A Taste of Blood Wine by British Fantasy Award-nominee Freda Warrington (
ISFDB,
Wikipedia) is the 1st in her Blood Wine Sequence trilogy of old-school historical paranormal urban dark fantasy novels with f/m romantic elements set in post-WWI English society, centred around a scientifically-minded young woman who uncovers the obligatory secret of her professor father's new research assistant and thus embarks on a dark journey of self-discovery, free courtesy of publisher Titan, who are reprinting it from its original 1992 Pan edition.
This apparently has quoted blurb praise for the author from BFSA winner Brian Stableford (
ISFDB,
Wikipedia), one of my very favourite social consequences of genetic engineering sfnal authors, and also a prominent dark fantasy/horror-ist in his own right, though I've never particularly cared for those sorts of books of his beyond the classic
Empire of Fear, which incidentally, you can pick up for a mere 99 cents (couponable!) @
Kobo, at least if you're in Canada, and I highly recommend. But this should probably be a pretty good and interesting read.
This is one of the handful of non-self-pub titles which is part of some sort of New Adult 1st-in-series freebie promo from iTunes UK which also happens to be available in at least one other store.
Currently free @
iTunes UK and thence price-matched @
Amazon UK. Decidedly unfree when I checked
B&N UK &
Kobo (though the rest of series appears to be couponable there), as well as other regional iTunes & Amazon stores, but YMMV.
And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.
Because an historically-themed society-exploring fantasy AU by an author who seems to be thought of highly by another author whom I've read and enjoyed is very definitely

, even if the vampire romance angle portion of the trope is kind of played out.
Enjoy!
Description
A tale of passion, betrayal… and blood…
On a First World War battlefield vampire Karl von Wultendorf struggles to free himself from his domineering maker, Kristian. The Neville sisters flourish in decadent, hedonistic London society in 1923: champagne, parties and the latest illegal substances. All except Charlotte, the middle of the three sisters who hides in a corner wishing she were back in Cambridge helping her professor father with his scientific experiments.
When Charlotte meets her father’s new research assistant Karl, it is the beginning of a deadly obsession that divides her from her sisters, her father and even her dearest friend. What price are they willing to pay to stay together?