Weeping Roses

Title: Weeping Roses
Author: D.J. Manly
Publisher: Amber Allure
Buy Link: Buy Link Weeping Roses
Genre: Dark Fantasy/ Ghosts/Vampires/BDSM
Length: Novel (183 pdf pages)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

A Guest Review by Feliz

Summary Review: This is a book like a “Nightwish” song,  a felicitous mix of modern and historical elements full of dark, mysteriously romantic pathos.

The Blurb: Madison and his brother Jeff are real estate flippers—they move into houses, renovate them, then sell them for a profit. When Jeff spots Maison St-Pierre on a website that lists abandoned houses, the brothers end up purchasing the enormous estate for a song. The lavish “fixer-upper” is situated in Quebec, on the American border, has a gothic appearance, even an accompanying graveyard, and is shrouded in folklore and mystery.
Not long after the brothers arrive, the sound of someone crying awakens Madison in the middle of the night. This becomes a nightly occurrence, soon leaving Madison jittery and suffering from sleep deprivation. Jeff, however, seems immune to the noises and scoffs at Madison when he mentions the possibility of Maison St-Pierre being haunted. Then one night, Madison sees the ghost of a man, an apparition that begs him to unlock the door of the root cellar and release something—or someone—from its resting place. Believing he can aid the lamenting spirit and solve the mystery of Maison St-Pierre once and for all, Madison agrees to the request, and his world changes forever.
Weeping Roses is a saga that sweeps the reader to a time more than one hundred years ago when the old house was first built, and to a torrid love affair that is still thriving and filled with regret…yet somehow holds out new promise…

The Review: The blurb pretty much sums up the first part of this book, which starts out as a contemporary “haunted house” story, told from the younger brother, Madison’s, 1st person POV.  About one-third into the book Madison finds an old diary, written by Amelien in the late 19th century, and the story switches into a historical for a while. Later, the historical and contemporary parts alternate, and with them the narrative perspectives, which shift between Madison for the contemporary and Amelien for the historical parts. This plot device  provides necessary background information in a most entertaining way, and adds tension to both narrative threads.

In the late 18 hundreds, Amelien Jourdain worked with his father and two uncles as a building contractor. Their masterpiece was their own house, the later Maison St. Pierre. Local notable StPierre engaged the Jourdains to build him a similar house.  Ne’er-do-well Rene, St.Pierre’s son, cast a covetous eye at Amelien, who for his part soon fell under Rene’s spell, which drove them into each other’s arms in a forbidden yet all the more passionate love affair.  Rene’s domineering attitude and casual cruelty caused Amelien constant pain, who nevertheless couldn’t help the obsessive love he felt for Rene. Things went even worse when Amelien’s father gambled away everything the family owned and Amelien was forced to go into indentured service to the St.Pierre family in order to spare his father from jail. Now that Amelien was at Rene’s mercy, the humiliations and transgressions grew to a point where Amelien couldn’t stand them anymore and only wished for death. But he was turned into a vampire instead, and it was Rene who had to die in the end.
However, Rene doesn’t care that he’s dead. He’s still convinced that Amelien is his, and his alone. All he needs is a new body, and he will be reunited with Amelien in a way he could never be in his mortal life. The brothers just come in handy. Now it’s Amelien who must decide between his old love and the possibility of a new one.

This is a love triangle of a very special kind, since only one party is actually alive. One is already dead, but determined not to remain that way, while another ought to be dead by rights, but instead is anything but. All three main characters were well-drawn, with voices of their own, although purists might find the dialogue passages during the historical part too modern. Madison was sweet and even a bit naive at times, the role-model innocent for his vampire knight in shining armor to save. Amelien was intriguing in his brokenness and dark chivalry, just like a noble vampire ought to be. I actually thought Rene the most interesting character; he could have been a tragical hero but was made out so mean and selfish that I hated him with a vengeance although I could even relate to his motives. A lot of the sinister atmosphere wafting through this book stems from the mischief Rene brews. Madison can never be sure where the ghost will pop up next, and neither can Amelien know whose spirit dwells behind the eyes of the human he’s just talking to.  With all the ghost’s taking posession of one body or the other, the various personalities tangled so closely they were hard to follow at times, yet they were kept admirably straight for the most part. (One complete jumble occured, although I think the mix-up was mostly due to some editing oversight).

Although this is labelled as BDSM, there’s actually very little physical BDSM in here.  It’s more about the mind games Rene plays with Amelien – Rene isn’t only topping from the bottom, he’s actually dominating from the submissive position.  However, it’s through the skillfull writing the reader comes to understand that Rene hurt himself just as badly as he did Amelien.  Their painful love/hate relationship was beautifully balanced by the new love between Amelien and Madison. The fact that Amelien not only managed to overcome his obsession with Rene but even dared to open himself for the possibility of a new love gave his character growth and strength. And Madison’s courage to stand up against something as scary and powerful as a ghost despite his fear and the very concrete threat to his life made him all the more likeable.

This was a multi-layered,  fascinating read. Even the solution wasn’t as easy as it appeared at first sight; it’s actually disturbingly open.  If you read this book, I’d recommend you light a (rose-scented) candle, switch off the light and put on some music, preferably some symphonic metal or gothic rock. Follow my recommendations AYOR, though, since you won’t be sleeping afterwards; you’ll want to watch out for the ghost instead.