A Steep and Savage Path Published by Page Street Publishing
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Fiction
Genres and Categories: Bisexual Characters, Demisexual Characters, Gay Characters, British Authors, Dark Fantasy, Gothic Fantasy, Paranormal, Romantasy, Ghosts, Spirits, Vampires, Historical Fantasy, Slavic, Slavic Culture, Supernatural, Underworld
My Rating:
Published on: 10th April 2025
Pages: 384
Disability Representation: Coma, Mobility aid, Muscle Weakness.
Buy this Book! Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Blackwells / Forbidden Planet / Bookshop.org US / Bookshop.org UK / Waterstones / BookBeat Audio
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An immortal vampire. A mortal bride. A vow that even death can't break.

Irina is about to be married to a dead man. She is the willing village sacrifice for the Wedding of the Dead: a desperate ritual designed to lay the hungry vampire that has been terrorising her Transylvanian village to rest. Irina's beloved sister's soul is trapped in the land of the dead. If Irina can retrieve it, she could bring her back - but Irina would need a guide, one who can walk between the living and the dead.

Irina strikes up a deal with her new husband - if he agrees to get her safely there and back again, then he can drink her blood as much as he wants.

They begin a perilous journey through the afterlife together, in which Irina realises Stefan isn't the cruel and terrifying monster that she thought. In a land of three-headed beasts, winged creatures and walking corpses, the last thing Irina would have expected was to fall in love.

Only, Irina learns that by bringing Stefan to the land of the dead she has put him in grave danger, and will be faced with an impossible choice. Will they be able to make it out, undead or alive?

This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

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I picked up A Steep and Savage Path by J.J.A. Harwood after being blown away by the author’s other novel, The Thorns Remain. Once again, Harwood has written a beautifully dark fantasy that will tug at your heartstrings. A Steep and Savage Path tells the story of Irina, a young woman who agrees to wed a dead man. The groom is a vampire who has been mercilessly preying on the village, and the wedding is a desperate attempt to lay the man to rest.

Irina has ulterior motives; she needs to save her sister’s soul from the Underworld after she fell into a coma. To do so, she needs a guide to journey to the Underworld, and as a vampire, her new husband can do just that. He agrees to guide her there and back with her blood as payment. As they head into the Underworld, it quickly becomes apparent to both that they have no idea what to expect or where to find her sister. The ins and outs of life after death are not the only learning curve; they find themselves learning about each other, casting aside their preconceptions.

A Steep and Savage Path is a beautiful tribute to life and death, incorporating Slavic vampire myths and a powerful sibling bond. I enjoyed the adventure in the Underworld and how Harwood interpreted life after death while including familiar concepts. Irina and Stefan are intriguing characters, and I loved how their relationship developed. The banter between them was perfect, and I was chuckling frequently as these two enemies journeyed towards lovers. This book deals with some very serious and dark topics, and the banter helped to balance things quite nicely. It was also great to have two LGBTQIA+ main characters, one demisexual and one bisexual or pansexual (specifically sexualities aren’t specified in the book). 

Thanks for reading my book review for A Steep and Savage Path by J.J.A. Harwood! It is out now and can be published from any of the links in this review!

Don’t forget to check out the rest of my reviews if you’re looking for some more book recommendations 🙂 You can also now sign up for my newsletter to get an email each month with a list of my new reviews!

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