Emily Veinglory

As always Emily Veinglory surprises me... and as aways it's a good surprise.

Father of Dragons is not the usual fantasy gay romance. Even if the main character is a high born man who loves man, sex is not the mainly aspect of this novel. And though I like my sex scenes, I don't find any lack in this romance. It has enthralled me from the very first page and Xeras is one of the best character I have found lately.

Xeras is a man born in a wealthy and noble family. He has made the error to fall show more in love with a commoner, and law forbid that (notice, it's not a crime he has fallen in love with a man, the crime is that the man is a commoner); his family resolves the matter killing his lover Drin. And Xeras choses to exiliate himself from his country. He starts a journey in unknown terrain with the only company of his lover's ghost. But during one of these adventures he meets a dragon female, Plegura, and after a night spent with her (and don't ask nothing I will not tell nothing!), he awakes pregnant of the dragon's child. He has been chosen to be Father of Dragons, and after the initial refusal, he begins to care for this little moster he bears inside him. After all Drin has always wanted children!

And as every right damsel in distress he also find a duke for himself, Carly. Carly is an handsome man and very very interested in Xeras, but what will he say when he will know about the little monster? and in this case, the little monster is not a tender definition for a spoilt child...

Father of Dragons is absolutely a wonderful reading. It has everything, humor, adventure, love. I can't put down this book until I have finished it and it has satisfied every expectation I have for.

Xeras is a fatalist man. He accepts everything happens to him and knows as to open his heart to new love and lovers. He is not a perfect and invincible knight in shining armour. He fails and suffers but everytime he stands up again.

Carly can be the prince charming of the story, but he is not Xeras' saviour. He borrows his strenght to Xeras, but his strenght lays in giving to Xeras a reason to live, like does the little monster, the unwanted but so cherished dragons child. All the story is about Xeras and his journey, and maybe a little about the dragons child. And maybe, in the end, is not Xeras the damsel in distress, but Carly!

I hope that Samhain Publishing will think to print this book, cause I sure want it for my library!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1599988046/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less

Father of Dragons, the first instalment in the Ballot’s Keep series, was one of my first “official” reviews, meaning that, since there were not so many reviews of that book, mine was more than once linked; the particularity of that book was the unexpected event of Xeras, one of the hero, getting “pregnant” of a female dragon! All right nothing of the actual intercourse was “clear” to the reader, and we only knew that one night Xeras entered a dragon’s liar and the morning show more after he exited a little disoriented and with a “bump” on his hip. By the way Xeras was not exactly in an emotional situation that was good for him to be ready to face this unexpected turn of his life: still mourning the loss of his former lover, Drin, and fighting the attraction he was feeling for Carly, he was not at all ready to be a father, and consequently, responsible for another life.

When this second book starts, I had the strong impression that Xeras was depressed; it can be an harsh comparison, but to me he seemed like a rape’s victim: he was stuck with a daughter he didn’t want but for whom everyone is considering him as responsible of her actions. And Drinia, the little baby dragon, is a difficult child, above all since Xeras doesn’t know nothing on how to properly rise her. But the parent instincts are strong, and even if Xeras didn’t want Drinia, now she is there, and she is his own responsibility. I think Drinia is good to Xeras since she gives him a reason to be.

The second important issue for Xeras, and another reason for his depression, is Drin, his former lover. Drin is “haunting” Xeras as a ghost, he is a voice that is always in Xeras’s mind, advising him on what he has to do or what would be the best approach to something. Drin is a “good” voice, he wants the best for Xeras, and if it means that Xeras has to fall in love with Carly, completely and unconditionally, Drin is willing to let Xeras go. Problem is that Xeras is not ready to, and the fact that he named Drinia after his former lover is a good sign of it. Xeras is worried that, if he really falls in love with Carly (or if he admits with himself he is in love, since for me he already is), Drin will disappear. Actually, aside from some little sign here and there, I had the feeling that Drin was not really a ghost, but more a figment of Xeras’s imagination, that he was using Drin as an excuse to not let it go with Carly.

The novel is more a quest of Xeras for understanding himself, his role in the world and his feelings; the love story between Carly and Xeras is nice but not center stage, even if Carly is really a perfect man, kind and comprehensive and more than willing to come to terms with Xeras, even accepting to share him with a ghost if it means to have at least a little share of Xeras. Sincerely this was more the story of Xeras and Drinia, than Xeras and Carly, but it was nice, and Drinia is indeed a wonderful character.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609282078/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less

I thought Bevin's characterisation was very real, to the point that I, as a fellow sufferer, felt uncomfortable with the way he was being pushed out of his comfort zone and routine. But the descriptions of his panic attacks and his discomfort at his life being disrupted were very familiar and true.

However, I didn't really sense any chemistry between the MCs. There was no spark, no sense of familiarity and companionship that two former lovers/friends share which made rooting for them show more difficult. Tbh, I thought Bevin could do a lot better than Scott, who came across as very flighty and self-centred. show less

This was an interesting read and very different. I got it because I hoped it would bring back my early life in fan fiction, how I found it, what it meant to me, the people I met, the fandoms I followed, the beta work I did, the zines I collected, the cons I went to and the friendships I made that continue today. It did not fulfil those hopes and was fixed on a fandom I had not interest in and held some opinions on fan fiction that are different from my own but all in all I was pleased to show more read it and it had me searching on line for more books of the same nature. show less