Really fun, athmospheric halloween read. Even if my review is...many months after the date, it seems like a fun book to read around that season. I enjoyed both the POV characters and the romance between them.

Damn I don’t get the lower star reviews for this at all I fucking LOVED it. GO SAPPHICS GO! This ship is so cute omfg

I love Dracula, anything sapphic, and a retelling so it is almost like this was written for me. This was an immediate hit for me! It also does not hurt that I am obsessed with this cover, it is lovely and creepy and I cannot stop looking at it! The writing was intriguing with the journal entries, the transcripts used to tie in Lucy’s and Iris’s stories. It did though me off at first that the POVs are different tenses but it is something I got over quickly. I did enjoy Lucy’s story more so than Iris’ but overall I enjoyed the entire reading experience. Lucy Undying was a joy to read and I flew through it! I have not read anything else by Kiersten White but I will definitely pick up her earlier works. I recommend picking this one up if you like vampires, Dracula, and or sapphic retellings.

I was drawn in by the intriguing premise and cover, but the execution fell short. I’m a vampire girlie so of course I had to read this. The pacing felt uneven, and I struggled to connect with the characters, who seemed more like sketches than fully developed individuals. While there were some interesting ideas and moments, they didn’t come together in a way that captured my interest.

I never have luck with Kiersten White, I don't know why I thought this would be different. I liked the initial concept and relation to Dracula, but not for me.

Gosh, I hate being disappointed but this book delivered that in spades.
It's frustrating when I can so clearly see potential. The chapters where Lucy is talking to her counselor and writing in her diary were actually pretty great. I was still missing a connection to her-- it feels so detached to read her describing her life, whether to a doctor or a person. But the chapters about Iris just bored me to tears. I did not care at all about Iris, and the information given to us by the other two POVs made it just tedious to sit around and wait for Iris to figure these things out. The instalove between Iris and Lucy also did not win me over. I think this story was intended to be reminiscent of A Dowry of Blood (or maybe that's just my wishful thinking) but it simply could not compare. There were so many cringe moments to this. A vampire MLM? Really? It feels too serious to be funny and too funny to be serious. I greatly enjoyed Kiersten White's Paranormalcy series as a teenager but I think it may be time to leave her in that stage of my life.

If theres one thing I love it's a Dracula retelling or another side to the Dracula story. I thought this was very visual, I could picture every scene and every character. It's was gory but had a romantic side to it. I will say a lot of the pov switches had me a little bit confused and I really had to focus while reading because the pov's all sounded pretty similar.

3.75 🌟

This had me worried in the beginning, but honestly ended up being such a wonderful read! It starts a bit slow for my personal tastes, but it picks up towards the 35-40% mark and there's such an engaging, mysterious and almost ominous element that carries you through all the way to the end. Could it have been a bit shorter? Probably, but oh well. As a fan of Dracula, I thought it was such an interesting twist on a well known story and it's characters.

Following two female leads, Iris and Lucy, we bounce back and forth between their two very different perspectives and lives that are unknowingly connected in unique ways. Iris is heir to the Goldening legacy, an almost cult-like health centered empire that boasts an eerie motto: "the blood is life." When her mother passes away, she's determined to do everything in her power to distance herself from that life and it's dangers. Her relationship with her mother (or lack thereof) had my heart aching for her. She was such a relatable character, trying her hardest not buckle under the weight of all that familial pressure and stay true to herself, despite the constant disapproval she received from everyone in her life. And I truly loved this version of Lucy Westenra. She's a character that all Stoker fans are familiar with, and the way she's transformed into such a powerful woman here was lovely. Her growth, from lonely and love-starved heiress with little sense of the real world, to a formidable and independent woman was displayed so well between the various written accounts we're shown.

I thought the sinister cult-like aspect of the Goldening empire was so fun, and it kept me guessing at where this story was going. Again, I do think we could have achieved the same level of depth with a slightly shorter story, but overall I really did like this! What's not love about a sapphic romance and revenge on men?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so creepy and atmospheric! I loved this book and was pleasantly surprised by this book. The way in which the different points of view are done was amazing and how some happen at different points in time added so many layers to this story. I really enjoyed how Dracula was always lurking in the background of the story and how we ended up getting chapters from his view as those were super creepy. Overall I loved how this story was told and how there was never a dull moment in this book. This was an amazing read.

Really unique and perfect for spooky season. I really enjoyed the timeline and Lucy was such a fun character.

I loved being able to read lucy's story. She is such an underrated character in Dracula.

Kiersten knows how to write a great book.

Thank you Random House Publishing and Netgalley for the eARC!

I have always been a huge fan of this author! I love a good sapphic romance book and this falls under that category! Lucy has always been a side character in the Dracula story, so it's good to see her finally get the spot light and a love story!

Just finished this book, and I think I'm gonna make it a part of my personality, I was so invested in the characters and the plot ahhh. Usually I struggle even with dual timelines in a book, but this one had 3 in parallel and all 3 were equally gripping and thrilling, I was practically glued to my screen (Kindle app, so) throughout 🥲

-- my ramblings as I read the book --

60% in, I'm dying with betrayal at the plot twist?? I mean I expected some of it, but not the biggest one of all 😭

~40% in, I absolutely love the triple timelines! It's usually hard for me to get invested in more than one timeline in a book, but this book is written so fucking well

"Thank you for at last answering the questions I feared I would die with— the reason, the purpose, the point of me?
It was love.
It was you." - IM CRYING 😭

TWs - murder, gore, war (specifically WW1 and WW2), nonconsensual medical treatments

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

I tried giving this book a chance and didn't like it. I got my hopes up for it going to be a good book since it has one thing I love in the book which is vampires.

What a great book by a fantastic author. Some of the twists were expected, but others were such fun surprises! I loved the sapphic representation and the MLM angle. I always love White's work, but she really knocked it out of the park with this one! You can tell she really paid attention to the original Dracula story, but still found room to make this work her own.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the ARC

2.5 stars
Adult. Gothic. Fantasy.
The words that interested me from the start. I've read Kiersten's other series and enjoyed it, so I thought i would feel the same. The feeling was only half there and the reason why is because this was incredibly slow to begin with. I found that all 3 POVs drug on a bit and I may have sort of forced myself to finish the rest of the book.

It may have just not been the right time for me to get into this story, but I don't think I will try it again later on.

The love story that Dracula's Lucy deserves. Perfection. Also, this is the MLM takedown I didn't know I needed. Also Kiersten White is officially an auto-read for me.

Am I glad I read it? I don't regret reading this, though I can't say I'm particularly thrilled to have read it. I can say, however, that I am glad that I *finished* it. Let me explain.

This book is loooooong—which is, generally, fine—but it felt exactly as long as it was—which is, unequivocally, not fine. For the middle third-ish, I felt like I was watching water boil, wondering when this book would finally end and simultaneously feeling like it never would because I kept checking my progress so frequently. I particularly did not enjoy the therapist transcript POV and frankly feel that it added little to the narrative except as an easy way to introduce side characters.

But I did say that I am glad that I finished it, and I say that for two reasons. First, the last 25-ish% was really excellent. All of the plot and thematic threads really begin coming together, and I was engaged in a way I hadn't been since quite early in the book. And second, I really appreciated the themes White chose to explore with this retelling, namely bodily autonomy and the choices young women make as a result of (patriarchal) societal expectations. As a historical romance reader, I enjoyed the critical exploration of how queerness, beauty, and wealth impacted Lucy as a young, marriageable Victorian lady. As a lover of vampire fiction, I appreciated the depiction of Dracula's creation of new vampires and the Goldaming MLM scheme as violations of, respectively, Lucy and Iris's bodily autonomy in some nice thematic mirroring.

I think I could have really liked this book if it didn't have such a bloated middle.

Rating: 🤷🏼‍♀️ (it was fine; 3.5 stars)

A modern gothic and feminist exploration of Lucy Westenra, one of Dracula's brides.

The cover is eerily beautiful. It's the primary reason of why I really wanted to read this book. Plus, I think the vampire genre is having a resurgence and I have been waiting for it to make its way back into the literary landscape.

I found the novel to be good! I think the biggest struggle while reading is the differing povs/timelines. It was hard for me to find a connection and reason as to WHY. Why did the author choose this method of storytelling. On the other hand, it was interesting to see the use of mix media (a journal, transcript, and narration) to tell a story, which I found unique (it's not something I come across every day).

Overall, I found the characters fun and endearing? in their own way. Iris and Lucy are trying to find their place in this world, slowly coming to their own identity with love as the driving force and answer to their existence.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.