Death's Bloom: A Bluebeard Retelling by Lily Mayne

Title: ⟫ Death’s Bloom: A Bluebeard Retelling

Author: ⟫ Lily Mayne

Rating: ⟫ 4/5

Blurb: ⟫ He’s the most perfect man I’ve ever met, but something is… wrong.

I don’t see it at first. All I see is the gorgeous man with dark eyes and long hair and that unusual blue beard. The piercings and the tattoos, the beautiful smile. All I can focus on is the way he touches me, the sound of his voice in my ear, the perfect life he draws me into.

I hide it from him at first. The fact that… I think I’m losing my mind. That I keep seeing something lurking in the corners of rooms, keep hearing a terrible voice mumbling in the dead of night, keep seeing white eyes watching me in the dark.

Something is haunting me. Tormenting me. Trying to ruin this perfect life I now have with Theo, so I do my best to pretend that everything is fine. That I’m not terrified I’m losing my mind, or that a demon is stalking the halls every night trying to… get me.

Until I can’t pretend anymore. Until I realise… the monster in my nightmares and my perfect, loving boyfriend are not so different after all.

Death’s Bloom is an MM horror retelling of Bluebeard, as part of the collaboration Monsters & Mayhem: An MM Horror Collection, adapting some of your favourite classic horror stories with an MM romance twist.

Warning: This m/m love story contains explicit sexual content and is not suitable for young readers. It includes mild BDSM, including restraint and breath play, and MMM elements as well as graphic depictions of death, gore and violence, a somewhat toxic relationship and morally reprehensible characters.

Review: ⟫ This was juicy and dark and I was all the way here for it!!

It helps that I had forgotten the basis of the Bluebeard story, so as it unfolded it was all new to me. Ari and Theo were a match made in heaven – or hell, depending on how you look at it – and from the time they actually met, the chemistry was off the charts. Their relationship happened thick and fast, and was kinky as all heck. And I loved it. The consequences were vaguely terrifying – I mean, I read what was happening and it sent a shiver down my spine. I completely understood Ari’’s reaction – who the heck would you tell? And it was made even more fascinating when we got Theo’s side of things.

I really and truly loved this – it was very much a fairytale retelling, but with a demonic twist. Lily Mayne has a very distinctive style and I have very much enjoyed reading her Monstrous series This isn’t quite in the same vein, but the style is there so if you like that series, and you’re happy to go darker (and I don’t mean a little darker but a LOT), then you should really enjoy this!