M/M Romance Reviews

Unnatural by Michael Griffo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars





In the town of Eden in northwestern England stands the exclusive boarding school known as Archangel Academy. Ancient and imposing, it's a place filled with secrets. Just like its students. .

For Michael Howard, being plucked from his Nebraska hometown and sent thousands of miles away is as close as he's ever come to a miracle. In Weeping Water, he felt trapped, alone. At Archangel Academy, Michael belongs. And in Ciaran, Penry, and especially Ciaran's enigmatic half-brother Ronan, Michael finds friendship deeper than he's ever known.

But Michael's only beginning to understand what makes the Academy so special. Ronan is a vampire--part of a hybrid clan who are outcasts even among other vampires. Within the Academy's confines exists a ruthless world of deadly rivalries and shifting alliances, of clandestine love and forbidden temptations. And soon Michael will confront the destiny that brought him here--and a danger more powerful than he can imagine. . .
Michael Griffo is an award-winning writer and one of six playwrights whose career will be tracked by WritersInsight.com until 2010. He is a graduate of New York University, has studied at Playwrights Horizons and Gotham Writers Workshop, and has written several screenplays.

MY REVIEW:

This is a story of a young man named Michael who is living in the small town of Weeping Waters, Nebraska with his mother and grandparents. The Michael we get to see in the beginning of the book is very unhappy, sad, you feel so bad for him. He is picked on at school, bullied, isolated and struggling with who he is and his attraction to other boys. He dreams of a better life. His grandparents are distant, him mother is depressed all the time, it’s quite the sad tale. Then to make matters worse Michael’s mother commits suicide. Next thing he knows his father arrives from England to take Michael back to London after his mother’s funeral. Michael doesn’t hesitate in leaving; he cannot believe his luck he finally gets to leave the small town of Weeping Waters and hopefully begin a new life.

When he arrives in London he finds out his father is away on business and his chauffer will be driving him directly to the boarding school he will be attending; Archangel Academy a school for boys. Arriving at school Michael feel a tremendous weight of his shoulders he feels for this first time in his life he is actually home and maybe he could be happy here.

We are introduced to some of the other characters in the book and we get to see some of what they are thinking about. The author does a terrific job with each of the characters points of view.

But of course the best part of any romance is when Michaels see Ronan standing in the rain they both can’t take their eyes of each other. Of course in everything that starts nothing goes as smooth as they want but they both know they feel strongly for each other. This is an amazing story of two young men finding love and accepting who they are.

This is a YA/Paranormal romance between two young men, author Michael Griffo does a terrific job at writing a paranormal romance and puts his own twist on the types of vampires we read about. It’s new and different and I really enjoyed reading Unnatural. There are many other characters in this book that make it a terrific read. It's not just a romance novel though there is murder and some mystery and I recommend this book to anyone who loves paranormal books.