as well (though the latter seems to be an attempted Sister Wives scenario). Seeing history through Constanta's eyes was incredible, but seeing her own life was something more. My heart broke every time Constanta convinced herself that it wasn't abuse, since it felt so real and accurate; she was stuck and hindered for years, and the whole book I couldn't stop rooting for her to break free.

I've been eager to get my hands on a copy of this ever since I heard about it on Twitter, and finally tucking into it on a cold, rainy day did not disappoint in the least. This is a relatively quick read but it is not a light one; it's lyrical and macabre and devastating and romantic and complex, and it's definitely a dark journey but manages to be ultimately cathartic and satisfying by the last page. I'd recommend this to anyone looking to read a really fantastic take on the classic Dracula story, but it's also an incredibly successful piece of vampire, Gothic, horror fiction that will keep you riveted.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

To quote a famous scholar "after teasing us with the most problematic relationship of the year" this book explores intimate relationships and the addiction, enthrallment and toxicity than can come from them. It is a dark, seductive ride full of vampires, blood and sex.

We are following Constanta, one of dracula's brides (although he is never named, it's very clear this is who he is character) as she is telling her story to dracula, presuambly after his death as we find out in the first chapter she has allegdly killed him. This is ultimately a story of getting revenge on your abuser.

Journeying around Europe, we follow Constanta and Dracula, shortly after Constana has been turned, and along the way they pick up some new brides, Magdealena and Alexi, who then all form a polyamourous relationship. I love polyamory in books so I was obviously very here for this. I also really enjoyed the sex scenes, I thought they were tastefully written and honestly gay vampires are so sexy. I think he author has said all the characters are bi and we love to see it!! There is a meme which is like straight people having period sex -> abstience, gays having period sex -> bathed in blood, that is what this book feels like.

The characters were all such interesting characters, Constanta is quieter and almost motherly later on, you see her slowly throughout the novel become more of a jaded immortal and she is not afraid to occasionally stand up to dracula. Magdalena is fiery and passionate and Alexi is such a sweet golden boy, who also butts heads with dracula a lot, ultimately leading to the final conflict.

The writing is very immersive and really fits the whole vibe of the story, the writing is first person but also addressing a 'you' (dracula) and I feel like this was such a good choice to explore the complex and nuanced feelings of love than can come from an emotionally abusive relationship.

In conclusion this is the perfect book if you are in the mood for a quick read that is dark and twisted.

Thank you, NetGalley and Nyx Publishing for this ARC! 4.5 out of 5 stars.

What is love, to an immortal? What is it like, to love an immortal as an immortal yourself? What is it, to be the one to make someone immortal, to be able to control them and manipulate them, to be kind to them? Is that a kind of love? To take the needy, and give them what seems a glory, to let them learn who they are, all under your protective hand? To save lives, and to see to it that they do not despoil what a gift *you* have given them? What is the toll of traveling about, to remain both unseen and obedient?

The prose is a style newer to me, in that I don't usually read epistolary (near or otherwise), and while there were a few times I was caught up in confusing "you" for the protagonist-- something, however, easily remedied by the "I" in the next paragraph or so. Still, I found it highly enjoyable, and it worked extremely well for Constanta's near-passiveness in love, her emotional distance, and her decisions. She makes it clear: this is about him, but *she* is in charge. She will not let him have so much as a name, for all the years he has manipulated and hurt her, for how he has treated her and their spouses.

This is an abusive relationship. There is a huge disbalance of power between their maker, the vampire stripped of his name, and those he chose to turn: with Constanta, with Magdalena, and with Alexi. He loves them. This is all true. Constanta clings to parts of her human life: her spirituality, her morals, her love, as she cannot cling to her name.

Delightfully queer and the relationships true, love is infused in all of them: the love between Constanta and Magdalena, the love they have with Alexi, the love they all have for their maker, even the love he carries for them. There is no homophobia for the Constanta, Magdalena, "Dracula", or Alexi to move through: they're simply attracted to each other, and act upon it.

A fantastically gothic, queer book to curl up on a cold night to read!

I truly don't have the words to describe how painfully beautiful this story is. I feel no matter what I say, it will not do it the justice that it deserves. The prose, the story, the characters - there wasn't a part of it that I didn't enjoy; that didn't pull me in deeper and deeper until I could do nothing but devour this book. A Dowry of Blood could have gone on for another 400 pages and I wouldn't have complained. There are few stories that I could read again and again, even among my favorites, but this certainly is one of them.

God, I want more. I'm as greedy for these glorious brides as Dracula himself was. I'm truly grateful I was allowed the opportunity to receive an early copy, and I will be talking about this book non-stop for a long time to come. I've already ordered a physical copy, and I can't wait to have that stunning cover on my shelf to show off.

Please... treat yourself and pick up this beautiful, haunting queer story.