This is a dark academia Carmilla retelling, set in the same universe as A Dowry of Blood, but several centuries later in 1968-1969 (you don't need to have read ADoB to read this one). This is a dual-POV story set at a women's college in Massachusetts about Laura, a good girl from Mississippi, and her academic rival turned lover, Carmilla, a spoiled brat from Austria, and their competition for their poetry professor's favor. Also, the poetry professor is a vampire. Dun dun dun.

The beginning of this book was promising; I enjoyed the gothic setting and the vibes of the girls jockeying for position in their poetry class and hanging out in the old library, and the tension between them when they first meet was 👌

I paused my reading about 40% in to go read Carmilla (which is only like ~100 pages) and then dove back in, ready to get wrecked. Unfortunately, the last half of the book didn't quite hit the notes I wanted it to. Sidenote, you don't need to have read Carmilla to read this; they're both sapphic vampire stories but the character names are the strongest common thread.

I felt like the two FMCs entered the lover phase of their enemies-to-lovers a little quickly, and I was less interested in their dynamic once they did. I didn't feel a deep connection to either of them, although there were interesting elements to them both outside of their relationship that I wished had been explored more. For example, the political climate of the late 60s is touched on once, as is Laura's desire to be a priest, but then those are never brought back up in relation to the main conflict of the story (the girls' relationship and the existence of vampires), so I was left wondering why they were mentioned at all.

All of the characters' relationships themselves are toxic, similar to A Dowry of Blood but I kept expecting more to come of this, for there to be a big blowup or tragic turn, and what we got felt a bit anticlimactic to me. I enjoyed the writing itself, but overall just wanted more oomph from the last half of this book. The vibes are absolutely there, though, and I've seen a lot of people give this 5 stars, so if you're just looking for a sapphic, BDSM, rivals-to-lovers book with hot vampires, this may be for you! Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review!