Book Review: A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

 

A Dowry of Blood
S.T. Gibson
Release date: Jan 31, 2021
★★★★★

A lyrical and dreamy reimagining of Dracula’s brides, A DOWRY OF BLOOD is a story of desire, obsession, and emancipation.
Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband’s dark secrets.
With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.

Trigger Warnings: - emotional, verbal, and physical intimate partner abuse, gaslighting, war, famine, and plague, blood and gore, consensual sexual content, sadomasochism, self harm, body horror, violence and murder, alcohol use, depression and mania

2021 Most Anticipated Fanatsy/ Sci-Fi Releases

Hi, how are you all?

Welcome to the post that should have been posted a week ago, if I wasn't procrastinating everything. There have already been a few releases and I had to go in and remove a bunch of books. Also, these are mostly books releasing in the first half of the year.

These are mostly fantasy so I will probably make another list for contemporaries, probably being an important keyword.

The titles link to the Goodreads page and they are ordered by release date.

1. 
   The Mask of Mirrors by M. A. Carrick Release date: Jan 21st
   
   "Darkly magical and intricately imagined, The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a rich and dazzling fantasy adventure in which a con artist, a vigilante, and a crime lord must unite to save their city." Can't describe it better than they did.
   
   
2. 
   A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson Release Date: Jan 31st
   Sapphic yearning, poly relationship between Dracula’s wives. It has dark gothic castles and also opera and yes you have all my attention.
   
   
3. 

   Sing Me Forgotten by Jessica S. Olson

   Release date: March 9

   Gender-bent phantom of the opera fantasy retelling. Isda is magical, when people sing she can see their memories and she's not supposed to be alive. She meets Emeric who is immune to her magic and she tries to dig more into his past and memories. This sounds forbidden and dark and I am here for it.

4. 
   
   
   
   These Feathered Flames by Alexandra Overy
   Release Date: April 20th
   This is a queer ownvoices retelling of the Russian folktale “The Firebird”. F/F romance with the enemies to lovers trope. Twin sisters Izaveta and Asya are to rule a kingdom. Asya is a firebird in training- to keep the balance of nature when she gets the news that her mother has died. I was lucky enough to get an arc which I am currently reading.

5. 

   The Chosen and The Beautiful by Nghi Vo

   Release date: June 1st

   
   

   This is a great gatsby retelling with queer asian girls and magic. I’d been seeing memes about great gatsby being public domain and now here we are.
6. 
   
   Darling by K. Ancrum
   Release date: June 22nd

   Queer peter pan retelling with modern setting. first of all I cannot get over the cover. how pretty is that. also I've heard The Wicker King by her is considered really good and really dark so I cannot wait to read this book.

8. 
   
   
   The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw

   Release date: June 22nd
   
   
   I'm going to start with 'A diverse team of broken, diminished former criminals' that's a whole thing in itself okay. To top that off we get sentient spaceships, trauma, treasure hunt.
   
   
9. 
   
   

   
   

   She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

   Release date: July 20th

   
   

   'Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.' Just that and I am dying for this book.

Fantasy Standalone Recommendations

One of my most read genres is fantasy and fantasy is filled with amazing but long long series. And it is a little intimidating even when I've been reading for a couple of years now. Books by SJM, Brandan Sanderson, Cassandra Clare, and so many other authors have this complete universe of their books. And first of all that’s amazing, the amount of worldbuilding to actually build a world is mind-blowing. And something otherworldly is necessary for escapism.

But also these books require a level of commitment or you're living in fear of coming across spoilers. So here are some of my favorite standalone books to read. Good for anyone who just wants a single book or anyone just starting out in the genre.

1.

The Bone Houses

Home was taste and smell and sensation. It was not a place.

Ok, I don't know why I haven't seen this more hyped because this book is amazing. Our MC Ryn is a gravedigger and our other MC Ellis is a mapmaker. Something I've never read in any fantasy. Zombies  Bone houses are coming back and threatening Ryn's town, and Ellis a newcomer with a mysterious past is too keen to get into the forest to 'make a map'. both embark on a journey to find what the bone houses are how to stop them. 

The book talks really beautifully about family, love, and loss. Also chronic pain rep!!! (My Goodreads Review)

2. 

The Night Circus

The circus arrives without warning....

This book is really beautiful and atmospheric. Being a character driven reader this was a little difficult to get through, and maybe not the book for me. But then I have never read another book with just as beautiful and magical setting as this one. Like if you asked me what fictional place I would like to go to, The Night Circus would definitely be somewhere at the top. (My Goodreads Review)

3. 

Good Omens

Armageddon only happens once, you know. They don’t let you go around again until you get it right.

I finally read this after watching and rewatching the show. The antichrist is finally born and an angel and a demon are scrambling together to stop the end of the world. Things happen, shenanigans happen, and the antichrist is somehow mispleaced. 

This is a little difficult to get to because of the different writing styles and humor but it was such an amazing read.

Thank you for making it to the end. What are your favorite fantasy books? Have a great day!

The International Blogger Tag!

Ok, I found this amazing tag created by Only If For A Page and Chelle's Books Ramblings. I found it on @toomuchminya. Go check out their blogs.

(For some reason I can't seem to tag them here so ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️)

Only If For A Page
Chelle's Books Ramblings
Too Much Minya

1) Where are you from, and what is your native language or languages?

I'm from Nepal. My native language is Nepali. I also speak a little Newari which is my cultural language. Look it up, the written script for Newari is really beautiful.

2) In what languages do you read books?

English. I grew up with my studies, school, media being very English based so it is a language I am very comfortable with. I also learned Turkish for a couple of years but I don't know to read a book.

3) Are there Book Blogs, Booktubers, Bookstagrammers in your native language, and if so, what is the community like?

There are a lot of amazing creators here that I am fortunate enough to know (perks of a small community) but I don't know anyone who actually blogs, creates in Nepali.

4) If there is a Blogging Community in your native language, why did you decide to join the international one?

Diversity basically. And meeting new people and new authors and new books that this community might not have knowledge about. 

5) Are there any struggles or challenges for you as a non-native English speaker?

Yes. There are so many struggles and I am so proud despite these problems the reader community in Nepal is still here. Getting books is really hard and if they are out of stock, we have to wait for months for them to restock and at times they don't even restock. The reading norm here is really rare so if we want a rare book we have to contact vendors who will have to ship it from somewhere else. 
Next is we don't get to really partake in giveaways. Even if it's international they don't really ship stuff here. And even getting E-ARCs is really difficult because publishers just limit it to US/Canada. I don't know who I have to pray to get an ARC from Macmillan.

6) How do you get hold of English books?

Usually, if they are big popular titles book shops here have them. But getting the books you want in Nepal is a really difficult task. At times I order from vendors who order from India and even then we have to wait for months. 

7) What is the best thing about being part of the international community?

It's always the new people, new books, new opinions.  This diversity of new readers and people who are so different and bound across the world with love for reading.

8) Do you follow or watch other international Booktube channels or Blogs?

Yes. There are fantastic content creators out there and I'm finding new people all the time. It's really an incredible community.

Favorite 2020 Reads

2020 was a… year. But with all the lockdowns and escapism this turned out to be a pretty good reading year for me. I read around 50 books this year. And I know this does not determine your status as like a ‘true’ reader, but it is also a pretty huge milestone for me, so I am really glad about it. Anyway here are my favorite reads from the year. Not in order because just selecting them was kinda difficult.

These violent delights

Ok fine if I had to choose this would definitely be on top. A beautiful Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920 shanghai with rival gangs. This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2020 and the sequel is in my most anticipated 2021 books. Chloe gong turned out to be a new favorite author. The tension, the betrayal, the loving, the yearning. It was perfect. The characters are diverse, written beautifully, and are really dynamic. It has the trope: friends to lovers to enemies to lovers. Also, Juliette Cai can kill me and I would probably thank her. (My Review)

Six of crows

I read this sometime at the starting of the year. This is a staple in ya fantasy. There is a lot of hype around this duology and it is very well deserved. Six criminals break into an impenetrable ice court for money. That is the baseline, initially, there is literally no moral ground for those six. This book contains amazing diverse characters who have their own arcs and dynamics and goals. Nian and Inej are perfect and Kaz is the edgy bad boy we all deserved after many many toxic bad-boy tropes.

Strange the dreamer

Ya, I gushed about it enough in my review. But Laini Taylor’s worldbuilding? I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like that. I am currently reading Daughter of smoke and bone and it’s just as beautiful. (My Review)

Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe

I read this sometime in March. It had been on my shelf for months and lockdown happened so I finally picked it up. And finished it in a single sitting. It is a really beautiful story about these two boys Aristotle and Dante. It has friendship and love and also a family dynamic that was perfect and I was so happy to read. It has been my go-to read so many times that I’ve hit a slump.

The song of Achilles

I cried. I know what happens in the Iliad, I know how the story goes, and yet I just cried. After I read this book I was still hungover it for maybe like two weeks. And I wanted this book from Achilles pov but then I realized I would probably never emotionally recover from it. “He is half of my soul, as the poets say.” and I am supposed to be fine and go on with my life? No. Also if you’ve been keeping this off because it is hyped through the book community, just read it. It is well-deserved hype and especially the writing by Madeline miller, it is poetic, exceptional, and out of this world.

Honorable mentions:

The bone houses because I rarely see this book anywhere

Monsters of verity because this Schwab duology is seriously underrated

The invisible life of addie larue

Thank you so much for reading. Do we share any favorite books? Authors?

Book Review: These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Title: These Violent Delights

Author: Chloe Gong

Genre: Ya fantasy, retelling, historical fiction/fatasy

My Rating: 5/5