Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek

 Pages: 416

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Released: 29th of February 2024

Raised in a small village near the spirit-wood, Liska Radost knows that Magic is monstrous, and its practitioners, monsters.

After a deadly mistake, Liska delves into the dangerous spirit-wood, guarded by a demon to steal a mythical fern flower. Pluck it, and she can use its one wish to banish her own power.
Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to the horrors of the Czantory, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood - The Leszy - a bargain seems better than death: one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish.

Whisked away to his crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling discovery. She is not the first person to strike this bargain. And If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts—figurative and literal—of his past.

Something wakes in the woods, killing off villagers one by one. Something that Frightens even The Leszy … something that cannot be defeated unless Liska embraces the monster she’s always feared becoming.

What I Have to Say

I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me a lot of the Winternight Trilogy, a series I love, but with a stronger romance. And the romance was delicious. I loved the way the author built up the relationship between the Leszy and Liska. It didn't feel rushed like a lot of books these days seem to do.

I really liked the world a lot. A world where there's a shapeshifting house spirit waiting for you when you get home who will treat you kindly if you give it a little bread and honey. Jaga was definitely one of my favourite characters, but I loved how everyone in this book was something different. No one was quite human.

And the ending was perfect. It's hard to end a book, especially a standalone, which I think this is. But this was just perfection. The last line especially. 

4 stars 

My thanks goes to Netgalley and Penguin for providing me with this gifted copy for review. 

Dowry of Blood by S.T Gibson

 Pages: 292 

Publisher: Orbit 

Released: 31st of January 2021 

This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. . .

Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things.

Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband's dark secrets. With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.

What I Have to Say 

This book was beautifully written, the language used was evocative and well thought out, but I felt the plot was a little too uneventful for my liking. The ending was wonderfully action based but everything else was just them travelling around and meeting one another. 

I loved the polyamory. The synopsis calls them rival lovers but all four main characters of this book are in love with each other. The relationship between Constanta, Magdalena and Alexi is perfect and beautiful and honestly relationship goals for anyone whether polyamorous or monogamous. They just could have done without Dracula in the mix. 

I really don't have more to say about this book. If you like beautiful writing and polyamory and don't mind a more sedate book, then it's perfect for you. 

3 stars 

My thanks go to Orbit and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review.