Blood Red

Bard and peddler Ros has been banished from his village for the crime of loving another man. He’s been sent into the outer darkness of the wooded place that no one goes. He finds a gate and enters it, only to be swept away by bodiless hands; magical hands that give him intense pleasure and bring him drugged wine. Ros is smarter than that, and stages his own little rebellion even as the hands prepare him for something...or someone.

The vampire Sebastien lives in the keep, overlooking the garden beyond the dark forest, cursed by the Furies. He has gained much from the lovers of men cast off by the villagers who come to him through the deep wood, but he has never physically loved one of them. He’s denied himself that pleasure, even as his body cries out for it.

I adore Willa Okati! Her work is so lush and passionate, and this piece adds the bonus of a fantasy element. Blood Red is another wonderful and gripping tale of lust and the power it has to enchant, awaken, and heal. Ros is such a tease, and gorgeously decadent, while Sebastien is cool as ice, or so it seems, until he becomes lost to the torment Ros provides. The contrasts between them only heightened the delight I found in Blood Red, with its twist on the “happily ever after” fairy-tale story.

Reviewed by: Michelle