Besieger

Altars #1

by Kalina Mitova

A Vampire Coven is thrown into chaos after its maker and master is found dead under mysterious circumstances. With the assassin hiding among them, the Vampire Council must choose a new Coven Master, and who better than the man who wants the throne the least. A deserter from the First Crusade, Silvio is saved by Dulior, a vampire determined to turn and bind him at the altar. In the midst of a cycle of arranged marriages to mortals, Dulior uses Silvio as her escape from her domineering maker, and a promise, finally, of a true love match. Although granted immortality, Silvio sees no value in eternity if he cannot share it with Emerick, the man he has sworn to protect. Husband to a woman he despises, bound to a man he wants to drown in pleasure, Silvio will have to become a pawn in the Coven’s schemes if it helps him break free from his wife and mistress.

"Besieger" is a Gothic romance with elements of historical fiction, perfect for fans of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber", S.T. Gibson "Dowry of Blood", and Kat Dunn "Hungerstone".

Genres: Vampires, Fantasy, Horror, Gothic, M M Romance, LGBT, Gay

550 pages, ebook

First published April 4, 2026

About the author

Kalina Mitova is the author of vampire gothic fantasy "Besieger". In her free time, Kalina likes to read classical literature and put her English degree to good use - yapping about books online. Otherwise you can find her putting vampires and lycanthropes through situations in her drafts. All of Kalina's writing is co-authored by her tabby cat Djura, who is always there to sit on the surface that needs him the least.

Reviews

[калинка]

i'm so normal about these manipulative vampires 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

[Kalina Mitova · Rating 5 out of 5]

It me, the author! "Besieger" is a gothic romance/historical fiction, and like any gothic and vampire novel, it has themes and depictions that might be unpleasant to some readers. The content warnings are included in the beginning of all versions of the book (and on my website), but I've added them here as well + some tropes and funnies.

**Content Warnings** Vampirism, Lycanthropy, Toxic marriage of convenience, Domestic abuse, Grooming, Blood and gore, Body horror, Graphic sex, Blood play, Cannibalism, Mind control, Kidnapping and torture, Suicide, Religious fanaticism, Murder of children and animals, The Crusades, Nazi Germany

🦇 vampires, demons, lycans
🕯️ gothic romance
🥀 corruption arc
🪞 slowly spiraling into madness
🩸 memories rewritten
⛓️ toxic marriage of convenience
🖤 all queer cast minus that one guy
🇫🇷 the French
⚰️ everyone is sleeping with the Marquis but his wife
☕ werewolf run cafe
🇧🇬 all roads lead to Bulgaria
🍞 nothing good ever happens in Berlin
✨ spicy

Envoy!

[ada · Rating 4 out of 5]

[I received a copy by the author in return for an honest review. I took far too long to finish and review it, due to my own personal stuff, but it’s here now! Let’s get into it …]

As a certified vampire lover from a young and impressionable age, you know I had so much fun with this one! While there were a few things that I didn’t quite mesh with (perhaps more personal opinion than anything glaringly technical), overall this book was a wonderful dive into the beautifully messy lives of immortals, vampires, demons, and lycans alike.


Positives:
• The writing/prose itself was beautiful. You can tell the author adores vampire/gothic literature with every line, and it was delicious to read.

• I really loved how the differing POV’s made me feel vastly different things for each of the characters. Through Silvio’s eyes I didn’t like Dulior, through Dulior’s eyes I understood her. Through Emerick’s eyes I both adored and felt distant from Silvio etc. This was done wonderfully, each character, as people’ do in life, had their own unique experiences even of the same moments and Kalina took the time to make sure that showed.

• Initially I feared Dulior’s misplaced desires for a gay man would be a hard read, but her POV really made me understand why she felt and did what she does. In wanting to turn Silvio as an attempt to break free from the life her maker had her under, to find love and a life of her own choosing, only to continue the exact same cycle by putting Silvio into the very role she so desperately wanted freedom from. Chef’s kiss!


Some of the simple and silly, not at all review-worthy, notes I made while reading:

• loving mihaela and astra, oh and tabes!! the demons were unique and such a fun addition to the cast!
• victor 🥰 my werewolf husband
• emerick ........ you confused me a lot. i fw u tho.
• dulior, my wife, how about some therapy, hm?
• silvio ......... you also confuse me. also think i fw you.
• mother scarlett 🛐
• ingenuar ...... is he supposed to be evil? not in my eyes ✋️
• stefan a whole vibe 🐈‍⬛️
• irena 🥰🦊
• why am i shipping emerick/victor more than silvio/emerick 💀
• leitian 🛐
• felivar you amelchild 🤭


Okay, and onto the not-so-positives (these aren't necessarily things that made this book bad, by any means, as I still really enjoyed the writing, the world, and the characters—they're just things I felt that, if worked upon, would've upped this book to 5 stars for me, personally):

• Jumping around in time so much was confusing even with the dates—keeping track of where exactly in the plot/character relationships etc. we were at any given point was a little tricky.

• Sometimes character inner thoughts/feelings and drives remained a little too mysterious too far into the book for me. I was over halfway through and there were times where I still felt like I barely knew where any of these characters truly stood in regards to each other/their situations. Which can be fun at first to hook our curiosity, or for certain plot points/character personalities, but it made it difficult to fully connect with the characters at times throughout.

• I think I would have preferred to see Dulior's (and maybe some of the others) struggle in regards to turning into a vampire a bit more. We were mostly just told how it went, but I would've liked to have seen more introspection there, as going from human to not human, and having to kill to survive is a big change for a character to go through.


That’s it, really!

All in all, if you love reading character driven books where the plot is second to the characters and their messy lives and relationships then look no further!! As a character-first reader I loved being able to just delve in 500 pages of character dynamics and discovery. Though, if you like more plot-focused books, this may not be for you.

[sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

evocative, decadent, gothic. violent and beautiful in equal measure. besieger was clearly a huge project and precious labor of love that simply could not have been written by anyone other than mitova. i think one of the greatest skills an author can possess is intentionality. every sentence, pov and chapter here felt so intentional. not a word wasted. i found mitova’s prose both lovely and accessible. pretty without being purple. wonderfully laced in gothic that nodded to the classics. i love when i’m reading something and can feel the respect an author has for not just the art of writing but a deep adoration for their created world and their created characters.

there was something magical and nostalgic and perhaps even intoxicating about this book.

i loved picking this up. honestly, i didn’t find the first chapter or prologue or whatever that interesting. i wasn’t gAgGeD in any way, but i’m glad i kept going because this was so unlike anything i’ve read. the genres are all deeply within my comfort zone (gothic, fantasy, romance, horror, historical) but this felt completely fresh. this was a massive project. you can tell the amount of planning and thought that went into this. lots and lots of characters alongside lots and lots of timelines. supernatural lore and historical plot points well researched and handled with care. you can see the nods to the old (gothic classics and 90s 00s vampire media) as well the new ways mitova made it suited to their vision.

the atmosphere was everythinggg. the manors and covens were lovely. dripping in wealth. ostentatious even. stefan in his coffee shop, victor in nazi germany (i believe germany i forgot to note where he was), dulior walking through literal war. it was incredibly easy to fall into this world. i think that’s why i loved picking it up. it was so deliciously immersive.

thematically this is dark and erotic. unhinged women and female rage and obsession within every character to varying degrees. autonomy, respect, power. love vs ownership. the list goes on and on.

this was very vibes over plot. i’m actually shocked this is just set to be a duology because the lore, characters and world are rich enough to create a pretty tight little 5-7 book series (i say longingly).

i don’t really know what else to say other than i loved this. i can count on one hand how many times i’ve read a book and immediately wanted to read it again and besieger absolutely falls into that. mitova is in a clique (for lack of a better word) of self pub & indie authors i absolutely adore and support in any way i can. i was so nervous i’d dislike this. honest reviews and heavy handed critique are so important to me as a reader and the authenticity i want associated with me when it comes to anything i consume. books are art and authors are artists. it’s all subjective and never that serious (yawn) but in a world of fast fashion~ification of the publishing industry, ai holding the hands of authors and disgustingly lazy storytelling i’m happy that i wasn’t disappointed. rather this went beyond my wildest dreams when it comes to expectation.

bring back authors who have respect for the classics, the gothics, the arts and themselves!!!

🐦‍⬛💌 i want to end this by giving a necessary plug to the author’s substack:

Considering how many years I spent carrying this story and its cast around, how my every waking moment was spent thinking about vampires and their relationships, this should be my magmus opus. But it’s not; it can’t be. It will not be! Neither will the sequel or the prequel in that series. Besieger is the best book I've ever written. And it is also the worst book I’ve ever written. It’s the baseline, the first step of a long ladder I need to climb in order to become a better writer and storyteller. It is only the beginning.

absolutely, bro. absolutely.

content & trigger warnings:
★~ cw/tw // can be seen as spoilers

abuse, blasphemy, blood, buried alive, cannibalism, child death, child murder, death, death of a parent, emotional abuse, gaslighting, genocide, gore, grief, injury (detailed), murder, torture, toxic relationship, violence, war, domestic abuse, grooming, suicide, animal cruelty/death
(make sure to check the author’s cw/tw as well)

[Siavahda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This may thematically echo Dowry of Blood or Interview With the Vampire, but the prose is nowhere near that level. (And I say that as someone who isn’t an Anne Rice fan. I may not love her books, but her prose is better than this.) Heavy-handed, info-dumpy in the extreme, phrasing constantly just slightly awkward, slightly 'off', in the way that makes it impossible for my prose-picky self to actually sink into the story. Gave up trying very quickly.

(I continue to fall for any cover waarickart illustrates, so commissioning them is clearly a great investment.)

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vampire fiction at its best! I love this story, and I love how deep this book delves into each of the characters. Silvio and Dulior were my favorites.

[Dante · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started reading Besieger I expected queer vampires, lycans, demons and a journey through history.
What I got was an absolute gem of gothic literature.

The main focus of Besieger lies on Silvio, his lover Emerick and their escapades through the crusades, marriages of convenience and vampire politics, all while wanting nothing more than to drown in each other’s devotion. We follow them through various time periods, seeing how their relationship changes over the hundreds of years and what strays they collect along the way. As the novel goes on, we gain insight into the perspective of more and more characters, vampires, lycans and demons alike, all as intriguing as the last.

Managing so many different points of view and timelines is not an easy task by any means but this novel is a master class in it. Not one POV seemed unnecessary, each one added to the story and made me fall more in love with it. The characters are incredibly believable and unique. In my experience, vampire stories often have the issue of making their vampires simply humans with sharp teeth. Not this one. Here, one truly believes these characters have lived for centuries. Not only do they act according to their age and experience of decades, they also know they have all eternity to act upon their wants, so they take advantage of that. They spend decade like they were days, centuries like they’re months. One fully believes them to be immortals, not just humans with a good skincare routine.

It was lovely to follow them through history, see what they got up to between revolutions and discoveries of grand proportions all while dealing with issues between their fellow vampires.

I cannot end this review without saying something about Kalina Mitova’s writing style. I have rarely seen someone so talented in architectural descriptions. It is an absolute joy to read about the buildings, paintings, the cities she describes. It is truly immersive; I am now certain to have stepped foot into splendid towers in southern France and snowy streets in northern Bulgaria.
The way she writes the devotion of Silvio to his immortal lover Emerick is incredible. Like Lust herself came and possessed her, she manages to depict such intense desire it made me shiver. I rarely pull out a pen to mark quotes but in this case, I simply had to underline many of these beautifully crafted sentences.

I understand that this book is definitely not something for everyone, the time jumps and heavy focus on historical accuracy might turn some people off but for me this was one of the best if not the best book I have read so far this year and am very much looking forward for any and all future works!

[Lucy Larsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t feel like I have a lot of words about this book. I personally did not enjoy it, and I think I was expecting more so that didn’t help with my feelings about the result.

I think one of the things that bothered me a lot about this book was the time jumping around. I think, if the book was formatted differently, or written in a different style, the chronological floppiness of the story would have been more interesting. Personally, I had such a hard time following the time skips and jumps and flashbacks that I was so focused on trying to figure out what was happening that I was just annoyed and didn’t end up caring about the characters at all. I ended up speed reading the rest of it because I just didn’t enjoy the first half. The spicy level of what I paid attention to was level 4.

Overall, I would rate this book a 2 out of 5 stars. The concept was interesting, but I think the writing style and format made it not hit with me personally.

[Shaitanah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very ambitious novel, given its number of POVs and storylines, its non-linear chronology and very slow-moving plot. It reads as something very Anne Rice-inspired but the characters are by no means rip-offs. It's hard to rate this book: I did enjoy it (though I didn't always connect with the characters) and I greatly enjoyed the way vampires were written - as something very alien but still with their own feelings; however, this is only half of a story. To me, it all depends on what payoff we get for the groundwork laid down in this volume. So far, I'm giving it a high rating because it suited my mood when I read it, and I'm hoping to see the next part develop the characters more and tie up the loose ends.

[vampire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was incredible, I didn’t want it to end. The writing was stunning. The author really put a lot of effort into the character development and the historical atmosphere. I can’t wait to read more of her work :3