Title: Battling Glass
Author: D.J. Manly
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Paranormal
Length: Super Novel (577pgs)
Publisher: Amber Quill (Amber Allure) (29th January 2012)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥3 ½Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: Emilien has hidden himself away for endless years. Half-human and half-vampire, he has continually struggled with his own nature. His only contact is with a vampire named Carmen, who makes one critical error and brings the full force of vampire wrath down on Carmen, exposing Emilien and forcing him out of hiding.
Saddled with a young mortal woman he can’t bring himself to kill, he flees with her to her brother’s house. Carl represents everything that Emilien yearns for, to live life like a normal mortal. As a result, he stays longer than he intends, until the reality of what he is comes crashing down around him.
Emilien has been in love before—during the French Revolution, with a stable boy named Francois—but his vampire father shattered their love when he turned Francois into a vampire. It’s not the only thing his father, Alexander, has destroyed. Unable to accept Emilien’s humanity, Alexander has sought only to kill him, and even in the twenty-first century, his desire to vanquish his only son is as strong as ever. Emilien quickly realizes he can never have a future with Carl, or even come to terms with the love he still bears for Francois, until he and Alexander settle matters once and for all.
Now, the past comes hurtling into the present when vampires take sides and the real battle between father and son commences…
Purchase Link: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/BattlingGlass.html
Review: Emilien is half vampire – half human, he has struggled with his nature and tried to deny his vampire side for hundreds of years but now his father is set on destroying him and he has to face his vampire side and begin to embrace what makes him the man he is.
This is a well written story that delves into the dark side of vampires and their humanity or lack of it. Emilien might be half vampire but it is a part of himself that he hates, he is drawn to humans as a way to cling onto his humanity. In Carl he finds what he yearns for but there is still apart of him that yearns for Francois. This story has a few twists and a lot of backstabbing; it is primal in some of its descriptions and the view of vampires that we receive.
There were a lot of things that I liked about this book and some things that I hated, I liked that the vampires were quite brutal in their treatment of their food i.e. they drained them dry and felt no remorse, I thought that all the descriptions were fantastically vivid especially the vampire soldiers and that the story-line was brilliant, what I didn’t like was that Emilien cheated with Francois when Carl needed him the most and that he had plans to cheat on Carl again in the future. (Being half vamp doesn’t fly with me that is like saying because someone is bi they get to have one of each sex.)
There is quite a bit of violence, sex, plotting, twists and some angst as well, the story-line and plot on the whole was brilliant and the background and world building was incredible done. There is a lot to enjoy in this story but I must admit that I found it hard to see what everyone else in the story saw in Emilien, everyone wanted to get in bed with him or wanted him for themselves and I really just couldn’t see it.
So this story is for those who love Dark fantasy, brutal vampires, hot sex, violence, graphic nastiness (soldier vamps *barf*) and a happy for now (they do only have about seventy years) ending.