Authors: K. Easton & Amanda Richardson
Original Ebook Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Expanded Special Edition Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

“Never make a deal with the devil—especially if that deal entails holy matrimony.”
— K. Easton & Amanda Richardson, Blood & Vows

NOTE: Kory (K.) Easton is the paranormal romance pen name of USA Today bestselling author Amanda Richardson. I have read 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. This review covers both versions.

In this novella, it’s almost as if the authors decided that summoning creepy things through mirrors just wasn’t terrifying enough and thought, You know what this childhood nightmare really needs? Romance and questionable life choices. And honestly? I support 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 these people—and turns it 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, somebody took a childhood fear, gave it horns and a tail, made it hot as hell, and handed it back to me. Well played. 😂

Our story begins with Liz, who has spent her entire life following one very important rule: stay away from the east side of Edinburgh. Apparently, 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 been perfectly capable of respecting her mother’s boundary. Then life goes spectacularly sideways. And we all know what happens when you’re upset and drinking. Absolutely nothing good. Suddenly, the one rule she’s followed her entire life starts looking less like a rule and more like a friendly suggestion.

So 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 to the wall. She makes a wish and accidentally summons Marius through the mirror. Yes, the mirror. Because apparently we’ve learned absolutely nothing from generations of ghost stories and horror movies.

Marius isn’t just some mysterious handsome stranger who happens to have a few supernatural secrets tucked away either. Nope. He’s the Devil himself, complete with horns, power, cruelty, arrogance, and all, and he has every intention of collecting on the deal Liz unknowingly made. What does he want? Why, marriage, of course, because flowers and dinner reservations are apparently just for mortal men without any ambition. This is where the book really starts getting interesting for me.

Marius is exactly the kind of fictional man who makes my morally gray meter rise toward black and start setting off alarm bells. He’s possessive, manipulative, dangerous, arrogant, and absolutely convinced that Liz belongs with him. There is no mistaking him for some misunderstood cinnamon roll. This man is a supernatural red-flag factory with horns and a tail attached. Naturally, I’m invested and keep reading.

What I particularly enjoyed was that Marius actually felt supernatural. Sometimes paranormal romances introduce 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. It’s there from the beginning straight through to the end, and it fits the Bloody Mary inspiration beautifully.

Liz was more interesting to me than I expected. She’s 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 considering she goes from thinking the supernatural world is simply something her mother rambled incoherently about to discovering that those warnings were much more complicated than she ever realized. And then the story starts peeling back the layers surrounding Liz herself.

Without wandering into spoiler territory, there is more happening here than just some woman who accidentally summons a super-hot demon and proceeds to make terrible decisions. Liz’s connection to this supernatural world isn’t quite as random as it initially appears, and the questions surrounding her mother, her past, Marius, and why certain things are happening give the story more substance than I expected from such a short, spicy paranormal romance.

I loved the setting. Edinburgh is practically begging to host supernatural nonsense. An ancient city filled with dark streets, old buildings, folklore, and enough history to make you suspicious of every shadow? Yes, please. Dividing the city into human and supernatural spaces was a fantastic concept, and I would happily have spent considerably more time exploring that side of the story. Which brings me to the biggest reason the original ebook only gets 3 stars from me: to put it simply, I wanted more. And I don’t mean that in the polite, “I enjoyed it and wish it were longer” kind of way. I mean somebody needed to give this story another hundred pages and let it misbehave properly.

The novella moves quickly, which makes it ridiculously easy to devour, but that speed occasionally works against some of its strongest ideas. Everything about this story fascinated me, from the supernatural side of Edinburgh to Liz’s history and Marius’s world. Their relationship had enough tension and chemistry to keep me invested, yet because everything had to fit inside such a short book, there were moments when I wanted the story to linger instead of immediately moving on to the next development.

I wanted more time with Liz and Marius. Their chemistry is absolutely there. Their banter and attraction work. The whole dangerous “I probably shouldn’t want you, but apparently my survival instincts have left the building” situation definitely works. But because their relationship develops inside such a compressed story, some of the emotional transitions happen faster than I personally would have preferred. I wanted a little more resistance, more tension, and definitely more conversation. More moments where Liz has to reconcile being attracted to someone she has several extremely legitimate reasons to distrust. Give Marius more room to slowly reveal what’s underneath all that supernatural arrogance. Basically, make me suffer a little more. I paid my admission. Ruin my life properly like the great author I know you are. 😂

The same goes for the worldbuilding. There are some genuinely intriguing ideas surrounding this universe—the demons, the fae, the bargains, different realms, supernatural rules, and Liz’s connection to all of it. And this is probably where my greedy little reader brain became the most frustrated, because I wanted to know what happened before Liz ever entered the picture. I wanted Marius’s history. I wanted to know more about his life before Liz, how he became the Marius we meet here, and what shaped him into this arrogant, dangerous, morally questionable supernatural menace I somehow became ridiculously interested in. And without spoiling anything, there are pieces involving Marius and Liz’s mother that practically had my brain screaming, Excuse me?! Are we just going to casually drop this information in my lap and expect me NOT to demand an entire book about it? Because no. Absolutely not. I have questions now. 😂

Give me a prequel about Marius and Liz’s mother. Give me Marius before Liz. Give me the history behind it all. Give me more inside this universe. Honestly, at this point, just slap BOOK ONE somewhere on the cover and tell me where to preorder the rest. 🖤😂 Because that’s the frustrating thing about Blood & Vows: my problem isn’t that I didn’t like what was there. My problem is that 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 desperately want Amanda to open that door and let me wander around unsupervised. Preferably with snacks. And possibly holy water. Just in case. 😂

Now let’s discuss the important scientific measurement known as the 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. 🖤😂

There is one more thing I want to point out because it actually matters when it comes to which version of Blood & Vows I would recommend. Despite everything I enjoyed about the story, the original ebook left me with this nagging feeling that something was missing. It felt lacking in places, almost like I was reading the condensed version of a story that had considerably more to give. Which probably explains why so much of my criticism keeps circling back to the exact same thing: I needed more.

That’s also the reason the original ebook lands at 3/5 stars for me. I liked the story. I liked the characters. I loved the concept. But there simply wasn’t enough development, worldbuilding, or time with the characters for all those fantastic ideas to reach their full potential. Apparently, three stars didn’t stop me from thinking about the damn thing, though, because I wanted more badly enough that I went and purchased the Expanded Special Edition of Blood & Vows directly from Amanda Richardson’s website. 😂 Because naturally, when my biggest complaint about a book is that there isn’t enough of it, my solution is to immediately spend more money buying a bigger version. Book math. It’s completely reasonable.

And I’m really glad I did. The Expanded Special Edition itself is absolutely beautiful, but more importantly, according to Amanda’s website, it contains approximately 25,000 additional words plus bonus material. That is a pretty significant amount of extra content for a story this short, and it gives the world some of the breathing room I felt was missing from the original ebook. The expanded version brings my rating up to 4/5 stars.

So, if you’re interested in reading Blood & Vows, I would personally recommend getting the Special Edition, especially if you’re anything like me and would rather have more time with the characters, their relationships, and this universe instead of reaching the end and sitting there thinking, Wait… that’s it? I wasn’t done being emotionally irresponsible yet. 😂🖤

Apparently, I wasn’t done with Liz and Marius either, because I literally bought them again. And really, that probably says more about how much I enjoyed the actual story than another five paragraphs ever could. But now I have an entirely new problem, because four stars still doesn’t feel like the ceiling for this world. If Amanda ever decides to go back and write a prequel, I’m there. If she decides on a sequel, I’m there. And if Blood & Vows eventually becomes the beginning of an entire series set inside this supernatural world? I am SO there.

I can already feel it deep in my book-hoarding, fictional-red-flag-loving little soul: there is a five-star universe waiting inside Amanda’s head. The mythology, characters, history, supernatural politics—all of it is there. The potential for this to become that something more I keep craving is absolutely there. I just need her to open that damn door and let me in. I want it all. Give me the mythology. Give me the politics. Give me the history. Give me the supernatural chaos and whatever questionable creatures are hiding behind door number three. If that ever happens? This could very easily become a five-star obsession for me. And if I’m sitting here surrounded by its special editions, writing their five-star reviews, nobody gets to act surprised. I warned you. 😂🖤

🖤 Sassy Verdict

Overall, Blood & Vows was a fast, dark, sexy little paranormal ride that took a creepy childhood legend and somehow made me reconsider whether summoning demons through mirrors is always a terrible idea. For legal purposes, yes. Yes, it is. Do not summon demons. But the fictional King of Hell? I’ll hear the man out. 😂

And because apparently my standards for fictional men remain perfectly reasonable, let’s just acknowledge the obvious. Real men? Respectful communication and emotional maturity. Boringggggg. Fictional men? Horns, morally questionable intentions, supernatural powers, possessive tendencies, and possibly a kingdom in Hell? Now we’re talking.

We all have our vices. Don’t judge. 🖤😂

Anyway, this book is basically 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 human being, I’ve become greedy and want the entire damn supernatural universe turned into a series.

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 maybe leave the bathroom mirror out of your reading experience. We’ve already established that my fictional standards cannot be trusted. 😂🖤

🖤 Now It’s Your Turn

Have you read Blood & Vows? Which version did you read? Did you walk away feeling like there was a much bigger story hiding underneath it—or did you simply want more of Liz and Marius? Have you read the Expanded Special Edition? Did the additional material make the story feel more complete? Did it give you the extra development you wanted or needed? Or did it just make you even greedier for more? 😂 Would you read a prequel or sequel? Or are you like me, thinking, Forget one more book. Turn the whole damn thing into a series. I’ve already mentally commissioned several books. Now, if only Amanda would publish them. 😂🖤

Feel free to drop your thoughts below along with your own ⭐ and 🌶️ ratings.

All honest opinions are welcome here—whether you loved the book, landed somewhere in the middle, or it simply wasn’t for you. Your opinion doesn’t have to match mine because we all connect with books differently. The only thing I ask is that any criticism stays constructive. If something didn’t work for you, tell us why and, when you can, what might have made it stronger. You can dislike the plot, pacing, characters, or the entire book without making it personal. We’re here to talk books and help our authors grow, not tear them down or each other.
🖤 SASSY