Vertigo

Title: Vertigo
Author: M.L. Rhodes
Publisher: http://www. amberquill.com/AmberAllure
Genre: Paranormal, Dark Fantasy, GLBT (M/M)
Length: Novella
Rating: 4.50 stars out of 5

THE BLURB

Book I in the Vertigo Chronicles series…

Each night Simon Saint-Saëns hunts the creatures of darkness that others fear—beings that come through dimensional rifts into our world from a world called Vertigo. Simon has unexplained superpowers that help him fight, but his is a desolate existence, fraught with danger. He works by himself and never allows anyone to get too close to him because his powers come at a terrible cost—a secret he’s never revealed to anyone. Better to be alone than jeopardize the life of someone he cares about.

Enslaved in Vertigo for years, Jaden Cole was one of the innocent lives Simon saved when he first started hunting. Jade had almost forgotten what it meant to be human…until Simon found him and brought him back to this world. But when their friendship turned into something more, Simon sent Jade away and cut him out of his life to keep Jade safe.

Nine years later, when a new, powerful evil stirs to life in Vertigo and targets Simon as its enemy, Jade returns. He’s not the same innocent he was all those years ago, though. Now he has his own secret, one that could turn Simon against him, even force Simon to kill him. But Jade’s willing to risk everything, even his life, to save the man he’s always loved.
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THE REVIEW

Vertigo, is a dark and scary place inhabited by monsters and demons who escape through a rift between dimensions into the human world. Simon Saint-Saens has spent the last 9 years of his life searching out and killing these creatures whose sole aim is to capture humans and turn them into slaves. On one such night Simon is amazed that the creature he had captured and was on the point of killing was none other than Jaden Cole, the love of his life whom he thought was long dead in a fire. When he recognized Jade, Simon was aghast at the changes in his physical appearance as well as his personality and he was at first afraid to trust him, but gradually Jade won him over. It appeared that Jade had escaped the fire only to fall prey to demons who turned him into one of them, but his humanity was still very much evident.

Simon and Jade have huge battles to fight due to a new threat, a very powerful enemy who uses magic to control the demons, and he will stop at nothing to destroy Simon. In a major battle Simon was at the point of death when Jade rescued him and they barely escaped through another portal between worlds, temporarily holding off the invading demons, but they recognized that this new force may be powerful enough to take over their world.

The love between Jade and Simon which survived a 9 year separation appeared to be the real thing although they have lingering concerns that Jade may not be able to control his personal demon and there is also Simon’s uncertainty about his origins and his possible culpability in a horrible incident several years before.

When I started reading this story I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, for a number of reasons. Both the story and the terrain were bleak and harsh and I didn’t warm up to the characters until I was almost half way through the book. However, this author is very skilled both in terms of plot and characterizations and she pulled off a very complex storyline that’s not run of the mill. The romance between Jade and Simon helped to relieve some of the very dark aspects of Vertigo and I’m really looking forward to reading Shattered, the next book in this series.

I recommend Vertigo to readers who enjoy dark fantasy and stories about vampires, werewolves or other paranormals. This will probably not be the ideal book for you if you read light-hearted romance or comedy.