A Dowry of Blood: THE GOTHIC SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

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A lyrical and dreamy reimagining of Dracula’s brides, A DOWRY OF BLOOD is a story of desire, obsession, and emancipation. Tara Gilbert at the Jennifer De Chiara Agency sold World English rights in a two-book deal to Assistant Editor Nadia Saward at Orbit UK. Associate Editor Angeline Rodriguez at Orbit US has secured North American rights. Atmospheric and lush. . . it will haunt you in the best possible way’Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch’s Heart But I am not your wife anymore, my lord, and I don't think you ever truly saw me as a whole woman. I was always a student. A project. An accessory in the legal and decorative sense.

Bloodlust brings on a delirium that's difficult to describe. From the first squirt on the tongue to the last dying jerk of your prey under your hands, the whole experience builds and builds into a screaming fever pitch. Those with little imagination have compared it to carnal climax, but I liken it more to religious ecstasy. I have never felt more truly alive in my waking death than when I am taking the life of another person.

Most vampire novels are extremely grounded in places and times, especially romanticised ones. Anne Rice set a precedent for seduction-by-location with her Parisian revels and New Orleans mansions, growing sensuality from the ground up. Dowry of Blood eschews the heavy historicity in favour of a vague, lovely sweep across Europe, differentiating between Vienna and Venice only in the broadest of terms. A Dowry of Blood is a glittering tale of obsession, seduction and power as told through the letters of Dracula’s first bride, Constanta.

Trigger Warnings: graphic depictions of blood, gore, murder, disease, domestic abuse, gaslighting, manipulation, emotional abuse

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A dizzying nightmare of a romance that will leave you aching, angry and ultimately hopeful’ Hannah Whitten, author of For the Wolf A dark seductive tale. . . intermingling love, pain, fear and anger in mesmerizing prose’ Publishers Weekly I will render you as you really were, neither cast in pristine stained glass or unholy fire. I will make you nothing more than a man, tender and brutal in equal measure, and perhaps in doing so I will justify myself to you. To my own haunted conscience.” This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. I suppose both are a sort of gentle violence, putting down in ink what scorches the air when spoken aloud.

Dracula: Dracula is the main antagonist of the book. He's depicted as thousands of years old and a brutal, if philosophical, monster who loves killing as well as seeking more and more knowledge. He also charms his lovers (of both genders) before he slaughters them. Where are we going?" I asked, already staggering after you. The bodies lying in a desiccated heap around the still-smoldering fire were hideous, but not half as gruesome as what had been done to my entire village, my family.Constanta soon becomes lovers with the other members of her husband's harem and begins to truly find out the depths of evil he's capable of. As things begin to unravel, Constanta will ultimately have to choose whether she wants the love of her husband and her own liberty. He opened his mouth to shout. I wrapped my fingers around his upper and lower sets of teeth and wrenched his jaw apart before he had the chance. S. T. Gibson said:‘I’m absolutely elated to be working with the talented team at Orbit to bring A Dowry of Blood to life on a grand scale. From the first editorial call, I knew that this book had found its perfect home. A Dowry of Blood was my refuge and comfort during a tough period in my life, and Constanta’s story is near and dear to my heart. By writing this book I was able to dive headfirst into themes of love and marriage, abuse and tenderness, and life and death. I hope readers enjoy the chills and thrills of this dark, dramatic story of obsession.’ War is never valiant, only crude and hideous. Any left alive after the rest have been cut down do not last long exposed to the elements.

I think it would be perfectly natural if Constanta were to struggle with polygamy or being in a polycule, but I also think it’s perfectly reasonable that she doesn’t. She slaughters humans like rabbits; even for an erstwhile churchgoer like her, what’s an open marriage to the toll of her dead? Her casual embrace of non-monogamy is refreshing, and I like very much that Gibson did away with the hand-wringing. Rice already did the tormented vampire, and the unrepentant one. We already know—oh, do we know—vampires under threat from hunters or from their own guilt. Here we see the vampire at home, at rest. Their natural habitat is luxury, and it turns out their natural inclination is to form groups, albeit rather dangerous ones. I shuddered as the rain began to pool around us, streaking through my hair and filling my gasping mouth. I know I had a name before that moment. It was a sturdy name, warm and wholesome like a loaf of dark bread fresh out of the oven. But the girl I had been disappeared the instant you pronounced me yours. Fully-Embraced Fiend: Dracula enjoys being a vampire and killing his victims, having embraced being a beast. Notably his harem indicate he could feed off the guilty or not kill his victims, but he chooses not to and preys on innocents because he likes it.I grasped blindly, heart hammering in my chest as the world blurred at the edges. My fingers curled around the first thing they found; your forearm. A startled look crossed your face and I clung to you tightly, pulling you closer. I didn't know what you were offering me, I just knew I was terrified that you were going to leave me. A dizzying nightmare of a romance that will leave you aching, angry and ultimately hopeful’ Hannah Whitten, author of For the Wolf Really 700 Years Old: Dracula looks like a handsome, romanesque young man, but in reality he's over a thousand years old as vampires can only gain the ability to sire others into other vampires after they reach that age.