Another winner by Stormy Glenn, as far as I am concerned. Be warned though: if you don't like the idea of male pregnancy, this is not the book for you. I admit that the idea is a little weird, but I love the way she describes the whole situation and people's reactions (she did the same in Katzman's Mate), it made me laugh several times.

Other than that the book is filled with tension, deep emotions and gives me hope for a sequel. Eljin and Zack are delightful (if somewhat "unrealistic") characters, but I look at this story as more of a fairytale than as "serious" fiction, so that didn't bother me. This is a book I will definitely read again.

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Marines, male pregnancy, fae that reminded me of legolas, more gay secondary characters than you can shake a stick at and a twinkle. Certainly a different kind of read. ( )

Again, I should warn readers to approach this novel with the right expectation: this is a nice M/M romance, the classical example to prove the difference between M/M and gay romance; an M/M romance is basically aimed to a female target, while a gay romance is for both, male and female target; where it’s likely that a gay romance is liked by both, I think it difficult for a M/M romance to find fans among the male readers, but it’s not impossible.

Dark Side of the Veil, the first in the Dark Court series, has two elements that usually drive off most of the purist of gay romance: a very feminine male character and male pregnancy. Plus it’s also a Gay for You romance, with all the “I’m not gay but I can’t avoid to have sex with you” that is usually the main reaction from a straight man “turned” gay. And the author doesn’t do anything to lighten these elements; on the contrary she pushes with all her strength on them. So, if you are interested in a story with male pregnancy (and morning illness and unstable mood) and in a very pretty little man with big blue eyes and long blond hair who can turn a big strong Marine around his little finger, this story is for sure cute enough to melt even the most cold heart. But remember, approach it with a light heart and with the expectation to read a funny intake in the “big strong man comes to rescue his little partner” theme.

The starting point of this romance remember me a very old romance by Johanna Lindsey, Prisoner of My Desire: a man is held captive to perform as “sperm donor”; he is totally against the idea to perform, but when he is in bed with the “recipient” of his sperm, he can’t avoid to do it. When he has done what he was supposed to do, he is set free, but then they try to kill him, and the now pregnant partner comes to his rescue, only to, indeed, end to be the one in nee of protection. If this was a man/woman story, nothing of strange, there is no need of fantasy element; but here we have a man on man story, and Eljin, the one who ends up pregnant, his from the Fae people, not only that, he is of royal blood, and in his world, the royal lineage his all male, and a man gets pregnant and gives birth.

Zack, the big strong Marine, suffered from an head injury during a mission, and when he awakes he was told he has delusional episodes due to it; he is dismissed and he is under drugs to help him get through his hallucinations. What he doesn’t know is that his “dreams” are not the results of his head injury, but instead the fragment memories of what he did; the man he sees in his dreams making love to him is Eljin, and now Eljin is pregnant. At first Zack refuses to believe it possible, even if Eljin has indeed a very nice bump on his abdomen, but when Zack former superior in the Marine, Gunny, tells him that indeed the Fae people are real, and that even him was in love with one of them, Zack suddenly is mostly all right with it… talking about accepting your superior decision without question it. Yes, indeed, Zack is a good man, with a good training, but I have the feeling that he is more the type to follow orders rather than to give them. In this perspective, he is more than happy to ask and accept the help of Gunny, and to, more or less, follow and protect Eljin, even when he didn’t still believe to the man’s words.

Zack and Eljin’s story is almost complete with this book, but this is clear only the introduction story of the whole series: there are still a lot of unfinished threads, and the story titillate you enough to be willing to read more in the series.

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