The Lily and the Rose
Dany&Dany
Publisher: Yaoi Press
Pages: 152
Rating: M
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
Christophe Laurent, a young male wants to become a priest just like Father Colbert, but his dear friend Alain Mauriac is daunted by this as he has other ideas for him if he is to be a part of his life. Lazing on a summer's day, they each talk about what they will do when they finally mature, but all is not what it seems even to these young men.
When he asks Alain what he wants to do when he grows up, he says he wants to find the one who killed his mother and kill him in the same manner.
Move forward several years and Christophe is of age and serving as a priest who wants to educate people in the right way to live, but a corrupt and suspect Cardinal offers him carnal lust and pleasure with him if his desire is to ascend the ecclesiastical hierarchies. When Christophe refuses his eminence's indecent offer, he makes it much harder for him to live amongst them. He still desires the young male, and will not stop at just hearing his refusal.
Alain meets up with Christophe when they are a little older, and his intention is to cause problems for the young pious priest and to find out why he left him all those years ago when Alain was very much in love with him, and wants to know if he feels the same way.Though when someone he knows very well is out to poison Alain, what will Christophe do about it?
The Lily and the Rose is an exquisite period love story where the setting is as opulent and desirable as the characters in it. Christophe and Alain are meant to be together, yet his vow of celibacy has got in the way of Alain getting to know him more and continue their affair. His heavy drinking and mourning of losing Christophe, the one he desires so much weighs on him, but not as much as his new knowledge of the identity of the man who ordered his mother killed - two words, the faun, and nothing more seem to haunt his waking hours. He finds out the faun is a part of the Countesses entourage and will find him no matter what happens.
Readers will identify with Alain's obsession with Christophe as any first love experience causes a form of grief if the other party has decided to end the relationship as Christophe did. Even Alain in his misery has a dark secret he only half tells Christophe of, but it is for his own good later on. Christophe is the voice of reason in this novel, yet even he too has to yield to his feelings later on.
Summary:
Dany&Dany really know how to create an erotic love story in a beautiful setting. Daring, sensual and pleasing to the eye are three ways of describing the art - the story is plain indulgence.
