Atmosphere was nice enough, though I don't feel like I truly got anything out of the Turkic folklore element because it wasn't super developed. I am constantly on the hunt for a Winternight readalike because I loved it so much and I fall for the publisher blurbs saying For Fans Of time and time again and I just keep getting disappointed. Nothing special and not particularly engagingly written.

Sorry for the delay in posting a review, I completely missed this one when writing the others.

I did struggle a little with this one and found it took a little to get into. Whilst I did finish the book it took several weeks as I just wasn’t hooked unfortunately.

Thank you to Netgalley, the Author and the Publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I received this book as an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 / 5

The Bride of Death is a retelling of the Persephone and Hades tale with some YA tropes woven in (although I was pleased to see the main character, Zerryn, was in her early 20s rather than 17 as is often the preference). I enjoyed the brief window we had into Zerryn’s childhood, which was haunted by loss and the shadow of death, and the transition into young woman grounded her for me. However after this the pacing began to rapidly descend into unevenness. Some evens came upon us in moments, others built up with painstaking slowness.

The central romance was a triangle but for the most part I found this fine (and I usually hate love triangles) - mostly because one point of the triangle is largely forgotten for most of the book. Erlik and Zerryn unfortunately have little chemistry - their tenuous connection and Erlik’s strange obsession with Zerryn never seemed to be based in anything substantial. They have some light hearted banter, some steamy kisses and suddenly are infatuated.

I enjoyed the trials and this was perhaps my favourite part of the book - the dynamic between Erlik’s suitors (in particular Beyza) was interesting and fun whilst also forwarding the plot.

The ending, for me, was deeply unsatisfying and is what brings this from a 3 to a 2.5 star read. If you’re looking for something based on Hades & Persephone and love YA (I’m thinking particularly if you’re after a one-shot, ACoTaR-esque read) you may enjoy The Bride of Death.

I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! It's already out, so I won't say much more than I need to for my star rating. <3

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. It is an enjoyable, atmospheric dark fairytale romance with a feisty heroine. Although I found the beginning of the book slightly jarring (too much skipping of time for me) and found it hard to suspend my disbelief to fall for a romantic interest with multiple eyes and appendages, I did get sucked into the story and loved the Gothic myth feel.

If you like Pan's Labyrinth and David Bowie's Labyrinth I think that you will enjoy this story. It didn't immerse me as much as I would have liked, but definitely worth a read - 3.5/5.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I think the comp titles for this are very well chosen because while I enjoyed the book overall, I had the same issues with it that I also had with The Bear and the Nightingale. While the story was well-written and I did like it for the most part, I really struggled to get into it.
The writing style made me feel a bit disconnected and considering how much the synopsis of this book drew me in, I felt like the execution didn't quite live up to it.

The romance was fine, it definitely relied on some tropes (which was to be expected from the synopsis) and it wasn't groundbreaking, but I liked it.
I also mostly enjoyed the FMC, though I felt like she acted quite of character at the end.

I can't speak much on if the Turkish folklore in this book was well-represented, but I liked the setting and the worldbuilding.

Overall, it's a decent book and I'm sure others will enjoy it more, I just didn't fully connect with it.

I really enjoyed this book, though I don't think it's perfect. There were times this book seemed to care more about fulfilling a "trope" despite not making much sense to the story. Ex. It felt out of nowhere when Elerik put a knife to Zerryn's throat, until I realized that it's a popular "booktok trope."

As an educator, it's a little too spicy to directly incorporate into curriculum, however I would not be against recommending it to an older high school student, especially if the reading assignment was related to folklore, Anatolia, myths, etc. Especially because most books on the market focus on Greek myths, so I enjoy how this is Turkish.

Thank you NetGalley and author F.M. Aden for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

"As a young child, Zerryn grew up on tales of the Lord of Death, Erlik Khan, and his penchant for stealing wild girls. In her small village, she keeps to herself and tends to the temple gardens, spending her days with her best friend Çelik. But when Çelik begins to act strangely and removes himself to live on a crumbling estate atop Mount Ida, the rumors of him becoming possessed by a demon begin to swiftly arise. Each month that passes the demon within him grows stronger, his demands of the villagers growing oddly disjointed and nonsensical.

Her chances of saving him become all but impossible once Zerryn learns that it is no lesser demon that has a hold of him but Erlik Khan—a demon of untold power who lords over the dead. It isn’t long before word spreads that he is in search of a bride, and creatures of untold power come before him to rule by his side. Zerryn knows that she cannot take down Erlik without power and she cannot gain power without becoming his bride.

But becoming Erlik’s wife is nothing as simple as an offer for his hand. To become the queen of the Underworld, she must complete three impossible tasks or risk losing everything she holds dear."

I enjoy reading this book. I devoured it in one sitting.

When the Lord of the Underworld, Erlik Khan, possesses Zerryn’s childhood friend, the two strike a bargain. If she can win a series of trials and Erlik’s hand in marriage, he’ll release her friend or else her friend will die before winter.

The Bride of Death by F.M. Aden weaves a flawed but enthralling tale inspired by Turkish folklore.

Let's start with what I liked about the book. I think this is actually the first fantasy book I’ve read that includes Turkish folklore and mythological creatures, so it was a refreshing departure from all the Nordic and Greek-inspired fantasies that are so prolific.

The romance itself is deliciously swoonworthy. That part was great! I mean, the main love interest has extra arms ... for hugging, and I’m sure it’ll delight fans of Death and the Maiden trope, I-offer-the-world-at-your-feet dynamics.

However, there were certain rushed plot developments towards the end that I felt undid so many of the themes the story had built up, and, for me to dive into that, I’ll have to get into major plot spoilers. For instance, I found it baffling that Erlik completely destroys Zerryn’s magic, she forgives him over the course of a chapter, and he ends up saving her from the villagers.

What happened? Throughout the story, we’re told over and over again that Zerryn has the power to save herself:

“You must never wait for someone to save you,’ her magic whispered. ‘Only you can save yourself.’”

And

“No, it was not Erlik who saved her. It was her own magic, bright and fervent. Zerryn knew that now. It had never been Erlik. It had always been her.”

I thought Zerryn’s magic was supposed to be inherent to her. Why must she lose the power that she had spent the majority of the novel trying to regain only for it to be casually tossed aside and not addressed again? This is the same issue I had with Alina losing her sun summoner powers at the end of Ruin and Rising, and maybe it’s partly a matter of preference, but it frustrated me to no end and quite frankly soured the book for me.

I would give this book 2.5/5 stars but am rounding up to 3 because I loved the first part of this book. The highlight for me was the way it wove together Turkic folklore, paganism, and Christianity.

I really liked a lot of the secondary characters. I thought they helped flesh out the lore and made for some interesting relationships with the protagonist. However, I thought some of these side characters deserved more wrapping up. Instead they fell by the wayside and their existence was never mentioned again. A few of them seemed like they should have had bigger roles to play and could have been put to better use in the end.

Overall I would say this was a decent romantasy, but the ending felt like a huge misfire. It seemed like the author spent so much of the book building to something different, so it just did not feel like the natural conclusion. The way Zerryn ended up did not seem to make sense with her character arc and left a lot of threads hanging. I really wanted to root for this book because of how much I enjoyed the first two parts, but in the end it was middling.

I wanted to like this - it somehow gave me Tim Burton vibes. However, I just really couldn't get past the way it was written. The beginning felt disjointed, rushed and weird and I barely made it through that part. I also just didn't love the main character nor could I understand her being drawn to the male main character.

As a fan of Naomi Novak and Katherine Arden, I love to read now and then fantasies written in a way told in the old ways- that is nostalgic of when I used to sit around the fire in winter listening to my grand-grandmother telling of monsters, maidens and adventure.
So, the premise of this book was very appealing to me. And to be honest, I enjoyed most of it. ⚜Genre: Cultural Retelling Romance Fantasy
⚜Theme: Hades/Persephone Paranormal romance
⚜Targeted audience: New Adult
⚜Characters: witches (Zerryn), devils (Elrik Khan), demons
⚜Representation: POC
⚜TW: cults - kidnapping - beheading - body possession
⚜ tropes: slow-burn, love-triangle
⚜ POV: one side third POV - Zerryn's
⚜ spice 🌶
⚜ rating 🌟🌟🌟
⚜standalone: yes
⚜Ending: resolved HEA

Zerryn is cursed with magic. she is somehow shunned by her village. Moving to her grandmother's village, she develops a relationship with Celik who is later becomes possessed by the Dark UnderKing. To save him, Zerryn had to die to travel to the Underworld and defeat the Dark Lord Elrik. To do that she had to undergo a trial with three tasks.

During these trials, Zerryn is faced with the dilemma of being torn between her life in the Above and her dark desires in the Underworld. She has to make a choice "Whom would she choose?"
a normal life with a pridful farmer or eternity with a cruel lustful demon

finishing her trials, she forms a friendship with Beyza, a vampiric huntress, and Yuxa, a serpent Queen.

The book is well written, though needs editing, and the story rises and falls in tempo. It is short for a fantasy, 370-something pages, yet some parts come off as very slow to read because of the heavy description, repetitive events, and internal monologues. And then the story picks up again so fast you get whiplash.

What I loved about the book:
1- The cultural references. I do not know from where is the author. I think somewhere around Turkey/Russia cause the names and some characters appeared like that. Also, there were familiar names to me like Kaftan, Borek, Darbukas, Jinn...to make me think it is Turkish.

2- most of the time, Zerryn was not a pushover. She is not this ALL-HOLLY female lead. She has her flaws and darkness even though she wants to do the right thing and save the village people who drove her away and the boy she loved.

3- The banter and comebacks between Zerryn and Elrik were really enjoyable
"Whoever lies shall have to remove an article of clothing." "You are a child in the body of a man "
"I have four eyes. It was safe to assume I also had four arms"
"any other limbs I have yet to see?"
"Not any a gentleman can name"

4- the feminist voice
"How like a man to take credit for the actions of a woman"
Rarely were women hailed as heroes or were ballads sung for them. Rarely were they written of in epic. Nobody ever looked at the wives who raised families while men fought wars.

5- The deep feelings Elric has for Zerryn
"You are not nothing," he whispered. "It is I who come to you crawling, a rabid dog hungry for your attention"

6- The friendship between Zerryn, Beyza and Yuxa. Girl Power all the way.

Things I did not like

1- How long it felt. I understand that descriptions are important, but do we need to know the description of every single thing?
some plot stories were dragged also. The first trial was pages and pages long, while others just... happened

2- some characters were suddenly introduced to advance the plot and then they disappeared.

3- I did not understand when Zerryn fell in love with Celik! I know they were friends but when did they form connections?!

4- but what I was frustraited most about was the how Zerryn's arc turned out to be. All the time she was presented as this strong smart witch who was coming to accept her powers and that she doesnt need anyone but her faith in herself. Only for her to end up needing the help of a man to save her in the end. The sleeping beauty theme right at that moment did not sit well with me.
I am not saying that she should have rejected love! not at all! but all that begging and heartache and defeat towards the end destroyed her character for me. I was rooting for a different end

5- as I mentioned up, the book do need editing and not just for the structure mistakes but the plot holes and storylines.

As a debute novel, this was quite good. I wish all the best for the author
Thank you for NetGalley and the author for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review

This was an interesting book. Not what i was expecting and honestly, I don't know how I feel. It was worth the read but it wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be. It was just ok. OK chracters, ok plot... I can see the genius in the writing but for some reason, it just didn't grab me.

I picked this up because it was marketed as being similar to two of my favourite books -- The Bear & the Nightingale, and Uprooted -- and while I could definitely see similarities and the essence of folklore-inspired romance (however, much spicier than the two comps) it just did not deliver the way those two did. I think this needed a bit more editing, some more fleshing out of the characters and their relationship, and it would be wonderful. As it is currently, it is not the best thing I've read with this sort of premise, although the Turkish mythology was refreshing and new to me.

This was really slow for me, so I didn't finish it. It was good lore in the beginning and am interesting enough story, but it just wasn't for me.

I was pretty excited about the premise here. Who doesn’t love a good gothic folklore-inspired fairy tale?

Unfortunately the execution was not what I had hoped. It seemed like the author used this book to figure out how to write, and I really feel like some serious editing would have benefited everyone.

The worldbuilding was sketchy, the pacing inconsistent, and I didn’t feel any semblance of connection to Zerryn, our FMC. I didn’t understand her motivations, and that was a real issue for me throughout the book.

I’m actually a bit sad to be giving such a bad review, because the story definitely had potential, and the atmosphere of the book was great. There were just too many issues with writing, plot and characters for my liking.

Almost a 4 star read for me!
I love that this book gave gothic vibes crossed with Turkish mythology. The cover is absolutely beautiful and so was the author's style of writing.
In this book we follow Zerryn, a young woman who was said to be touched by Death itself as a child and as a result was pretty much alienated from her neighbors. When the God of Death, Elick, possesses Zerryn's best friend/ "love of her life", Celik, Zerryn decides to go down to the Underworld and complete 3 trials in hopes of becoming Elick's wife and saving Celik and her village.

The start of the book was great, however it seemed to fall a bit flat once the trials began. I felt the competition could have been more entertaining, and I did find the whole romance between Zerryn and Elick to be a little odd. There didn't seem to be much buildup to it and many parts throughout the remainder of the book felt rushed. The story itself, however, was a great one and the author's writing was wonderful.

Thank you NetGalley and F.M. Aden for this read!

The Bride of Death is an overall good novel. I struggled a little bit with the worldbuilding, because I felt that more could be done. I wanted a more lush background full of information. It still gave me a good setting, I'd have just liked more.

I don't love or hate love triangles, but we can't pretend that each is equal to the other. In any love triangle, you're going to have the classic Edward/Jacob camps and The Bride of Death was no exception. I have to say I like a reverse harem/throuple before I enjoy the whole "which one will they choose".

While this was entertaining and easy to read, I had hoped the story would go in an other direction. The writing could have been edited a bit more as well.

"The Bride of Death" is a beautifully written adult standalone that initially drew me in with its fascinating title and bewitching cover. While the author's writing style evolves throughout the story, the rich tapestry of mythology and Turkic folklore adds depth to the narrative. However, the worldbuilding felt lacking, and I couldn't help but wish for a map to navigate the underworld.

The romance, featuring elements of Hades x Persephone, felt somewhat forced, with unnecessary smut scenes. Despite this, tropes like love triangles and enemies-to-lovers arcs are present, with standout characters like Beyza and Yuxa adding intrigue.

While some characters felt derivative, the novel excels in creating a gothic and dark atmosphere. Would I recommend it? Perhaps not to those who prefer more fantasy-driven plots, but for fans of character-driven narratives with a touch of romance, "The Bride of Death" is worth exploring.