Innamorata
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
A decadently dark gothic fantasy for readers who love “haunting atmospheres, morally tangled characters, and stories where love becomes doom” (Booklist, starred review), the first in a duology from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning and Lady Macbeth
“Gorgeously gruesome . . . reads like the gory bones of a forgotten folktale.”—Jacqueline Carey, New York Times bestselling author of the Kushiel’s Legacy series
Once there was an island where the dead walked the earth, and seven noble houses ruled by the arcane secrets of necromancy.
A conqueror’s blade brought them low, burning their libraries, killing their lords, and extinguishing their eldritch magic.
But defiant against the new order stands the House of Teeth and its last living members: beautiful Marozia, the heiress to the House, and her cousin, the uncanny Lady Agnes.
Though she has not spoken a word in seven years, Agnes is the true carrier of the House’s legacy. And she has her orders. She must recapture the secrets of death magic and avenge her family’s fallen honor. She must arrange the betrothal of her beloved cousin Marozia to Liuprand, heir to the conqueror’s throne, for access to the forbidden library in his grotesquely grand castle.
Revenge burns in Agnes’s heart but so do stranger passions—and it is Liuprand, the golden prince, who speaks to her soul. This passion is as treasonous as it is powerful, poisoning the kingdom’s roots and threatening to tear the already shattered realm in two.
For Agnes’s final order is the gravest: She must not fall in love.
Book One of The House of Teeth Duology
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Ava Reid’s superb grimdark fantasy presents a beautiful and grotesque world of death, intrigue, and consuming desires. Lady Agnes’ noble house was nearly extinguished when the land of Drepane was conquered. Today, her cousin Marozia carries what’s left of the family name, while Agnes is sworn to regain their status—not to mention their lost mastery over the dark art of necromancy. But the plan to do so through Marozia’s marriage to Prince Liuprand throws them both into a winding maze of duty, horror, and soul-crushing love. This is gothic fiction at its finest and most disquieting. Reid’s lush prose lingers with poetic wretchedness over ghostly visions, pustulating plagues, and rooms heavy with the smell of blood. Agnes is a seemingly unassuming character, but her will and her desires are so definite and sharp, they eviscerate the well-laid plans around her like a knife. Dark and transgressive, Innamorata is bewitching, disturbing, and not for the faint of heart.
