Book Title: Song of the Night
Author: Zoe Burgess
Publisher: Britain’s Next Bestseller
Narrator: Don Warrick
Release Date: March 2019
Genre: Paranormal M/M Romance
Trope/s: Forbidden love, Obsession
Themes: Gender identity, longing
Length: 8 hours and 20 minutes
It is a standalone story.
Buy Links
Audible US | Audible UK | Amazon US | Amazon UK
‘I call it lust, or obsession. I’m too old to remember the meaning of love. This obsession is the closest I can come.’
Blurb
A tormented boy.
A cursed man.
A love so dangerous it will change them both… forever.
Yue-ren is a young boy, confused about his identity and trying to find his place in the world. Ignored by his mother, who wished for a girl, Yue-ren decided to become one.
He succeeded too well.
Cain has been a vampire for as long as he can remember.
He has seen much, seduced many and killed more.
He has never known love.
Until he meets Yue-ren.
An obsessive love, threatened by those around them, Cain and Yue-ren will have to fight to be together.
Whether Yue-ren will be with his love as human or vampire, remains to be seen.
‘Song of the Night’ is an erotic love story with a paranormal twist.
Song of the Night – Extract
My heart raced, and I could feel the blush on my cheeks as the tall figure bent down towards me. He drew his coat around me, then picked me up in strong arms. So warm, I thought. I wanted to talk to him, thank him, and ask him his name. Hear that voice again, but weak from my ordeal, I fell into sleep, despite my desperate efforts to stay awake. The last thing I heard was that voice, breathing into my ear, “Sleep now. Forget this night and dream.”
After our encounter that night, I can’t even remember his face. I had woken in my room. The doctors, apparently friends of my mother – as rich and decadent people always think it’s a good idea to have a friend who knows medicine – told her that I had been through a lot and she should take better care of me. She never looked at me again after that day. I was left to do as I pleased. She never once forced her rich friends on me. In fact, she never introduced me to anyone after that night. I watched her career fail, beauty fade, and dependence on alcohol increase. I continued to sing. It only drove her further into despair, until she could not face existing in the same world as me any longer. She shot herself. But I think that in a more sober mood she would have shot me, or maybe it was her only true gift to me. A chance to live my own life, out of her shadow. Either way, I’ll never know. I was 16.
I hadn’t cried, not even when I saw her body lying in a pool of blood, or at the funeral. It was strange. She had looked so beautiful that day, just like her former self – before her fall from popularity. It was like a portrait or a perfect statue. Preserving all the grace and beauty she had once held. If she had seen herself, she would have been so happy, looking at how well they had recaptured her natural elegance and beauty. But she was dead, and what point is there being admired for your looks when you are gone from this world?
I was alone. My mother was one of the few who knew my secret. Those who did know felt no desire to share it. So, in that sense, I felt relieved; but I had never got what I wanted, and now there was no one left to love or accept me. Except for a dream and a memory, and a wish I wanted to be fulfilled. So now, a year later, I’m still here at the opera house. Still under the façade of a woman. Again, following in my mother’s footsteps. And still waiting to see the man who had saved me two years ago. I am but a shell now, who believes in nothing, especially myself. And every day I think the same things. I can never express myself; my façade has pushed me so far into myself that only pen and paper know what I am genuinely thinking. Although I have written many letters, there is no one out there to read them, so they stay in their place on my dresser. And as I stare at them now, I write.
Zoe Burgess is an upcoming author inspired by the works she has read and the genres she loves. Zoe spent her University years studying Media, Japanese Creative Industries and holds two Masters in this field, specialising in Gender and Sexuality in anime. This led to expanding her love of manga and anime, presenting research at conventions and conferences, as well as setting up her own art business. The stories and worlds discovered during this time was what inspired her own writing. Zoe realised that her passion for fantasy, her imagination and desire for non-heteronormative story telling could be explored in the fictional worlds she creates.
Now she writes the stories that she herself would love to read and explores themes and genres close to her heart.
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