Through A Glass Darkly [Paperback]

Jennifer Webster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2009

Lily Wright is a doctoral student in psychology struggling to uncover the cause of her own serious depression. As the anxiety generated by her increasingly disturbing dreams and flashbacks convinces her she has repressed the memory of some traumatic event, she finds herself clinging to the one unexpected bright spot in her life - the intoxicating and debonair Dr. Gabriel Martin. Losing herself in their whirlwind romance, Lily is almost able to escape the depths of the psychological darkness that once nearly engulfed her. But when their budding relationship is threatened by an unknown foe, Gabriel's mysterious behavior leads Lily to suspect that he is not who - or what - he appears to be; in fact, he may hold the answers to her own forgotten past.

Product Details

• Paperback: 354 pages
• Publisher: Black Rose Writing (September 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981974228
• ISBN-13: 978-0981974224
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,340,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lack of originality pulls down this sweet vampire romance, March 19, 2010

By 

S. Cook "Reviewer" (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Through A Glass Darkly (Paperback)

A doctoral student in psychology, Lily Wright has been suffering from depression and starts having disturbing dreams and memory flash backs. She starts to believe that she suffered some trauma while on vacation four years ago. The author did a good job building suspense as the flashbacks increased, and you begin to worry about what they mean. As she meets Gabriel and they start their romance, we meet a 'bad guy' that is after them for unexplained reasons. The story is a mix of action, suspense, mystery, drama and romance. But its sweet romance, not sexy.

There are quite a few parallels to Twilight, so the story felt unoriginal. After reading all the reviews that complained about this, I tried to keep an open mind going in. I've read hundreds of books in the paranormal/urban fantasy genre and its hard for authors to keep coming up with something that hasn't been done before. But there were really too many similiarities reminding me of Twilight.

Overall I still enjoyed the story but I have to knock back some stars for copycatting. And the lack of sex was hard for me to get. Both Lily and Gabriel had had sexual relations before (in Gabriel's case many, many times), and it seemed unrealistic that they would be so in love but not be able to have the sexual bonding with each other. Not saying the book needs graphic sex scenes, but just that realistically for love to last they would need more than a platonic relationship with no sex ever again. That was a big thing left unresolved. I also would have liked more world building around being a vampire. That wasn't handled as well as many other paranormal romances I've read.

All in all, this was an OK paranormal romance. An enjoyable little read, but certainly not one of the stronger ones out there. If you are looking for good paranormal romance or urban fantasy, check out my list of favorites....
http://www.amazon.com/Paranormal-action-romance-must-reads/lm/R214ESW3HL12HM/ref=tag_lag_rb_munk_lmfull
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars through the glass darkly,couldnt put it down!, March 15, 2010

By 

breedmate77 "breedmate77" (la) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Through A Glass Darkly (Paperback)

i bought this book a few months,but kept putting it off. i wish i would of read it as soon as it arrived. i lovvved it! it took me less then a day to read,i couldnt put it down. it was kind of like twilight,but to me,much better. read this book,it wont disappoint!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, January 17, 2010

By 

M.L. (Midwest) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Through A Glass Darkly (Paperback)

I really enjoyed reading this story (though it was reminiscent of Twilight to me). Maybe it's b/c I just recently completed grad school myself, but I found the character Lily (a grad student) to be a fleshed out character that I could relate to.

I admit I was reluctant to buy the book b/c of the price, and the fact that I had never read anything else by this author. But I figured it couldn't hurt anything to get a sample of the story sent to my Kindle. But I was so pulled into the story that at the end of the sample I just *had* to buy the book. And I'm glad I did.

I found that I cared about what would happen to the characters, and wanted the main characters to make it as a couple. She portrayed the hero, not just the heroine, as more than a one dimensional character. And I was pleasantly surprised that she made him a rather humorous character at points also.

Even the "side" characters had a sub-plot that I found interesting and that added to the story, rather than just being meaningless filler that takes away from the main story (as so many books do). I especially like the friendship between Lily and Ethan. It rang true to me, and added a surprising level of depth to the story (that didn't revolve around the main romance).

The book provided many hours of reading enjoyment. I laughed out loud many times while reading this book, and am looking forward to the sequel. I hope the next book dives more into the culture of the vampires in the world the author crafted (and whether any other supernatural creatures inhabit it).

I think fans of vampire stories (and those who enjoyed Twilight, but wish it had less teen angst) will really appreciate this story.