Fans of lesbian vampires should look no further than Anna Burke’s next book. Think dark romantic fantasy, lesbian vampires, murderous fey, and you’ll have some idea of the content of the book. This alone should be enough to convince you to read it, no? But if it’s not, here’s a review that hopefully will!
So, do yourself a favour and preorder this one!
When Clara Eden is offered a job as an archivist working for eccentric estate owner Agatha Montague, she thinks her prayers have been answered. Soon, she finds herself sucked into her research world, captivated by a romantic correspondence thousands of years old. But as her feelings for her employer’s assistant, Fiadh, deepen, so does her suspicion that something about Agatha Montague isn’t right. Unfortunately for Clara, it is far too late to run by the time her suspicions are confirmed..
In the Roses of Pieria
Anna Burke
Rep: lesbian mc & li, sapphic side characters
CWs: gore
Release: 22nd August 2023
In the Roses of Pieria is a book for fans of book series such as A Discovery of Witches and An Interview with a Vampire. Urban fantasy on the darker side of things, where creatures like vampires and fey roam and every interaction feels like you’re sitting on a knife edge. If that’s the kind of book you like, then In the Roses of Pieria will be right up your alley.
The book opens with a mysterious job offer, that our protagonist, Clara, move to a gothic home to begin cataloguing a vast private collection. The catch? She can’t tell anyone exactly what the job involves and she’s not allowed to publish anything she might find there in her own work. This is particularly galling since Clara is one of a handful of specialists on a (made up) Greek splinter-culture post Alexander the Great, and the works in the library answer several questions. Not to mention the very compelling romantic correspondence between two unknown women, along with her nascent attraction to Fiadh, her boss’s secretary.
So, basically, a whole lot of lesbian confusion. The first half of the book or so is dedicated to this, the investigation into just who these love letters are from, as Clara and Fiadh’s relationship grows. And Anna Burke writes lesbian romance so, so well. It’s one of the best things about all of her books, to be honest. Here, particularly in the letters, it’s romance that feels achingly romantic too. You can feel the yearning and pining leaping off the page.
But on top of the romance there’s also this creeping sense of dread as Clara starts to think that maybe all is not as it seems with her employer. This is where the fantasy elements are slowly introduced because Clara, bless her soul, is entirely bound in the human world. She has no clue before the events of the book that there might be other creatures out there. Especially not such deadly ones. As a reader, you’ll probably figure it out long before she does, but you can still feel the sense of unease surround everything viscerally.
Even though you can see some of the answers to the growing mysteries long before they’re revealed, this is still a book that leaves just enough mystery for you to remain engaged. Even at the end there are still questions to be answered, still plotlines that need following through, and it ends on enough of a cliffhanger that you’ll be clamouring for more as soon as you’re done.
So, have we convinced you that you want to read this book?
