Well, I am crying.
Which I think is probably the most impactful review I could give.
This was a beautiful and haunting tapestry of mythos and folklore.
I'd recommend for fans of Starling House, it had the same bittersweetness.

(Pretty clean romance as well, nothing beyond a steamy set of kisses. Suitable for teens and adults alike.)

At the beginning of the story we meet Irina who is marrying a ‘dead man’, aka a vampire named Stefan, to help a village get rid of a vampire who’s tormenting them. Irina’s true motive is to make a deal with Stefan: she will let him feed off her regularly in exchange for him being her guide in the underworld. She wants to go there to bring back a part of her little sister’s soul who is trapped there.

Let me first say that I loved the premise of this book and wanted to love the story so so much. Sadly, it didn’t happened.

Structurally, I really struggle with the fact that this book has no chapters but big ‘parts’ and, story wise, I found it very repetitive. I was very curious about how the underworld would be, who they will meet there, etc. but sadly it was very ‘meh’.

We discover early on that Irina can’t touch any of the dead because they will be reminded of the fact that they are dead and they will also start decaying etc. that was an interesting concept, but quickly turned in Irina being afraid to touch anyone and got repetitive.

I sadly didn’t connect with Stefan or Irina and wasn’t a fan of their dialogues. Those character were very ‘flat’ to me and I wasn’t invested in their stories or romance.

I’m sure this book will find its public but sadly it wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book!

I loved this so much- fantasy/horror with Eastern European flavour is a crowded market but this manages to stand out with really well drawn characters that show their vulnerability by degrees as they descend into the underworld. The slow burn romance is done very well and by the end I was close to tears. Incredible work.

4.5⭐

A Steep and Savage Path is one of those books that as soon as I started reading I couldn't put it down. It is split into five parts without any chapters so I found this a little hard to get into at first but once I did i flew through it. The writing is so beautiful and weaves together a rather hauntingly beautiful yet eerie story that even though at times it can feel morbid it is actually such a beautiful story of a young woman's love and the journey she undertakes to the underworld to bring back her sister's soul and the vampire she has enlisted not only to be her guide but also finds herself married to him.

The writing pulls you in straight away with how descriptive and vivid in details it is as it takes you along on the many different paths and lands of the underworld and I loved discovering them along with the main two characters and the host of different souls they meet along the way. The enemies to lovers is more like two individuals who find themselves relying on the other and the circumstances they find themselves in and what starts as a platonic yet tentative friendship grows into a really sweet and beautiful slow burn- romance between them that pays off in the best way as it is mainly about a journey of healing from the past and striving to be better.

The ending had me in tears and I found it so heartbreaking and also so beautiful at the same time. It really is such a beautiful story that will stay with me for a very long time.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book before publication, these are my honest thoughts and opinions.

I had such high hopes for this book and loved the premise. If humans are not laid to rest they roam around as a vampire and a young human woman makes a sacrifice in marrying one vampire in hopes of stopping a him terrorising her village. But she also has an agenda of her own, she wants him to guide her through the underworld to save her sisters soul.

Started off with beautiful Gothic vibes which made me think of One Dark Window. However the pace is far too slow for me. The author kept referring to colours which actually made me confused and unable to picture the world. There were also no chapters or page numbers, not sure if this is just the arc format or intentional but it made it hard to know where to put the book down and not in a good way,
Thank you for the chance to read this story however is a 2.5/3 star for me at 40%

This book had a lot of promise but I didn't quite click with the characters, and if I can't click with them then the book isn't for me. I do think that there will be a lot of people that like this, however, so please definitely pick this up if it sounds like your kind of thing

**3,75/5**
„It was never a good idea to make conversation with a monster; it only let you forget about their teeth."

✨Historical Fantasy
✨Folklore
✨Romance
✨Slow-Burn
✨mortal x immortal forced proximity

What I liked:
I absolutely loved the Romanian folklore vibes and the historical setting of the small rural village. Vampire Stefan is such a gory creature at the beginning, very refreshing compared to most vampire stories. The building connection between him and Irina was enjoyable to follow throughout the book. Especially Stefan's self satisfied behavior and his dry humor were great, but also Irina's thoughts about him were often hilarious. Their banter was well written and I absolutely enjoyed it!

What I didn't like:
The whole underworld journey was interesting at the beginning, but after a while the whole „drama" about the door traveling to a different realm got really repetitive.
I also wished we got more of gory vampire Stefan, I found him quite interesting. The whole folklore vibes were a bit neglected after the beginning.

Thank you Harper Collins Uk and Rachel Quin for the arc!

<b>This book was depressing. </b>

I don’t usually dislike sad books - reading is supposed to make you feel emotions - but I didn’t enjoy the reading experience at all. The entire story was just so dreary … I was glad to finish it, and skimmed the last 20% just to get it over with.

We jump into the story as Irina is marrying a ‘dead man’ to help a village get rid of a vampire who’s tormenting them. She has an underlying motive - to make a deal with said vampire: in exchange for letting him (Stefan) feed off her regularly he is to take her to the underworld to bring back her sister’s trapped soul.

This could have been a super interesting story, however both the romance and the plot fell flatter than a pancake. Let me start with the love story: it’s poorly built and not believable. After 5 minutes of meeting Stefan, Irina just decides he’s annoying (despite him not being annoying at all) and hence this kind of sarcastic banter emerges between them. It all feels very forced, and is clearly the author trying to create an ‘enemies to lovers’ thing - but it doesn’t work! Their dialogue is very mechanical, and don’t even get me started on the fact that they both <b>speak</b> with lots of 21st century colloquialism… but the world is set in 19th century Romania? (Side note - I <i>think</i> it is anyway. I initially thought it was 14/15th century from all the descriptions but then the author mentioned imperial soldiers which is post 1800. You can see the world building wasn’t done well. However, the characters shouldn’t be speaking like modern teenagers either way.) PS this book is marketed for fans of The Cruel Prince, but let me tell you, it pales in comparison.


I also struggled to connect with either Irina or Stefan. We don’t get much background on either of them, especially Stefan as his death is supposed to be a big reveal, albeit a predictable one. I felt pity for him, but he doesn’t make for a very good love interest as a result. Other than his tragic backstory, he appears quite 2D.

And lastly [mild spoilers here so proceed with caution] the underworld was just so … boring. I expected it to be richer and more scary. Instead, we get a normal world but anyone Irina touches remembers their death. Which is interesting once, and then it was just repetitive (all she keeps worrying about is touching people and making them decay into corpses) and frankly quite gross when it did happen. It was a unique concept but the author overdid it. Plus so many interesting things left unexplained, like whatever was the significance of the Totentanz in this story? Etc etc.

The ending [again, massive spoiler] was interesting until the very last page which frankly, just felt like fan service and was left totally unexplained. I felt like the author chickened out from <i>actually</i> writing a tragic ending and tacked something on at the end just to make the readers happy. 👎🏼👎🏼

Overall, I was expecting this to be SO good and it wasn’t. The 2.5 is for the fact that I was actually intrigued enough to finish it. Probably won’t be reading any more books from JJA in the future as all her other material has mixed reviews too, sorry.

<i>ARC received in exchange for an honest review, thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins UK</i>

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sadly, this was mostly underwhelming. I had high hopes after reading the synopsis, but I just didn't feel fulfilled after reading the book.

The writing style was descriptive, and I enjoyed the ending and the last 30% overall, but for the majority of the book I felt bored. The journey seemed repetitive, and I found myself skimming some long paragraphs of descriptions to get to the good parts.

I found Irina annoying, she kept rushing into danger and the unknown headfirst without any planning or prior research. I liked Stefan, but he wasn’t fleshed out enough. I didn’t find myself overly invested in the romance, I wish there was more buildup and subtle details leading to it.

I also don't think it's an enemies-to-lovers story. I saw no enemies, just two individuals who didn’t know how to communicate. There was no hatred nor big conflict between them, only weak bickering and some occasional banter.

The book doesn’t have any chapters, and it also negatively impacted my reading experience.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad book, but unfortunately, it was a disappointment for me.

A Steep and Savage Path begins with a captivatingly dark fairytale atmosphere, filled with whispers, rituals, and the enigmatic folklore of the villagers. I was enchanted by how vividly this was brought to life—it made the opening feel atmospheric and immersive.

The protagonist’s journey to save her little sister had me hooked. The plot itself is clever and refreshingly unique, which is quite a feat in this genre. The pacing in the early chapters kept me engaged, balancing action and story development beautifully. That said, as the story progressed, I felt the momentum faltered, and certain sections dragged more than I’d have liked.

The worldbuilding is one of the novel’s strongest points. It wasn’t overwhelming or heavy-handed—instead, it was intricately woven into the narrative, enhancing the story without detracting from the characters or the plot.

I’d recommend A Steep and Savage Path to fans of books like Kingdom of the Wicked or The Cruel Prince. Its blend of a unique plot, compelling characters, and richly detailed setting makes it a pleasure to read.

A book where the vibes are as immaculate as the front cover. I fell in love with Harwood’s writing when I first read The Shadow In The Glass- I’m a huge lover of fairytales for adults.
Harwood’s writing is just as lyrical in this and blends romantasy and Romanian folklore beautifully.
I’m a sucker for anything that travels to the underworld and if there’s vampires involved, I don’t even need to know what the book is about; I’ll be reading this. This also has tropes that will appeal to a lot of readers, although I think Stefan and Irina are so much more than ‘enemies to lovers’.
A couple of issues I had; I felt like I needed more time with Irina at the beginning before she meets Stefan and consequently travels to the underworld. I love a fast-paced plot, but I love an eerie, gothic setting more and the first few pages were *chef’s kiss*. I would have really loved a bit more time with the town and the folklore surrounding there to begin with.
My second issue was the structure of parts, rather than chapters. This is totally personal preference.
However, overall I will definitely be recommending this one. I loved that this was a standalone and it had enough emotion and heart to match a series. (I wasn’t expecting to need tissues!)

A Steep and Savage Path is an utterly captivating read. The slow build up of Irina and Stefan’s relationship was so much fun., the banter, the peril, the atmospheric world building was top notch. I hope there’s more from this universe. Thank you so much to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this.

Welcome to a tale of a journey through the Underworld to retrieve a wandering Soul.

When we meet Irina she is entering into a marriage to a Man she's never met who also happens to be Dead. What we think is a mercy mission to help save the village being haunted by a Vampire is actually a desperate need to enter the Underworld and retrieve the Soul she needs to find to help her own family.

This is a creative and illustrative story, told beautifully as it races through the realms of the Dead, through gateways and amongst the Underworld's inhabitants, good and bad.
Irina and Stefan's tales merge and dance around each other, each needing help in their own way only to meet a heart-breaking condition set by Death itself.

I loved this book, I read it in one sitting. The World woven is gorgeously descriptive and draws you in completely, I felt my heart breaking as the book neared it's end and Irina's choices were laid out before her.

Thank you so much to Rachel Quin and Harper Collins for sending me this book to read in exchange for an honest review.

This was enjoyable but I wasn’t riveted by it. I found myself skimming long paragraphs of descriptions and internal monologues because I just wanted to get to the real action of the story— which was Irina traversing the depths of the land of the dead in hunt of her younger sister, alongside the romance with her vampire husband Stefan.

I actually enjoyed their dynamic but I think we didn’t get enough of them, strangely enough, despite them literally spending every moment together as they travelled. But I found the speech exchanges to be quite short and limited, oftentimes them having the same conversations over and over, so I didn’t find myself overly invested in their romance but I was curious to see how it all played out. So, the story kept me curious enough to continue and finish it, but not enough for me to be excited while I read.

The story was definitely unique but I was underwhelmed mostly. It was just missing something for me to be completely invested in the story.

*Actual rating is 4.5 stars*

A Steep and Savage Path is a fantasy romance inspired by Greek myths and Romanian folklore. It's a gothic and at times eerie story about a young woman determined to bring her sister’s soul back from the underworld and the vampire she has enlisted to be her guide. Their search takes them through many different parts and lands of the underworld, and it was so exciting to discover them alongside the two main characters.

While the enemies to lovers trope could be used to describe the relationship between Irina and Stefan, I can’t help but feel that it sells their relationship short. The pair were never really enemies, and instead more like two individuals striking an uneasy truce based on beneficial aspects. What ensues is a tender love story about a platonic relationship grown out of a desperate need evolves into something deeper. It’s about healing from the past and striving to better yourself. It’s the best kind of slow-burn romance where the pay-off is worth the wait. Not to mention that both the main characters are queer coded.

It’s a book about journeys, both outside in the world but also inside yourself. In case you couldn’t tell, I really enjoyed this book and the characters in it. Some part of me is a bit sad that it’s a standalone, but on the other hand I don't think I could handle another book with an ending that made me really emotional. My only big negative thing about the book is that it doesn’t have any chapters. Instead it’s divided into five parts of various lengths. Something that made my reading experience less than ideal at times.

This is imaginative fantasy about a girl marrying a vampire to gain access to the underworld to save her still living sisters soul. For fans of this its excellent.

A Steep and Savage Path by JJA Harwood is a captivating and haunting tale that blends supernatural elements with a forbidden romance. The story follows Irina, a woman who must become the bride of a vampire to save her sister’s soul from the underworld. In exchange for his help, Irina offers her blood to Stefan, her new husband, and they embark on a perilous journey through a world of nightmarish creatures and twisted landscapes.

The book is rich in eerie imagery, from three-headed beasts to winged horrors and walking corpses, creating an atmospheric setting that immerses readers in a realm both dangerous and otherworldly. The dynamic between Irina and Stefan is one of mutual distrust that slowly evolves into a powerful, unexpected love, making the enemies-to-lovers trope both fresh and compelling. The forced proximity between them heightens the tension, creating a bond that feels both inevitable and fraught with danger.

As someone with a teenage obsession with vampire fiction, I found this book particularly enthralling. Harwood’s take on the genre is unique, blending the thrill of the supernatural with an emotional depth that adds complexity to the characters and their relationships. Irina’s journey to the underworld is not just physically perilous but also emotionally transformative, with the stakes growing ever higher. The choice she faces at the end is heart-wrenching and leaves a lasting impact.

For anyone who enjoys dark, atmospheric stories with a strong female lead, A Steep and Savage Path is a must-read. The romance between Irina and Stefan is passionate and intense, while the world-building is both eerie and captivating. This book is a unique and unforgettable journey that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

This book was absolutely mesmerizing—a dark, haunting, and beautifully written tale that completely pulled me in. Irina’s journey is full of sacrifice, determination, and quiet strength, making her such a compelling protagonist. The eerie, atmospheric world-building was stunning, and I felt fully immersed in the folklore and magic woven throughout the story.

The dynamic between Irina and Stefan was everything I love in an enemies-to-lovers romance—tense, electric, and full of slow-burning intensity. Their relationship unfolded so naturally, layered with trust, danger, and longing. Every twist and turn had me on edge, and the emotional depth made it all so satisfying.

If you love gothic fantasy, haunting myths, and romances that simmer with tension and passion, A Steep and Savage Path is an absolute must-read. It’s the kind of book that lingers in your mind long after you’ve finished.

*thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

Oh my, oh my!
YA Gothic horror meets Romanian folklore meets Aeneid & some Persephone. Could I ask for more?

The back and forth between Irina (a very mortal, live bride) and Stefan (a haunting vampire) is incredible, oh the trauma, all the growth. Their journey through the shadowy underworld was so engaging that I didn’t want them to reach the end 🖤

I dove straight in the atmosphere, and finished it in less than 24h..

If you love eerie stories, a strong FMC that is fair, being surprised by a monster and you’re a big sister that would go through hell for your little one: you won’t want to miss this! ✨

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction | Magpie for the ARC. 🙌🏼

This book was SO good! I loved the romance and how it was written, the character were fascinating to read about and I loved the setting of this book.
Absolutely will be reading more from this author! Such a beautiful read.