I had heard this book was a good read, but I was a bit weary going into it. I've had books where people recommend it so highly that have just fallen really flat. This is not that.

A Dowry of Blood does not shy away from it's main themes of manipulation and abuse. It didn't romanticize it, but at the same time didn't make it over the top. It was realistic... which is funny to say about a vampire book.

I heard mainly that this book was sapphic, which it kind of is? It features mlw, wlw, and mlm. The book features polyamory, so you get a whole mix of different relationship pairings. I will also mention, there is quite a bit of smut in here. I didn't expect that going in, but it was actually written well. Let me explain that part. I find a lot of smut is more characters are doing something plot related, then either take a break from the plot to have sexy times or sexy times just gets put in with no real reason. This book actually has the sexy times be there for a plot reason and to push the plot forward, which after reading multiple books (one I completed, and one I didn't) that feature smut written for non-plot related reasons was a nice change.