A NOTE FROM AUTHOR:
Our younger generations have been pressured with an overwhelming
message that achieving ‘beauty’ is mandatory in becoming successful in
life, and it increases your personal value in the public and social
scene. Thanks to the media, we have become accustomed to extremely rigid
and uniform standards of ‘beauty.’ Seeing images of flawless, thin
females everywhere makes it hard for women-or anyone-to feel good about
their bodies. Our children are relentlessly encouraged and pushed by
magazines, television, fashion, plastic surgeons, and peer pressure to
obtain that beauty through different procedures of cosmetic surgery.
Botox, Restylane, augmentation, and liposuction have become a common day
occurrence amongst young people (mostly women) throughout the world.
Growing up with that overwhelming message places a lot of stress on
our teens through peer pressure, and has created a lot of obsessive
behaviors like eating disorders (Anorexia and Bulimia) and addiction to
plastic surgery (Body Dismorphic Disorder), that even the older
generations have to deal with it. Older women (over 40) have an increase
of stress competing with younger women, forcing them to keep up with
only acceptable ‘beauty’ standards. In many parts of the world it has
deeply affected any success in their social life, as well as the work
environment. Many movie stars are a perfect example of this obsession to
stay beautiful. Aging has become discreditable and cosmetic surgery is
their only way to keep themselves marketable.
The thin, athletic, sexy ideals of beauty have become the ‘new normal.’
That's frightening for the last few generations—not to mention the
parents who are raising their young daughters in this environment of
competition and judgment.
We deserve to be really angry about the current state of affairs that
has a fashion and media industry feeding us ideals that cause us to
feel guilty for our hungers, obsessed with our appearance, and hating
the very bodies that we need to sustain us. The only real cure for
plastic surgery, and this need to be ‘beautiful,’ is for people to
realize that it is not the nose, but the look in the eyes. It is not the
appearance, but the accomplishments, not the outside but the inside
that actually makes us all who we are. – AMEN…
Broken Image is a glimpse into the world of the ‘cosmetic’ generations.
Beverly Hills is the perfect example of the peer pressure of
beauty…there is a lesson to be learned!
SYNOPSIS
Women are
constantly pressured with the overwhelming message that achieving
‘perfect beauty’ is mandatory to be accepted and successful.
Mercedes survived a childhood with a hateful and mentally ill mother
who constantly called her an ‘ugly duckling.’ Now, at twenty-nine, she’s
a brilliant financial icon in Beverly Hills. She knew she was not
beautiful, or stunning, or even close to either. She was plain, simple,
and ordinary. Not at all close to what some, even her friends,
considered ‘acceptable.’ You go on a journey with Mercedes and her four
friends that live in a city that judges a woman solely by her outside
and not her inside. Will Mercedes face decisions that would change her
life forever? Will reality raise its ugly head and teach her a lesson?
Title: Beckoning Blood
Author: Daniel de Lorne
Release Date: May 1st 2014
Publisher: Escape Publishing
Source: Received from the publisher via NetGalley
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A gripping,
blood‐drenched saga about twin brothers, the men they love, and the
enduring truth that true love never dies — no matter how many times you
kill it.
Thierry d’Arjou has but one escape from the daily
misery of his work at a medieval abattoir — Etienne de Balthas. But
keeping their love a secret triggers a bloody chain of events that
condemns Thierry to a monstrous immortality. Thierry quickly learns that
to survive his timeless exile, he must hide his sensitive heart from
the man who both eases and ensures his loneliness...his twin brother.
Shaped
by the fists of a brutal father, Olivier d’Arjou cares for only two
things: his own pleasure and his twin. But their sadistic path through
centuries is littered with old rivals and new foes, and Olivier must
fight for what is rightfully his – Thierry, made immortal just for him.
My Thoughts
Beckoning
Blood starts off with some of the grittiest, gory scenes I’ve read in quite some
time and I really loved it. Dark, dangerous and dirty; twins Thierry and
Olivier know how to fight, how to keep secrets, and how to avoid their
murderous father. Each with desires that could see them dead, living in a world
full of fear and destruction, this paranormally linked pair struggle to stay
alive in the squalor of 1390’s Carcassonne.
Really great writing and a story that gripped me from the start, Beckoning
Blood was intriguing and mysterious and wrapped in all the sultry tones of an
M/M romance full of twists and turns. Beckoning Blood covers different moments
in time and places and I found myself really enjoying this raw, no-holds-barred
story.
There were however, a couple of moments when the story became a little stilted
and I found myself tempted to skim a few pages, but it would soon pick up again
and I’d be thrust amongst another tremulous situation of treachery and jealousy.
Beckoning Blood is a centuries old roller coaster ride that spans the globe, full
of debauchery, love, mystery and intrigue and I really enjoyed its rough and
somewhat risqué story. I’ll happily read further books in this series - 4 Stars.
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