Once Upon a Dark October by Jessie Thomas

All curses made in blood must be broken with blood. Dreadmist Harbor sleeps under a near-perpetual veil of coastal fog, home to mortals, vampires, and those somewhere in between. Already down-on-her-luck, mortal charwoman Elspeth finds herself the target of a rogue vampire, shattering the peaceful coexistence. Forced to seek help from a reclusive vampire coven, she barely makes it to their dreary seaside perch before she succumbs to the bite. Morrigan and her coven are haunted by a bitter rivalry that has left them devastated and fractured. As their old feud is once again rekindled, she is inexorably tied to Elspeth, who now carries an ancient vampiric power within her. The two are quickly swept up into a tangle of bloodlust and sorcery after the fraught transformation—realizing that matters of the heart are complicated, especially in undeath. While something sinister gathers in the shadows of their quiet town, they are pulled deeper into a world of curses and magic, dark dealings and betrayal. But Elspeth and Morrigan soon learn that all power must come with a price, for curses are not so easily broken.

Adult • Diversity Representation/LGBTQ+/Own Voices • Fantasy/Romantic and Erotic • Horror • Romance/Fantasy • Fantasy/Mythic, Retelling, and Folklore

Content Warning: Blood, vampiric blood drinking, vampiric cannibalism, body horror, gore, allusion to sexual assault through a vampiric lens, murder, PTSD/trauma, suicide (mentioned), suicidal ideation, explicit sexual content, explicit violence, self harm inflicted by magical manipulation, discussion of grief and death, torture via magical means