Blood & Vows eBook vs. Special Edition

NOTICE: Kory (K.) Easton is the paranormal romance pen name of USA Today bestselling author Amanda Richardson. This review covers both the eBook version of Blood & Vows, listed on Amazon under K. Easton & Amanda Richardson, and the Expanded Special Edition available through Amanda Richardson’s website.

Blood & Vows Amazon eBook Version

In this novella, apparently summoning creepy things through a mirror wasn’t terrifying enough for this particular childhood nightmare. The author decided to throw in some fae, a werewolf, a little romance, and a few other supernatural surprises for good measure. And, not so surprisingly, I was completely on board with this particular descent into madness.

Blood & Vows takes the Bloody Mary legend most of us learned as children—you know, the one where somebody tried convincing us to stand in front of a mirror in a dark bathroom and chant. Uh, no thank you. I’d be the one scrambling for the nearest light switch and questioning why I stayed friends with those kinds of people. Then it turns that childhood nightmare into a dark paranormal romance involving demons, bargains, forced marriage, supernatural secrets, and one extremely dangerous man who has apparently never heard the phrase healthy boundaries. So basically, the author took a childhood fear, gave it horns and a tail, made it hot as hell, and handed it back to me. Well played, Amanda.

Our story begins with Liz, who has spent her entire life following one very important rule: stay away from the east side of Edinburgh. That part of the city is dangerous, and there are things there humans are better off not meeting. For most of her life, Liz has respected her mother’s warning. Then life goes spectacularly sideways, alcohol gets involved, and suddenly that one rule starts looking less like a rule and more like a friendly suggestion.

Liz crosses into the forbidden side of Edinburgh, has a little too much to drink, and finds herself reciting what seems like an innocent little rhyme taped beside a mirror. What Liz doesn’t realize is that Marius has been searching for her for years, and that simple little rhyme finally leads him straight to her. Yes, the mirror. Because apparently we’ve learned absolutely nothing from generations of ghost stories and horror movies.

Marius isn’t simply a mysterious handsome stranger with a few supernatural secrets tucked away. He’s the Devil himself, complete with horns, power, cruelty, arrogance, and apparently a very long memory. After years of searching, he has finally found Liz, and he has absolutely no intention of losing her again. What does he want? Why, marriage, of course, because flowers and dinner reservations are apparently for mortal men who lack ambition.

Marius is exactly the kind of fictional man who sends my morally gray meter straight toward black. He’s possessive, manipulative, dangerous, arrogant, and completely convinced Liz belongs with him. There is no mistaking this man for some misunderstood cinnamon roll. He’s a supernatural red flag with horns and a tail, and of course, instead of running in the opposite direction, I was completely hooked and kept right on reading.

One thing I particularly liked was that Marius actually felt supernatural. Sometimes paranormal romance gives us a demon, vampire, fae prince, or immortal creature, and twenty pages later he’s basically Chad from accounting with fangs. Marius never completely loses that dangerous, otherworldly edge, and that worked especially well with the darker Bloody Mary inspiration.

Liz was more interesting to me than I expected too. She is thrown into a situation she doesn’t understand with someone who has considerably more power and information than she does, but she still has enough fire to push back. Her reactions felt human, especially when she goes from believing the supernatural world is basically something her mother rambled about to discovering those warnings were far more complicated than she ever realized.

Without wandering into spoiler territory, there is more happening here than a woman reciting a rhyme beside a mirror and suddenly finding herself directly in the path of a super-hot demon. Liz’s connection to this supernatural world isn’t nearly as random as it initially appears, and the questions surrounding her mother, her past, Marius, and why he has been looking for her give the story more substance than I expected from such a short, spicy paranormal romance.

I also loved the Edinburgh setting. An ancient city filled with dark streets, old buildings, folklore, and enough history to make you suspicious of every shadow is practically begging to host some supernatural nonsense. Dividing the city into human and supernatural spaces was a great concept, and I would have happily spent much more time exploring that side of the story. That brings me to the biggest reason the original eBook only gets ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 stars from me: I wanted more.

The novella moves quickly, which makes it ridiculously easy to devour, but that speed occasionally works against some of its strongest ideas. I was interested in the supernatural side of Edinburgh, Liz’s history, Marius’s world, and the larger mythology surrounding them. Their chemistry and tension kept me invested too, but because everything has to fit inside such a short story, some of the parts I found most interesting didn’t have much time to develop.

I especially wanted more time with Liz and Marius. Their chemistry is there, their banter and attraction work, and the whole I probably shouldn’t want you, but apparently my survival instincts have left the building situation definitely worked for me. Some of the emotional transitions simply happened faster than I personally would have preferred. I wanted a little more resistance and tension, more conversation, and more time for Liz to deal with being attracted to someone she has several very legitimate reasons not to trust. I also wanted more room for Marius to slowly reveal what was underneath all that supernatural arrogance.

The same goes for the worldbuilding. There are genuinely interesting ideas involving demons, fae, bargains, different realms, supernatural rules, and Liz’s connection to all of it. I wanted to know what happened before Liz ever entered the picture. I wanted Marius’s history, what his life was like before Liz, and what shaped him into the arrogant, dangerous, morally questionable supernatural menace we meet here.

And without spoiling anything, there are pieces involving Marius and Liz’s mother that immediately made me want an entire prequel. You cannot casually hand me little pieces of information like that and expect me not to have questions. That is ultimately my frustration with the original Blood & Vows: my problem wasn’t that I didn’t like what was there. I liked what was there enough to see how much more it could become. There is a much bigger supernatural world hiding inside this story, and I wanted more time inside it.

Now let’s discuss the important scientific measurement known as spice. This one earns a solid 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 4/5 peppers from me. The spice fits the darker relationship dynamic rather than feeling randomly dropped into the story just so everybody can remove their clothing on schedule.

That said, please don’t mistake hot for healthy. Marius is still Marius. This book contains darker themes, including forced marriage, kidnapping, violence, dubious consent, and possessive behavior. If any of those are hard limits for you, definitely check the content warnings before diving in. Dark romance is much more enjoyable when everyone knows which particular dumpster fire they’re voluntarily climbing into. This one just happens to be my preferred kind of dumpster fire… thank you very much.

(Click the image to purchase the Special Edition directly from the Author’s shop.)

THE EXPANDED SPECIAL EDITION

There is one more thing worth mentioning because it made a real difference in how I rated Blood & Vows. The original eBook left me feeling like I had read a condensed version of a story that had considerably more to give. Apparently, that feeling bothered me enough that I went and purchased the Expanded Special Edition directly from Amanda Richardson’s website.

Because naturally, when my biggest complaint about a book is that there isn’t enough of it, the only logical solution is to immediately spend more money buying a bigger version. It’s simple book math—a completely reasonable and financially responsible decision, and you can’t convince me otherwise. And I’m glad I did.

The Expanded Special Edition itself is absolutely beautiful, but more importantly, Amanda’s website states that it contains approximately 25,000 additional words plus bonus material. That is a significant amount of extra content for a story this short, and the expanded version gives the characters and world some of the breathing room I felt was missing from the original eBook.

That additional content brings my rating up to ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 stars.

So if you’re interested in reading Blood & Vows, I personally preferred the Expanded Special Edition, especially if you’re like me and want more time with the characters, their relationships, and this supernatural universe. The original eBook introduced me to a world I wanted to explore; the Expanded Special Edition gave me more of what had caught my attention in the first place.

Apparently, I wasn’t done with Liz and Marius either, because I literally bought them twice. That probably says more about how much I enjoyed the actual story than anything else could.

I still don’t think four stars is necessarily the ceiling for this world, though. If Amanda ever decides to write a prequel exploring Marius and the history surrounding Liz’s mother, a sequel continuing Liz and Marius’s story, or even an entire series set in this supernatural world, I am absolutely there. Honestly, I think a prequel could even change how I look at Blood & Vows and possibly raise my rating, because so much of what I felt was missing came from wanting to understand the history between Marius and Liz’s mother and everything that happened before Liz entered the picture.

There is enough mythology, history, supernatural politics, and unanswered backstory here that I could easily get lost in a much larger series. Give me the history. Give me the supernatural politics. Give me more of these creatures and whatever questionable things are hiding behind door number three. My BookDragon will happily make room. Hint, hint, Amanda. Just putting that out there.

SASSY VERDICT

Overall, Blood & Vows was a fast, dark, sexy paranormal read that took a creepy childhood legend and somehow made me question whether reciting mysterious rhymes beside mirrors is still a terrible idea. For legal purposes, yes. Yes, it is. Do not start chanting random things at mirrors. There’s absolutely no guarantee we’re getting our own Marius—or, more importantly, the version of Marius we’d actually want. So really, why chance it?

The original eBook gave me a story, characters, and supernatural world I genuinely enjoyed, but it left me with one real complaint: I needed more development. More time with Liz and Marius, more of their relationship, more of the world and its history, and more room for everything the story introduced to fully develop. That’s what kept the original eBook at ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 stars for me.

The Expanded Special Edition gave me more of what I was missing and enough additional development to bring my rating up to ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 stars, but even then, I still wanted more. Of course, there’s only so much you can fit into a novella before it stops being a novella, so I may just be asking this little book to grow up and become something bigger. Who knows? Maybe Amanda will eventually give me an omnibus with all that missing history and development, and I’ll happily come back and slap five stars on the whole freakin’ thing. Either way, both versions still earn 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 4/5 peppers.

This is childhood nightmare meets demon romance, and somehow Bloody Mary became Bloody Marry Me. The original eBook left me wanting more, the Expanded Special Edition gave me more, and now, instead of being satisfied like a reasonable BookDragon, I want their entire freakin’ supernatural universe.

So, if you love dark paranormal romance, morally questionable supernatural men, forced proximity, forced marriage, dangerous bargains, possessive demons, folklore retellings, supernatural secrets, and heroines discovering that their family history conveniently forgot to mention some very important information, Blood & Vows is absolutely worth checking out. Just be sure to check those trigger warnings before you dive in, especially if you have any hard limits. And maybe leave the bathroom mirror out of your reading experience.

Review By: SASSY
Owner • Creator • Queen of the Chaos
SassyReviews.com
Read, Reviewed, & BookDragon Approved… or Not.

REVIEW NOTICE: This review is for a purchased digital copy of Blood & Vows obtained from an authorized retailer, as well as the Special Edition purchased directly from the author’s website. As always, whether a book is complimentary or purchased, any opinions or thoughts expressed here are entirely voluntary, 100% my own, and were not influenced in any way. This review reflects both versions as I read them and publicly reviewed them on 07/17/2026. Any edits or changes made to either version after that date are not reflected in this review.