I found the synopsis to be intriguing when I requested an ARC of the book. The twist on the standard vampire story helped the overall plot as it wasn’t super traditional. Chartreuse as the main character is something I still cannot figure out if I liked. I appreciated her spunk, sexuality, and goal to be in charge of her life but I couldn’t really connect with her. The love interests in the story were too sporadic at times including the ending chapters which seemed to come out of nowhere. My biggest issues with the book was the dialogue. The author attempted jargon from the 1800s but then pet names like “baby” and nuances like yelling “crap” didn’t fit. The pet names were extensive and repetitive and really took away from the scenes. Overall I think the story was okay but the character conversations did not do it for me.

TL:DR Whilst the premise certainly ticked the right boxes for me, the author's style of writing didn't. I'm an emotion based reader not an analytical one, so this book just didn't fit my personal preferences.


I was very intrigued by the book's synopsis but it just lacked somewhat in the execution. The writing style just wasn't for me, it felt very much tell and not show, with the heroine narrating her actions and feelings, rather than me experiencing them in any way. This created an immediate feeling of disconnect, however others may feel differently, reading is such a personal experience!


As a character driven reader I struggled throughout the story because I simply didn't care for any of them. The plot also seemed to lurch around and whip off in a different direction at the drop of a hat. At 25% of the way through I still had no idea of where the story was heading and my experience is that if a book hasn't grabbed me by then it is very unlikely to do so. There was no excitement within me, no desire or compulsion to find out what would happen next and had it not been an arc I would probably DNF'd this fairly quickly.


Something I wasn't aware of when I requested the book is that it is part of a series. Reading between the lines it is the backstory of a character (Chartreuse) who appears in previous books, albeit ones set later in the timeline. The world building felt weak, it left me wondering if you need to read the rest of the series in order to really get the most out of this book. I certainly felt as though I was missing important details and information on more than one occasion.

Excellent novel of the erotic genre. Definitely recommend people read it for themselves in order to experience the novel first hand and make your own mind about its contents. I enjoyed reading it.

L.C Son is a new author for me and writes with a very unique style. It is dark but full of hope, vivid and well developed, and raw but sophisticated. Her world-building and character development are truly impressive as well. I did have a few minor issues with the story, the most obvious ones were the overuse of the same pet name multiple times in a short dialogue and the use of "preciousness" as the term for female private areas. “Red” “Beloved” and “Dear Sister” are the few I can think of off-hand that continued to come up over and over again...and "preciousness" made me think of Golom from Lord of The Rings. I don’t dislike pet names but they are seriously overused and detract from the reader's experience and fluidity. I definitely recommend this story but may not read any further because dark just isn’t my thing. BUT I am a true fan of Son’s idea to tell the story from the villain’s perspective.

I really wanted to like this story... but I could not get into it. Every time I started getting interested, it felt like to story would take a sharp turn in a different direction. Almost as if there were several competing story ideas that ended up being smushed together. The only constant through the story was her love for her sister, which still ended in a weird way.

To answer a few questions:
No—I did not have an issue with how “dark” the book was.
No—I did not have an issue with triggers
No—I did not have an issue with her being a villain

What I took issue with:
No plot, consistency, continuity, or overall storyline. . . If someone asked me what the book was about I would have to stare blankly at them then shrug my shoulders and say I don’t know. Which I find super frustrating because I LOVED all of the characters. Even the characters that we should hate, they were great. L.C. Son’s ability to creat believable characters with their own personalities was amazing. Which is probably one of the reasons I was frustrated with the story itself.

I was all in up until she decided to become a vampire. After that, the pacing goes out the window and we end up with more questions than answers. For example, we get a LOT of clues that Dalcour is a “bad” guy with his own agenda, however we never actually see that or get any answers either confirming or rejecting that notion. Second, what is up with Decaux? I was so excited when he entered the picture then he fell flat for me. We also never get answers/closure about the changelings... What was the end game for them? Was it evil? Was it to help? JUST WHAT?!?!?

Lastly, and then I promise I will stop, I could not buy into the “love” with Sebastian. It was instant, all consuming, then gone... I was left scratching my head and not feeling any kind of emotion like I should. I wanted to be devastated, heart broken, or at least sad. But there was so little build up that it just felt like another portion of a rather dysfunctional story.

Why it still got two stars when I had to force myself to finish it: If the author is kind enough to give me an ARC, they deserve my attention till the end. There were enough redeeming qualities that I wanted to hang on to see what happened. Lastly, I would still read other books by this author. Her writing style is great! The world she built was so vivid I thought I could smell the rank breath of the patrons in the saloon and the characters really come alive through their actions and speech. It was truly just the story that fell flat for me.

Big thanks to Netgalley and L. C. Son for the ARC in exchange for a review.

Chartreuse is an woman, forced into sex work by her mother and a disgusting brothel owner. Their family was run out of their home when she was a child because of her oldest sisters relationship.
With dulling memories and fading hope that a vampire named Dalcour, who saved her remaining family from the fires set to kill her older sister, would save her again he finally shows up.
He gives Chartreuse a option and she must decide her own fate.

I gave this one 3 stars. The writing was decent but the world building wasn't really there and a lot of details were left out. The changelings were very open ended, as well as what exactly an Altrinion is was never fully explained.

A couple of unexpected things that I was really enjoyed was that this was not really a 'happy ending' sort of book. The monster was not redeemed, her actions not justified for the better good. She wanted revenge and she fu*king took it. You go girl. It was also mentioned that the father's memory was romanticized. THANK YOU! It ruins a story when a long dead/absent/terrible parental figure gets their redemption by literally saving the day.
Not everyone's dad is going to show up in a boat with an army to save the day, Sarah.

I enjoyed this book, I read the majority of it in o e sitting, o ly stopped when my eyes began to blur.
It wasn't what I expected, and it held me from the beginning,
I would have liked a bit more with Dalcour and Titan after the first night