COURT OF THE UNDYING SEASONS

When it is time for the annual Finding, an orphaned 19-year-old girl volunteers to be the sacrifice from her village to join a vampire school—with extraordinary consequences.

Fin’s mother was taken by vampires, and now that she is at Courtsheart as an initiate, going in place of the girl she loved, she sees it as the opportunity for revenge. At the same time, she hopes to avoid the fate of becoming one of the beings she despises. But the more she learns about the undead and the different courts they belong to—five Houses, each with their own rules—the more she becomes seduced by their temptations and by the delicious blood she drinks from Gavron, her maker. But if she fails to pass the harrowing lessons, she will become a mortal thrall instead of a vampire. And that’s when a string of mysterious murders commences. A welcome return to the world of suitably dark, thirsty, wholly inhuman vampires, this is a story that pays homage to classics and plays with boarding school and murder-mystery tropes in an original, inventive way. Fin’s own journey into power along with the medieval-esque setting, heart-stirring romance, well-rounded secondary characters, and found family make it a delectable read indeed. White bisexual Fin is exploring her sense of gender in a world with ample diversity of race, gender, and sexuality.

Abso-bloody-lutely brilliant.