I received a free copy of Kate Stevens‘ Bride of Brutal Hearts.

Two vicious kings. One captive bride. Their magic should have destroyed me.

Instead, it made them mine.

When my sister’s name is called for the vampires’ harvest, I step forward. It’s a death sentence, but she has a family, a future. All I have is a dusty bookshop, an ailing body, and a fate that always ends in fangs.

As the only volunteer, I’m claimed as the newest Mortal Bride—a living sacrifice to their two wicked kings.

The Conqueror, ruthless and imposing, his icy demeanor concealing his fiery intensity.

The Butcher, charming and capricious, his divine beauty disguising his cruel desires.

The kings intend to drain my lifeforce to fuel the spell securing their reign. But when the ceremony goes awry, we’re all ensnared in an obsessive bond… one not even death can break.

The Conqueror and the Butcher now hunger for more than my blood. They want all of me, forever.

I should resist them. I should hate them. They are the monsters who devour my people.

But no matter how brutal their hearts, I crave them just as fiercely.

I enjoyed this. At almost 800 pages to tell a fairly straightforward story, it’s far too long (and then ends on a cliffhanger to boot), and I have a few complaints. But overall, I enjoyed this. I liked Jules’ evil golden retriever routine, the dark and brooding Luc, and their relationship with each other. Nessa is pleasantly plump and has a backbone, though she isn’t really able to utilize it here. I’m hoping future books will allow her to grow in ways that allow her to find some agency for her internal fortitude. I appreciated the diversity and representation of endometriosis.

Here’s my main complaint. Stevens sets up a whole soulbond, fated mates kind of scenario that is supposed to bind people together. Each takes half the other’s soul. Or, in this case, the three share thirds. That makes them equal within the bond. Now, obviously, this is dark romance, and I’m not complaining about the dark themes. Nessa isn’t socially equal. Outside of the soulbond, she would have been a slave. (This is very much a master/slave dynamic.) She’s physically smaller. So, she’ll never be an equal in strength. She’s new to the whole scenario, while the men have been companions for 500 years. She’s not an equal there either. All par for a dark romance course. However, the soulbond is supposed to bind them as equals within the bond, and it doesn’t. The individuals might not yet have it in them to treat each other as equals, but the internal demands of the bond should be balanced. Nothing about what the bond seems to make Nessa want and do is balanced between her and the men, and, according to the lore Stevens created, it should have been. Plus, I was so sick of them not trusting anything she said when they are supposed to be in her thoughts.

Despite that. I’ll be looking for book two when it comes out.

Other Reviews:

Bride of Brutal Hearts (Bloodborne Court #1) by Kate Stevens