Hey everyone, sorry for more radio silence from me and I wanted to have this post up earlier but….life hates me lolol. Well, more like my charger for my laptop crapped out. AGAIN so it’ll be a few days before I can properly bloghop and then my phone charger died as well, lolol the electronics are rebelling!
Reading is going a bit slowly, purely for the fact that I’m being slowly consumed by boxes and there’s no end in sight but I did get one of my spooky tbr books read! AND I LOVED IT.
So, I’m here to share with you all a kickass YA spooky read.
The links to the book used in this post are Affiliated links, should you click on my links and use them to purchase this book, it will gain me some monies, and will cost you nothing, but gotta disclose this first.
ONTO THE REVIEW!
GoodReads:
Gothic, intoxicating, feminist, darkly provoking and deeply romantic – this is the breathtakingly imagined untold story of the brides of Dracula, by bestselling author Kiran Millwood Hargrave in her much-anticipated YA debut.
They say the thirst of blood is like a madness – they must sate it. Even with their own kin.
On the eve of her divining, the day she’ll discover her fate, seventeen-year-old Lil and her twin sister Kizzy are captured and enslaved by the cruel Boyar Valcar, taken far away from their beloved traveler community.
Forced to work in the harsh and unwelcoming castle kitchens, Lil is comforted when she meets Mira, a fellow slave who she feels drawn to in a way she doesn’t understand. But she also learns about the Dragon, a mysterious and terrifying figure of myth and legend who takes girls as gifts.
They may not have had their divining day, but the girls will still discover their fate…
Purchase Links
My Review
First off this is basically the most awesome spinoff in existence. In good ol’ Bram’s Dracula, well, there are three female vampyres and it has been made into part of the legend that they are his brides. This is an origins story of those brides, mainly the two with dark hair, because, Hargrave as made them sisters, better yet, twins, oh and one is fabulously gay and has a sweet f/f subplot.
Does this sound amazing?
Well, it is.
The girls are tragically and violently taken from their homes and family, and in fact the majority of this story is not focused on vampyres or the sweet love story, but on the tale of two sisters who love each other and what love can make people do.
One twin is quiet, adapting as needed for survival, one is seen as brave and is gorgeous, but her beauty is more a curse than a gift.
The Twins do share a special bond but there is the tension that I know very well as being a sister myself. [I’m one of three, I’m the best one, forget I mentioned the others.]
They also are thrust into this world that’s so scary that it doesn’t need to be supernatural to feel dark and twisted, the settled people have their own darkness, a layer of it that has been distributed through their dark nature, but it’s of course more than that, it’s the fact that their lands are silently under constant threat of the Dragon should the pact fail that they have in place.
I don’t want to give too much away but we do see some great character growth from the twins and the differences from start to finish are astounding, but, that ending does break my heart even while being amazing.
If you’re looking for a story focused on vampyres and a sort of Dracula feel, you may not fully appreciate this, but if you change the focus to a world steeped in folklore, a Dragon who drinks blood in the rumors, and twins who love each other more than life itself, then you’ll not be disappointed.
I could have given this five stars but I felt there still could have been a bit more from our twins, and more on the f/f relationship which was sweet but at times felt like it didn’t have the best opportunity to grow, but, again I LOVED this book. It was a great take on an old story, breathing new life into it and making it just as enjoyable as Dracula was, for me anyway.
Four cups of coffee from me, now I’m off to go read more spooky things!
