Nightingale

Tittle: Nightingale
Author: Darcy Abriel
Cover Artist: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Allure
Amazon Buy Link: Kindle
Genre: Historical/Fantasy/m/m romance
Length: Extended novella (39k words)
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

A guest review by Sirius

Summary: This beautiful dark fantasy with a twist on religious symbolism captivated me and made me think about the characters long after I finished the story.

Blurb:

The thirst for deliverance and absolution are transformed into explosive flames of forbidden passion when a mysteriously charismatic masked man encounters a brilliant and handsome composer. Their lives are intertwined with those of two others, and only the ultimate sacrifice will satisfy the greedy appetite of fate…

Retribution is his only desire…Fabienne Brunetto, a 17th-Century castrato of amazing vocal talent, is brutally attacked by a twisted enemy. But agonizing death is not his destiny. He is saved by Annatoly Constantine, the immortal hand of a brotherhood of fallen angels devoted to protection, balance, and order on Earth. But Fabienne bears the scars of his terrible encounter, and his song has been extinguished forever—at least until a rite of redemption can come to culmination. He must wait two hundred years before his hunger for deliverance can fully be sated.

Wounded and shamed…Annatoly Constantine, whom centuries before was also a man, is the protector of the Gios of Nightingales, a choir of immortal voices created to soothe and heal the world. Annatoly has always been destined to lose what he loves, never able to fully offer himself to a lover. Until Carne Giraint, a gifted composer, appears in his life, making him yearn for something more, something exquisitely forbidden.

A composer marked by the cursed blood of his ancestors…Carne Giraint is a mortal of extraordinary talent, tapped by the brotherhood of angels to accept his destiny as composer to the gios. Carne’s greatest passion has never been ignited until he encounters a masked man known to him only as Maître. One night of fiery desire leaves him ravenous for the touch of Maître, a man he cannot forget.

A greedy man willing to give his soul for power and money…Dandrae, a slave to the dark beings who seek to alter the course of Fabienne’s and Carne’s destinies, is tasked with quashing Carne’s mystical gift for composition.

An earthly balance is at stake. Nothing happens by chance. And fate, here on Earth, will demand its bloody tribute no matter how high the cost…

The Amber Allure “Masquerade” Series contains a number of stand-alone novellas which are all build on the premise of two gay men finding love with each other at a masque ball. The mask depicted on the respective cover will make an appearance in the story.

Review:

Castrati singers have interested me ever since I read Anne Rice’s “Cry to Heaven,” and when I saw that this book deals with castrati singers, I just had to grab it for review. I think the blurb describes the plot summary in great detail, so I do not think you need to know any other information, unless you really love spoilers.

I really loved the haunting dark atmosphere of this story and its tortured heroes, and I thought the writing reflected the mood of the story very well. I have to warn you though, I thought that the story took great liberties and twists on traditional Christianity, or at least this was my interpretation of some themes in it, so if it bothers you, I suggest you should stay away from this one.

The settings of the story seemed extremely well researched, and at the end, the author lists the books she used in her research. I am definitely not an expert on this topic, but just for fun I looked up several definitions used here and was so delighted that the ones I looked up were indeed used correctly and appropriate to the era. For example the body guards the Venetian nobles used were indeed called Bravos.

The author mixes the subject of castrati with her interpretation of fallen angels and I thought she created such a beautiful mythology for her story:

“Gyos of the Nightingale, a choir of perfect voices to soothe the wounds of everlasting war. The most perfect, unearthly voices raised in angelic harmony at the breaking hour between nighttide and morning — that hour which is darkest before the dawn, when hope feels farthest from earth. Eternally protected by the Vladine.”

I think that the main players in this tale of self-sacrifice, healing and redemptive love — Anatoly, Fabienne, Carne and Darnae — to me felt both like larger than life and at the same time like “real people”. I suppose it makes sense considering that neither Anatolly nor Fabienne were just *people* for a very long time, thus some of their concerns and thoughts would be far different from us mere mortals, but I just felt that at the same time they seemed too human when they struggled to achieve their dreams . And I thought it was easy to relate to these men who wanted to achieve divine purpose in their lives connected to their art, but also just wanted to be loved. I thought Carne was just way too perfect, way too noble and self-sacrificing, although I guess considering whose part in the religious symbolism he was supposed to play, it makes sense and is to be expected.  But both Annatoly and Fabienne were so delightfully human with all their sufferings and self-doubts despite living for so long already, that I wanted Carne to be a little less saintly. Yes, he has some doubts once or twice, but again to me it did not go too deep. I wanted to see at least some anger from him when he was lured in their sanctuary for ceremony, some confusion maybe? Again, though, it makes sense in the story and a couple of times I did see tiny ray of doubt from him, I just wanted more. Lastly for the characters, I am not sure if author intended for me to pity Darnae, but I did — a lot.

I thought that the sex was very sensual and hot, but I am not sure if I would call this one a traditional romance. Your mileage can vary of course. It does have a happy ending though for the couple who had the story closest to romance to play out and in a sense it has a happy ending for every main character.