I'm sorry. This book DNF.
I think the story is incredible, the world, the investigation, the mystery... However, I have not been able to connect.

Maybe in the future I will give this book another chance.

** spoiler alert ** **RECEIVED ARC FROM THE AUTHOR**
I really enjoyed this book so much and it's about 70% coz of the starcrossed lethal old lesbian vampires and the dark academia of it. This is not the first "supernatural with its roots in science or biology" book I've read but the way the fey exist here is such an interesting take on it, especially how it contributes to the horrific but romantic ending of it all. The blood as fertilizer of the roses in the book; the anger, the betrayal, the heartbreak, loss of knowledge and unforgettable memory that gives the rose, (love, bravery, sincerity and thirst of knowledge) it's beauty and it's monstrousness, this is the perfect pitch for vampire stories for me I'm losing it.

Clara Eden is a not Van Helsing type of professor protagonist but more of a romantic one, which as you continue, is perfectly suited for the book. A bard of the horrific romances that she is paid to translate within the letters of the mysterious old lady and owner of the manor, Agatha (Like yes shady but also a place to live and also to work in one hell of a library I would too damn) and finds herself compelled by the love story in the letters and the mysterious assistant who is standoffish and compellingly drawn in by the stories in the letters, and Clara herself.

As Clara uncovers the supernatural, she is horrified and yet drawn in because of her feelings and her own fascination and enduring curiosity of the world she dedicated her academic career in it. This ensues just a series of "audience yelling at the horror protagonists" events from both Clara and Fiadh, but I didn't once think that it said anything about their intelligence, as much as helplessness and desperation.

I don't think the romance was as well developed in this book as it's own thing with Gata and Natek's romance being the driving force of their focus but I'm looking forward to more of that in the next book.

The prose is extremely enjoyable and evocatively lush to make the horror and romance on equal footing and mirrors of each other.

Also kitties, so many kitties. This is such a lesbian book.

First, I must praise the gorgeously written prose and the wonderful gothic tone. And I was intrigued by the promise of sapphic vampires and fae.

That said, the first half of the book was too slow for my liking since it largely focused on the letters being translated and the romance between Clara and Fi, none of which captured my interests. Gata and Natek wrote so similarly that I had trouble distinguishing their letters from one another. The reader also was shown the letters in a different order than Clara read them in, so the discussion of them often didn’t line up. I eventually started skimming the letters, which turned out to be a mistake because I missed a character name that turned out to be vital later. While I perked up during the scenes where the vampire was present, there were only a handful of those early on.

As a reader whose pet peeve is the idiot plot trope, I quickly grew frustrated with Clara’s track record of making terrible decisions. She’d been handed her dream job on a silver platter but wouldn’t stop behaving unprofessionally—making a fuss about rules she’d agreed to, wandering into forbidden areas rather than showing an ounce of patience, and sleeping with a coworker. I could’ve overlooked that last faux pas if there’d been a deeper connection between her and Fi, but risking her entire career for a fling with someone she barely knew was reckless.

I was also troubled by Clara’s lack of concern for her friend’s safety when she asked him to stop by the vampire’s estate to feed her cat. Especially since Clara was so upset that no one warned her about the vampire, clearly believing the vampire to be a great danger, yet she withheld the same information from someone she claimed to care about.

Those examples are just the tip of the iceberg, but to say more would give away major spoilers.

The second half of the story picked up the pace. Things finally started happening! The fungal fae character was fascinating. I wish he’d been introduced earlier on since he was my favorite character (other than Mr. Muffin the cat) and the clear MVP of the book. I would happily read a prequel centered on him.

While I never warmed to Clara’s and Fi’s relationship or believed that they genuinely loved each other, Fi did become considerably more interesting in the later chapters.

Overall, I appreciated the fresh spin on vampire and fae mythology and clever world building, even though many other aspects of the book didn’t mesh for me. Fans of epistolary storytelling will probably enjoy the copious lengthy letters more than I did.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher and am voluntarily leaving this review.

Anna Burke writes Sapphic Love Stories like nobody's business and I always have high hopes for these books. It was great and I'm looking forward to the next installment!

[Thanks to NetGalley & the author for providing me with this ARC]

Anna Burke can do no wrong. Every single one of her books have been spectacular and so very unique. This one fits right in. The characters are complex, the mystery intriguing and the relationships between the characters flawed and layered as always. Her writing feels so honest and raw and no matter the world she creates, it’s always fleshed out and filled with so much detail that it feels like I’m part of the story myself.
I will never not read a book by this author.
I cannot wait for my physical copy to arrive (I’ve been waiting for months, it’s sold out everywhere) so I can reread the book and annotate the hell out of it!!

Disclaimer: The ARC was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The ARC category in no way impacts the rating of the book.

3 out of 5 ☆’s.

I would like to thank Bywater Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review of the material! :)

I received this title before its release, but due to unforeseen circumstances I hadn’t gotten around to reading it until recently, but I am glad that I did!

I **love** sapphic vampire novels, so when “In the Roses of Pieria” popped up on my NetGalley feed I just knew that I had to snag myself a copy!

I quite enjoyed the romantic elements of this story! Clara and Fiadh were such intriguing characters, and seeing their romance develop as the story progressed was so rewarding as a reader!

I did struggle a bit with the pacing of the plot in the beginning of the story, and there were some moments where things felt a bit too modern given the setting / vibes of the book, but I am ultimately soo excited to see what will become of these characters and their ventures in the sequel!

5 stars. This is unfortunately also one of the few ARCs that I have been very delayed on with reading and reviewing, sometimes life interferes. Apologies for this because this book absolutely deserves to be read. I’m a big fan of Burke’s books and this is no exception. And the best thing is, there will be more as this is book one of a duology. The story is carefully build and I feel there is so much more to come.

Burke’s writing style is as always wonderful, it flows beautifully and creates the exact right atmosphere. The book starts rather slow in an academic setting which is smartly used to introduce the main characters; Clara (the scholar and expert on everything Nektopolisian), Agatha (Clara’s rich, demanding and mysterious boss that happens to have an enormous amount of Nektopolisian artefacts), and Fiadh (Agatha’s closed off but intriguing assistant in all matters). The first part of the book also provides the much needed and wonderfully told backstory. This way the backstory is not an info dump but an exploration into the past and slowly but surely the connection to the present is made that moves the book into the second part.
This is where everything changes, the speed increases, the academic setting is swapped for a paranormal one and there is plenty of action of which I do not want to say too much. I’ll just say there were plenty of twists and turns and the story kept surprising me.

The characters are flawed and not all easily likable and the storyline is rather dark and I enjoyed how my perspective on the main characters kept changing while reading the book. The book is written in first person (POV from Clara) which worked very well to keep the mystery of the book.

A reminder to all that have not read this book yet. If you like dark paranormal books with excellent world building and a good dose of fictional history, then this is one to read.

<i>I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This was a rather disappointing read. I didn’t like most aspects of the book. The characters felt very bland, their relationships were shallow / just not very convincing. The writing style dragged most of the time, which was especially annoying during the ‘action scenes’. The most obvious ‘plot twists’, that everyone saw coming, were over-explained and spelled out to the reader. At the same time some aspects weren’t explained at all, even though they were explicitly mentioned by the characters and that’s just the worst way of setting up a sequel. The worldbuilding is interesting in theory but unfortunately the execution was messy and took away from the ideas. The letters could have been an interesting addition but their placement was weird and unfitting.
Overall the book was just not for me.

This is sapphic horror that features vampires, fungal fae, plant magic and other supernatural beings.

When Clara Eden is offered a job as an archivist working for the eccentric estate owner Agatha Montague, she thinks her all her prayers have been answered. She soon finds herself enmaged in the world of her research, captivated by a romantic correspondence thousands of years old. However as her feelings for Agatha Montague's assistant, Fiadh, deepen, so too does her suspicion that something about Agatha Montague isn’t quite right. Unfortunately for Clara, by the time her suspicions are confirmed, it is far too late to run.

I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys a dark fantasy romance with mythical creatures.

OH MY GOD!! This book!! I literally cannot even put into words how incredible this story was and I am very impatiently waiting for when book two comes out because I am DYING to find out what happens next. I was worried this wouldn’t live up to the hype, but boy did it ever! I haven’t read anything like In the Roses of Pieria before. It was an intriguing combination of paranormal, romance, mystery, fantasy, horror, dark academia, historical fiction, and more - all tied together with threads of Sappho and Ancient Greece. Anna’s writing was beautiful and haunting and this story will take you on an adventure like no other!

Clara Eden is struggling financially and missing that spark in life. So when she is offered the chance to be an archivist for the largest personal collection on Nektopolis, she accepts even though she has some serious reservations - like not being able to share anything she finds. Soon she is living and working at the estate of the mysterious and elusive Agatha Montague and begins to bond with her beautiful and icy assistant, Fiadh.

As Clara digs deep into translating love letters between Gata and Natek, mysteries begin to unravel and in her search for questions she stumbles upon something she was never meant to find. She soon discovers that there are secrets at the Montague estate beyond her wildest imagination. But by then…it’s too late to turn back.

I read the blurb for this book awhile back but didn’t reread it before starting and I’m glad because it turned certain elements of the story into surprises I wasn’t quite expecting. This was a heavy read at times, so it took me a bit longer to get through it. There is just so much information to absorb and I didn’t want to miss one single detail! I was completely enraptured by this terrifying tale of forbidden romance and all the dark and twisty turns it took.

In the Roses of Pieria is a literary masterpiece that will capture you in its thrall and leave you begging for more! Don’t wait…go sink your teeth into this story now!

This book had me googling if Nektopolis had ever existed.

This book was such a surprise. From Greek mythology to vampires…just a whole lot of fantasy and sapphic romance goodness. It is written in single POV and follows Clara, an academic whose entire career has been focused on “Nektopolis” and particularly, Nektaria. She is offered an amazing job opportunity that gives her the opportunity to learn all sorts of things about the place that was the topic that has shaped her entire career. The only catch is, it involves not being able to publish anything she learns through her new position, but the job ends up being WAY more than she bargained for and it was one hell of an adventure to read about. I loved every second of it. Anna has written this so incredibly well. Its story is captivating, characters diverse, and it keeps you immersed. I was i n v e s t e d. It was a 5 star read for me. My one suggestion, take the time to read footnotes throughout the story, it’ll be worth it. I NEED the sequel yesterday.

4.5 Stars / ARC from Netgalley

This story takes you on quite a journey. Richly filled with beautiful prose and interesting characters, it is also a lesson in patience, since it takes a while to pick up - but is worth the lingering as well as the wait. The letters that are central to the story read like poetry to me, they intrinsically touched something within me. The story itself is exciting and a little mysterious, even though most of the time you are a few steps ahead of Clara, the protagonist, who clearly does not know that she's in a vampire novel.
The character's actions always seemed very interesting to me, never boring but a few times I groaned or got a little frustrated with Clara, which is not a big deal to me though. I very very much enjoyed this book and will definitely pick up the second book as soon as it's out.

𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴. 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯. 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘴?

This book was the tipping point for me to actually make a Goodreads tag for "Books that feel like they were written just for me." While at times, I thought the writing was a little patchy, I cannot fault just how much I felt seen by the contents.

The Roses of Pieria is the story of an academic, Clara Eden, who has dedicated her life to the study of a small, releatively unimportant city state in the Classical World. Out of nowhere, Clara recieves the job offer of a lifetime; a six figure salary to catelogue, translate and study a mysterious private collection of artefacts with a cosy cottage to live in, a stern but surprisingly warm housekeeper overseeing the work... and a complete not-fragmented book of Sappho? Wait, what? The things in the collection are impossible. The situation is impossible, and yet here she is. Who is her mysterious employer really and will Clara get all the answers she needs while still being able to walk away? And more importantly, will these artefacts ever see the inside of a musesum as they should?

So anyone that likes vampires, cats, lesbians, Sappho, Classics, Mrs Danvers vibes, dark academia, and magic, boy, is this the book for you. I really really enjoyed this one. Was it nonsensical in places? Of course, but it was so easy to get swept up in the story and especially the romantic relationship at the heart of it which people who read my reviews will know I rarely say.

I believe there is going to be another book, and I can't wait for it. I would say this is my Twilight, but to be fair, Twilight was my Twilight. What I can easily say is that this is a book that I have I always wanted to find, I just didn't know it yet.

‘𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦.’

The haunting/mysterious feeling for the first 3rd of the book hooked me right away. I really liked a lot of things about this (solid sapphic romance, great setting, cool use of cats and plants), but the writing style frustrated me quite often. The author is not straightforward, and the plot sometimes got lost in her detailed descriptions, so I had to go back and reread to understand. The letters dispersed throughout the book were such a neat touch in the beginning, but later felt displaced and had me confused on how they related to the story or if the contents were known by the characters or just the audience. Overall, I think with the addition of new characters and big reveals, this has the potential to lead to an awesome Book 2.

I really enjoyed this, I think more than I expected to. I started reading it knowing little about what the book was about and I think that’s the best way to read this.

The world building was interesting to read and I thought the pacing of the story was good. Cannot wait for the sequel!

🖤🥀a scholar gets her dream job cataloguing ancient artifacts from a mysterious collector and her strict assistant, but ends up with more than she bargained for when she discovers the person she’s working for might be an immortal creature of the night🖤🥀

The beginning of this book was a bit slow for me, but it definitely picked up in the middle/end and was steamy and action-packed (and bloody, of course 🧛🏼‍♀️) I loved the slow burn development of Clara and Fiadh’s relationship while simultaneously learning about Gata and Natek’s relationship through their letters. I definitely figured out who was who early on, but that didn’t necessarily take away from the story. That cliffhanger ending though…I desperately need to see what happens next.

Thank you NetGalley and Bywater Books for this arc!

I read “daring queer dark fantasy romance teeming with sensuous vampires, dark academia, plant horrors, and terrifying fungal fae,” and went sign me right on up and wow did Anna Burke deliver.

It is truly best to go into this with no expectations, but if you need anything else to convince you to read this book, I offer you:
• An untenured university professor specializing in an obscure ancient civilization
• An opportune job offer for said academic involving a host of never before seen primary sources (and a livable wage and health insurance!)
• Centuries old correspondence between lesbian lovers (seriously, if you loved This Is How You Lose the Time War, read this)
• Footnotes!

Anna Burke weaves together dark academia and the existence of various mythical creatures and offers some romance on top of the creepy fungus and I had a great time.

This is my first read of an ARC book and by the first sentence, I knew this book would have me absolutely hooked. I could not put this book down and loved almost everything about it. The history aspect and the letters were my favourite part. The fungal plot of the story confused me a bit, maybe another read would help. All in all, it is a fantastic read, and definitely sets itself up for a sequel, which I am SO excited to read. I definitely will look up other books by this author.

I highly recommend this to romance readers who enjoy a strong secondary plot and to urban fantasy readers who love a heavy romance sub-plot ! I’m not really either of these so I don’t think I was fully able to appreciate this novel, but my rating is more « not fully my thing » based than « wasn’t that good » and I’m truly looking forward the second book !!

I think this could definitely appeal to a lot of people as the romance and the historical mystery are really well balanced and both fun/immersive. I was invested in both storylines, and never got bored by any of the two. I was ROOTING for the main relationship from the beginning and seing it happen got me kicking my feet and giggling. Bravo les lesbiennes as we say in french. I did miss the tension between the main characters in the second half of the book, but they were so sweet and taking care of one another, who cares if everything happened so fast, they deserve it !! And I mean the tension just went from romantic/sexual to death threats, it’s not gone it just transformed :,)
I also enjoyed following the secondary romance and I do hope we get more of it in the second book. The letters were a unique way of telling us about it, but I hope we’ll be shown more in the future, like live. The letters themselves also extended the suspens and complexified the whole mystery. At first, Nektopolis felt like a real place and I loved how believable it seemed as well as the academic settings. I did also appreciated how the focus shifted from this slow, nerdy, calm atmosphere to fantasy and plain drama. The climax was unexpected and well paced, got me genuinely worried.

3,5/5

I have to admit that this is not the kind of thing I'm into. I'm not really a fan of vampires or dark academia, and I generally prefer to read fast-paced books, so I didn't get as much out of this book as other people who like those things would. That being said, I found the world and concepts introduced in this book to be fascinating, and I would love to explore this universe more. I know that this is the first book in the series, so a lot of this book is setting up the groundwork for this world, but I wished that the supernatural stuff get revealed earlier in the book, because that's when I felt the story really started to kick off. The concept behind the Fae is so original, I almost wished this book was focusing on the Fae instead of the vampires. I also liked how the book explores the effects immortality would have on a person/vampire, in terms of their memories/humanity/the way they interact with the world.

My favourite part of the book is by far the letters. I didn't really get it at first? Like, I found the prose in the letters to be kind of overdramatic, and without context of what was happening when they were written, I wasn't invested in what was going on. But as the letters progressed, I found myself loving the dynamic between Gata and Natek, and the way the letters were interspersed with the main story added to the mystery and tension. I'm kinda neutral on the footnotes? I appreciate the context that they add, but I'm not sure all the footnotes were needed, some of them felt unnecessary.

One downside of this book is that I never felt connected to any of the characters. I never felt invested in the romance, and I just couldn't make myself root for the MC for some reason. Maybe because I just don't relate to her much?(Personally, if I found out my employer was a vampire I would not care, especially if my employer was paying me a generous salary(I would literally turn a blind eye to murder if it meant a fat paycheck)) And honestly I think this book would be much more interesting if it were written from Fiadh's perspective. I mean, it makes sense that this book is from Claire's POV, so that readers can learn and explore this world from her perspective, but I thought Fiadh's backstory would make her a much more interesting narrator.