One of the best books I have read in a long time.
Anna Burke is one of my favourite authors and never disappoints! never!

I have struggled providing a review on this book because I felt fairly disappointed. I premise and the story seemed like something that is to my liking, which I also enjoyed until about 50 percent of the book, however the plot became a mess in the second half. The writing was also hard to enjoy in my opinion. I will have to decide whether I will read part 2, just to give the author a chance to clear up some of the confusion created.
Thank you for allowing me to read the ARC regardless. 🙏

Gothic lesbians! We have gothic lesbians! We have dark academia and eerie atmosphere! And you, Anna Burke, you certainly have my attention!

Thanks to NetGalley and Bywater Books for the digital galley of this book.

Roses of Pieria has two stories, one in the present about Clara Eden, who is offered a job as a private archivist for the eccentric Agatha Montague. During her research and curation of Agatha’s materials, she becomes embroiled in letters between two women thousands of years ago. As Clara’s attraction to Agatha’s assistant, Fiadh grows, so does her suspicion that something isn’t write. Once she realized she should trust her suspicions, it’s too late.

This is book 1 of The Blood Files, and I can’t wait for more! It’s a queer, dark academic adventure full of vampires and gothic vibes. Plus a bit of a retelling of classic characters, which I’m always on board for. I was invested in the characters, wanted to solve the mysteries, and was all in to discover how it would all turn out. And I want more. Now, please.

I’ve come to expect great stories from Anna Burke.

Her books are always exceptionally twisty, multi-layered and full of surprises, and her latest novel, The Roses of Pieria is a perfect example. I was simply amazed at the creativity in this unusual tale. Who else could combine a romance with fungal fae, vampires, enchantments, violence and horror?

The characters are so finely nuanced that we forget they are not real people. The author builds and enhances the somber and dark ambiance of the story from the first page, hinting that Clara Eden is going to have to deal with a lot more than just transcribing ancient manuscripts for her new employer, who has more secrets than Clara realizes. In fact, secrets outnumber answers, at first. And these aren’t simple little secrets either! They stretch back through time, building one atop another until we come to understand just how linked the characters really are.

This tale will grab you by your sense of wonder and not let go until the last page, and will absolutely appeal to Ms. Burke’s fans. Readers who appreciate a gripping paranormal story mixed with ageless romance will also enjoy this story.

Don’t pass this one by!

Thanks to NetGalley and Bywater Books for allowing me to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bywater Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Spoiler: Toxic lesbian vampires throughout the history. What could go wrong?

I really appreciated the fact that the main character was not the vampire, nor does she want to become one. Clara Eden, a historian who specialises in Nektopolian artefacts, gets a new job digitising and translating a woman's collection of historical documents. Agatha's collection has some pieces that were never heard of before. While settling into her new job, Clara meets Fiadh, who is her only point of contact with her employer. Day by day, an attraction blossoms between them, which turns into a connection, and later, into love.

At the same time, Clara's translation, we are pulled into a historical romance between two women, one of which turns out to be Agatha herself. The first part of the book has some strong academic overtones, and suggests Clara's detachment from the story. The more involved she becomes, the more personal her notes and the letters become. I loved how we came to discover this side of the story, through some old correspondence and meaningful gifts. The letters were so touching and beautiful, filled with tension and longing.
But without meaning to, Clara uncovers a story of love, revenge, betrayal and pain that stretches over years. Unwillingly, she becomes part of a new world, with creatures she didn't know existed .

The book had a bit of everything: action, spice, romance, history, humour, glory and gore. It was horror and hot, sometimes at the same times. The characters felt very real, all flawed and driven by love, lust and revenge. It was written so beautifully written, and the worldbuilding was extraordinary. It felt so unique and well-researched, giving life to the tiniest things.

I'm sorry. This book DNF.
I think the story is incredible, the world, the investigation, the mystery... However, I have not been able to connect.

Maybe in the future I will give this book another chance.

** spoiler alert ** **RECEIVED ARC FROM THE AUTHOR**
I really enjoyed this book so much and it's about 70% coz of the starcrossed lethal old lesbian vampires and the dark academia of it. This is not the first "supernatural with its roots in science or biology" book I've read but the way the fey exist here is such an interesting take on it, especially how it contributes to the horrific but romantic ending of it all. The blood as fertilizer of the roses in the book; the anger, the betrayal, the heartbreak, loss of knowledge and unforgettable memory that gives the rose, (love, bravery, sincerity and thirst of knowledge) it's beauty and it's monstrousness, this is the perfect pitch for vampire stories for me I'm losing it.

Clara Eden is a not Van Helsing type of professor protagonist but more of a romantic one, which as you continue, is perfectly suited for the book. A bard of the horrific romances that she is paid to translate within the letters of the mysterious old lady and owner of the manor, Agatha (Like yes shady but also a place to live and also to work in one hell of a library I would too damn) and finds herself compelled by the love story in the letters and the mysterious assistant who is standoffish and compellingly drawn in by the stories in the letters, and Clara herself.

As Clara uncovers the supernatural, she is horrified and yet drawn in because of her feelings and her own fascination and enduring curiosity of the world she dedicated her academic career in it. This ensues just a series of "audience yelling at the horror protagonists" events from both Clara and Fiadh, but I didn't once think that it said anything about their intelligence, as much as helplessness and desperation.

I don't think the romance was as well developed in this book as it's own thing with Gata and Natek's romance being the driving force of their focus but I'm looking forward to more of that in the next book.

The prose is extremely enjoyable and evocatively lush to make the horror and romance on equal footing and mirrors of each other.

Also kitties, so many kitties. This is such a lesbian book.

First, I must praise the gorgeously written prose and the wonderful gothic tone. And I was intrigued by the promise of sapphic vampires and fae.

That said, the first half of the book was too slow for my liking since it largely focused on the letters being translated and the romance between Clara and Fi, none of which captured my interests. Gata and Natek wrote so similarly that I had trouble distinguishing their letters from one another. The reader also was shown the letters in a different order than Clara read them in, so the discussion of them often didn’t line up. I eventually started skimming the letters, which turned out to be a mistake because I missed a character name that turned out to be vital later. While I perked up during the scenes where the vampire was present, there were only a handful of those early on.

As a reader whose pet peeve is the idiot plot trope, I quickly grew frustrated with Clara’s track record of making terrible decisions. She’d been handed her dream job on a silver platter but wouldn’t stop behaving unprofessionally—making a fuss about rules she’d agreed to, wandering into forbidden areas rather than showing an ounce of patience, and sleeping with a coworker. I could’ve overlooked that last faux pas if there’d been a deeper connection between her and Fi, but risking her entire career for a fling with someone she barely knew was reckless.

I was also troubled by Clara’s lack of concern for her friend’s safety when she asked him to stop by the vampire’s estate to feed her cat. Especially since Clara was so upset that no one warned her about the vampire, clearly believing the vampire to be a great danger, yet she withheld the same information from someone she claimed to care about.

Those examples are just the tip of the iceberg, but to say more would give away major spoilers.

The second half of the story picked up the pace. Things finally started happening! The fungal fae character was fascinating. I wish he’d been introduced earlier on since he was my favorite character (other than Mr. Muffin the cat) and the clear MVP of the book. I would happily read a prequel centered on him.

While I never warmed to Clara’s and Fi’s relationship or believed that they genuinely loved each other, Fi did become considerably more interesting in the later chapters.

Overall, I appreciated the fresh spin on vampire and fae mythology and clever world building, even though many other aspects of the book didn’t mesh for me. Fans of epistolary storytelling will probably enjoy the copious lengthy letters more than I did.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher and am voluntarily leaving this review.

Anna Burke writes Sapphic Love Stories like nobody's business and I always have high hopes for these books. It was great and I'm looking forward to the next installment!

[Thanks to NetGalley & the author for providing me with this ARC]

Anna Burke can do no wrong. Every single one of her books have been spectacular and so very unique. This one fits right in. The characters are complex, the mystery intriguing and the relationships between the characters flawed and layered as always. Her writing feels so honest and raw and no matter the world she creates, it’s always fleshed out and filled with so much detail that it feels like I’m part of the story myself.
I will never not read a book by this author.
I cannot wait for my physical copy to arrive (I’ve been waiting for months, it’s sold out everywhere) so I can reread the book and annotate the hell out of it!!

Disclaimer: The ARC was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The ARC category in no way impacts the rating of the book.

3 out of 5 ☆’s.

I would like to thank Bywater Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review of the material! :)

I received this title before its release, but due to unforeseen circumstances I hadn’t gotten around to reading it until recently, but I am glad that I did!

I **love** sapphic vampire novels, so when “In the Roses of Pieria” popped up on my NetGalley feed I just knew that I had to snag myself a copy!

I quite enjoyed the romantic elements of this story! Clara and Fiadh were such intriguing characters, and seeing their romance develop as the story progressed was so rewarding as a reader!

I did struggle a bit with the pacing of the plot in the beginning of the story, and there were some moments where things felt a bit too modern given the setting / vibes of the book, but I am ultimately soo excited to see what will become of these characters and their ventures in the sequel!

5 stars. This is unfortunately also one of the few ARCs that I have been very delayed on with reading and reviewing, sometimes life interferes. Apologies for this because this book absolutely deserves to be read. I’m a big fan of Burke’s books and this is no exception. And the best thing is, there will be more as this is book one of a duology. The story is carefully build and I feel there is so much more to come.

Burke’s writing style is as always wonderful, it flows beautifully and creates the exact right atmosphere. The book starts rather slow in an academic setting which is smartly used to introduce the main characters; Clara (the scholar and expert on everything Nektopolisian), Agatha (Clara’s rich, demanding and mysterious boss that happens to have an enormous amount of Nektopolisian artefacts), and Fiadh (Agatha’s closed off but intriguing assistant in all matters). The first part of the book also provides the much needed and wonderfully told backstory. This way the backstory is not an info dump but an exploration into the past and slowly but surely the connection to the present is made that moves the book into the second part.
This is where everything changes, the speed increases, the academic setting is swapped for a paranormal one and there is plenty of action of which I do not want to say too much. I’ll just say there were plenty of twists and turns and the story kept surprising me.

The characters are flawed and not all easily likable and the storyline is rather dark and I enjoyed how my perspective on the main characters kept changing while reading the book. The book is written in first person (POV from Clara) which worked very well to keep the mystery of the book.

A reminder to all that have not read this book yet. If you like dark paranormal books with excellent world building and a good dose of fictional history, then this is one to read.

<i>I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This was a rather disappointing read. I didn’t like most aspects of the book. The characters felt very bland, their relationships were shallow / just not very convincing. The writing style dragged most of the time, which was especially annoying during the ‘action scenes’. The most obvious ‘plot twists’, that everyone saw coming, were over-explained and spelled out to the reader. At the same time some aspects weren’t explained at all, even though they were explicitly mentioned by the characters and that’s just the worst way of setting up a sequel. The worldbuilding is interesting in theory but unfortunately the execution was messy and took away from the ideas. The letters could have been an interesting addition but their placement was weird and unfitting.
Overall the book was just not for me.

This is sapphic horror that features vampires, fungal fae, plant magic and other supernatural beings.

When Clara Eden is offered a job as an archivist working for the eccentric estate owner Agatha Montague, she thinks her all her prayers have been answered. She soon finds herself enmaged in the world of her research, captivated by a romantic correspondence thousands of years old. However as her feelings for Agatha Montague's assistant, Fiadh, deepen, so too does her suspicion that something about Agatha Montague isn’t quite right. Unfortunately for Clara, by the time her suspicions are confirmed, it is far too late to run.

I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys a dark fantasy romance with mythical creatures.

OH MY GOD!! This book!! I literally cannot even put into words how incredible this story was and I am very impatiently waiting for when book two comes out because I am DYING to find out what happens next. I was worried this wouldn’t live up to the hype, but boy did it ever! I haven’t read anything like In the Roses of Pieria before. It was an intriguing combination of paranormal, romance, mystery, fantasy, horror, dark academia, historical fiction, and more - all tied together with threads of Sappho and Ancient Greece. Anna’s writing was beautiful and haunting and this story will take you on an adventure like no other!

Clara Eden is struggling financially and missing that spark in life. So when she is offered the chance to be an archivist for the largest personal collection on Nektopolis, she accepts even though she has some serious reservations - like not being able to share anything she finds. Soon she is living and working at the estate of the mysterious and elusive Agatha Montague and begins to bond with her beautiful and icy assistant, Fiadh.

As Clara digs deep into translating love letters between Gata and Natek, mysteries begin to unravel and in her search for questions she stumbles upon something she was never meant to find. She soon discovers that there are secrets at the Montague estate beyond her wildest imagination. But by then…it’s too late to turn back.

I read the blurb for this book awhile back but didn’t reread it before starting and I’m glad because it turned certain elements of the story into surprises I wasn’t quite expecting. This was a heavy read at times, so it took me a bit longer to get through it. There is just so much information to absorb and I didn’t want to miss one single detail! I was completely enraptured by this terrifying tale of forbidden romance and all the dark and twisty turns it took.

In the Roses of Pieria is a literary masterpiece that will capture you in its thrall and leave you begging for more! Don’t wait…go sink your teeth into this story now!

This book had me googling if Nektopolis had ever existed.

This book was such a surprise. From Greek mythology to vampires…just a whole lot of fantasy and sapphic romance goodness. It is written in single POV and follows Clara, an academic whose entire career has been focused on “Nektopolis” and particularly, Nektaria. She is offered an amazing job opportunity that gives her the opportunity to learn all sorts of things about the place that was the topic that has shaped her entire career. The only catch is, it involves not being able to publish anything she learns through her new position, but the job ends up being WAY more than she bargained for and it was one hell of an adventure to read about. I loved every second of it. Anna has written this so incredibly well. Its story is captivating, characters diverse, and it keeps you immersed. I was i n v e s t e d. It was a 5 star read for me. My one suggestion, take the time to read footnotes throughout the story, it’ll be worth it. I NEED the sequel yesterday.

4.5 Stars / ARC from Netgalley

This story takes you on quite a journey. Richly filled with beautiful prose and interesting characters, it is also a lesson in patience, since it takes a while to pick up - but is worth the lingering as well as the wait. The letters that are central to the story read like poetry to me, they intrinsically touched something within me. The story itself is exciting and a little mysterious, even though most of the time you are a few steps ahead of Clara, the protagonist, who clearly does not know that she's in a vampire novel.
The character's actions always seemed very interesting to me, never boring but a few times I groaned or got a little frustrated with Clara, which is not a big deal to me though. I very very much enjoyed this book and will definitely pick up the second book as soon as it's out.

𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴. 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯. 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘴?

This book was the tipping point for me to actually make a Goodreads tag for "Books that feel like they were written just for me." While at times, I thought the writing was a little patchy, I cannot fault just how much I felt seen by the contents.

The Roses of Pieria is the story of an academic, Clara Eden, who has dedicated her life to the study of a small, releatively unimportant city state in the Classical World. Out of nowhere, Clara recieves the job offer of a lifetime; a six figure salary to catelogue, translate and study a mysterious private collection of artefacts with a cosy cottage to live in, a stern but surprisingly warm housekeeper overseeing the work... and a complete not-fragmented book of Sappho? Wait, what? The things in the collection are impossible. The situation is impossible, and yet here she is. Who is her mysterious employer really and will Clara get all the answers she needs while still being able to walk away? And more importantly, will these artefacts ever see the inside of a musesum as they should?

So anyone that likes vampires, cats, lesbians, Sappho, Classics, Mrs Danvers vibes, dark academia, and magic, boy, is this the book for you. I really really enjoyed this one. Was it nonsensical in places? Of course, but it was so easy to get swept up in the story and especially the romantic relationship at the heart of it which people who read my reviews will know I rarely say.

I believe there is going to be another book, and I can't wait for it. I would say this is my Twilight, but to be fair, Twilight was my Twilight. What I can easily say is that this is a book that I have I always wanted to find, I just didn't know it yet.

‘𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦.’

The haunting/mysterious feeling for the first 3rd of the book hooked me right away. I really liked a lot of things about this (solid sapphic romance, great setting, cool use of cats and plants), but the writing style frustrated me quite often. The author is not straightforward, and the plot sometimes got lost in her detailed descriptions, so I had to go back and reread to understand. The letters dispersed throughout the book were such a neat touch in the beginning, but later felt displaced and had me confused on how they related to the story or if the contents were known by the characters or just the audience. Overall, I think with the addition of new characters and big reveals, this has the potential to lead to an awesome Book 2.