Every day, the threat the Varis family poses to the humans they rule over grows stronger. Every minute that Arabelle spends doing chores for vain, entitled aristocrats, her resolve to overthrow the vampire monarchy increases. She is the leader of the underground resistance, The Black Lily. And she’s waited long enough. Now is the perfect time to ignite the rebellion. The plan? Attend the vampire … the vampire prince’s blood ball. And kill him.
Dagger in hand, Arabelle is caught off guard by the immediate spark she shares with Prince Marius. It doesn’t help that he’s listening to her and seems so kind and understanding.
Arabelle is sworn to kill Marius at all costs, but what if Prince Charming is more than he appears to be? But the big question? Now that he knows the truth can she do what she must to save her people?
Each book in the Vampire Blood series is STANDALONE:
* The Black Lily
* The Red Lily
* The White Lily
* The Emerald Lily
more
The threat the Varis family poses to the humans they rule over grows stronger every day and Arabelle’s resolve to overthrow the vampire monarchy grows as well. Now is the perfect time to ignite the underground resistance’s rebellion, by attending the prince’s blood ball and killing him. But Prince Marius could be more than the Prince Charming he appears to be if he listens and understands the truth.
This is the first book in fascinating and different vampire world that readers can really sink their teeth into. The chemistry between Arabelle and Marius has sparks flying in every direction from every page of this fiery and volatile romance that provides readers with a very entertaining mix of passion, laughter and adventure. The characters are strong, the emotional turmoil fits the story and characters so well that readers really feel as if they know and understand both sides of the conflict. The heroine is quite saucy and spirited while the hero is an arrogant male who soon turns into a real prince and readers just have to sigh in pleasure.
The wonderful setting adds just the right atmosphere to the story to make it believable and readers find that the story ‘feels right’ which makes it delightfully exciting and quite thrilling as they get caught up in the suspense and action of this story. The clever ‘Cinderella’ fairy tale retelling makes this vampire romance, one that readers will want to visit over and over again.
Another enchanting read from the amazingly talented Juliette Cross!!! I loved the Cinderella spin on this tale!! Sexy vampires and fairytales are two of my favorite things. Prince marius is sexy and so sinfully hot and his pursuit and seduction of arabelle is all that consumes him and he won’t stop til he has this beauty in his bed with his body and fangs sunk deep inside her. Arabelle is the head of the black lily resistance group who wants to over throw the ruling vampire family, just because Prince marius is walking sex God and seems nice,not like the monsters who are leaving dead bodies that are being drained or the people who starting to disappear never to be seen again. still she’s not falling into this vamps arms no matter how charming and handsome he is. But from their first touch and kiss both feel the pull of intense desire with a one of kind all consuming passion.Together arabelle and marius along with help from nikolai one of marius top commanders and the beautiful red haired witch sienne with her hart wolf protectors must find the blood crazed vamps before the darkness takes over the rest of the vampires. Fabulous word and passion play!!! Loved it!!!
Next up in this series The Red Lily: Sienne and Nikolai story!
This entire series is wonderful and should not be missed.
A Cinderella re-telling done vampire style!! And done fabulously!
I couldn’t love this book any more if I tried. The author’s words made it so easy for me to get instantly hooked and pulled into the story and forget life around me. And totally made me wish sexy vampires were real. And made me want one of my own.
I couldn’t turn these pages fast enough. The chemistry between Marius and Arabelle was off. the. charts. Smoking hot! They shouldn’t want each other. All things pointed to NO…absolutely forbidden. But there was no denying the connection, the pull, the passion between them. When they were near each other, the air around them sizzled. It was electric.
I was completely captivated from beginning to end. Many intense scenes had me gripping my kindle tighter and many made me tingle from head to toe.
This story is full of strong and lovable characters who I couldn’t help but fall hard for. Marius is one of those BBFs who you want to desire you, love you, please you, save you, do anything for you. I’ve never wanted to be the heroine of book so badly as I did with this one.
I craved more and more with each turn of the page. I wanted to hurry and finish, yet I never wanted it to end. SO. GOOD.
I’m eager for more of this amazing world Ms. cross has created. Absolutely phenomenal. If I wouldn’t have had other ARC obligations, I would’ve immediately jumped right into book 2, then book 3, then book 4. I will get to them eventually, and I cannot wait.
Looking for an outstanding vampire romance with good and evil and suspense and humor and steam and aallllllll the things we need and love in our delicious paranormal romances? Then you need The Black Lily in your life.
Delicious.
Vampire.
Goodness.
This author has made her way to my automatic 1-click list. Whatever she writes, I will read it.
Vampires and enemies to lovers and a Cinderella retelling all in one! This one was right up my alley and was a quick and fun read. I am always up for a vampire read and no matter how much people try to say the vampire trend is over, I shall cling onto them for dear life. This is a good start to the series and can’t wait for more.
Enjoyed
A nice diversion from what you usually expect with vampire romances, and I liked the Cinderella-based storyline. Basically it was enjoyable, though I don’t know if I’ll read the others. The heroine is an appropriate level of tough but not insanely skilled (she is, after all, a peasant with no battle training) and I liked the hero slowly reorganizing his priorities as he learned new information. The only thing that frustrated me a little with this was the insta-love…. though it was also somehow simultaneously insta-love and slow burn as it took them a while to consummate (which I mean in a good way).
This series was wonderful! Couldn’t put it down and bought all four. wish she could write more. The men fell in love first which is unusual. They were strong, protective and powerful but very loving and sexy. The women were all smart and not the blushing idiots in most romances. Get these fast.
What begins as an intriguing Cinderella retelling turns into a captivating vampire romance. The Black Lily by Juliette Cross is a great paranormal read. Because of its strong characters and its compelling storyline, I just devoured it. The author sets up the story arc so beautifully and the reader wants to immediately delve into the next book. I can’t wait to see how the villains are defeated in this series, and I look forward to discovering the next romance in line.
I must say this is the first book by Juliette Cross I read and wow, it was fantastic. The vampires from this world, well I loved them. Cinderella alike is one of my favorite kind of stories, this combination was what threw me to read it and I am glad I did. Looking forward for the next.
The Black Lily By Juliette Cross is my first book by this author.
It’s a kind of Vampire Twist on the whole cinderella story and seeing as I love fairy tales and am a sucker (sucker get it he he ) for vampires this seemed a win-win.
We have a fairy tale world ruled by vampires, nobles and then the poor peasants
Our Prince Mariel is a vampire and he’s having a ball for all the nobility to attend to find his latest bleeder.
Enter Arabelle AKA The Black Lily she’s at the ball until midnight to entice the prince so she can drive a gold edged dagger through his vampire heart.
Arabelle is part of the underground movement to stop vampire tyranny.
fleeing the scene of the crime just after midnight. Arabelle thinks she’s succeeded in her mission.
Prince Marius wants to find the enchantress bearing a tattoo of a lily and proceeds to start a hunt across the kingdom for the mysterious woman.
Now It took me a while to get into this book, this might have been because I was in a bit of a reading slump, or just plain I wasn’t sure about it.
anyway, something must have clicked for me as this changed for me around chapter seven and them a steamrolled through the rest.
so in conclusion, fantastic original plotline, I don’t think I’ve ever seen cinderella imagined with vampires, a great narrative and excellent world building.
this was a fun read with great fleshed out characters my only issue was my inability to originally connect with the story this pulled it down slightly for me and my rating reflected this.
saying that this is still a great read.
I received a free e-copy of The Black Lily from NetGalley and this is my own honest opinion.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
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This entire fairy tale-esque series is amazing. I loved book 1, with its world building and forbidden romance…but love and passion eclipse all else.
***5 ‘You Are Not What I Expected’ Stars***
When I heard that Juliette Cross was going to be putting her own paranormal twist on some very well loved fairy tales I started making grabby hands, while doing a lot of the practicing patience thing and though it did take me a little longer to dive in that I intended, I wasn’t disappointed. She has created a vibrant world and filled it with characters that I need to know more about, even the baddies and woven humor, heart, suspense and a good dose smexyness into it that had me turning the pages until there were no more to turn.
I adored Marius. He is a vampire and a prince, but he’s nothing like you’d expect him to be. He believes in the superiority of his race and status within it and though the arrogance that comes with that belief is woven into his very being, it doesn’t suffocate. He’s all kinds of charming, confident, intelligent, smexy alpha male goodness and all of that combined with his compassionate heart makes him all kinds of swoon worthy.
Arabelle and I had an interesting go of it. Overall I loved the girl. She genuinely cares for her people and though she is just a servant she is willing to do all she can to better their lives, even if it mean sacrificing hers. She could have turned her back on the problems, and even turned callous and cold, but didn’t. But for all I admired her, her tunnel vision in the beginning had me twitching. She has just cause for her feelings, but the soapbox she put herself on was not as sturdy as she believed.
Marius and Arabelle’s road to their HEA was a bumpy one for many reasons, but it was a fun and smexy one as they forced each other to open their eyes to the true reality of the world they lived in. I enjoyed the push and pull between them because it not only made the sexual tension between them that much hotter, but it forced them to get to know each other beyond their station in life and come to realize that they had much more in common than they could have ever imagined.
It’s not secret I’m a huge Juliette Cross fangirl and a good portion of that has to do with how well she builds the world her stories are set in. They are vibrant, even in their darkness, and she has a way of making you want to explore every nook and cranny of it. She creates a history of the world that is believable even though you know in your logical mind that there is no way it can exist and yet you want to get lost in it and that’s what she done once again with The Black Lily. On top of all of that she brings to life characters that you want to know more about and spend time with, even the ones you want to gut with a spoon and there are many I’d love to cozy up to here. As this is the first in series, there is a lot of information being thrown at you, but it’s done in a more show not tell way so it isn’t overwhelming. I do have one, well, two bones to pick with Ms. Cross, but neither are about the overall story arc of the series, which I thought was well done and cannot wait to see how everything plays out down the road!
~ Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley ~
Loved this book. Such a great twist merging fairytale and vampire together. Incredible unique. The main heroine was strong. You couldn’t help but root for her. This is a great imaginative series. I’ve already read the second book and I am waiting for more!
Very romantic.
not very engaging
(Review originally posted on Goodreads)
I don’t normally read vampire books. Somewhere between Amelia Atwater-Rhodes’ last vampire novel and whenever Twilight came out, I fell off the Vampire Novel Bus.
But I found this one really tasteful. I thought the world building was good – and refreshing; things were revealed slowly, as they were needed. There are somethings I still don’t understand but that feels natural. I think this type of organic story telling is somewhat out of fashion. Either the author is very good or the world building is full of holes and she happened to make it still satisfying, but I’m like to give her the benefit of the doubt.
The characters are great. Full of life with just enough flaws to make them feel real. The secondary and even smaller characters – down to the animals – felt vibrant and interesting.
I also think the story did a good job of setting up the series. I think it felt a little less wrapped up than I’m used to with romance series; in that way, it felt a little more like a fantasy. However, never fear, the end was still satisfying.
Although towards the end, I did predict the answer to the “mystery” as it were, the story still managed to surprise me a little bit. I should warn, there are some surprisingly brutal and graphic elements to this story. I suppose, being about vampires, that shouldn’t be too surprising. But I guess I started to forget the original horror element of this subgenre. Nice reminder!
Needless to say perhaps, I am looking forward to the next in the series.
The Black Lily is a unique fairy tale retelling. Cinderella, aka Arabelle, goes to the ball not to meet the prince, but to kill him.
In the world created by author Juliette Cross, a vampire monarchy rules the land. Arabelle is among the peasant class who have been oppressed by the monarchy and the human nobles who serve them. Worse, the vampires have begun killing peasants, bleeding them dry. As the Black Lily, Arabelle leads a resistance movement to free the peasants from vampire tyranny.
Vampire prince Marius needs another blood host so a ball in thrown in his honor so he can pick another woman for his blood harem. Arabelle, disguised as a noblewoman, sneaks into the ball. The prince is captivated by her. Her attempt to kill him fails (obviously) and she flees the ball, leaving her dagger behind.
Despite the fact that she tried to murder him Marius is determined to find the woman who has attracted him like no other woman ever has.
Although this romance was inspired by Cinderella, after the ball it deviates and becomes own unique story with many twists and turns to enthrall the reader. If you like paranormal romance, definitely grab this one.
I absolutely loved this book. Cinderella is not my favorite, but this was fantastic. Arabella was certainly Marius’ match. So funny in his pursuit of her. Great read.