Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. S.T. Gibson is officially a new favorite author. This book was excellent. The dark academia setting in the 1960s set the stage for a story of longing, self exploration, coming of age, and vampires. The prose, atmosphere and pacing were perfect. The flawed desperate characters were somehow endearing, fascinating and awful at the same time. There were parts of this story that were uncomfortable to read (see trigger warnings from the author) but this book was just too perfect in so many ways and the ending was flawless. I also highly recommend reading this with the Education in Malice playlist that Gibson created on Spotify. Between that and the book I felt completely immersed in the world.

This is a phenomenal dark sapphic novel that deconstructs 'Carmilla' and some elements of dark academia as well, and I can't wait to promote this to everyone and get my own copy as soon as it comes out!

Aspiring writer, Laura (FMC #1) arrives at St. Perpetua's College specifically to take Ms. De LaFontaine's poetry class. She meets Carmilla (FMC #2) in class and it becomes very clear both girls are vying for Ms. D's attention.

Ms. D takes both girls under her wing and eventually begins to reveal her secrets. Unfortunately, it could result in one or more of their deaths, as there's now a vampire running around campus killing their classmates 🤷‍♀️.

I felt like this honestly could have been a duology. There was enough material to explore some of the characters and some of the relationships a bit more in depth.

Even with the "rivals to lovers" trope with Laura and Carmilla - I felt the evolution of their relationship was rushed. But that also could have been just that the book is a standalone.

🌶️/5

✨ LBGTQ+ representation 🌈
✨ Vampires 🦇
✨ Dual POVs
✨ Slow burn romance ❤️‍🔥
✨ Dark academia
✨ Rivals to lovers

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was absolutely enamored with this book. It's even better than the author's previous work, A Dowry of Blood, which I've also read and enjoyed. Vampire fiction is experiencing a renaissance, and there's a lot of it that isn't very good--but Gibson's two novels are solid. I hope she writes more.

S.T. Gibson always impresses me with her writing style; I loved the first Dowry of Blood and couldn’t wait to read this one! Continuing with the theme of vampire retellings, this one takes influence from Carmilla in a beautiful re-telling.

𝕆𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨

This dual-POV book follows the story from both Laura and Carmilla. It was interesting to see the story unfold from both of their views, especially as Carmilla’s feelings towards Laura changed from hate to love! Seeing the story take place in a academic setting was really fun to read and I enjoyed the focus on poetry in this book!

One of the main things I love about S.T. Gibson is the gothic writing style; it flowed beautifully in this story and really helped to capture the environment and characters. It is incredibly descriptive and captures the essence of the genre!

I truly loved how the dynamics between the characters grew throughout the book; and appreciated how De Lafontaine and Carmilla’s relationship concluded at the end of the book. They evolved past the initial co-dependency and both characters seemed to grow from it!

Laura was a very fun character to read and see grow throughout the book! After staring off as an initial shy southern girl, the change to her taking charge and and going after what she wants really stood out! She definitely became stronger as the book went on and it showed!

The rivalry between Laura and Carmilla added a fun element to the story; reading them constantly trying to one up each other and their inner monologues regarding their feelings made the story. I think a dual-POV was the best for this and showed both characters equally. Both characters also complimented each other and helped to bring our different parts of each other.

I also loved the small Magdalena appearance and seeing her from a completely different set of characters!

Lastly, a vampire book that actually includes biting is always a favorite to me! Personally, I find that many books with the un-dead take the ‘I can’t bite you I’ll kill you’ or the ‘biting is taboo’ approach and appreciate when the vampires are actually vampires! Even While having human moments, there were still enough scenes and differences that helped establish that these were not humans!

𝕆𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕝

I really enjoyed this book and am hoping for more in this universe! I love vampire books and having the classics retold is always fun to read!

Id highly recommend this book if you enjoyed the authors previous work and want a slightly dark rivals to lovers; I’d read the trigger warnings but personally didn’t find anything that made me super uncomfortable!

Dark Academia meets Magic, meets sapphic love in this dark and delicious Carmella retelling. I could. not. put. this. down. I cannot stress enough how gripping this book truly is. Darkness, obsession, lust, and maddening desire are all laced through this retelling and it was masterfully done. If dark academia, magic, and sapphic books are what you want, then look no further.

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I feel like An Education in Malice started out strong. The dueling voices of Laura and Carmilla were interesting, and St. Perpetua in this year was a great setting. However, things tapered off pretty quickly. It became clear that the plot was simply romance-- that's it. There was an opportunity for lore and fantasy, and that ended up being a dead end, too. Eventually, I couldn't tell the difference between Laura's voice and Carmilla's voice.

An Education in Malice is a well-written sapphic tale with vampires. I enjoyed Laura and Carmilla's relationship, although I felt the enemies to lovers part was rushed. There was a bit of spice, but I was relieved that it wasn't really dark. However, I hated the teacher De Lafontaine. She was creepy and weird, throughout. I never really understood the girls' fascination with her. This might not be my favorite book, but it wasn't bad. I think others may like it more than I did.

Utterly obsessed.

Those are the only words that come to mind after finishing this book. I flew through it and now I'm sitting here with withdrawal. This book was so captivating and once it had me hooked, that was it, game over. I am truly in awe of how beautifully S.T. Gibson writes and how the entire book flowed seamlessly with few to no snags that had me stopping during my reading.

This is such a beautiful romance story, one that I didn't feel was a retelling but more of "in another life" or reincarnation of Carmilla. It was so beautiful to be able to read this and take in every little detail the author gives us. I honestly do not have the words for how amazing this book was. It was truly a gem & I cannot wait for more people to read this book because this feels like a classic for the ages.

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had high expectations with this story but sadly they were not met that doesn't mean it was bad it was just kinda boring. Full review on Goodreads.

Thank you to the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This was an easy read however I felt like all three of the main characters were not likable. Their behavior was often immature and their stories not fleshed out enough. I wanted to hear more of De Lefontaine’s backstory and for the vampire aspect to play a larger role in the overall story line. I feel like the enemies to lovers aspect was a bit on the nose for my liking but I did like the use of past setting as it removed many modern distractions. Thanks for the chance to read an advanced copy of this book.

A seductive vampire tale of 2 rival students, who are fighting for the attention of their mysterious but mesmerizing teacher who holds dark secrets. Secrets that open up a world beyond what they both know. A world where the impossible is possible. Wow! This one was short but I flew through it! It’s got some dark academia, spice, LGBTQ+, a little gore and tons of poetry. I enjoyed the A Dowry in Blood so much and really liked this one as well! I loved the humanity aspect of it. The ending was great as well left a lot to the imagination which isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes things aren’t neatly tied up and that’s ok. It’s life!

I am happy to have been given an ARC copy of this book, this is my honest review…

Deep in the shadows a new world will be opened up to Carmilla and Laura. Their professor has some secrets, what will they think of her when they find them out.

This was a delightful, twisty, spicy novel. It was a slow start, but I am so happy I stuck it out. I ended up really loving this book. It’s a true masterpiece.

I wanted so badly to fall in love with this book, and while the writing was exquisite (per usual), I had a hard time getting into the story. I was hooked right away with A Dowry of Blood so the slow start of this book made me a little hesitant to continue. I liked the exploration of the relationship between the three main characters though and the dark academia setting was perfect. Also, I enjoyed the callbacks to some of the characters from the first book. Carmilla is my favorite classic, so seeing a more modern take on it was exciting but I wanted more from it, especially from the character of Carmilla.

Overall, I liked it but it was just difficult for me to get fully enthralled with it.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with this ARC!

This book was insane! So much happened, it'll keep you on your toes. The characters were so unique, not the typical likable characters. And the writing was perfection.

I really enjoyed this book. An Education in Malice tells the story of Laura’s first year at a fancy all girl’s college. She is accepted into a prestigious poetry seminar where she becomes enamoured with her classmate. Their fates become more and more entertained as the year goes on.

I absolutely love the writing style and there were so many plot twists I would have never predicted! Overall a great LGBTQ+ romance and mystery novel that I recommend!

I adored a dowry of blood so I was really looking forward to reading this and it did not disappoint! I have a secret not so secret love of vampires and have read many dracula retellings but this was my first Carmilla retelling and I loved it! Thank you netgalley for the e arc!

An Education in Malice
4.5/5
Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Redhook Books and Netgalley!

A Dowry of Blood and Carmilla are two of my all time favorite books so when I came across this book on NetGalley I have never requested a book faster!

I have been craving a vampire dark romance and when I saw my request got approved I DEVOURED it. Lyrical, lush, and dark, this book swept me away immediately with Gibson’s beautiful writing.

My only complaint is that I wish the romance was more of a slow burn, at times it felt rushed and I just wish there was more.

That being said I still overall enjoyed this novel and cannot wait to see what S.T. Gibson does next!

An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson is a sapphic reimagining of Carmilla. This book is the spiritual successor of A Dowry of Blood but they aren’t connected in a way where you have to read one before the other. This book follows Laura and Carmilla as they attend an elusive college and become rivals in a writing class. But when their teacher seems to have a fondness for both of them, Laura and Carmilla begin to grow close.

I don’t want to go into more detail because I don’t want to spoil anything but if you read the first book or you know anything about Carmilla, you can guess what direction the story is going to go in.

I loved this book. While it is written in a very different style than Dowry, it still feels lush and beautiful. I was entranced the entire time I was reading this book. Some scenes even felt somewhat dreamlike which added to the reading experience. This book is dark and disturbing and sexy all at the same time. This is exactly the kind of book I am looking for when I pick up a book that contains these elements.

I don’t think this book will be for everyone because people will go in expecting it to be more like A Dowry of Blood but while that book was written in an epistolary format which makes it easy to feel connected to the characters, An Education in Malice is written in a much more direct narrative style but it still manages to bring the reader in. This book has firmly placed this author in my autobuy author category and I cannot wait to read what comes next.

Rating: 4/5 stars

In all honesty, I hadn't heard of The Dowry of Blood or An Education in Malice before I started to see people's most anticipated reads of 2024 on Instagram and saw just how popular S.T. Gibson's books are. So whenever I first created my NetGalley account and requested all these new books I was dumbfounded when I was approved for An Education In Malice.

Going into the book I had no idea that An Education in Malice was a follow-up book to The Dowry of Blood, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. So for those who haven’t read A Dowry of Blood but want to read this book - YOU CAN!

Beginning at a fast pace, Gibson's beautiful writing will have you locked in a trance from page one. This captivating story is filled with vampires, sapphic relationships, and gothic and dark academia vibes. Set in an all-women college, you explore the lives of our two main characters Laura and Carmilla in their respective POVs and their peculiar relationships with their renowned poetry professor, De Lafontaine. I was enthralled with how each character's development came about and couldn't put the book down.
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The central focus of the book was surrounding these three women and their exploration into new feelings, politics, and just a touch of magic, however, I can't help but feel robbed of more scenes of Carmilla and Laura's blooming relationship. I felt their relationship took off and never looked back once we passed the halfway point. While there was a scene of them exploring their dynamic sexually, I was thirsting for more of them sharing mundane conversations, personalities, and even more hobbies. since for the most part their relationship was centered around conditions and the problem at hand once the relationship was established. In complete transparency, I could have read the entire book without the side plot just because of how infatuated I felt with our two main characters, nevertheless, the side plot was fun, although predictable, and it helped the story progress towards the end, which is why I can appreciate it.

I truly enjoyed this book and wish to give it a 4/5! A huge thank you to NetGalley for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.