Author: Charlotte Cross
Release date: 2026
Contains spoilers
The Blurb: Told through letters and diary entries, The Brides is a chilling reimagining of Bram Stoker's Dracula – with a devastating sapphic romance at its heart.
'Come to me, and be mine for eternity'
1884. When Mafalda journeys to Budapest to care for her grieving aunt, her secret love, Lucy, hurries from London to comfort her, with chaperone and lady’s maid in tow.
But lady’s maid Alice, blessed and cursed with the Sight, is tormented by terrifying visions. When chaperone Eliza falls prey to a disturbing wasting illness, the women hope to seek the healing waters of Transylvania. At a nobleman’s invitation, they set out for Castle Dracula.
In the depths of the forest, miles from civilization, their host reveals his true intentions; a monstrous ambition which will tear the women apart.
And not all of them will survive.
The review: This is a prequel to Dracula with a touch of sequel. By that I mean that, whilst the majority of the book is an epistolary story from 1893 (and designated 10 years before the events of Stoker’s novel), there are parts set in 1903 as Sir John Seward, as he now is, tales a new position in an asylum and not long later receives charge of Lady Lowell, a zoophagus individual who, it becomes apparent, has a shared history from 10 years before the Crew of Light defeated Dracula.
The rest of the story follows Mafalda Lowell as she and her mother travel to Buda-Pesth to care for her maternal aunt whose husband has recently died in a dual. Mafalda’s orphaned schoolfriend, Lucy North, lives at Mafalda’s parents’ home and the two young women are in a secret sapphic relationship. I had a slight irk in the Lucy character’s name as it sailed too close to Lucy in Dracula. Lucy with chaperone Eliza and maid Alice (who has the second sight) are soon travelling to Buda-Pesth to stay with the family.
Of course, into this comes Dracula and it is obvious from the title that some of the primary female cast will become his brides. In this respect the novel is good at creating a female centric set of characters and still managing to situate them in the timeframe, with the societal misogyny of the time and their responses to that. It is also a rather clever origin story for Dracula’s vampire women and explains small moments from the original novel such as why the vampire women speak English (as Harker understands them). There isn’t much in the way of additional lore introduced except for the use of lemon verveine (or lemon beebrush) which Alice uses to hold off the second sight and which is found to ward off evil. There is a passing mention of hagriding connected with Alice’s grandmother.
The novel is a slow burn – with the vampiric action coming towards the end of the novel (bar some disturbing dreams that Alice has and, of course, Seward’s remembrance). That slowly builds also, with Dracula a shadowy figure on the periphery of the story when he enters the frame until right towards the end. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this, 7.5 out of 10.
In Hardback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
The Blurb: Told through letters and diary entries, The Brides is a chilling reimagining of Bram Stoker's Dracula – with a devastating sapphic romance at its heart.
'Come to me, and be mine for eternity'
1884. When Mafalda journeys to Budapest to care for her grieving aunt, her secret love, Lucy, hurries from London to comfort her, with chaperone and lady’s maid in tow.
But lady’s maid Alice, blessed and cursed with the Sight, is tormented by terrifying visions. When chaperone Eliza falls prey to a disturbing wasting illness, the women hope to seek the healing waters of Transylvania. At a nobleman’s invitation, they set out for Castle Dracula.
In the depths of the forest, miles from civilization, their host reveals his true intentions; a monstrous ambition which will tear the women apart.
And not all of them will survive.
The review: This is a prequel to Dracula with a touch of sequel. By that I mean that, whilst the majority of the book is an epistolary story from 1893 (and designated 10 years before the events of Stoker’s novel), there are parts set in 1903 as Sir John Seward, as he now is, tales a new position in an asylum and not long later receives charge of Lady Lowell, a zoophagus individual who, it becomes apparent, has a shared history from 10 years before the Crew of Light defeated Dracula.
The rest of the story follows Mafalda Lowell as she and her mother travel to Buda-Pesth to care for her maternal aunt whose husband has recently died in a dual. Mafalda’s orphaned schoolfriend, Lucy North, lives at Mafalda’s parents’ home and the two young women are in a secret sapphic relationship. I had a slight irk in the Lucy character’s name as it sailed too close to Lucy in Dracula. Lucy with chaperone Eliza and maid Alice (who has the second sight) are soon travelling to Buda-Pesth to stay with the family.
Of course, into this comes Dracula and it is obvious from the title that some of the primary female cast will become his brides. In this respect the novel is good at creating a female centric set of characters and still managing to situate them in the timeframe, with the societal misogyny of the time and their responses to that. It is also a rather clever origin story for Dracula’s vampire women and explains small moments from the original novel such as why the vampire women speak English (as Harker understands them). There isn’t much in the way of additional lore introduced except for the use of lemon verveine (or lemon beebrush) which Alice uses to hold off the second sight and which is found to ward off evil. There is a passing mention of hagriding connected with Alice’s grandmother.
The novel is a slow burn – with the vampiric action coming towards the end of the novel (bar some disturbing dreams that Alice has and, of course, Seward’s remembrance). That slowly builds also, with Dracula a shadowy figure on the periphery of the story when he enters the frame until right towards the end. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this, 7.5 out of 10.
In Hardback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
