Vibes: dark, vampires and fae mobs, twisty and suspenseful with a sizzling romance and an irredeemable MMC you can't help but care out
Verdict: If you're looking for a dark, mob-style take on a vampire romance with a strong FMC full of feminine rage and an MMC you love to hate to love, this is the one for you!
Rating: 4.25 ⭐

Capable and full of rage yet consistently underestimated, Nadi is a shapeshifting fae assassin with a desire for revenge, not much to lose and a plan to do something about it.

Raziel is a cut-throat but handsome vampire, a veritable monster, and yet... you can't help but love him (while hating him).

The chemistry is off the charts and I absolutely loved Nadi - more FMCs like this please! The representation of a person who is persecuted for existing yet "passing" within the world of her oppressors as she seeks revenge? THE ENDING? Chef's kiss.

The world-building is solid, plot is on point and the characters are fantastic. The only thing holding me back from a 5* is a minor gripe to do with character motivation and not something that would bother everyone.

With thanks to NetGalley and Second Sky for providing me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The Serpents Bride gets you hooked from the prologue. You are thrown in the deep end and straight into the wedding. Our FMC Nadi has taken the place of the bride in an arranged marriage, but this is no normal marriage.
Raziel has a (very well earned) terrible reputation, he is cruel, malicious and quite sadistic. He killed Nadi's parents in front of her and she is out for her revenge.

The pacing in this book is very good, it moves along well, and there is plenty of action. The chemistry between the Nadi and Raziel is good, and the Nostrom family dynamic is soooo interesting.

While did enjoy this story, I found a lot of Nadi's internal dialogue quite repetitive, and her conflicting actions with what she appears to think to be quite aggravating. Don't get me wrong, I love a villain MC (Raziel is not morally gray, he is a villain) but I found this relationship a bit hard to get behind. A lot of Nadi's actions left me feeling a little disconnected with her, which frustrates because I truly did want to love this book.

I think the overall story is great, I loved the world building, but I really think it would have benefitted from this being fleshed out even more, I wanted more of the Wild, more of the fae, more of Raziels extended family.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Stars from me for The Serpents Bride.

This story completely captivated me from the beginning. Nadi, a fae shifter, has spent her life plotting revenge against Raziel Nostrom, the vampire prince who destroyed her family. Disguising herself as his sacrificial bride, she infiltrates his powerful mafia clan with every intention of killing them all. What I loved most was the tension between vengeance and unexpected desire. Raziel is ruthless, magnetic, and impossible to ignore. The enemies-to-lovers dynamic was addictive, and I tore through the pages faster than I expected. While I wished for a little more worldbuilding, the combination of dark romance, danger, and supernatural intrigue was fantastic. That cliffhanger ending left me eager for the next book. A thrilling start!

I absolutely loved this book! Nadi is one of my favorite FMCs right up there with Lana Meyers so that's a huge compliment. What can I say? I love strong women who have a vendetta? This is a TRUE enemies to lovers and I couldn't have predicted that ending if I tried. Which I was so grateful for because I was very curious how this was all going to come to a head. I can't wait for the next book and I think this was such a unique story and a great read. Loved it! Loved it!

The fact that they start as enemies that are planing the others demise is exactly why i couldn't stop reading. I love that trope. I also quite enjoyed the charcter and the feud between fae and vampires. And everyone knows that their is a thin line between hate and love so i was at the edge of it with excitement.
I can not believe that ending, Why do you do this to us. Lol Overall i enjoyed it.

I struggled through a good portion of this book - I loved the assassin vibe from our FMC, as well as the bad boy mafia vibe from the MMC. However, the insta-lust coming from the FMC didn't sit well with me.

Especially after she watched him kill her entire family and then spending over 80 years training as an assassin with the intention of destroying him and his entire family. How do you lust after something like that???

As a whole, the story was fast paced and interesting, and while the insta-lust was a turn off for me, the ending hooked me in for book 2.

It wasn't until I was adding my review to Goodreads that I realised Kingsley is the author behind the brilliance that is the Harrow Faire series. A series which I absolutely love that's in need of a re-read soon.

Kingsley's world building is insanely good and her characters blew me away. Never has a vampire been so desirable before! The chemistry between Nadi and Raziel sizzled so much I could feel the heat burning my fingers!

It's dark, seductive and it left me on the mother of all cliffhangers!

The book hangover IS REAL and I need book two like you wouldn't believe!!

Wow! Just wow. I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did.

The Serpent’s Bride is a dark, thrilling, and intoxicating ride into a world of vampires, mafia politics, and forbidden attraction. The premise instantly hooked me—an assassin disguising herself as a vampire prince’s bride to take down his entire family—and it delivered on that delicious tension

The ending of this book was done really well. The cliffhanger will definitely have me checking out book 2!

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC

‘I will disguise myself as the vampire’s bride.
I will win over his family.
And then I will murder every last one of them’


I just want to say that I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH… like, the writing was so good, the plot was smart and so cool. I loved reading this story and I just couldn’t put it down.

We have a dark vampire romance, arranged marriage, mafia, fantasy, spice, enemies to lovers, vampires, fae/shapeshifters and family drama.

I won’t lie, when I finished the book I just screamed because that cliffhanger was perfection and so unexpected. So now I can’t wait for book 2 to come out.

I absolutely love this book and I think I will be talking about it all the time because it has become one of my favourite books ever.

What a fantastic book.

WHAT AN ENDING.

I’m glad I stuck with this one.
I found it a little redundant towards the middle but I think the final chapters make up for that.

A great read!

This had all the themes I love!! You’re probably thinking, “this book can’t have a shapeshifting fae vs vampire in a mafia family with dark romantasy themes?” Why yes to all of those!! So very addicting, I could not put it down once I started. If you like both the main characters to be strong morally grey with no chance of turning into the good guy, this one is for you! I need more vampire romances in my life and this helped fill the void!

But ugh! There is a cliffhanger!! But a good one that will make you so excited for book 2.

Wow! What a ride this book was! Also, what a read! This is a stellar start to the Bloodlines series!

Nadi is planning to get revenge and revenge in a BIG way! She is a fae assassin and trained to the hilt. Her plan is to take down Raziel, a vampire who murdered her family. Nadi is not going to change this opportunity, so she will marry him to do it!

Such a dark, spicy, hot as hell story! I can't stop thinking about this one! Raziel has darkness oozing out of him. He doesn't hide from it, and he really owns it with pride. He is a character who doesn't just smoulder. He is on fire!

Nadi herself is more than his match in her own way. She has made this her ultimate goal, and god forbid anyone or anything gets in her way. These two are so addictive that I couldn't tear my eyes away from the pages!

Kathryn Ann Kinglsey has perfected the world building alongside the characters, and God! The sexual tension! Their chemistry is undeniable, I loved it. Then there are the twists. They just pop the cherry on top of this fabulous book. I need the next book like yesterday!

3.5 stars, it took a while for me to get into this book but once I did I enjoyed it. Fast paced and easy to read, I enjoyed the world building but I found some bits very repetitive.

When they both plan to kill each other but can’t deny their need for each other… SO good! The loathing and tension was spectacular. I was so invested in the book that I didn’t even realize it was the end until that damn twist ending but I will absolutely read the next book!

This is the first book by Kathryn Anne Kingsley that I've read, and I'm impressed!

The pacing was great. It flowed smoothly and there was so much detail in just a few hundred pages. There was hot spice, dialogue driven story, and great character progression!

While I don't usually go for third person POV, Kingsley did a wonderful job! The hidden identity plot was solid, and our FMC made it that much better. Add in a morally black mobster vamp? Yeah, I was sold.

That ending left me wanting more! I'm excited to check out the next part.


Thank you to The NerdFam and Second Sky Books for the ARC read opportunity!

A big shout out and thank you to The NerdFam and the publisher for gifting me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

The premise for this story is one that’s not uncommon to its genre, however the execution of it is where the strength of the story lies. The FMC has a very emotional, heart-breaking and traumatic experience in the past that was singlehandedly influenced/orchestrated by the MMC. The story revolves around the FMC and her vengeance drenched actions that take her down the murky and dangerous path leading to the Vampire Mafia.

The writing and world building in this book are closely associated to one another (thus mentioned together) and are definitely one of the stronger suits of the story. Despite the familiar theme, the author’s unique take on it was what makes the book what it is. With paranormal beings set in a fairly contemporary world, the author has done a great job mixing a magical world with a familiar one; which generally makes the world easier to understand given that the foundation is well known to us.

The story is told by both MCs in third person dual perspectives. I will say the author has done a fantastic job creating a true anti-hero; I’ve noticed in most books the characterisation style almost always shies away from portraying the true grey-black of a protagonist that’s meant to be morally black. I will say in this story, Kingsley has not worried in the least that we might hate her protagonist. Because, well … We do. It’s not the redemption of this character, but the journey of living life in their shoes, watching their choices henceforth and observing the changes in them, that will make the readers feel for them and I am curious to see how the author takes on this challenge. Alternatively, the FMC is likeable, nearly from the first time we hear her story/voice. There’s so much pain, cunning and courage in her that it’s hard not to love her a little immediately.

The pace of the story was wonderfully even. This wasn’t a hard book to read given how much was happening nearly all the time. It was certainly interesting and kept the story going.

There were of course some aspects I struggled with and those generally involved the way there seemed to be some kind of … tangential path to the original intentions of the heroine. While I agree that yes, you make sacrifices and will have to pay a steep price for something as demanding as a revenge plot; I still somehow felt that there were some counterintuitive choices made by the character that didn’t add up to her personality or the choices she had made prior to that scene.

I, personally, didn’t connect to the relationship between the protagonists. I enjoyed it quite a bit when she hated him (because of how well built the set up for them being enemies was) but couldn’t associate to her when she began to feel a connection (something that happens fairly soon).

After a certain point I did sense that while the character had a lot of plans that she would speak about constantly, there wasn’t as much action happening on page. It took awhile before it finally fructified and I found myself begin to skim reading until then.

My favourite part—that also elevated my general opinion about the book—was certainly the ending. The book ended on such a surprise that I found myself smiling from having read something that influenced my experience so positively! I didn’t expect it and it certainly intrigues and creates such a wonderfully neat little door of opportunity for redemption/character and relationship development. I’m really quite curious to see what happens next!

Happy reading and please do check trigger warnings as always. There are themes and scenes in this book that can be difficult for some.

3.5 stars rounded up. A fun and fast paced read, packed with classic vampire vibes that I just loved. It had plenty of atmosphere, a morally grey MMC and fascinating lore.

However it lacked a bit of depth - it was billed as dark but it never really hit ‘dark’ for me. I expected heaps of gothic energy, gore and intense scenes.

I also struggled a tad with the writing. For the most part it was really well written but there were one or two instances of repetition that stop you being fully immersed in the story.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the arc.

“I will disguise myself as the vampire’s bride. I will win over his family. And then I will murder every last one of them.”
— Tell me that blurb doesn’t immediately grab you by the throat??

This book had everything I wanted: an assassin FMC on her revenge arc, a ruthless mafia vampire prince, and that delicious enemies-to-lovers marriage of convenience tension. I lived for the setup and the atmosphere.

Our girly is sharp, deadly, and carrying knives in more places than seems legal 🤌🏻 love that for her. 🗡️ But I did get a bit tired of the constant “no one expects her to live” reminders. Like babe, WE GET IT, you’re not supposed to survive the wedding night 🤔 yet here you are, slaying (literally).

As for Raziel… he had the broody, dangerous, ruby-eyed energy down, but character-wise? He felt a little undercooked for me. That said, I can see the sequel setting him up for more depth, and I’m holding out hope for the payoff.

Overall: fast-paced, dark, and addictive with a heroine I’d happily follow into battle. If you like The Serpent and the Wings of Night or Haunting Adeline, this will scratch the same itch.

Bring on book two ✌🏻 I’m ready for more blood, blades, and banter.

Thanks to the Nerd Fam and NetGalley for the ARC

Unfortunately this book just wasn't for me and I had to DNF it quite early on. I could not get into it.

I just couldn't like the characters and I felt that the world building is almost non-existent,

I was lucky to get an ARC and an ALC of this book, and I had the best time devouring them both.

The audiobook: the narrator did a phenomenal job doing the dual POV. At the points where she needed to do various voices, she did a great job of distinguishing and giving them their own space. I also thought her conveyance of emotion was spot on and I was really able to lock in while listening.

The book/story itself: I was hooked very quickly and the book’s pacing did a great job of keeping my intrigue throughout. There were several instances where I was surprised by the turn of events (and HELLO, THAT ENDING?!) but pleasantly so. I absolutely loved the ending/the whole last scene and I already can’t wait for book 2! I definitely look forward to more political intrigue and the development of Raziel and Nadi’s relationship. 🥵

I NEED to get inside Nadi’s head more, I feel like homegirl has a lottttt to process at this moment.