The writing is beautiful and the sense of place is exceptional. It's a period of history that I don't know much about and the book does a great job of placing you in the setting and giving information without info dumping. 

I went in expecting a horror book with vampires and I got a historical romance with a little bit of horror. My expectations were wrong and it's not really a genre I enjoy.

However, I can see why people would really enjoy this which is why I’m saying its a pick because it was an excellent book, just not to my tastes.