S. T. Gibson

"A dizzying nightmare of a romance that will leave you aching, angry and ultimately hopeful." --Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf A deliciously dark retelling of Dracula, A Dowry of Blood is a saga of obsession, desire and the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love. 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.

A Dowry of Blood

Rina

But the girl I had been disappeared the instant you pronounced me yours.

Molly Sanderson 

You made it into an art form, this quiet sort of violence. You were so far into our heads your gentle suggestions so often felt like our own thoughts.

Hannah Nugent

But then, I was still optimistic. I still wanted to believe I was living in a fairy tale, that I lay down every night with a prince instead of a wolf. I wanted to believe you.

What is more lovely, after all, than a monster undone with wanting? 

bri 🍂

It was never my intention to murder you. Not in the beginning, anyway.

“Stand up, my dark miracle," you said, pulling yourself to your feet and holding your hand out to me. ”Come and face the night."

You spun whole personalities out of silken promises to get get close to whoever you needed to. 

"Being around him is like burning up with fever. I know I'm not well, but I'm too delirious to do anything. What medicine is there for that sort of thing?"

Slowly, the noose of your love was loosening around my neck.

My piety was a sporadic, half-feral thing, sometimes lashing out at God with teeth bared, other times nuzzling against His loving providence like a kitten.

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