A story with vampires and fae?! Yes please!!

The drama in this book was crazy, I genuinely couldn’t see what was going to happen, especially at the end.

The FMC is completely focused on her mission for revenge, as she should be and I was so into watching her infiltrate the brutal vampire mafia.

The story ends on a cliffhanger that left me needing the next book!

Thank you NetGalley and secondsky for the ARC.

I had fun with this one. It's the first book in a series, so there was a lot of set up as to the new world we're inhabiting as well as introductions to our main characters and the dynamics between them.

Nadi is a shapeshifting fae who has turned her trauma and grief into her drive for revenge against the man who killed her family. This man just happens to be Raziel, a powerful vampire with a reputation of breaking his victims to the point of madness. Of course their worlds collide in the most unlikely way, and now Nadi has to do all she can to survive while exacting her revenge.

The tension between Nadi and Raziel is delicious. There's a promise of darkness that I feel Kathryn just scratches the surface of in The Serpent's Bride. Kathryn is the queen of giving readers just enough to pull them in before she pulls the rug from under us and leaves us gasping for more with her intentional cliffhangers. Because of that, I will definitely be adding the rest of the series to my TBR.

What a good time!!! 🧛‍♂️❤️‍🔥
This is truly a very addicting dark fantasy romance that is SO entertaining!
Love the vampires, shifters and badass FMC
with Mafia vibes!!
Theres action, mystery and plenty of Spice💋

The ending is perfect!!! 😆😆
Very Excited to see whats to come!!!

Oh Lordy that ending!! Vampire vs Fae, mafia, dark romantasy with some suspense too! Nadi is out to seek revenge on a Mafia Vampire named Raziel aka The Serpent (for good reason) for killing her family. Raziel need a bride sacrifice. Nadin infiltrates his life to find the best way to take out him and his entire family. This story took me on a ride and I loved it!!

A faerie seeking revenge on the vampire lord that killed her family goes undercover as his human bride. An interesting concept for a book certainly. The execution and writing wasn’t my favorite and I didn’t connect much to the characters which felt a bit 1D to me but it was an ok read

I actually loved reading this. It had some of my favorite tropes…enemies to lovers, hidden identity, an assassin FMC, vampires vs fae…I personally loved Nadi. I liked her shapeshifting power and how she infiltrated the vampire family. She is definitely cunning and clever. The banter between her and some of the family members was fun. Raziel was very much a morally black male character. And to be honest he surprised me in almost every chapter with his point of view. The way he thinks it’s interesting. But I think what won me over to rate this 4 stars was the ending. I was very surprised and at the point when I was really cheering for Nadi everything changes. The cliffhanger killed me a little, I had much fun reading this.

I was so excited to see Kathryn Ann Kingsley launching a new series. After absolutely loving her Iron Crystal books, I grabbed The Serpent’s Bride on NetGalley the second I saw it, and it completely delivered.

This is the beginning of the Bloodlines series, and it blends vampires, fae, and a dark mafia romance in a way that is instantly engaging. The pacing is quick, the tone is intense, and the story is incredibly easy to fall into. While the fantasy world is only lightly developed in this first book, the constant action and emotional tension keep it moving and make it hard to put down.

Nadi is a strong and memorable lead. She is fierce, clever, and deeply human in all the right ways. Her forced marriage to vampire crime boss Raziel creates a powerful enemies to lovers dynamic that delivers everything I was hoping for. Their relationship is full of sparks, conflict, and undeniable chemistry. So far it is more about desire than love, but the emotional undercurrents are there and ready to grow. The romantic scenes are not overly graphic, but they are still rewarding and well written.

Compared to the Iron Crystal books, this story feels darker and more focused on character growth and emotional complexity. There is a rough edge to the romance and a sense of real danger in the choices these characters face. I was also fascinated by the glimpses of the fae world, which felt eerie and unpredictable in the best way. I hope the next book takes us deeper into that strange and magical realm.

Overall, The Serpent’s Bride is a fast and thrilling start to what promises to be another unforgettable series from Kathryn Ann Kingsley. It has all the intensity, passion, and drama I was looking for, and I am already eager to see what happens next.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Second Sky Books for the advance copy. I am officially hooked.

Sexy, spicy vampires? Yes, please! I really enjoyed this one! I’m a huge vampire lover! The plot gripped me right away and kept my interest throughout.

Wow, this book was a lovely little surprise. I was really intrigued by the blurb and couldn't wait to get stuck into it, and it definitely didn't disappoint.

Nadi disguises herself as the bride of Vampire Raziel, a member of the most deadly Vampire families. Her aim is to take vengeance against Raziel, who brutally murdered her family 80 years ago.

Sparks start to fly and she is drawn to Raziel in the most dangerous and deadly way.

This book is definitely a wild ride, twists, turns, secret identities, angst, tension, and a fast-paced story where you are kept guessing at what is true and what is just manipulation.

I loved both Nadi and Raziel, the banter between them was on fire and I loved every second.

The story kept me guessing, I couldn't see how either character was getting out alive so the ending was an absolute joy, and unexpected.

I am desperate for book 2 already!

When she's on a mission to kill the Vampire King but..... falls in love with him.

Female rage. Arranged Marriage. True Enemies To Lovers. Fantasy Mafia. This book was made for me. I ate it up and left no crumbs.

A vampire romantasy dressed as a mafia-romance - what's not to like ;)

Fun, tesions-felt, action, banter and spice! The characters were insteresting and the chemestry was nicely done.
I'm defintely NOT done with my vampire period

Raziel Nostrom is daddy
The plot was plotting
The spice was spicing
The humor was on point
Easy 5 stars. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Nadi is not the damsel in distress FMC, her inner monologue and banter with the MMC had me laughing a few times.

This one hasn’t released yet and I am salivating for book 2.

Thank you to NetGalley and Second Sky for the advanced copy!

Rating: 4/5 stars

Holy. Moly. I ate this book up in 3 hours. It's so fast paced and kept my attention the whole time. This is a DARK enemies to lovers and I ate it up.
Nadi's entire family was murdered in front of her eighty years ago, and she has been patiently abiding her time to exact revenge on Raziel Nostrom- the vampire that took away everything- and the entire Nostrom family. She disguises herself as his human bride in order to infiltrate his house and to murder him and his whole family.

The thing she never expected? Falling for the man who murdered her family.

You get both perspectives in third person, and my goodness it's delicious. You can tell they both are having feelings, but neither of them wants to actually believe in it. And the cliffhanger? AMAZING. I'm not even mad about it because it set it up so beautifully for the second book.

If you enjoy vampires, fae, enemies to lovers, and dark romance, this book is for you!

4 ⭐️

I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW, are you kidding me?!

Thank you, thank you to Second Sky and NetGalley for the complementary e-arc, opinions expressed in my review are entirely my own.

Hot as sin vampires, a badass Fae assassin for a wife, and a quest vengeance— what more could I want? I love this, omgg; I had such a great time!! I was hooked on the concept of Nadi infiltrating Raziel’s life and family after he ruined hers, eighty years ago. The hatred was justified, the stakes were high. Like you know when the hate is real and there is genuine reason behind it; it was so good, and it was just a really good arc of the story. I couldn’t help but root for Nadi, and accidentally ended up rooting for them too because their chemistry was so insanely good!

Equally, I thought that Nadi and Raziel were both very intriguing and complex characters. I really liked Nadia and, her Fae capabilities. I love reading about vampires, so yeah this was a great entertaining SLOW BURN of a read. I was almost climbing up the walls for how long it took for Raziel to bite her, which I think is actually a very underrated trope in a paranormal/vampire romance, and the author done an incredible job of nailing that.

This was such a great introduction to a series. The side characters were also very intriguing, and I can’t wait to see more of this universe and world unfold, especially after that jaw dropping cliffhanger that had me holding my breath, because I genuinely did not know what direction this was going to go in. Just wow, utterly brilliant!

3.5 stars rounded up.

This was one of those books that I kept wondering why I was reading it because I didn't like either of the main characters, but I also couldn't stop. Raziel is the MMC and he isn't morally gray he is definitely completely in the black. Nadi wasn't a great person either. I feel like generally in these books they have an exception for each other but even from his POV, Raziel never really seemed to have any actual feelings from her. I also was not impressed with the spice, that 4 letter bundle of nerves wasn't mentioned once, damn Raziel way to be a selfish lover.

That being said there was an addictive quality to this book where I couldn't stop and needed to see what happened next. I was definitely never bored. I did like the ending of this book and would definitely check out the next one.

Thank you to Bookouture Audio for the ALC. And thank you to Second Sky for the ARC.
This is my honest opinion.

Arc Review!!

Tropes: vampire x fae, revenge plot, hijacked arranged marriage

THAT ENDING WITH THE CLIFFHANGER ARE YOU JOKING! This book was such a pleasant surprise from the plot twists to the dashes of vampire romance. It follows the fmc Nadi as she goes down a path of revenge for her family murdered by a vampire called The Serpent (Raziel) by hijacking his arranged marriage. I will say this is a DARK romance as the mmc is the vampire Raziel although you'll just have to read this for yourself for more details!

Thank you so much NetGalley for the e-ARC!!

A Romantasy thriller that just keeps you captivated! The fmc is a shape shifting killer with a plan. But plans don’t always go as planned. And I loved to watch it all unfold. The back stories, and the character depth was perfectly incorporated into the story. The magic was neat and the different species were just different enough to fit all the side stories that brought the main story together. I loved this book. It would be a great read for a thriller lover who wants to dip their toes into romantasy. I felt fully immersed into this story and couldn’t get enough of it.

Read in two sittings and in under 24 hours!!
Book 1 of a darker fantasy romance - fae vs vampire - story.
Where she is the last surviving member of her fae family (because he murdered them all) and he's the youngest of his massive vampire family. He's also the most lethal of the bunch because of corse he is !

She's set on getting revenge, or is she?
"Eeeeeek" the tension was tensioning throughoutttttt this book! They want each other and they both hateeee that they do! They fought their attraction so hard - and it was delicious!

She's goes undercover as his new "human" bride expecting to complete her task with little to no difficulty when it comes to her devotion to succeed. Because she hates him SO MUCH!!! or does she ?? OR DOES SHE!!

Our FMC Nadi, is an orphan turned assassin. Which I can't relate to, but she also lovessss candlelight baths which I totally CAN relate to! She's hardcore because her life made her that way. I love that she's so clever, that she thinks stuff through and that she isn't a naive/ virgin 20 year old. She's spent her life becoming and figuring out who she is and what she wants out of her life. She doesn't play dumb thinking she will get a happily ever after. She knows this plan is going to be rough to complete and she knows she very well may die.
Which means she works through every emotion because she doesn't want anything to be left undone in her life.
She takes her pleasure where she can !!! Her headache however is that the pleasure makes her question her quest to murder her target, her family's murdered, who is her new husband.

Our MMC Raz is the spare of the spare to the head of his intensely cruel Mafia family of vampires. He's the tool they wield for their own gain. Their sibling rivalry/ games/ banter are the worst of the worst and he's always their target. He doesn't have much of a conscience and he surely doesn't show emotion. He's downright evil because he's been groomed to be. But when she cleans up his bloody knuckles - he starts to crack- he's confused - he's feeling fuzzy and she compares him to "a junkyard dog who was being shown affection for the first time in his life."

I was tempted to immediately start a reread when I finished this book because that ending - GASP! That's the surprise ending l'm looking for when so many questions are still unanswered and secrets are still strongly guarded! I DID NOT see this ending coming and I loved that for me. When so often I try to figure out what may happen. I didn't figure this one out so easily. I had a totally different ending playing out in my mind and the real ending was SO MUCH BETTER.

I would absolutely recommend you read this book if you like for your enemies to give it their ALL when fighting the attraction. I would also recommend you read this book if you LOVE when the enemies just become too weak to hold out and then loose themselves in wild passion.
Passion perhaps so intense that one of them passes out at the end.
QUE MY GIRLIE GIGGLE !

I will be DIVING into book 2 once it comes out.
Thank you so much to Net Galley and author Kathryn Ann Kingsley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

The Serpent’s Bride is the first book in a Dark Fantasy Romance series and omg the way I’m obsessed with this book, it has most of my favourite tropes all in one book with such interesting plot and amazing characters and I literally can’t wait for book 2!

Nadi is a shapeshifting fae and has been planning her revenge on Raziel, a vampire, for over 80 years after he killed her family. When an opportunity presents itself to impersonate Raziel’s bride, she plans to infiltrate his home, become his wife and kill him alongside his whole family. But not everything is as it seems and thrown into a deceptive world of vampires and battling her dangerous attraction to her new husband who also plans to kill her, she needs to decide whether revenge is truly what she needs.

This book was truly unputdownable, I was hooked from the first chapter and it was getting better and better with each next one. Nadi was the kind of FMC I love in dark fantasy romance books: stabby, morally grey, cunning, an assassin and really strong, I loved her whole character arc and can’t wait to see her again. Raziel… he was quite complex character and I loved to hate him for most of the book, he was truly morally grey (if not black) but I love this kind of MMCs and it was so much fun to see him struggling with the realisation he might actually feel something for the wife he plans to kill. These two were so much fire together, I always love arranged romance trope mixed with enemies to lovers and here they couldn’t deny their attraction even when they absolutely hated it and I loved all their scenes, there were some dagger/teeth to the throat moments, banter and of course scorching hot spicy scenes that had me blushing at times, I loved these two so much and am so excited to see their dynamics in book 2, especially after what happened at the end of this one, that ending was just mean and I need to know what happens next ASAP.

The Serpent’s Bride is an amazing dark fantasy romance book with interesting plot, incredible characters and spicy romance, I loved it and recommend it to everyone.

An Unexpectedly Addictive Read, A Dark, Lush Romantasy You Won’t Put Down
The Serpent’s Bride was an unexpected delight in the best possible way. I went into this book with no real expectations and ended up absolutely hooked. If you're a fan of enemies-to-lovers, forced marriage, or dark fantasy worlds dripping in tension and danger, this book is calling your name.
The story blends some of my favorite tropes: a bride offered as a sacrifice, a slow-burning romance, and the ultimate clash between two powerful, ancient races, Fae and Vampires. Their hatred for one another runs deep, creating a violent, high-stakes world that feels almost mafia-esque in its ruthlessness. But underneath all the blood and betrayal is a delicious romantic tension that reminded me of Romeo and Juliet, tragic, intense, and completely addictive.
I was especially thrilled by how well the slow burn was executed. It kept me turning the pages (or in this case, glued to my earbuds), desperate to see where the relationship would go next. And I have to give credit to the author for writing a female main character I genuinely liked—lately, that’s been a rare treat. She was strong, layered, and relatable without falling into the usual tropes that tend to drag down heroines in this genre.
I also had the pleasure of experiencing this book in audio format, and let me just say: the narrator nailed it. They brought every moment to life with such emotion and energy that it made the whole experience even more immersive.
And that twist at the end? Absolutely brilliant. It had me shouting in frustration, in the best way, because now I have to wait for the next book! I'm dying to know what happens next.
There was one small detail I didn’t love, but I can’t even talk about it without spoiling a major plot point. That said, it didn’t dampen my enthusiasm or affect my rating at all.
If you're searching for a romantasy that blends high-stakes tension, rich worldbuilding, slow-burn romance, and a story that will keep you emotionally invested until the very last page, The Serpent’s Bride is the perfect pick. Highly recommend!