I am convinced that vampires are so back in pop culture because this is my second book with vampirism in it this week. Vow of Eternal Night by Lily Crozier is a new fantasy romance release of 2026 that should definitely be on your TBR if you were a Twilight fan and grew up watching and reading retellings of the Beauty and the Beast.

Hi, readers. Welcome back to another fantasy fiction book review. I have definitely found myself in a contemporary vampire fiction rabbit hole after reading Hungerstone. The gothic, atmospheric horror with a touch of botanic horror that I am a particular fan of lines up with the contemporary vampire fiction. When I saw this book on NetGalley, I had to take a chance. So, let’s dive in.

Title: Vow of Eternal Night
Author: Lily Crozier
Read: eBook – NetGalley
ISBN: B0FCN3SQVG
Published: Entangled: Amara, 17 Feb 2026
Page Count: 336

Plot of ‘Vow of Eternal Night’: What is the book about?

It is a tale as old as time. There is a prince in the castle on the hill, and he steals away the mayor’s unruly daughter who had never quite fit in the village. She is the key to breaking his curse, but he does not make a secret of it here, he asks her help to find him a cure and she agrees.
The twist here is that the prince has been a prince for 300 years and the people of her village had started dying of blood loss once he had returned from court.
It is no secret that Raleigh of Rostenburg is a vampire, at least not to his people. Clara is especially aware of who he is since she led her to the village that first evening and her mother had been found drained of blood a few days later. So, when the prince asks for her hand in marriage as payment for everything her father has taken, Clara is surprised that her father agrees.
Then begins a series of months where she gets to know the reclusive vampire who does not come across as the demon lord she and the villagers had thought him to be and secrets are unveiled that turn Clara’s life upside down. The book has taken the Beauty and the Beast tale and questioned all the discrepancies in it. It has also taken the vampire lore and added as many elements of it in this tale as possible.

My Verdict: Is ‘Vow of Eternal Night’ worth reading?

For me, this book was a good palate cleanser. I did not go in with high expectations and was pleasantly surprised to have a tale balancing two worlds. The writing was fast and smooth flowing, the romance was underwritten and there’s almost no spice.
I love a standalone fantasy book, this tied up the story despite balancing multiple storylines. The characters were all familiar—Clara was a very brave and a little naive Belle, Raleigh was a mix of the Salvatore brothers from The Vampire Diaries and Rhysand from ACOTAR, Moira and Enrique played their respective roles depending on their slowly revealed identity well. So, this was not groundbreaking in any sense of the word.
The book lacked the atmospheric horror that it had huge scope of building, but it also did not lean into funny or romantic as well. Since Clara is the narrator, the focus revolved around her experiencing betrayals, trusting people again, fighting for her own identity and getting people to trust her.
Maybe the positive of balancing two very different concepts in one 300-page book added to the lack of world-building and became that missing factor. The story was well-told, but it left feeling that something was missing. The descriptions, when given felt very incomplete. Especially coming from books that were all about playing up the gothic atmospheric horror of the vampiric lore, I was disappointed in this regard, but a good Beauty and the Beast retelling, nonetheless.

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