Book Review: The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi (ARC)

"A sumptuous, gothic-infused story about a marriage that is unraveled by dark secrets, a friendship cursed to end in tragedy, and the danger of believing in fairy tales—the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.

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.

Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive."

Pages: 304

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I received The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi for free by the lovely Kate at Hodderscape in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much for my advanced copy!

The Last Tale of The Flower Bride will be published in the UK tomorrow!

Roshani Chokshi is one of my favourite authors and I think everyone knew that this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year (I literally would not shut up about it 😂) and WOW what a book! How can I even begin to review one of my favourite books I’ve ever read?!

I’m really glad that I went into this book not knowing much about it and I would definitely recommend that as you get the full immersive experience - but definitely check the trigger warnings first! The imagery throughout the story was absolutely fantastic and I loved the weaving in of myths as the story progressed. I wanted to savour every word and loved how dreams and reality were intertwined.

Plus, I really liked the theme of devotion in this story especially how it was geared to both fantasy and reality, and the mirroring of events that happen to different characters was so clever! It was haunting, ethereal and just absolute perfection to me! After finishing this book, I was in a moment of awe. I found it hard to accept that I would have to go back to my normal life when I just wanted to talk about this book and how amazing it was!

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a dark and seductive story that has incredible suspense and thrills with the bite of the Brothers Grimm’s tales! It was absolutely extraordinary!