This book didn't fully convince
I'm afraid the main reason for it was the narration pace- I really liked the author's prose, it was so limpid and poetic, but sometimes it was too slow or at least not enough fluid in the right moments so I couldn't resonate with the story as much as I wished to
Despite this, it still was a good read and I keep being a huge fan of Roshani Chokshi and her beautifully written peculiar stories

Wow. This book really delivers. Dark, moody, atmospheric, beautiful, bizarre, haunting, enchanting. I may have guessed the end plot twist early on but in no way did that ruin my enjoyment of the book. Absolutely wonderful.

I'm sure I'm not the right audience for this book - initially it sounded like something very up my alley, I love Gothic stories and this synopsis is wonderful, but in the end I have to just concede that Chokshi's writing is not for me. I liked but didn't love Gilded Wolves and this just had some of the same issues. It's not even that it read like YA (as Gilded Wolves was YA), but it just felt like it was trying so hard to be Gothic and adult, and this distracted me so much that I couldn't actually enjoy the story.

I must admit that I don't know how I feel about this book.
First of all, I don't think this should be categorized as fantasy and I think that's what is throwing me a little. I kept waiting on the fantasy to kick in but every time something felt fantastical there was a logical explanation. The fantastical was more of a feeling and then a little bit at the end when the plot twist is revealed.

However, the writing was beautiful and the atmosphere was so good, but I saw the plot twist coming from a mile away.

I really want to read something else by Roshani Chokshi because I liked her writing so much, but unfortunately, this book wasn't everything I wanted it to be but I'm still glad I read it.

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spin on the 'Bluebeard' tale/narrative, a commentary on the tropes and conventions of fairy tales and how we use storytelling as a survival device.
The first of our two narrators is the (nameless) Bridegroom, an academic specialising in fairytales - in order to try and fill a hole in the shape of the younger brother he's sure remembers but who his mother insisted never existed - who falls for the beautiful and mysterious Indigo Maxwell-Castanada. She agrees to marry him on one importnat condition: that he must never pry into her past. The second narrator is Azure, childhood friend of Indigo who saw in her a kindred spirit as well as an escape from a loveless home, and who may possibly be speaking from beyond the grave.
At first, everything goes well but we know it is not to last: for as Chekhov posits that, if a gun appears in a story at some point it's going to go off, so we know that, in fairy tales, vows are made to be broken. When Indigo's dying aunt summons them to the Maxwell-Castanada family home -aptly known as 'the house of dreams' - and exhorts the Bridegroom to find out what happened to Azure, the opportunity to unearth his wife's secrets proves too tempting...
Lushly written, decadent and dark. At first I enjoyed the Bridegroom's chapters more, particularly the fairytale analysis, but I did end up warming to Azure's chapters too.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed reading this book but I'm not really sure it is one I would pick up again. I definitely have some friends I can recommend this book too who I know would absolutely love it! I could appreciate the beauty of it and I am a big fan of this author.

Loved the mythology and folklore and the magic. The two pots and flashing back to the past to tell the story worked really well. The twist at the end was brilliant.

I think I would have liked the plot and themes much more if the prose had not been quite so florid and purple. For every paragraph that I was getting immersed into the story there would be one so florid – and to me incomprehensible – that it did little else but confuse me and pulling me out of it again. I got very frustrated with certain characters and the toxic behaviour, but then I think you’re meant to, but it got very difficult to understand why everyone loved her so much. The atmosphere is dark and with fairytale aspects around every corner, which I did enjoy.

Preliminary 5-star review. Will post a full review and adjust the rating accordingly after I finish the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

I enjoyed reading this book, I preferred the sections written by 'Azure', a good twist at the end that I only saw coming a chapter or so before

A deliciously gothic, haunting and mystical read! I absolutely loved this and the life that Roshani Chokshi breathed into this gothic world. From the lyrical writing to the characters, I was constantly hooked! I did, however, unfortunately guess the ending and the big reveal which did alter my rating a little, though not by much.

3.5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this book!

Roshani Chokshi is constantly evolving as a writer – I know with every story I can expect something unique and transporting. This is definitely one of those examples!

With gothic, thrilling undertones – Chokshi has crafted a love letter to those who love magical stories. I think it best to go into this novel with no expectations and know it is a story about friendship, horror, and secrets – and discovering what those secrets can do to you.

There’s so much in this one book about young female friendships, how you travel in packs and become so indistinguishable that you wear eachothers skins – the ability to be monstrous and guise this as love. And how love can be equal parts beautiful and twisted.

My favourite aspects of this story was Roshani’s signature prose – every line is beautiful and brimming with hidden meaning and magic. I also enjoyed Azure’s chapters and watching the horror unfold in that timeline – understanding the layers of the friendship between Azure and Indigo was really interesting and incredibly uncomfortable in the moments that it faltered.

In terms of where it fell short for me was the pacing and the Bridegroom chapters. This story is very slow moving and takes it’s time, it only picks up when you get to Azure’s point of view. I also wasn’t connected to the Bridegroom’s character or his marriage with Indigo – I think if this relationship had been built up a little more, I would’ve been more engaged with his chapters.

Although I had theories about the ending and pretty much called it close to the reveal – I still liked Roshani’s decision and the overall message that despite your past and things you’ve done, you can still be loved. The greyness of the characters and the twisted essence of the writing really benefited this story.

Thank you for reading.!

I enjoyed this quite a lot.
The writing and vibes were lovely, so were the gothic atmosphere and setting. The plot was a bit confusing at times and I’m not quite sure I got it all, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

This was my first book written by Roshani Chokshi and now I am intrigued to read more of her works

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the wonderful ARC of Roshani Choksi’s gothic, fairytale, mystery mash up.

This narrative is distinct yet complex in its telling, a darkness underlies the writing carefully keeping the reader on a precipice until the last possible moment, even then still keeping you guessing about what you have just digested.

I adored this novel as I found an essence of Grimm-esque telling that tends to be absent in most modern fairytale imbued novels. The prose is wonderfully descriptive and I found myself disappearing into the magical settings in the novel with the characters.

Although there is plenty of wonder and magic, this book also directly tackles heavy topics of abuse and trauma which makes up some of the unsettling feeling the reader feels and build up as the novel progresses through the narratives of both Azure and the Bridegroom.

This was definitely one of my favourite reads of the year as it was so refreshingly different!

Beautiful prose, incredible plot and compelling characters. Is there anything Roshani can't do? I adored this book and looking forward to seeing where she goes with the gothic-infused stories.

Regards to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC in exchange of my honest review.

Honestly this is a weird one, because I intensely dislike it but at the same time, it inspires within me a deep sense of admiration, because a rare beauty transposes within the prose.

We follow a double POV, one in the present and one in the past, and both evolves around a mysterious and beautiful woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. In the present, we follow the Bridegroom, a young historian who married Indigo, and vowed to never pry into her past. In parallel, we follow Indigo and her best friend when they were teenagers, all of this before the best friend's mysterious disappearance.

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is pitched as a gothic fantasy, but for me, it is more like a thriller. The writing is incredibly atmospheric, and the prose breathtakingly gorgeous. However, I find little substance in the story. I dislike every character intensely, and to be honest, each character feels like an archetype with no complexity. The chemistry between the Bridegroom and Indigo is non-existant. But for some reasons, this book has a lot of charm, maybe because it reflects the author's ambitions and talents. Roshani Chokshi is an incredibly sensible author, and aI truly wish that she had done more work on her plot rather than betting everything on her flowery prose, because we all know that a fantasy needs a plot.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend it if you are in for a fantasy, or even a thriller for that matters, but if you want a taste of a breathtaking and langourous prose in a gothic setting, you should give this a try.

Fantastic book. The writing is beautiful and the atmosphere throughout is exactly as intended- a fairytale.

I couldn’t put it down.

Thank you to netgalley and publisher for my copy.

This book is everything it promises to be. A mysterious fairytale, gorgeous prose, all the references to myths and old stories, a little bit of violence... it's truly a great read on the style side of the equation, but I do wish the plot was a bit more engaging.

I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did but unfortunately the story didn’t capture my interest and I just couldn’t feel any emotion for the characters.

I really wanted to love this, the dark folk/fairy tale vibe drew me to it, and I initially really enjoyed the sensual prose, but then it became clear that that was all this was.

The blurb is slightly misleading: "a marriage unraveled by dark secrets" <spoiler> The marriage doesn't unravel </spoiler>, "the danger of believing in fairy tales" it's not the belief in fairytales that's dangerous: it's obsession and abuse, the fairy tales might be a gloss for that, but that's what this book is, fairy tales as a shimmering glamour over bullying, abuse, and ultimately <spoiler> murder </spoiler>. A "darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies", erm, I didn't find much love in the relationships described here, and there's definitely no romance, the two main characters are both described as stunningly good-looking, and the Husband doesn't seem to be attracted to any of his wife's qualities except that she is exotic and mysterious (and by mysterious, read sexy but aloof, abusive, distant, and secretive).

Holly Black described it as 'gorgeous and ornate' and I think that sums it up well. I really appreciated the flowery prose to go with the Flower Bride, and the interweaving and exploration of fairy tales and the shadowy realm from which they came, but after a while the similes and metaphors got repetitive 'like a widow stripped of her jewels' came just a few pages before 'like a bride without her jewels' (not exact quotes, but I forgot to bookmark them). Also, this is essentially a fairy tale in a novel's clothing; the characters have no depth, the bride 'Indigo' is beautiful and secretive, and that's it, a female Bluebeard; the Husband is the infatuated, naive, curious character who is tempted to open doors to Bluebeard's dark secrets, but with no personality; and nothing really happens plot-wise. Once you get tired of the same use of the fairy tale comparisons, it's just a retelling of Indigo's not terribly interesting, and definitely not likeable, past and how that comes to a predictable reveal, where the husband finally learns the truth that had been hinted extremely strongly throughout the book.

Basically, like a fairy tale, the characters are types, not people, they don't grow, they have no complexity. The plot is very simple, primarily a mix between Bluebeard and <spoiler>the Goose Girl</spoiler>, but extended over several hundred pages with description, conversations that go nowhere, and foreboding. Note, when I read the title and the reference to the 'Flower Bride' I did think it would have more to do with Blodeuwedd from Welsh folklore, I think that tale is mentioned, but it is not the focus or the running theme.

If you like vibes with little substance, this is for you, it has vibes in spades, and I really enjoyed the atmospheric, poetic nature of this. For me personally, I would have like a little more behind the glamour to keep me interested and to want to read this again.