A Vow of Blood and Tears
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3 Months Free
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A Vow of Blood and Tears
Narrated by:
Tyler Donne, Jesse Vilinsky
Buy Now for £21.19
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Narrated by:
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Tyler Donne
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Jesse Vilinsky
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By:
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Cate Corvin
Bane: Never did I dream that a woman would cry on our wedding night.
Ten years have passed since humans and vampires allied to defeat the wolves. Now, to seal the covenant between our people and keep my throne, I must take a mortal bride. But I’ve gone further than any vampire has gone before—become a fiend, a monster even among my own kind.
When I first see her, I know I’ve doomed her. And though I crave the taste of her blood . . . I will fight the monster within to win her heart and soul.
Cirri: Never did I dream that a monstrous vampire would be the one to hear me.
Voiceless and ignored by the world, I was never considered good enough for anything beyond my indentured servitude. Chosen by chance as a pureblood bride for the Lord of the Rift, I’ve been sold in marriage to a vampire more hideous than I could’ve imagined.
But despite his savage appearance, he tries to hear my silent words. He alone learns to read the language of my hands. He might be a beast, but there is beauty in his soul. For the sake of my people, I will spend a lifetime shackled to this monster . . . But for the sake of his heart, I will make myself heard.
Contains mature themes.
©2025 Cate Corvin (P)2025 Tantor Media
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Story: Book loving female given to vampire/beast. Falls in love. Just a take on Beauty and the Beast.
Characters:
I liked the side characters more than the main characters. Our main characters aren't actually that interesting, even after 2/3 of the book. 17.5 hours is a LOT of time to not care about the characters.
Our main female... For someone who doesn't speak, she spends a LOT of time using as advanced words as possible. Why not try to simplify the language or use more easily understood motions. If you're writing text to communicate, use a few short words instead of complicated sentences with long words. I get the idea that it is her complete language, but at some point, a language doesn't have a lot of purpose if no one understands you. She complains that people don't have patience to wait for her to write... yes... because she isn't making an attempt to compact it down or pull the main points forward. But oh, woe is her! Also, her self-confidence is pathetic. If the guy is having hawt steamy interactions with you, he probably thinks you're at least mildly attractive. Everyone says you're pretty. Stop spending so much time freaking out if he thinks you're pretty. We get it.
Main male... he is almost more like a side character. We understand that he thinks he's ugly because he's a beast form constantly. But he doesn't seem to have an actual personality beyond 'make girl happy, me ugly, fight' but yet he's super interested in her library projects and is a smart character, but not? Did he have any interests besides her and keeping everyone safe? Any hobbies besides feeling sorry for himself?
Narration:
This is one of the few books where I can say, it would have been better with just one narrator. The voices hop too much between chapter to chapter. Also... since our main female doesn't speak... it is hard to know what things she's thinking, doing with her hands, or writing. And when the male narrator does the female voices... it's cringy. Better if the female narrator had done everything and just used her 'male voice' that she already uses for her chapters when any male talks.
Conclusion:
This book, with so much non-verbal communication, should probably be read rather than listened to. Or just skipped completely.
Slow burn steam, but DNF at 68%
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The plot was fun. In a world where humans and vampires, once traditional enemies, had formed an alliance to fend off a horde of vicious wargs (monstrous werewolves) four vampire lords ruled. As part of the alliance treaty they had a set time to take a human bride. The four vampire lords were unique. They were not the typical pretty vampire but still deadly vampires that the humans had been slowly beginning to accept over the years since the war. During war time they had transformed themselves into hideous Fiends and were now more beast than man or vampire in appearance. Which made them feared but gave them the power they needed to turn the tide in the war with the wargs.
The story begins as the last vampire lord, Bane, was approaching the deadline for taking his human bride. Unfortunately his bride was to come from the Silver Sisterhood, an all female institution of vampire hunters that was fading in relevance in an era where vampires and humans had an alliance. To make matters even worse, on the eve of the wedding, the chosen bride decides death is the better option than marriage to a beastly fiend and takes her own life! This leaves the Silver Sisterhood scrambling to find a last minute replacement so the treaty is not broken. Unfortunately for mute indentured servant, Cirri, she is the backup and quickly finds herself going from cleaning up the blood of the last bride to taking her place in the political marriage to a fiend!
The tale was a ton of fun. Corvin had an engaging writing style. I’ve read a bunch of recent books that have nailed the characters, the dialogue, and the story but that have struggled with the nitty gritty of sufficiently describing their world in a way that was easy to picture. That was not the case with this story as the gothic setting and fantasy world was vividly described. This was a long tale (running over 25 hours in audio) and Corvin made the best use of that time to develop both the romance and the plot in a way that had the action, romance, and emotional beats of the tale ramping up as it progressed. Resulting in this being one of those tales that started good then got better and better as it went!
I liked the world. It had an old school fairytale fantasy feel to it. We got superstitious humans, pretty but still scary vampires and blood witches, evil monstrous wargs, and we got teased with the potential existence of the fey and even possibly actual Gods. Throw in the uneasy alliance between the vampires and the humans, potential hostilities with a neighbouring kingdom, and the threat of the constant warg raids and attacks and we had an interesting setting for our story.
I enjoyed the romance. Both Cirri and Bane were easy to root for and sympathise with. They both had issues but, over time, worked hard to help each other overcome them as much as possible. There was a lot of Beauty and the Beast in this one, but enough original elements to still make it a great read in its own right. We also got a lot of classic HR arranged marriage vibes rather than the more common enemies-to-lovers trope that is so popular right now. Both Cirri and Bane had reasons to be wary of each other but both were genuinely interested in trying to make their political marriage work even if they were not particularly hopeful of finding actual love in it. It helped add to the slow burn nature of the romance. With Bane being monstrous in appearance and Cerri having issues communicating there was definitely some early problems to overcome. Reminded me a bit of Radiance by Grace Draven but it did not quite lean so hard into initial repulsion of both characters appearance as Bane thought Cerri was a hottie right from first sight but it did have that similar element to this tale and the additional communication issues for Cerri, as no one knew her sign language, added some nuanced melodrama to the story and her new relationship. Bane had his own fears and issues to deal with which gave their relationship a good balance. They were likeable characters that were easy to root for as a couple but they were not beyond making mistakes.
I felt like this was an engaging romantasy tale that focused most on the slow burn relationship but had enough worldbuilding and plot to keep the story a compelling read/listen. I was engaged through all 25 hours of this one! I also feel like the world had a dark fairytale edge to it that added some creepy atmosphere and tension to the happenings.
The supporting cast was good and helped add some depth to the story. Since we were introduced to the three other fiend lords, who had recently taken human brides of their own but seemed to be having issues with them, it hinted at potential for at least three more sequels set in this world. Which I’d absolutely be interested in reading. This wrapped up the Bane/Cirri tale nicely, and worked perfectly as a satisfying standalone, but left me eager to read more from this world. I feel the classic romance pivot to a new lead couple would be the ideal way to go for this series.
All in all I’m glad I grabbed this romantasy on a whim as it was pretty much everything I was hoping it would be when I got hooked by the blurb and hit that pre-order!
Rating: 5 Stars.
Audio Note: This was narrated by Jesse Vilinsky and Tyler Donne in the dual narration style. POV segments were split fairly equally between Cirri and Bane and each narrator did their respective POV segments. I can sometimes find this method a little jarring but the bouncing between Vilinsky and Donne was fairly smooth. Both gave very good performances.
I’m also fairly sure Tyler Donne is a pseudonym for Jim Frangione. They sound the same and have the exact same style, speech cadence, and accent. It goes without saying that grabbing the Black Dagger Brotherhood audio narrator, or a guy that sounds exactly like him, was a fantastic choice for this one!
Engaging Beauty & the Beast coded romantasy!
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