“Why are these Vampires so Mormon?”

The dedication immediately piqued my interest. However the book fell short of what it could have been. The pacing is well-balanced, but could have used more world building. It has twists and turns, and I enjoyed the shock factor, but I was still left longing for more.

✔️Vampires

Kazan had good character development, but I was looking for more change from our FMC by the end. Overall, a decent vampire book.

Overall, This book is a good read. Fans of Vampire fantasy will enjoy this and I would recommend this to them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for the opportunity to read the ARC of this book.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. It had a good premise but it was not the story for me. The world was very interesting but I was pushing myself to continue rather than wanting to. It was just not connecting to me.

I’m so sad that I didn’t love this as much as I thought I would. The idea of vampires, and not the domesticated sparkly kind, is so intriguing!

Our MFC is a blacksmith who gets herself captured by a group of vampires whilst on the road to the next village to sell one of her swords. These vampires are giving her three days of being treated like their queen, before times up and they feed on her.

And although the premise, and the world building was something I usually gobble up, there was something missing. I felt myself constantly losing attention and my interest in the outcome of the character was drifting away. As a mood reader this could be a case of to trying this book at the wrong time.

Thanks NetGalley for an arc coly in exchange for an honest review!

Did not finish but got through 50%, needed more world building, the premises was interesting but it fell flat for me, it was difficult to get into without getting bored unfortunately, I think it needed to be more fast paced with more character development of current characters rather than introducing lots of new characters. I have read lots of vampire books but sadly this fell flat for me. I liked the blood magic explored but wish the side plots were less confusing

Ver fun and fast read filled with vampires!!

Our FMC, Kazan, is a blacksmith who sells swords and weapons made to kill vampires. One day she gets ambushed and kidnapped by vampires and taken to their court, where she is forced to be their queen. Her being queen may sound nice but these vampires plan to sacrifice her and use her blood. Being in the court with a bunch of vampires who want to kill her, Kazan must find a way out and escape.
Overall rating: 4/5
I did enjoy the book but there were a few things that I wish were explained better and I wish that the book was longer hahah

I’m a little late to my review, but I am so happy to have received this book. I went and purchased the published book bc this book was everything to me. So happy to have gotten to read this book before all the readers thank tou

Thank you to angry robot and net alley for the free arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is a afun take on the typical vampire story and, if this was to continue, I think short, novella type tales of life before Kazan or between kings/queens would be a great addition. The world itself is intriguing and the pacing and writing enjoyable. With that being said the romance is what let this book down as, while the reader is led to believe that there is an insane chemistry between the three main characters I found this to be incredibly lacking. I did enjoy Reyes though.

Thank you for providing me with an ARC copy of this book. This book has an interesting set up and story. I liked that the main character was a blacksmith who forged their own sword that can kill vampires as this is not something I’ve read elsewhere. I enjoyed the world building and thought that overall it was a good read. Was slightly rushed in places and would have liked a little more information but overall a good book.

I ended up DNFing this book about half way through. I could not get past the FMC's pathological lying. I really wanted to like this book but just couldn't.

Thank you NetGalley and Ciel Pierlot for the chance to read this. I might try in a few months to give it another shot and see if I can get further.

Struggled to get into this one, unfortunately! I loved the concept of someone crafting weapons to kill vampires ending up becoming their queen and sacrifice, but didn’t think the build up was a strong as it could have been.

Lots of interesting characters, but not enough to grip me. I would recommend it for those who enjoy books like The Foxglove King, which mix romance and threat with an outspoken and feisty main character. Also if you’re here for something spicy, tense and bloodthirsty I’d definitely recommend picking this up.

Truly did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. I've really missed the vampire stories in recent years and this one definitely hit the spot for me. The fact of peoples' sexuality was really something, absolutely a chefs kiss read from me.
Pierlots writing is fantastic, kept me HOOKED!

I wasn't as blown away by this book as I wanted to be. The dedication was the best part until I got to about 60% in. That's when the plot started to pick up pace and moved away from really slow character development and too much information on vampire politics.
Honestly this was almost an DNF for me a couple times and only got the third star because the plot wrapped up in a way I wasn't expecting. Kazan wasn't a particularly likable main character, which obviously makes it hard to really fall for a book. I think it would have been more interesting to have one of the main vampire characters be the person whose point of view we viewed this story from.

Unfortunately this one wasn't for me, as I really didn't get on with the writing style. The story itself needed a tighter edit - it's messy and a bit all over the place, with a lot of loose threads. And while I liked the idea of Kazan, who has dubious morals at best, I found their character development to be somewhat lacking.

I was excited to read this book because I was drawn to the cover and synopsis. It seemed intriguing, and I hadn't read a vampire-themed book in quite some time. I enjoyed up to about 47% of the book, but then I began to lose interest as it felt like the story was dragging on for me. The writing is of good quality, with plenty of detail and vivid descriptions. Despite this, I couldn't bring myself to finish it. Nonetheless, I liked Kazan; she was a strong character, and I appreciated her determination and resourcefulness in seeking ways to escape without giving up on what I read.

Also, I would like to thank NetGalley and Angry Robot for the ARC.

I really wanted to like this book and the premise sounded so promising. Unfortunately, it fell so flat for me. It takes a lot for me to rate a book 1 ⭐️ and to contemplate DNF-ing it, but this came close. The dialogue was off, the story didn’t go anywhere really, and the characters weren’t particularly likable. There were a few enjoyable moments, but they were few and far between. The best thing about this best was the dedication page unfortunately. It was rough to get through. I don’t normally like giving negative reviews, but this book was just not for me.

i think this book had so much potential for it to be something i loved. polyamorous vampires in an extravagant palace setting with political games and secret rituals. what isn’t there to like? (apparently a lot of things, unfortunately).

our main character, kazan, well to me her only character traits were that she lies a lot and she has this *huge* scar across her face that makes her “so ugly” and “unattractive” and literally all that anyone says to her. and well… she was just incredibly boring to be following inside their head. i would definitely agree that she’s quite smart and is able to navigate the vampire world she’s dropped into fairly well. but truly, the only defining things about how she makes decisions is based off of those two “traits” that i stated. and after 300 pages, to me, it just became difficult to trudge through unfortunately.

you could also argue that her third personality trait was brought upon by an incredibly magical sword that can kill vampires (seemingly without leaving a trace). most of how she moves throughout the vampire palace is to find that damn sword. and it hinders her ability to think through things more than once. it’s sadly true that there was more personality in either of the love interests than the main character. and not only that, but their personality was supplied with some very interesting lore that i wish were learned way more about than the passing paragraph or two we got from them.

objectively, i think this story could have been so much better. had we had another pass through to flesh out these characters. to pace the story better, because that last 1/3 was rushed for sure. to build out this vampiric society just a tad more. we were not given enough! i’m only slightly curious to see what ciel has in store next, but it unfortunately won’t be one i’m reaching to pick up first.

and side note: it’s never a flex to have your story compare to jay kristoff. that man is problematic through and through.

original review:
full review to come when i'm not jetlagged lol.

A fantasy novel about vampires that doesn't take itself too seriously starting with the amazing dedication “Dedicated to everyone who read Twilight and thought: ‘Why are these vampires so Mormon?’ I thank the author for the list of characters at the beginning of the book. I would love for all fantasy authors to do this as sometimes these creatively named characters in the worlds they are building can all start running together. I really enjoyed that the main character was morally grey. Not all hero's need to be bright shining stars for all that is good. The book had surprise twists and a great ending that left me wondering will there be more from these characters?

Thank you to Angry Robot and Netgalley for an advanced readers copy of this book for my honest review.

A vampire lovers dreeeaaammmmm!!! I enjoyed this book quite a lot to be honest, wasn’t expecting to. The writing was so descriptive that I could see what was happening like I was watching a movie and that’s always a great read for me when that happens. Only reason it wasn’t a 5 star for me was I struggled a little bit with the characters, but that’s a personal problem.

I have absolutely loved some other books put out by this publisher (Angry Robot), so I had a good feeling that this one had the potential to be another five star read from them. I was hopeful (especially because vampires) but, sadly, it ended up being a DNF for me. While the premise sounds exciting and intriguing, ultimately the execution just all fell a little flat for me. I’m disappointed. I think the bones of it were there and maybe with another few rounds of edits it had the potential to be something great. I just needed more from it.

Thank you so much Angry Robot and Ciel Pierlot for the ARC.

This was a 3 star read for me. It reminded me of the movie Ready or Not, in a good way. The vampires were definitely realistic, cruel, egotistical, apathetic. I did find myself interested in the plot and seeing it through to completion.

But, I felt like it was missing something and there were moments that I felt took away from the book. Some of the plot devices seem a bit too rushed or convenient. And I don’t often say this, but the I think the romance that was in this book took away from it and could’ve been omitted. I also had some frustrations with our main character. She was praised for being smart throughout the book but felt she missed some pretty obvious clues and it just took me out of the moment in the book.

In the end, it felt like there weren’t any real stakes either. Some of the resolution just seemed too convenient. It just needed something else either with the final action scenes or with the closing out scenes.

It still gets 3 stars from me because it kept me entertained and it had some great elements.