I was so excited to see that I was approved to read this book! The premise is so cool and so is the plot. I highly recommend it.

When Anna Darvulia, daughter of a peasant midwife, gets summoned in the night to attend to the Countess Elizabeth Bathory, she learns a secret that she promises to keep.

In turn, she earns the favor of the Countess, a woman she greatly admires. Although Countess Bathory seems a tad dangerous, she is also glamorous and powerful. A combination young Anna is in awe of.

Before too long, due to her strong first impression, Anna is summoned by the Countess again. This time to go and live in the castle as one of her scullery maids.

Once there, Anna's relationship with Elizabeth continues to grow. Ultimately, she is selected to be her chambermaid, a huge step up in position and responsibility.

As the relationship turns romantic in nature, Anna begins to be swayed to do things for Elizabeth that she would have never guessed herself capable of.

Elizabeth is cruel and hot headed, but Anna sometimes has a hard time recognizing those flaws within her. In her search for the key to vitality however, she goes too far, and Anna finally sees her for who, or what, she truly is.

This book was good, but it was not what I expected it to be. While I feel I was pitched an historical YA horror novel, what I actually got was straight YA historical fiction with a hint of romance.

I definitely would not classify this as a horror story, so if that is what you are looking for you may want to look elsewhere.

The writing was pleasing, but it was very, very slow. I kept waiting for something big to happen and it just never did. There was nothing mysterious, suspenseful or haunting about this.

It felt like a love story gone wrong. Anna fell in love with the wrong person, end of story. Of course we all know Elizabeth Bathory was insane, so really nothing surprising there.

I don't know. I think if I had gone into this, thinking gothic historical fiction, as opposed to horror , I may have been less disappointed.

It's not a bad book. It's a good story, it just read slow for me and I sort of lost interest. I think this would be a great place for younger readers to start who are looking to get into darker works of fiction however.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Amulet Books, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity!

I loved it! It was everything I wanted it to be. The characters were well written and the heroine resourceful and strong. The history and the world were perfect. I was pulled in by this tale. I knew how it might end but it was still shocking. This book was awesome and I can't wait to read more by this author.

I was totally wrapped up in the first three quarters of this novel. It is sinister and horrifying in equal measure. I was unaware of the history of Elizabeth Bathory before picking up this title, so the events portrayed came as a shock to me. However, I have to say that I found the ending disappointing. It felt rushed and not entirely in keeping with the rest of the novel.

This was a creepy story inspired by a real woman.

Elizabeth Báthory was a real noblewoman who lived in the sixteenth century. She was the inspiration for Dracula because of her bloodlust. She was a serial killer who tortured many women.

This story follows Anna, who is from a small village. She goes to work for Elizabeth, and she is so proud of this job that will bring much needed money to her family. However, she soon learns that being with Elizabeth means witnessing and taking part in the torture and murder of girls who she used to call her friends. The story introduces Elizabeth as a misunderstood woman who is surrounded by rumors, before her true behavior is revealed.

Some parts of this story were quite gory and horrific. Elizabeth was relentless in her torture. It makes it all the more creepy to think that she is based on a real woman.

At first, I thought this was going to be a series about Elizabeth. Based on the ending, I believe this series will be about various “lady slayers” throughout history. I’m curious to see who will be in the next book.

Thank you Amulet Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Whew my!! This was quite a bloody and gory tale. I absolutely loved the writing of this, I think the words flowed so well with one another. The atmosphere is one of my favorite parts, the castles themselves felt like I could feel and see every room and detail. Anna as the narrator is a good choice, I believe, as she is a lens to see the gruesome and wickedness of the Countess through - one that does in fact see her from her very "best" to her very most horrid.

Thanks so much for a copy of this! I appreciate it!

First of all I want to say a huge thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for my eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am a huge fan of books that have got some basis in historical fact, especially if they pertain to the people who are said to inspire vampire fiction. When I found out that this was based on the life of Elizabeth Bathory, I had to pick this up.

The characters were interesting, and it was a fairly quick read for me - I finished it in one sitting!

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this, and look forward to the sequel already!

This book surprised me but not necassarily in the right ways. It had some really great things going for it. It was very well written, it's written from a servants perspective which allows the reader to view Elizabeth Bathory without having to actually be in her head (a terrifying idea...) and its as dark and disturbing as you would expect for a book about the Blood Countess. Were it fell short for me was that in a couple places it was too dark for me, that's a personal thing for me though. It just felt a little like gore for shock value and I don't usually enjoy that. What really bothered me was the major liberties taken with historical accuracy. I like my historical fiction to at least follow some guidelines. In this case characters we know to be true to the story are cast into completely different roles, such as known family members becoming servants in this story. This just bother me so it knocked my rating down. It is well written though so if you find the topic intriguing it is worth checking out!

I REALLY enjoyed this, more than I was expecting to! Definitely an above average read for me. Super creepy, kinda sad, and had the perfect ending.
Now the down side I do admit was how the author couldn't give Anna a more concrete structure (common sense and appropiate guilt maybe). Countess Elizabeth was the satanic widow I fully expected her to be and was left fully satisfied with. I mean yes, I do love blood-thirsty, female villains with a frustrating passion.

I was so excited about this story, but then it totally disappointed me. The book starts out with a history lesson on the Blood Countess and I really have to say that after reading the story. This was the most exciting part of the story. I wished that the author would have gone all out with the story making it dark and creepy and what I got was boring as all get out. The part about this women being the Blood Countess was about two pages and well it was just a major let down.

Overall, I have to say that this was a surface story only and had no depth.


Go Into This One Knowing: Boring, Ultra Light LGBT

I was immediately intrigued by this book. I mean a fictional story about Elizabeth Bathory. This story is told from the perspective of Anna, her handmade. I think that was what kept me from really loving this book, I didn’t like Anna. We all know that Elizabeth Bathory is going to be the villain in this book, I mean come on she killed a lot of women, but for me, Anna was certainly no heroine.

My other complaint was the disregard for some of the history. I understand that this is a work of fiction, but when you are writing a fictionalized account of an actual person I do feel like you can’t change facts too much. The timeline was a little off for me. While I understand why the book did this, it did annoy me a little.

What I did love was getting a better understanding of Elizabeth Bathory. I think I would have preferred this from her POV, but again I understand why it wasn’t done this way. This book does a great job of showing us the sorts of things that Elizabeth Bathory did. Though it is slightly graphic, it is certainly toned down a tad. I also liked that we see the Countess’s descent into madness.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but just wanted more. As a bit of a history buff, this story is not new to me and perhaps people that don’t know this story will enjoy it more.

It is no secret that I read what interests me in a huge swath of genres. I have my favorites, of course, but I try not to limit myself just because a publisher lists a book as women's literature for example. There are some subjects for which I will move heaven and earth for the chance to read. Most of the time, my efforts are successful and the book is as glorious as I hope it will be. Other times, well, are not quite as positive reading experiences. Sadly, Blood Countess by Lana Popović is one of the latter examples.

I do have an unholy fascination with Vlad Dracul II and anyone or anything associated with him. Of course, Dracula is one of my all-time favorite novels. It stands to reason that I would want to read a novel about Elizabeth Bathory, the infamous Lady Dracula. I mean, who wouldn't? So, to say I was really looking forward to reading Blood Countess would be an understatement.

The thing is, even if I tempered my expectations, Blood Countess would still disappoint. For one thing, Ms. Popović spends more than half the novel building up Anna's and Elizabeth's relationship. As a result, there is too little time devoted to the Countess' malignant predilections. Plus, the ending literally comes out of nowhere. One minute, Anna and Elizabeth are the throes of a dangerous cat-and-mouse game, and the next minute, the cat rolls over and gives up everything. Anti-climatic doesn't even begin to cover how inadequate the ending is.

I get that there is very little we do know about Elizabeth Bathory as there is very little hard evidence showing irrefutable proof of her killer ways. However, there are some aspects of her life we do know, one of them being the person who arrested and later imprisoned her. Except, Ms. Popović chose to use that person in a different capacity. When you could write almost anything about your story's villain and have it be possible because no one really knows the truth, why would an author deliberately choose to use real-life people and change their allegiances? Days later, this still strikes me as an odd choice to make, especially because everything else about Bathory is open to you do with as you choose.

Finally, maybe it is the type of young adult novels I normally read, but Blood Countessis the rare occurrence where it was obvious I am not the author's intended audience. Everything from the voice to the sentence structure to the word choices screams teenager. It matters not that Ms. Popović incorporates plenty of gore and violence into the story. In spite of that violence, it still reads like a tale for younger readers. In fact, you could almost liken it to a modern-day fable, one in which the heroine's plight is a warning to readers about the dangers of lust and infatuation. It bears repeating that this is the last thing I was expecting.

To be fair, I was not expecting Blood Countess to be award-winning historical fiction. However, I was expecting a fairly grown-up story that contained a lot more suspense. I was also hoping to read a story that spent more time attempting to explain Bathory's supposed penchant for violence. It was none of these. As such, I feel like I need to read a good vampire story now to ease my disappointment.

I was so excited to read this book because back in the day I knew quite a lot of things about the Countess Elizabeth Bathory, and seeing a book that was based on that particular historical figure sounded actually pretty amazing, so I knew I had to read it. Overall, I enjoyed it and it was okay. I expected so much more and felt a bit let down, but it’s true that it was a very fast paced story.

The thing about Blood Countess was that it had a very powerful start but as I continued reading it I became a bit less engaged with the story. I think that if you’re not familiar with Elizabeth Bathory’s story you might have a fair picture of who she was by the end of the story, but it didn’t add anything new. I liked some of the things that were happening, and there were parts where I found myself loving the direction the plot was going, but there was something about it (and I can’t point my finger on it) that felt a bit underdeveloped.

When it comes to the characters, I have to say I don’t have any strong opinion towards any of them. I enjoyed Elizabeth’s ARC throughout the story, and how different of an antagonist she was, but still she was a very strong lead with an engaging personality. I also liked the evolution of our main character, but she was so plain and looked like a lot of heroines I’ve read before in other YA books, which was a bit disappointing.

Now, something that I was super excited about was the sapphic romance. Ever since I read the synopsis I was hoping to see a f/f romance, and I was beyond happy to see that it was. Though it felt a bit sketchy at times and I felt I needed more of those two characters together, I really enjoyed the chemistry they had in page and their dynamics and interactions. It was super interesting to see that relationship evolved and the two characters starting to realize that maybe they didn’t know each other as much as they hoped to, and see that went downhill.

The only thing that I just didn’t like was the ending. Not only it was so rushed and sudden, but there was something that happened right at the very end that was so out of character that it wasn’t believable. I was expecting so much more, and that unfortunately affected how I viewed the total story.

Overall, I think Blood Countess was such a unique story and had a very different plot from books that I’d been reading lately, and though the ending was quite disappointing and lackluster, it was a very fast paced book that I read so quickly.

After reading Lady Killers and learning alllll about the real life blood countess, I was so so excited to start this one and it lived up to the hype!

“…might there be some black vein of malice riving through her, too, nothing at all to do with him? But that cannot be, it cannot. I could not love someone evil, and yet I love her so dearly, shudder with yearning for her touch.”

A book about Elizabeth Bathory? You’ve caught my attention. A queer retelling of Elizabeth Bathory??? An extremely welcome surprise that I loved. I’ve been interested in the Bathory story since high school and I was already so excited to read this book. Add in the f/f romance and I was hooked.

Seeing Anna fall in love with Elizabeth, seeing the “softer” side through Anna’s eyes all while knowing what she’s done/is doing/was going to do amped up the tension through the novel. I was constantly waiting for her to show her true self or turn on Anna suddenly, but the pacing of the book was wonderful. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Anna’s point of view had me really thinking that maybe there was a side of Elizabeth that could be considered good.

This could have easily turned to a historical fantasy where Elizabeth’s helper really was working witchcraft or Anna was actually a witch, but I’m so happy that it didn’t. Sticking with historical fiction and Elizabeth only doing all of this off her belief it would help her stay looking young (not it actually working like in a fantasy) just made me so happy as someone who is familiar with the story.

I also really appreciated the ending. It was a little bittersweet for Anna, but I think it was a fitting end for the book. I recommend this for both people who know the story of Elizabeth Bathory or anyone who likes a kind of dark historical fiction. I think this is a good intro to the Bathory story.

*My gratitude to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for a fair review.**

Blood Countess is intense and twisted. Based upon the infamous crimes of the Lady Erzsebet Bathory, but told from the POV of Anna Darvulia, who has been rumored to be everything from a witch to Bathory's lover. In this story, Anna is a healer drawn into Bathory's service as a scullery maid. Their relationship as it grows is a tragedy; Anna is drawn under the Erzsebet's spell despite the horrifying things that are brought to light in the castle and the Countess's brutal anger.

What I enjoyed about this was the story-telling itself. I excited to explore this version of the events and found the prose gripping. Seeing Erzsebet through Anna's eyes was a lesson in the dichotomy of our own hearts. While we know, going in, that Bathory is evil, that she has done horrible, unspeakable things — there are moments of affection and kindness that Anna chooses to cling to instead and we, as the readers, for maybe just a moment, are sucked into that with her.

Unfortunately, things fell a bit flat toward the last third of the book. There is plenty of blood to go around, to be sure, but that did not make up entirely for the lag. Still, I very much enjoyed this journey and happilly award it four stars. If you are interested in a F/F dark love story and for a new twist on a woman you've likely heard and wondered about, this will definitely be your jam.

Based on Elizabeth Bathory, who was basically the female version of Vlad the Impaler (AKA Dracula) this story was bound to get dark and gory (which, as we all know, I love). But, this story made me beg the question: Why have I never heard of Bathory before?

The cherry on top of this bloody cake is that it features a female-female romance. That’s right…historical and gay and dark.

What more could you want??

The writing style immediately made me nostalgic for all those medieval-style fantasies I used to read (and boy, I read a lot of them) but is also just plain clean and gorgeous. Rife with metaphors without being too heavy-handed it’s tried-and-true writing but also truly a treat.

If you couldn’t tell, I liked this story a lot…so much so that I wanted more.

This book was good, great even at times…but it could have been amazing.

I usually hesitate to say this, but this book really could have been longer. As a standalone, this book is short when compared to others in similar categories and genres, covering a lot of ground concisely. I can’t say that it felt rushed or confusing, but there were a lot of times that I thought something could have been demonstrated more or that more time could have been spent on a particular event or character.

As it was, I understood the characters, the world, the plot. But there was potential for me to be really emotionally invested, to feel and see 17th century Hungary, to get lost in this book and never come out until I was done. I could see that Popovic had that potential…but just didn’t use it.

I wanted more tension built before the romance blooms, and then, more steamy scenes. I wanted more scenes of violence to solidify how evil these people really are. I wanted more time to get to know the side characters so I can cry when they suffer. I wanted more manipulation, to see the psychological game that Bathory plays to convince people to love her. I wanted to see Anna’s inner turmoil as she realizes everything she thought she knew turned out not to be true and what that means for those around her and for herself.

We see a glimpse of each of these. A scene, perhaps, of each, maybe two if we’re lucky. But I wanted to revisit, to revel. Popovic cracked the door open and I peeked inside, but I wanted the full view.

In the future, I’ll certainly be keeping my eye out for Popovic, waiting for the book she makes that tears my heart out and makes me eat it…which I’m sure will be soon enough. Although, the next in the Lady Slayers series, Poison Priestess, set for 2021 release according to the author, is so far off that it’s not even on Goodreads yet.

I’ll be here…waiting…

I rated "Blood Countess" 4 out of 5 stars. Fans of Tower of Dawn and Tamora Pierce books will like this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Amulet Books for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Blood Countess

4 stars

This was dark, so so very dark. And not what I was expecting. It was more telling and so much more powerful.

Initially, going into it, I was expecting lots of blood, lots of dark elements/themes, and lots of horror. What I got instead was lots of dark intrigue and a bewitching and brilliantly crafted story of manipulation and trickery at the hands of Elizabeth Bathory, also known as the Blood Countess.

I think writing the story from Anna’s point of view makes it all the more moving and disturbing. Seeing Elizabeth from her eyes and noting the events that occur while also progressing into the reveal and seeing Anna’s feelings change was phenomenal, executed so well that I still have chills.

The story was so perfectly written that reading it felt reminiscent to sitting in a dark room with friends, flashlight on, and someone telling you the twisted tale of the Blood Countess’ conquests and her fall. It is chilling in the best way possible.

It is not a plot driven book so if you’re looking for an action packed book then this probably isn’t for you. But if you’re looking for a highly intriguing, gripping and wickedly alluring tale of questionable morals and cunning methods then you will not be disappointed.

I was expecting a bit more from the climax and resolution though... I felt like this story didn’t need a HEA and feel a sense of disappointment in the way it could’ve ended. I’m not going to lie, I would’ve been satisfied with a dark and twisted ending to go with the overall feel of the novel but overall it was amazing and I would highly recommend.

Writing Style (1/1)
One of the strongest points of the book was the writing style, it's full of these vivid descriptions that set the Gothic tone of the book. There's lots of foreshadowing using predatory creatures like hawks, spiders and wolves at these very specific scenes to enhance the feelings of helplessness. When Anna resolves to ignore Elizabeth's cruelty and decides to tries and "save" her, there is a scene that happens a few pages later where she walks into a giant spider web and immediately feels disgusted and trapped. Is the foreshadowing a little obvious? Probably. Nonetheless, this is a young adult novel so I think a little more obvious is good because for some teen readers this might be their first real experience with foreshadowing in a novel.

Setting (1/1)
The book only takes place in a few locations but the author uses that to her advantage. In the beginning, Anna can go wherever she pleases in her village and has a lot of freedom to express herself. As the story continues, there are fewer and fewer locations for her to explore and suddenly all that's left is this terrifying castle that Anna is trapped in. By limiting a majority of the events to the castle, Popović increases the feeling of isolation and helplessness that Anna and the reader begin to feel throughout the story. I feel like I should stress that this story is a dark story, it's about a victim slowly realizing they are being trapped by a monster.

Plot (.5/1)
In terms of plot, this story is fairly predictable if you have previous knowledge about Elizabeth Bathory. The story itself doesn't take any huge risks and instead follows a linear plot line, it relies on suspense to keep your interest rather then any big events. I wished they would have pursued the dark, blood magic a little more in detail because that's the part of the story I was actually interested in.

Character Development (.5/1)
Anna's development felt slow because she's constantly making excuses for abusive behavior and trying to reason out why she should stay. However, it's hard to fault her behavior because Anna has no power or control over the situation, even if it feels like she should. The first half of the story was painful because she was so enamored with Elizabeth she kept making excuses for behavior, which was painful to read through. Once Anna has snapped out of her savior mentality, the last half of the story becomes a fight for survival, which means standing by helpless as Elizabeth starts murdering poor peasant girls. Anna doesn't find her motivation to act until her family is actively threatened, then she decides enough is enough and puts her own plan into action.

Elizabeth is always coldblooded in the story, but her development from torturing servants to straight up murdering people is incredibly terrifying. To her the ends justify the means and she will get her beauty at whatever cost. Honestly, I enjoyed Elizabeth's development far more then Anna's because Elizabeth actively works towards her goal of becoming a terrifying villain. She uses the adoration of the people around her and manipulates them into helping her do whatever she wants. She has the power and the privilege to hurt people and get away with it.</p>

Themes (1/1)

The Role of Power
Part of what works well for this story is that the main character is literally powerless. Anna is just a peasant girl trying to provide for her poor family living in the village. She sees the horrible things happening and reasons that she can use her power as Elizabeth's favorite to try and stop the bad behavior. When that fails Anna realizes she has such limited power that she has to be careful in her interactions with Elizabeth if she is to protect her family. While some horror relies on jump scares or gory scenes to scare you, there's something to be said for a horror story where the monster is always present, leaving the reader in suspense about when they will strike.

There's also an interesting discussion of women's power in general throughout the book. In the story, Elizabeth and Anna present two different sides of the same coin when it comes to women's power. Anna is a clever and talented healer, earning the respect of the people around her because she is kind and helpful. Elizabeth is also clever but in a different respect, she tells Anna the way to control people is through great beauty and brutality. It's evident throughout the book that Elizabeth uses her power to keep Anna entranced by her and eventually trapped. While I don't necessarily like pitting two women against each other in a contest of brains versus beauty, I do think it works for the story because there are virtually no men involved to make this comparison toxic. Instead it's Elizabeth using her beauty and power to terrorize people and Anna using her brains to try and outmaneuver her. Ultimately, it makes their dynamic interesting and keeps you hooked on the story, since you want to know what will happen next.

Overall
While it has a basic plotline, Blood Countess makes up for it in haunting settings and an interesting commentary on power. I spent the last day of my winter break thoroughly engrossed in the story because I wanted to know what would happen next.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, gothic settings, and/or un-apologetically evil women (I cannot stress enough how much you have to be okay with that last one).

Countess Elizabeth Báthory is the worst. Anna isn’t. What happens when Anna falls under Elizabeth’s spell? That’s the crux of this story. How far will we go, what atrocities will we commit? Who, if anyone, can we truly trust? Anna ending up caught in Elizabeth’s debauchery is really no shock. She’s desperate to help her family, and certainly a welcome addition to any household. She’s a talented healer, and a caring sister and daughter.

But we all know this isn’t going to be a cute, cozy story. Elizabeth is going to kill plenty of folks, but the question the reader is going to want answered is why? I adored the 16th century Hungarian setting, in part because the setting itself evokes feelings of dread (no plumbing and extra-awful patriarchy has that effect). And while there’s no moral grayness surrounding Elizabeth (remember, she’s trash), there are loads of other morality questions asked throughout the book.

My only real qualm was that certain bits seemed quite predictable (and no, not just because it’s historical fiction, shh). So it wasn’t that I disliked any of it, but I was a wee bit underwhelmed by a few bits. But overall, I was definitely glad I read it.

Bottom Line: Not for the faint of heart, this historical fiction asks a lot of questions about who we are and what lengths we’d go to. Also, reminder that there’s some really evil people, lest you forget.