A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Redhook Books for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you like your romances to be bloody, dark, intense and leaving you breathless for more - you need to read this book. If you’ve read A Dowry of Blood, you will love this novel as well (if you haven’t read ADoB, you should get on that ASAP.)

Intense and atmospheric, every sentence I read had me needing to continue reading to see where it went. Every chapter I finished felt like I was barely treading water in this world, and as the romance progressed I could feel myself drowning in it.

We follow Laura as she enters this all-women’s college and takes an advanced poetry class - that only happens after night. There, she meets Carmilla and the professor De Lafontaine,
who have some unknown connection between them. As Laura advances in the class, and gets closer to them both, she learns of the dark underbelly to this college and their relationship. She slowly learns to accept her darker desires, and leaves as a very different person than she entered.

There were multiple times in this novel I wasn’t sure how it would progress, and at no point was I entirely sure who could be trusted. The romance in this novel is both dark and intense, and kept me glued to my kindle as I read further.

Anyone who likes gothic romances with a little (or a lot) of blood thrown in, danger, secrets, lies, and sex would absolutely love this novel. I began reading unsure of how the relationship between Laura and Carmilla would ever graduate from hated academic rivals, and the way this book does it was beautiful.