Thank you to netgalley for this ARC!

The Bride of Death tells the story of a young woman forced to compete for the hand of Death in marriage in order to save her village from destruction and the man she loves. I’d describe it as Kingdom of the Wicked meets the end of ACOTAR.

I found myself with conflicted feelings on this book. It opened with a very Gothic, atmospheric style, then over the course of the book became more monster romance/fantasy feeling. While I enjoyed the premise a lot, the story moved very slowly through her three trials. Many of the scenes were just her and Death interacting with mild, forced tension, but didn’t drive the plot actually forward. It seemed like the it wanted to be too many things at once, and I wished it had either been fast-paced focused on these high stakes trials, or slow-paced Gothic-feeling romance. Instead, the trials didn’t move with enough speed to make me feel any stakes and the romance was too forced to feel the pining.
I realized about 60% in that I didn’t feel any attachment to the characters or their goals.

However, the prose itself was well-done and the story was quite unique. The world was enchanting the Russian-based lore was very interesting.

I think readers who enjoy romantasy and don’t mind a slow, low stakes pace, will love this book.

Surprising no one, I thoroughly enjoyed this! Coming off a spate of reads where “romance” seemed to factor into a space where my choice of S&S/epic/high fantasy usually doesn't lean towards, I found this gorgeously written story utterly captivating! This is my second title by this author and I think I’m very much a fan of Aden’s narrative style.

In a nostalgic way, this way of storytelling reminded me of the grim folkloric stories my father and my uncles and aunts would regale us with at family gatherings back on the island, handed down legends passed onto us from their own childhood memories. It was enrapturing back then, listening to stories about douen, soucouyant, la diablesse et al, and I felt that same curiosity here, as Aden spun her tale about Erlik Khan, the Lord of Death, and the trials to conquer in order to be his bride!

Once I got going reading this, it captured all of my attention! I thought all the characterizations were well done, and while Zerryn did suffer from the same self sacrificing stupidity that I thought Freya from Fate Inked in Blood had, hers was on a much milder level and I was able to look past her ridiculousness at around the 50% mark. It was dumb and I thought Aden could have been more adroit about Zerryn and Erlik’s soul binding, but nothing is perfect and I was happy with everything else!

Erlik Khan?!? hello hi It's a MEGA YES from me!

It was intimated by one of my lovely friends that there were possible other arcs floating around, so mine had absolutely ZERO smut, and if whatever piercings and magical tattoos were something people were taking issue with, as a fantasy reader I can attest to the fact that the genre as a whole employs this aesthetic on the regular! From my current reads alone, 3 out of the 5 feature magically tattooed and pierced main and side characters.

DAFUQ is this noise!? I can’t roll my eyes harder at this shade IF this is really a thing IDGAF.😒

Overall I had a great time with this! I though the language was lush and hypnotic, the world was amazing to traverse, Zerryn didn’t screech shriek or rage like the last few FMCs I’ve read just recently, bless, and straight up this read like what it was: a fantasy romance featuring POC.

As in, it’s not white.

If you can, ignore whatever book splashes marketing uses to homogenize cultural lorescape, because you’ll only be doing yourself a favour.

I thought this was delicious and toothy, and as I’ve read both Arden and Novik and can appreciate them both for their own storytelling prowess, I LOVE that Aden stands unique amongst them! And because I really enjoyed this inspired offering of Turkic mythology, I can only look forward to more of this celebration of POC folkloric narrative, because it makes ME FEEL SEEN in ways that this subgenre has yet to allow!

This was wonderful and I'm very happy that most everything here worked for ME! ofc YMMV as we all experience life through our own lens, but this was a win for me and straight up that's pretty much all that matters to me!✌🏽

Warnings of jinns and other mythical creatures that might spirit away a young girl, the story opens with setting up the reader to understand family dynamics: a maid who has passed (the story teller), a friend who slowly changes throughout the book, and parents who are practical thus refusing to believe in fairytales and myths. There was a bit of context I felt missing with reference to jinns, bichuras, and other mythical creatures. I didn't feel as if there was enough to prepare for the folklore and I am not in the practice of looking up unknown references when reading a book.

Highly recommend if you are familiar with folklore from the region where jinns, bichuras, and and the like common knowledge.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy.

I can sum up the beginning of this story in 3 words: Folklore, gothic and deliciously dark!

And look at that book cover, combined with that title and I didn’t even bother to read the blurb as I knew I had to get my hands on it.

This story starts off beautifully with the mention of Turkish folklore but once the trials start, the tone shifts and I found myself losing interest, slowly but surely.

The main character is rather unlikeable, she is rude and annoying (amongst other things) and Erlik -the scary lord of death, the devil himself-, for someone who lived that long, he surely doesn’t act like it. Moreover, the world building is all over the place.

This book was way too long for my liking, at one point I felt like it will never end as it just kept dragging on and on.

In a nutshell, this was not my cup of tea but it might be yours!

The Bride of Death by F.M. Aden is an enchanting adult fantasy that creates an atmosphere akin to stepping directly into a piece of folklore and living there for a while.
What I loved
1. Excellent characters. Zerrynd in particular was just so kind and caring.
2.The author has an almost whimsical tone while writing a darker story and the juxtaposition of the two just hit right for me.
What didn't work for me
1. I feel like the plot could have dealt with some room to grow further.
Who I recommend this work for
Fans of stories such as Spinning Silver will find themselves at home within the pages of The Bride of Death.

I wanted to love this but I just couldn’t get into it.

I will say that I think the writing got SIGNIFICANTLY better as the book went on, and perhaps if it had started as strongly as it ended I might have rated this higher. Aden definitely found her writing style by the end of the book and because of that I would be interested to read what else they write as I think it’s clear this is a debut novel. Ultimately though, I just couldn’t get into this.

On the surface it has absolutely everything I would love but I just never bought into this world. Worldbuilding is huge for me, and particularly in books like this we need to FEEL the world, or at the very least understand it. I had so many questions about the world and I definitely needed more explanation here. Characters also felt too surface level for me. There could have been so much done with them but I never really felt like I knew or cared about any of them. Their character arcs were all rushed and, much like the build building, the characters seemed to lack depth.

There were lots of positives; I thought the plot was interesting, it was well paced, I enjoyed some of the side characters quite a lot, and the gothic vibes for the underworld were immaculate.

So, in short, this book wasn’t it for me but it has definitely piqued my interest for what else Aden creates.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-ARC

Perfect for dark fantasy and mythology retelling fans! A Turkish mythology retelling of a story similar to that of Hades x Persephone, which has inspired me to look more into the tales from Turkish mythology. Great writing and I enjoyed the book overall - a beautiful cover as well!
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for this ARC.

Bride of death follows the story of Zerrin, a girl said to be touched by the devil, and seen as ill luck for all that have contact with her. Despite her difficulties being accepted in the community, Zerrin falls in love, and ends up in a quest to save her love, her family and her home.

Honestly, I’m a bit divided with this book because it was a brilliant idea that could have been better executed.

What I really liked in the story:
- I really appreciated the F. M. Aden writing style. I think it was beautiful and added to the story atmosphere and worldbuilding. It captured my attention from the beginning, and I definitely want to read more by her.
- I like fairytales and myths-based stories, and I’ve never read one based on Turkic Mythology. I think it’s great to bring this to the mass market.
- The story was exciting and filled with interesting characters. Moreover, I was surprised by most of the events, which doesn’t happen that often.
- Bride of Death really does have wonderful characters, but Elrik wins the prize for the best one. I think he was quite well written, and Aden was able to influence my emotions towards him in a drastic way.
- I loved Zerryn caring nature and how she used it to befriend everyone, using what would traditionally be seen as a weakness as one of her main strengths. Also, it's really nice to see female friendships blossom, the world needs more of this!
- I would have liked to see one thing done differently in the end, but it was a fitting finale for the story, and I respect the author's choice.
- The author/ editor / publisher incorporated some of the criticisms made by early reviewers. My ARC doesn’t have smut, piercings, or anything particularly modern. The story flows naturally, the writing is consistent along the book, and all sexual scenes are quite tasteful and well written, with nothing too explicit. Honestly, it was quite good and proof that less is often more.

I see two major issues with this book:
- The marketing made comparing it with The Bear and the Nightingale was probably a disservice. I’ve never read it (I really want to though), but I heard nothing but praise for it. It’s never fair to compare books to something that is regarded as somewhat a masterpiece in the genre. It will inevitably raise expectations to levels difficult to fulfil.
- The plot lacked a bit of development. We needed to see more details of Zerryn while growing up to understand her magic and her relationship with the community. We also needed to see more of her and Çelik together, and see their love grow.
As it was, although F. M. Aden does a brilliant job making us like Zerryn, we never truly see her life unfold and how she adjusted to a community that would always look at her sideways. We also never see how Çelik and Zerryn relationship worked. It is easy to understand her love for him as she was mostly an outcast and would easily become dependent on anyone who would give her time and attention. Because we are told, rather than see her life and relationships, we end up losing some of the tension it should have been created. The stakes never seemed high enough to me, because I was under the impression she was an unreliable narrator, and convinced from the beginning everyone would be unworthy. This was a great opportunity for Zerryn character development on the second and third part of the book, instead of a rushed thing in the end.

I did enjoy the book and I believe this story will remain in my memory 😊

3.5 stars

<i>I would like to thank Northern Light Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest an honest review.</i>

WOW. I loved this book! I did not have any expectations going in and I will be honest, I was a bit skeptical I would enjoy it. The gothic romance "falling in love with Death" trope usually isn't for me but maybe I just hadn't read the right book?! Although there wasn't much world building, I find myself okay with that because the majority of the book takes place in the Underworld - which, at least for me, doesn't take much to imagine on my own. The rest of the book takes place in small towns and barren places across the world that generally are familiar to readers already.

I loved weird little Zerryn, I loved her weird maid that took care of her as a child, I loved how protective her father was and how accepting her grandmother was in her life. I also really appreciated the way the author wrote Zerryn's perspective of the world. Because she was an odd and different child, she saw the world through a different lens (or should I say "eye" ;P) and was more likely than not accepting and willing to do anything for those around her. In the end, she ends up falling in love with Death (HELLO I ALSO FELL IN LOVE WITH HIM, I GET IT GIRL) and although she literally DIED and went to the underworld to do the bidding of the petty humans above she gets scolded and burned by them all because she returns the Bride of Death and looks different. But boy does she get her revenge!!!!

I felt like my emotions and feelings were right there alongside Zeryyn the entire time and I truly had so much fun reading this book.

This book just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t get into it. The beginning was so confusing and all over the place for me personally.

The Bride of Death is for fans of a dark, classic fairytale. I immediately loved the writing style and setting of this story because even though it felt like a fresh retelling, there was something very classic and almost nostalgic about the writing. I definitely agree with the Naomi Novik comparisons in the best way. After the story picks up though, I was let down by the world building and pacing. Usually a book of this length is the sweet spot for me, but instead I felt like the story ended up being rushed and not fleshed out as much as I wanted. I will keep my eye out for other work by FM Aden because the writing has so much potential, but unfortunately this one fell a bit flat for me. Thank you for the opportunity!

This is another Hades x Persephone retelling, but make it Turkish/Anatolian inspired. Sounds awesome right? It reminded me so much of the Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden, but where that story is gorgeous and haunting and still living rent-free in my head, this one was just… not it. At first I kind of enjoyed the writing style, especially the lively descriptions. I had a problem, however, with how fragmented the writing was. The pacing was so choppy. The plot felt rushed, but it was also dragging at the same time. For instance, Zerryn has to complete a set of three tasks to win Erlik’s hand in marriage, but they were SO BORING to read about. In between completing the tasks she goes back to the underworld to banter and make out with Erlik a little bit and it goes on like that. I just didn’t enjoy reading this.

There also wasn’t much depth to the characters. Erlik was described at this badass lord of the underworld that everyone’s terrified of, but he behaves like a petulant 10-year-old most of the time. Oh and btw, because he’s not a human he has “special” features to his physique, namely: four arms, four eyes and several extra mouths in places that I don’t wanna think about too much. Zerryn was also not my fav. She was stuck on her childhood love (who was a complete asshole btw) way too long. She was so conflicted about the choice between these two men when, if we’re being honest, she would’ve been better off without either of them. Toxic, gaslighting men are not something I find attractive.

The dialogue was stunted, the chemistry felt forced and the world-building was lacking. Like, why do they actually like each other? I’m told they’re infatuated but can you show me reasons please? The banter was okay I guess? But it felt like I was reading a fanfic, not a traditionally published book. Their relationship also felt out of touch with the rest of the story. Maybe this is what I should’ve expected from a “romantasy”, but I just thought there would be more of the fantasy and less of the romance. Like, I wanted The Bear and the Nightingale, but I got something SJM fans would enjoy. No shade meant to SJM fans (okay maybe a little shade), but it's just not my cup of tea.

What I did like was the friendship between Zerryn and Beyza. Beyza was much more interesting as a character than the MC’s. A vampire on a quest to marry the king of the underworld just so she can drain him of his blood? Tell me more please.

2.5 stars

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, & Northern Lights Press for the eARC.

I was very excited to read this book as I love dark fantasy and have never read Turkish mythology before which intrigued me. However, I didn’t really seem to get along with this book, mostly because I struggled to connect with the characters. Zerryn came across as quite immature and the romance between her and Erlik didn’t work for me - it seemed that she was mostly just using him when things went wrong. I liked the concept of the trials but I felt that the other competitors were underdeveloped and lacked the motivation to win. Erlik helping Zerryn didn’t work for me either as I felt it took some of the excitement away. I also want to add that this book is written in a rather irregular style which I don’t particularly enjoy. However, all things said, the story itself is very interesting and I did enjoy the concept as a whole - it just wasn’t particularly to my taste. Overall, I would recommend people to check it out and decide for themselves as there is definitely a large demographic out there who would enjoy it. Sadly, this time that just wasn’t me.

Read if you like: dark fantasy, mythology retellings, enemies to lovers.
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Zerryn grows up in Anatollia on stories about the Lord of Death. When her best friend is possessed by him, she does everything she can to save him, including participating in a deadly trial to become the wife of the Lord of Death.
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I loved the Turkish mythology and Zerryn's strength and cunning, but I didn't love the romance. The development of the romance just wasn't believable to me and I found Erlick didn't have many redeemable qualities. I found the story interesting but wanted to love it more.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an E-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This cover is absolutely stunning and I truly wanted to love this story. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me and I just didn't connect with the story or characters. It took me a minute to get into the story and because it took me so long, it was difficult for me to stay engaged throughout the book. The worldbuilding and characters were lackluster and just left me wishing that there was *more*. I did think the lore was intriguing and I enjoyed the retelling aspect of it.

The Bride of Death has so much potential and I'm sure there will be lots of people who will love this story and the prose was beautiful in spots. I just think I ended up not being the right audience for this one.

Shared on GR as well

2.5 stars

I really wanted to love this one, but unfortunately I just couldn't get into it. The writing seemed disjointed and things were being told to us rather than shown. I didn't feel any sort of connection to anybody or anything that happened.
I'm sure when it releases it will find it's readers who love and treasure it, I'm just unfortunately not one of those readers.

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC!

I love how the stage was set. The main character is definitely greatly relatable. I’d do anything for my childhood friend if I loved him that way too. Erlik’s character made my heart ache for him, honestly. He felt like he didn’t know what it was to love, but all I could think of the entire book was of how much he loved Zerryn. I love how the entire book unfolded.

After reading this book, I need to find myself an Erlik because damn. I want someone THAT devoted to me.

Thankyou NetGalley, Northern Light Press and the Author for this wonderful ARC!!😍 Review to come soon on 22 Feb 2024.

4,5 ⭐️

The story is about Zerryn, a brave young woman who makes a bargain with Erlik Khan, the Lord of Death, to stop tormenting her village and release the man that she loves from his evil hold. Erlik is on the prowl for a woman whom he may call his wife, a partner to rule the Underworld and the Above with. To win his hand and save her people, Zerryn must compete with three women in three dangerous tasks. Alas, Zerryn is the one mortal (with hints of magic of her own), going against a serpent, an ubir, and an irshi.

Prior to reading, I had zero exposure to Turkish folklore or mythology, therefore the closest comparison that I could come up with for this story is the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone: the dark and the light; death and life. Both women are pristine and innocent, with abilities to bring life to dark places. There are differences, of course and unlike Persephone, Zarryn goes to the Underworld on her own terms, as part of a heroic quest.

I loved learning about the Turkish culture through the food and clothing that were mentioned in the book, and of course the folk stories and myths that Zerryn grew up listening to. I loved that she used this knowledge that was passed on to her by her grandmother to know what she was up against. It ended up to be quite an educational read, I’d say!

Now, there are some technical issues that I came across. For one, as others have mentioned, the author does seem to be still finding her style, and it is evident throughout the book, specifically in the beginning. As well, though Zerryn appears to be quite the feminist who does not depend on a anyone to save her, she calls on many favours to get through the three tasks, and ultimately chooses to give her hand to the Devil who hurt and broke her, because her village and the man whom she was trying to save turned their backs on her. Not so powerful, is she? As well, I just could not understand why Erlik was drawn to her, nor could I believe that the Devil would break his own rules to give her a hand in cheating in the quest that he created, while punishing those who actually cheated. Finally, not once did I think that Zerryn, a village girl, would destroy the Devil, nope, so I just knew from the beginning that either a.) she would die or b.) she would fall for him.

On the bright side, there were quite a few moments in the book where I truly felt sorry for Erlik, and hated Çelik—I think it takes good writing skills to do this. Also, I appreciate that the Underworld was not ever portrayed as anything better than Hell; it was dark, miserable and unforgiving. I could almost smell the rot emanating from there. However, I disliked the love triangle and the oftentimes childish way in which Zerryn behaved. I also wish we got to know the other characters more, mainly the three women competing with Zerryn, and her grandmother — it certainly would have added to the story.

Overall, I enjoyed this dark fantasy book, and highly recommend it to anyone who appreciates folklore and mythology, with a hint of dark love and a female protagonist that challenges stereotypical expectations of a woman.

Thank you to NetGalley and NorthernLightPress for the advanced digital reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

The premise of this book really drew me in when I read the blurb. I grew up on faerie tales with trials and tribulations for dedicated protagonists, and I tend towards those sorts of stories where I am able. I am a big fan of seeing how much work goes into the balance of a faerie story, and I hoped this book would deliver on that.

With that said, I am not a fan of romance stories, and certainly not a fan of gratuitous content. This book was not excessive, but I do feel like the romance was still very much the crux of the story. I know - I should have picked that up from the title- but I was sort of expecting more of a Persephone/Hades tale about the moral issues in ruling over the realm of death and fighting to be the bride.

I do feel like there was some really interesting parts of this book, but sadly it was a little overshadowed by what I felt was a mostly generic romance story. I was hopeful for more lost souls and lashings of horror and sadness- well worth a read if you are a fan of fantasy romance, but not for me I am afraid.