“You may now be my husband,” she enunciated tightly, “but I will not be listening to another word you say until I’ve had a proper cup of tea.”
Apparently, even the undead could be made to understand some simple facts of life.

And so we have our protagonist for this short story, Margaret, whose Aunt and Uncle have been blackmailed into handing their orphaned niece over to a vampire for his bride. Or so Margaret believes.

Said vampire Lord Riven, facing eviction due to the new bill recently passed stating in order to keep his house and lands he must be wed to a living and breathing woman. Fortunately, his man of business came to the rescue and a wife was found who was happy to marry him for the low low price of the mythical magical gem called the Rose of Normandy that his family has guarded for centuries.

As it transpires, they soon discover they have been conned into marrying each other, and must puzzle out the truth of the matter in order to get back the stone.

There were many aspects of this story that made me wish it was more fully realised and not just a short story. The Rose of Normandy is responsible for originally cursing humans into monstrous forms such as vampires and werewolves during various key historic moments, and so has created an alternative historic timeline, which I’d have loved to explore further!

It isn’t clear when this story is set exactly – we have carriages and gaslamps – but there are differences in monarchs and what they have ruled, and so Margaret was, until her family dragged her away to marry a vampire, a student. But I was very interested in this version of Britain and how the history had altered.

Margaret herself, however, I struggled to warm to. She has all the impulsivity and assumption of Elizabeth Bennet and Jo March combined. Not to mention plenty of the former’s pride, too. Her mind is constantly on the studies she has been torn from, her academic rivals and their (many many) shortcomings.

This single mindedness does come back to bite her, so lessons are learned, growth is applied to character, but I just didn’t find her endearing unfortunately.

Lord Riven, however, I did feel sorry for. I felt confused by his eventual respect and admiration for Margaret (personally I’d have chosen destitution over a lifetime with her), but his adamance to do this whole ‘being a husband’ thing right was very sweet, and his backstory of familial duty is very sad.

As I said, despite my feelings towards Margaret, I do wish this had been longer just because I loved the world and, as ever, Burgis’ writing. A burgeoning romance caught up in a puzzling mystery with betrayals and family curses that left me wanting more – I’m so glad I have the sequel to dive straight into!

A Marriage of Undead Inconvenience is available now – you can order your copy HERE