Vulnerable by Amy Lane #LGBT #Review #Fantasy #Paranormal #MMF

Marc reviews ‘Vulnerable’ (Little Goddess #1) by Amy Lane. The second edition of this book was released by DSP Publications on March 3rd, 2015 and is about 304 pages long. 1st Edition published by iUniverse, February 2005.

After reading hundreds of books it often becomes really hard for most reviewers to narrow their favorite authors down to one. For me it never was. One of the first books I’ve ever read was by Amy Lane and it was so brilliant, it made me join this amazing community. It changed my life and I’ve never looked back. Her books not only made me addicted to M/M Romance and audiobooks, she has also encouraged me to check out other genres outside my comfort zone like Steampunk, by pretty much writing in every genre I can think of. After loving so many of Amy’s books, I just HAD to check out the one series that started it all, when it was re-released by DSPP. 

*****

Working graveyards in a gas station seems a small price for Cory to pay to get her degree and get the hell out of her tiny town. She’s terrified of disappearing into the aimless masses of the lost and the young who haunt her neck of the woods. Until the night she actually stops looking at her books and looks up. What awaits her is a world she has only read about—one filled with fantastical creatures that she’s sure she could never be.

And then Adrian walks in, bearing a wealth of pain, an agonizing secret, and a hundred and fifty years with a lover he’s afraid she won’t understand. In one breathless kiss, her entire understanding of her own worth and destiny is turned completely upside down. When her newfound world explodes into violence and Adrian’s lover—and prince—walks into the picture, she’s forced to explore feelings and abilities she’s never dreamed of. The first thing she discovers is that love doesn’t fit into nice neat little boxes. The second thing is that risking your life is nothing compared to facing who you really are—and who you’ll kill to protect.

Buy Links: DSP Publications | Amazon | Add to Goodreads

*****

In some respects, the initial set up of this series might remind you of the Sookie Stackhouse books or the well-known TV show True Blood that was based on the books. A woman with low self esteem works in a low-paying night job and meets a vampire, who introduces her to a new intriguing, complex and dangerous world. As someone who loved those books and the TV show -mostly-, I had a very easy time getting drawn into the story.

Supernatural beings are dying in sudden and gruesome ways and Cory gets drawn into everything, when she meets the vampire Adrian. He awakens something deep inside of her and she starts to see the true appearances of the people surrounding her. Even as her whole world changes, she doesn’t crumble like so many of us would. She shows incredible strength and can’t hide her light anymore. She always tried to hide, because she thought she was not worth being noticed, but she is beautiful, fierce, powerful and has a great heart.

As she and Adrian get closer, she is introduced to Green and his hill. For me this was the big difference to the Sookie Stackhouse books or similar stories. Green’s Hill represents everything that is good and hopeful. Two broken and abused men from very different worlds find friends in each other, safe each other and create a unique alliance of love, trust and respect. Something that in the eyes of many should not work, has made two outsiders into very powerful leaders, who only want to be left in peace and live their lives.

Green’s Hill is a magical place; a sanctuary for supernatural beings who are treated with love and respect regardless of how important and powerful they are. Green is a sidhe and high elf, Adrian is the leader of the vampires and they have a symbiotic relationship with the were animal community. They all find peace in this home Green has created for them, but that peace has been interrupted when some of them started to die in horrible ways outside the hills.

Cory learns that sexuality is very fluid for supernatural beings and that her lover Adrian has had sex with men. Green’s gift is to heal with sex and he keeps his people together by sharing himself to protect and comfort them. It is a new and weird world for Cory, a world with very different rules. However, she is very open-minded and has a big heart. Before she knows it, she has fallen for both men.

Cory is able to bring Green and Adrian back together, binding them to her and each other. The love and lovemaking between them is truly beautiful and literally magical. I haven’t read that many M/M/F books, but the love scenes are beautifully written and even as a gay man, I find them very hot. Especially how the two men with their long history are drawn to each other, but Cory discovering the little goddess inside of her and discovering herself is also a thing of beauty.

The book is written in a very poetic and descriptive way and being the first book by this author, there is a certain freedom and innocence to it. Anything can happen and as reader your heart WILL be broken and you will be shocked and speechless, but even with all the pain, there is also so much love and beauty that it is worth enclosing these characters in your heart.

I don’t want to give too much away, but this book ends in a very dramatic and game changing way that will either forever bind you to the characters and make you buy the next book immediately, or forever turn you away from the books with a broken heart.The ending was very painful to me, but at the same time I loved reading a book that dared to surprise me and break conventions. The way the author deals with the repercussions of the events in book one in the rest of the series is really wonderful as well.

Rating: 9/10 Pots of Gold (90% Recommended) – Compares to 4.5/5 Stars

*****

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Amy Lane has two kids in college, two gradeschoolers in soccer, two cats, and two Chi-who-whats at large. She lives in a crumbling crapmansion with most of the children and a bemused spouse. She also has too damned much yarn, a penchant for action adventure movies, and a need to know that somewhere in all the pain is a story of Wuv, Twu Wuv, which she continues to believe in to this day! She writes fantasy, urban fantasy, and m/m romance–and if you accidentally make eye contact, she’ll bore you to tears with why those three genres go together. She’ll also tell you that sacrifices, large and small, are worth the urge to write.