I painted this artwork a while back as a commission, the characters are from A Duel with the Vampire Lord by @elise.kova I am planning to draw more characters from the Married To Magic series. so keep an eye out xoxo

meanwhile, it would be amazing if you guys follow and share @omniscientdarkness I will be posting original dark art there.

Book dedication for fantasy readers

    “Let them know.” He shrugs. “This world is dark and the night is unyielding; the least we can do is fill it with sweet, forbidden dreams.”                                                 ―      Elise Kova, A Duel with the Vampire Lord    

✩🩸🗡Review:

Elise Kova’s latest book in the Married to Magic series is fang-tastic!

“A Duel with the Vampire Lord” centers around Floriane, a forge maiden who is kidnapped by her worst enemy���the vampire lord Ruvan. In order to survive, she becomes his blood sworn. But the longer Floriane stays at Castle Tempost, the more she realizes that the vampires are not the monsters she thought they were.

Floriane is a strong female protagonist and compelling character. She finds great joy working beside her mother as a blacksmith. As someone who is not familiar with this line of work, I loved learning about how metal is forged into weapons and how much strain the body goes through during this process. To accurately portray smithing, Kova worked with an iron artist to make her own dagger, which makes this book extra special!

Due to the long hours Floriane spends in the smithy, she has an “untraditional” figure—one that is curvy and stout. The way she is described made me love her all the more because Floriane provides representation of women of different body types to readers.

Though she is self-conscious about her appearance at the beginning of the novel, comparing herself to other women in the town, those feelings go away the moment she realizes that Ruvan burns for her. Of the three books in the series, “A Duel with the Vampire Lord” has the best relationship development. Ruvan and Floriane naturally start off as enemies, but they are forced to put their differences aside in order to break the curse plaguing Ruvan’s people. Their attraction for each other heightens the more time they spend with each other until it reaches a fever pitch (arguably Kova’s spiciest scene to date). I absolutely love Ruvan and Floriane’s chemistry and the sacrifices that they made each other towards the end of the novel truly made me feel things.

Another aspect of the novel I appreciated is how Kova was able to create something new about vampires. In her world, blood is used to enhance magic rather than quench thirst. Their blood based magic system is both complex and unique, informing the reader of the vampire’s customs and abilities.

In past books, a majority of the time is spent in Midscape (Kova’s magical land). Kova switches it up in this novel, dividing the protagonist’s time between Midscape and Hunter’s Hamlet, Floriane’s home in the Natural World. I enjoyed getting the opportunity to learn about the social structure of Hunter’s Hamlet (complete with a Master Hunter, Hunters, a Forge Maiden, and farmers) while still being able to venture into the Vampir mountains.

I cannot wait to continue on in the Married to Magic series with “A Duet with the Siren Duke” next year! Fingers crossed that Ruvan and Floriane make a cameo!

➤ 4.25 stars

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

@elisekova​

When they’re just as pretty under their jacket 😍

"I finally did realize that destiny is like metal—seemingly unbendable until you put it under heat and pressure. You can forge it into the shape you want."

Elise Kova, A Duel with the Vampire Lord (Married to Magic, #3)

(Digital drawing made with ibispaint by hand)

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A Duel with the Vampire Lord cover is here!! [August 18th,2022]

 Cover illustration by Marcela Medeiros

A Duel With the Vampire Lord by @elise.kova inspired look 🩸🗡📕🥀 I’ve definitely been in a vampire mood and this book is the dark reimagining of Snow White, meets inspiration from Beauty and the Beast, with vampires, in an epic fantasy world of enemies to lovers, found family, and deep lore. I was lucky to read an arc and ITS SO GOOD!!! Definitely add it to your TBR! “Then let’s hate each other until we can’t stand it.” I meet his eyes. This is the moment before we break. The last breath we take on our own. “Let’s hate each other so we can forgive ourselves for wanting each other.” . — A DUEL WITH THE VAMPIRE LORD Out August 18th, 2022.

A Duel with the Vampire Lord is the dumbest most sanitized take on Vampires I've ever read.

I just finished reading this book and I bought the physical copy but it's also on kindle unlimited so I downloaded it on there as well because sometimes I would rather read on my kindle. I finished reading my physical copy and there is such a huge mistake both in spelling and mixing up a character name. Now it's technically after the book not part of the story but having compared it too the Kindle version, the mistake is pretty jarring.

This is what it is supposed to look like according to the kindle version.

But this is how it reads in the hardback:

The characters name is wrong, not once but twice it should read Ruvan but instead it says Avian in one part and Davien in the next. Davien was a character from the previous book, honestly I was confused at first until I looked at the kindle version. Also website is spelled wrong, and I know it's really not that big of a deal since it's not part of the story but it still is weird to have such a big error in the hardback.

Upcoming sequel book releases for the second half of the year

Glow (The plated Prisoner book 4) - Raven Kennedy, 18th June 2022

These Twisted Bonds (These Hollow vows book 2) - Lexi Ryan, 19th July 2022

To Snap a Silver Stem (Crystal Bloom book 2) - Sarah A Parker 8th August 2022

A Duel with the Vampire Lord (Married to Magic book 3) - Elise Kova, 18th August 2022

A Clash of Three Courts (An Heir Comes to Rise book 4) - Chloe C Peñaranda, 6th September 2022

A Light in the Flame (Flesh and Fire book 2) - Jennifer L Armentrout, 15th November 2022

Queen of Myth and Monsters (Adrian x Isolde book 2) - Scarlett St Clare, 27th December 2022

Love how her name is 'Floraine.' Something special, just from the spelling alone.

Then there's her brother who is just 'Drew.'

Merry bookmas 🎄 I hope you all have a wonderful day reading or catching up with family and friends or whatever you decide to do today.

I’m spending the day doing the very non-festive activities of watching true crime while journaling and reading some high fantasy 😂

Just finished reading 'A Duel with the Vampire Lord' :>

Books read in 2022: 59/75 (reading goal)

A Duel with the Vampire Lord by Elise Kova