Review:
Thousands of years ago, the world of Alia Terra was formed by the Shift, which merged the human world with portions of various nonhuman worlds. In the present, poor or orphaned human women try to achieve better lives for themselves by submitting a sample of their blood to temples that then try to match their DNA up with monsters who've submitted their own blood. Matches are then married off and sent on their way.
This book stars Virgil, one of the last few remaining liches in Alia Terra, and May, a young orphaned woman with anorexia. The head of May's orphanage mentally and emotionally abused the children there, training them to be ballet dancers (and occasionally prostituting them out). Virgil, not being human, doesn't immediately realize that something is wrong with May, but his ability to sense and consume others' life force eventually clues him in.
I admit, I read this out of morbid curiosity. It was surprisingly sweet - although there are two of three lengthy sex scenes (complete with shadow tentacles that somehow managed to be weirdly sexy), the story took the time to show May and Virgil becoming more comfortable with each other. May's anorexia is a prominent part of the story - she's convinced that she's ugly, especially if she eats anything. He's convinced that she'll view him with fear and disgust, especially when he reveals exactly what his abilities can do.
This didn't do quite enough to show the work involved in healing from anorexia - on-page, May pretty much just willed herself to eat fast, and somehow that worked. Still, I really liked Virgil, enough to want to read another entry in this series by this particular author.
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