About this book:
(blurb from #Goodreads
Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after–and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.
But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.
My Thoughts
“The Last Tale of the Flower Bride” is mysterious, dark and at times, quite tense.
It starts off with one POV, the male character simply referred to as the bridegroom throughout the book. He is a student of myths and folklore, and is meant to meet up with the mysterious Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada, in the hope to get access to some historic documents in her family’s possession. It is love at first sight, and he soon gets married to this beautiful heiress. There is one condition though, he should never try to investigate or probe into her past. A small price to pay for a life of uber-luxury, travelling the world with a gorgeous wife at your side, don’t you think? Well?
“As a scholar, I have always found dreams to be frustrating—if not lazy—motifs. They might be portents or prophecies, messages or mysteries. Dreams might pass through gates of horn and speak true, or sneak through gates of ivory and speak false. At it’s heart, a dream is a door.”
A good couple of chapters in, a second narrator, Azure, enters the scene. And with that, a step back into the past, as she was Indigo’s best childhood (and young adulthood) friend. Dual timelines and dual POVs, both stories told by people close to Indigo.
“She was a phantasm to me, proof of the impossible and thus a talisman against the absence that had haunted my adult life.”
Then, Indigo and the bridegroom receives news that an estranged family member of hers is dying, and they return to the gothic mansion she grew up in called the House of Dreams. This is the bridegroom’s opportunity to learn more about his bride’s past. But that wasn’t part of the deal now, was it?
“That might drive another man insane, but I’d had more than twenty years to make peace with the lightless space between what you cannot believe is a truth and what you know must be a lie.”
To keep this review spoiler-free I will try not to go much more into to plot details.
The writing is heartachingly beautiful and poetic. So much so that you really have to concentrate and focus, with the fear of missing anything. I throughly enjoyed the references to folklore and fairy tales, some of which I wasn’t familiar with.
“The Last Tale of the Flower Bride” is atmospheric, haunting, and ethereal. Some parts made me feel unsure of where the lines between reality and fantasy were. Is there something more sinister and otherworldly at play at The Dream House? This gothic tale was emotional and sometimes a bit eerie to experience. It is about love, obsession, control, toxic relationships, and flawed characters.
“I’ve been trying to find a way to live in this world. Barring that, I was looking for a way to leave it.”
Thanks to #NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton Audio, I had to opportunity to listed to the audiobook ARC of this book. It was narrated by Steve West and Sura Siu. I throughly enjoyed Steve West’s sections, he can read a recipe book and I will still be enthralled. I did struggle a bit with Sura Siu’s narration though – although the chapters she narrated, those of Azure, was more interesting and gripped me more, there were a few pronunciation choices that I didn’t quite agree with – but it may be the difference between US/UK articulation?
#TheLastTaleOfTheFlowerBride releases next week, the week of the 13th of February 2023 (14 and 16 February)
RRR (Roelia Reads Rating) 7/10
