Dark, Dramatic and stunning. I loved the gothic drama of it all. I was gripped the whole way though, and the magic was dazzling.

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a dark and atmospheric story of toxic relationships, heavy secrets, and unraveling of what is dearest to you. I know it's supposed to be a story of a married couple (and the secrets that lie between them), a mysterious woman called Indigo and her husband, dubbed simply as the bridegroom, but for me, the heart of the story was definitely in the tale of the youthful friendship between Indigo and Azure. The bridegroom was merely a pawn for me, a silent observer that wove the tale of Indigo in her later years, the narrator that was (with his feelings and tales) more a backdrop to the lush and poisonous relationship between Indigo and Azure.

While I do wish I loved this devastating story more, I still think it would be a great read for anyone looking for a book about horrible secrets and tragic heroes and an ending that will make you gasp out loud.
(Sadly for me, the bridegroom lacked personality and I dreaded his chapters, which made the book drag a bit - but Azure's chapters kept me going and I do really like her character a lot. This was definitely a story of two powerful women, which I LOVED. I also wish the sapphic undertones got explored a bit more)

It deals with some heavy themes (like abuse of a minor, abuse, toxic relationships, etc.) so checking the trigger warnings would be wise <3

This beautiful gothic tale is steeped in fairytales, myth & secrets. Told through a dual POV; we explore a marriage with a secret at its core and on the brink of unraveling and a friendship shrouded in magic & obsession.

This story is rich with gothic atmosphere, lyrical prose and a mystery at it's centre to keep you compelled right until the last line.
This book is an experience and I had an excellent time reading it

I really enjoyed the mystery aspect of this and it did keep me intrigued but some of the characters felt a little disconnected and distant from the reader. Probably this was meant to be the case but I always like connecting with a character in a story and I wasn't able to do that here.

The narrators for the audiobook were very good and I especially liked the male voice.

Also please check trigger warnings before going into this as there were a few uncomfortable things within it.

I absolutely loved 'The Last Tale of the Flower Bride' by Roshani Chokshi. This was a compelling and absorbing read which was so beautifully written, I felt like I was part of the House of Dreams. We meet the chaotic and spoilt Indigo, orphaned young and bequeathed a beautiful house that comes alive. Indigo is selfish and self-absorbed yet, people are obsessed with her and love her in an addictive way. For fans of 'Mexican Gothic', 'My Dark Vanessa' and 'The Ophelia Girls', a deeply, compelling yet disturbing read where magic and the Fae are part of this World.

A review by you!
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, by Roshani Chokshi

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5 ⭐

I was given an audiobook ARC from net galley and Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review.
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This book is a wonderfully written, atmospheric tale of the way which magic and reality intertwine. It is told through dual points of view and has a twist I did not see coming.

Azure and indigo are closer than anything but this book explores the nuance of how friendship can be both toxic and all-encompassing.

Indigo is a rich and wealthy girl who is the heir to the Maxwell-Casteńada family fortune and due to have her parents dying she lives with her aunt in the house of dreams where the majority of the story takes place. This a house that has a portal to the other world a place where Indigo and Azure wish to remain but as the girls grow up what brought them together might be the reason they start to falter.

What’s the point of view is years later in to go and have a husband known only is the bridegroom. Indigo and the bridegroom has entered into an arrangement of their marriage so that he will never look into her past. He agrees, yet when a couple of forced to attend to the deathbed of Tate (Indigo’s aunt) The bridegroom question is why his wife made him swear to that promise.

Can he hold to this promise and not pry? Where did Azure disappear to and can the House Of Dreams help to uncover the mystery of his brother who his parents claim never existed.

A wonderfully whimsical piece of literature I recommend it my only qualm is that I found the Bridegroom’s voice in the audiobook frustrating.



Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Child death, Classism, Death, Sexual harassment, and Abandonment

I enjoyed this gothic tale full of fairytales, mysteries and secrets! The narrators were fantastic with soothing voices that fit the characters so well! At times I wasn’t sure how I felt about this book because although the writing was beautiful and whimsical, the story was dark and at times almost suffocating. The unraveling mystery had me hooked though, and I did enjoy seeing everything unfold. I started to worry that I may not like the ending, but I was pleasantly surprised! I love Roshani’s writing and can’t wait to read more of her books in the future!

“The Last Tale of the Flower Bride” is mysterious, dark and at times, quite tense.

It starts off with one POV, the male character simply referred to as the bridegroom throughout the book. He is a student of myths and folklore, and is meant to meet up with the mysterious Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada, in the hope to get access to some historic documents in her family’s possession. It is love at first sight, and he soon gets married to this beautiful heiress. There is one condition though, he should never try to investigate or probe into her past. A small price to pay for a life of uber-luxury, travelling the world with a gorgeous wife at your side, don’t you think? Well?

“As a scholar, I have always found dreams to be frustrating—if not lazy—motifs. They might be portents or prophecies, messages or mysteries. Dreams might pass through gates of horn and speak true, or sneak through gates of ivory and speak false. At it’s heart, a dream is a door.”

A good couple of chapters in, a second narrator, Azure, enters the scene. And with that, a step back into the past, as she was Indigo’s best childhood (and young adulthood) friend. Dual timelines and dual POVs, both stories told by people close to Indigo.

“She was a phantasm to me, proof of the impossible and thus a talisman against the absence that had haunted my adult life.”

Then, Indigo and the bridegroom receives news that an estranged family member of hers is dying, and they return to the gothic mansion she grew up in called the House of Dreams. This is the bridegroom’s opportunity to learn more about his bride’s past. But that wasn’t part of the deal now, was it?

“That might drive another man insane, but I’d had more than twenty years to make peace with the lightless space between what you cannot believe is a truth and what you know must be a lie.”

To keep this review spoiler-free I will try not to go much more into to plot details.

The writing is heartachingly beautiful and poetic. So much so that you really have to concentrate and focus, with the fear of missing anything. I throughly enjoyed the references to folklore and fairy tales, some of which I wasn’t familiar with.

“The Last Tale of the Flower Bride” is atmospheric, haunting, and ethereal. Some parts made me feel unsure of where the lines between reality and fantasy were. Is there something more sinister and otherworldly at play at The Dream House? This gothic tale was emotional and sometimes a bit eerie to experience. It is about love, obsession, control, toxic relationships, and flawed characters.

"I've been trying to find a way to live in this world. Barring that, I was looking for a way to leave it."
Thanks to #NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton Audio, I had to opportunity to listed to the audiobook ARC of this book. It was narrated by Steve West and Sura Siu. I throughly enjoyed Steve West’s sections, he can read a recipe book and I will still be enthralled. I did struggle a bit with Sura Siu’s narration though – although the chapters she narrated, those of Azure, was more interesting and gripped me more, there were a few pronunciation choices that I didn’t quite agree with – but it may be the difference between US/UK articulation?
#TheLastTaleOfTheFlowerBride releases next week, the week of the 13th of February 2023 (14 and 16 February)

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride did seem to have potential when I started but it quickly went downhill and then I just kept on reading hoping it would get better. I liked the first part of the book the best. The mystique of Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada and how her nameless husband was told to never pry into her past. Sadly as the focus shifted to Indigo's backstory did my interest start to diminish. The ending, was not that bad, although a bit predictable. So, a generous 2-star because part of the book was not that bad.

This was really not my cup of tea, but I could definitely see how others would like it. The writing style was very reminiscent of books like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and The Starless Sea for me, so if you like those books this one might be for you, too. The writing style is very flowery and that just doesn't work for me, personally.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the audio arc!

"In the end, a fairy tale is nothing more than a sense of hope."

This was a stunning adult debut from Chokshi with lyrical writing and a fascinating plot which created a gothic atmosphere that kept me wondering until the end. It was an addicting read, only enhanced by the two narrators, Steve West and Sura Siu. Both narrators brought the story to life and their voices fit the atmosphere of the story so well.

It's best to go into this book knowing nothing but that it's a story about marriage, friendship and most importantly, secrets and the danger of fairy tales. So much was revealed and unravelled in the book's last quarter and the ending was unexpected but beautiful.

Intriguing, captivating and utterly divine. The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a mystery about beautiful people with secrets around their identities and lost love. The story said as much about the power of the imagination as it did of the power of stories, folklore and mythology. It left me as the reader unsettled and second-guessing most of the time. I found the narrator who read Azure's point of view to be melodic and captivating. However the other narrator for the Bridegroom was disappointingly flat in tone and that was a bit of a let-down.

This book reminded me of the atmosphere of Strange the Dreamer, the secrets of The Death of Jane Lawrence, and the ethereal writing of The Starless Sea.

At the core of the story is a mystery that I don't want to say much about because I feel like the less you know going in, the better. It adds to that atmosphere and tension. Although I did guess the 'twist' at about 60% through, I don't really feel like the mystery is 'the point' and so it didn't impact on my enjoyment.

Since I listened to the audio arc, I wanted to mention that also. Steve West is one of my favourite narrators and that held true here. I thought he was an excellent choice. I also really enjoyed Sura Sui's narration, though I don't think I've listened to her before. Together they beautifully wove this story that Roshani Chokshi wrote. I do actually think the audiobook is a perfect way to consume this story as a major focus is the oration of fairytale, myth and legend. The narration only adds to that.

I highly recommend this book (though do check the trigger warnings if you need them because it is very dark) and the audio in particular.

Indigo and Azure - two blues, two girls who inhabit a strange almost fairy-tale born of isolation and fantasy. The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a strange hypnotic tale. The writing is rich and dense and the story is twisted and deep with the tiniest glimpses of reality mixed into the gothic. The rhythm of the tale is almost hypnotic as The House of Dreams and its rarefied air transforms the slightly odd, clearly damaged inhabitants into the protagonists of myth, but who is the villain and who the heroine?
I enjoyed this book very much, the dénouement has to allow normality in, but there is satisfaction in this as if the ship is coming into shore. This is a confection as thick and sweet as molasses and definitely a lovely sojourn in another world.

This is a fantastic book but it's just not the right book for me. The descriptions and the setting are eerily gothic and tense, and it's a beautifully written story, alternating between the perspective of the bridegroom and Azure. I personally found the story pretty but a little dull, as I tend to lean towards more action packed plots.

A dark adult fairytale. Beautifully written and so interesting to see all the links to fairytales that I grew up with.

So… I was very lucky to recieve both the audio and kindle copy of this one via NetGalley. I buddy read this with the lovely @lauraslittlebooknook in 24hrs… yes! You read that right! TWENTYFREAKINGFOURHOURS! It was my favourite read of January!

I adored how it was pieced together, it was so beautifully written. I felt like I could see the book like a film, there were no ends to my imagination with this one. It wove just the right amount of something something and I just couldn’t put it down.

I did click the twist, but it in no way played out how I expected it! It was also narrated via audio well, I enjoyed the two POVs!

Thank you to @hodderscape and @netgalley for both the audiobook and the kindle copy. 🫶🏻

Wow!! That was breathtakingly beautiful, feverishly haunting and absolutely mesmerising!

A whimsical masterpiece that was both eerily atmospheric and seductively romantic.

I was truly captivated by this from the beginning to the end.
So addictive that I literally read it within 24hours. My head is still with the events of this stunning book.

Indigo is an incredible example of being ~ that girl ~. She is terrifying, powerful, beautiful and mysterious. I found myself yearning for the stories of her and Azure in their house of dreams. Their childhood felt like it was properly a fairytale, with equal parts magic and horror as Indigo became increasingly controlling and secretive. This is also a lovely romance and the writing is absolutely stunning.

In the first instance I was pleased to see NetGalley has resolved the issue with audio where playing at a higher speed distorts the narration. This did not happen with The Last Tale of the Flower Bride. I only speed it up a little so it's less like narration and more like ordinary speech. And this played perfectly. Unfortunately, I was unable to gel with the book. I am a huge fan of V E Schwab and had hoped to love this, but I felt somehow removed from the characters, therefore I didn't care about them or what was happening. I don't publicly review books I don't get on with. Sharing the book love is what it's about. I'm just sorry this book wasn't a good fit with me. It will definitely have a huge audience though as the writing was beautiful.