ARC Review ~ “Bloodgrove”, written by Elisabeth G. Mark
▪︎ About the book ▪︎
📚 Reading format: ARC (ebook)
📕 Author: Elisabeth G. Mark (@elisabethgmark.author)
📚 Number of pages: 396
📕 Status: Series, vol. 1
📚 Age: 18+
📕 Genre: Gothic, Romantasy, New Adult
📚 Rating: 5/5⭐️
📕 Buddy Reading: Ally (@green.mermaid.reads)
▪︎ Review ▪︎
🩸When I first found out about this book, thanks to my dear buddy reading girl Ally, I was mind blown! If a book has vampires, blood magic, a Gothic-Victiorian setting and a complicated love story between the main characters, then I'm here for it!
🫀And, with the most wonderful opportunity, I became for the first time an ARC reader for a book, and that was a wild and fascinating journey through “Bloodgrove”, written by Elisabeth G. Mark. I loved this book so much that it became an instant favorite from this year and from the fantasy category as well! I definitely stepped out of my confort zone and I regret nothing! It was an unforgettable journey and I wish everyone to read it!
🩸The atmosphere reminded me of the black and white movies, where there is also mystery and magic. We follow William Frank's path to Bloodgrove, a cursed and dangerous city, in order for him to regain his grace as an interior designer that use magic. He was hired by the Dutchess Elodie Ormonde, the last survivor of her bloodline, to renovate the ballroom of her mansion.
🫀What Will will later find is that Elodie is a powerful blood mage and her plan is to become the next Red Hand, the King's direct subordinate. But in order to do that, she must confront Eric Arcos, the Ambassador of the Capitol who was once her childhood friend and his now rival in the fight of becoming the Red Hand.
🩸Full of vivid dreams of monsters, chimeras or even ancient Gods; gothic and well descripted details of the atmosphere and locations; suspenseful and almost frightening events that include vampires, blood rituals or posessions; and last but not least, a lot of moments that may involve the three protagonists while the tension, rage, revenge and yearning are all present - these are the elements that make of “Bloodgrove”, written by Elisabeth G. Mark a must read for anyone that enjoy an absolutely well created Gothic and Romantasy story.
🩸P.S.1: Now I cannot wait: first for my physical paperback and hardcover copies of this book to arrive (I just needed to have them on my shelves), and second for the next volume in this series (because that ending is making me feel so excited and ready to discover the following adventures of Will, Elodie and Eric)!
🫀P.S.2: I don't have enough words to thank you, Elisabeth, for giving me the chance to discover your story! And I wish everyone to read it as well because you will forever be amazed by this Gothic Universe. Have a happy and magical reading, dear book lovers!
▪︎ Favorite quotes ▪︎
📖 “Then why did you do it?”
The ambassador smiled, almost gently, glancing toward the staircase where Elodie had disappeared.
“Because this is the only language we know. We have hated each other since childhood. We will fight until one of us is in the grave, and even then, the other will try to build a larger mausoleum beside it.”
📖 “Perhaps I need more people like you in my life. With pure hearts and black souls.”
📖 “I fear I was not made to be loved. I dream of being devoured alive, of giving myself greedily to an animal. I do not want to be loved.”
📖 “I dream of you,” Elodie whispered.
The thick snowfall softened the roar of the waves.
“Sometimes I feel so lost, and then I ask myself, what would Will do? As though you were my compass.”
“Elodie, you should not think of me as your compass. All my thoughts lead in forbidden directions.”
She smiled.
“Perhaps you are right. Ever since I saw you hanging halfdead in those chains, I have wondered whether rejecting you was a mistake. Whether the ending is worth denying myself the time we have before it comes.”
Will frowned.
“But you are getting married…”
“And still, you were the one who came to help me. My little clan.”
📖“Do not mistake me for some innocent sacrificial lamb, a martyr surrendering her pure soul for her people. I was born for this role and forged in blood so that I would be strong enough. There was never a crumb of innocence in me to be destroyed.”
Her words faded into the silence of the room, accompanied by the drumming rain. Slowly, Will straightened fully, and the distance between them yawned wide.
“Then am I the sacrificial lamb?”
📖 “I have defeated gods, but you break me.”
📖 “Is it really you? Or is it the beast speaking?”
Eric drank only lazily now, but nothing about his posture or the sweep of his tongue had lost its hunger.
“Entirely me. I warned you about me. Warned you that only monsters dance here.”
📖"Slowly, his gaze traveled along the gentleman's arm, clad in a perfectly tailored, if unfashionable, suit, and upward to the sharp features of a man around Will’s own age. His face was as angular and precise as his clothing: high cheekbones, hollow cheeks, a nose straight as a knife, and dark brows shadowing pale eyes. Now, in the light of the setting sun, they appeared almost red."
📖"He wanted another glimpse of that handsome face, wanted to study the contrasts between the pale skin, light eyes, and dark hair. Mr. Arcos carried himself with such absolute confidence, whether crossing the dining car or striding the short distance along the platform, as though he were conscious at every moment that an entire train had been waiting only for him. That every lady knew his name. Meeting someone of so much self-assurance ought to have been repellent."
📖 She meant to laugh, but the sound died, caught by the possibility. She studied him sharply, her expression not quite a smile.
“What are you trying to accomplish? Do you mean to prove that I need to make mistakes? That this part of me —”
“Sit on the desk and gather up your skirts.”
The playful smile vanished from his lips, and another side of him emerged, cool and deep, strong as the current of the sea. It had taken years for him to find his confidence, to stand by what he wanted, and he was tired of being driven back into the uncertainty of his youth—by Bloodgrove, by Mr. Arcos, by his own magic, and above all by Elodie.
📖 "In the faint light, her eyes were like storm clouds hanging low. She was beautiful. The opposite of the perfect, sensual vision she had been all those weeks ago. Then, she had seemed untouchable. Now she was raw and wild. He had admired her beauty, fought against her will, tasted her blood, and now all of it became one."
📖 Before he knew it, he was beside her, taking her hand. Fine scratches covered her skin, just deep enough to bleed. But her wrists were worse. Were there still thorns embedded?
“What happened?” he growled.
“Eric.”
“That bastard!”
He truly did not know the man. He had seen Mr. Arcos’s capacity for cruelty, but he had never imagined him physically hurting someone—that their conflict went beyond vicious words. Even so, Will felt relieved to know it had not been a group of strange men. He trusted his judgment of Mr. Arcos that far, at least.
📖“Instead, you behave as though it were normal for a man to bind you with thorns.”
Because that was clearly what had happened, the wounds told an unmistakable story: thorny vines had wound themselves around her throat and hands.
“In the end, it became tedious—and painful—but at first…”
She bit her lip.
“He thought it amusing to tie me to the gates of the Senate. I only just managed to free myself before the senators arrived.”
Elodie laughed and rose. Had it truly been only another prank in their endless rivalry? Perhaps even a harmless one, by their standards, if their games usually ended with people dead.
📖 “The monster told me about magic and all the wonders I could perform. And nothing sounded more exciting to a lonely boy than the promise of endless possibilities. So I returned to it day after day and listened while it told me stories of the heavens and the sea.”
📖 “I am a child of salt and storm. Your King has no power over me.”
📖"Magic was a cruel lover. It demanded sacrifice after sacrifice, greedier than any monster."
📖 "Magic did not merely want his life. It wanted his body as well, piece by piece."
