Book Details:
Author: Swinn Daniels
Release Date: 06 July 2020
Series: Dark Photography Folio (Book 1 of 6)
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Dark Romance
Format: E-book
Pages: 217 pages
Publisher: –
Blurb:
On ne choisit pas ce qui nous choisit.
We do not choose what chooses us.
There are photographers. And then there is Saxon Payne.
Others use technique. Saxon simply sees. And every woman who has ever looked back at him through his camera knows the difference — that rare and exquisite experience of being truly, fully seen.
Read full book blurb
It is, of course, completely ruinous.
When Juliette Burns walks into his studio, she thinks she’s there to prove herself — to her world-famous photographer father, and to everyone who ever doubted her. What ignites between them is inevitable. It is also only the beginning. Juliette is carrying a secret she doesn’t know she’s keeping. Before she turned eight, her mother vanished her into a desert cult. Five hundred people. Then none of them. No bodies. No explanation. No trace. Only Juliette was left behind.
She has never looked back.
Because she can’t remember.
She is about to.
Eyes of the Beholder is Book 1 of The Dark Photography Folio — six books that are one continuous story. It begins in the heat and glamour of a fashion photography studio. It does not stay there. Mystery, cult, science fiction, fantasy, and horror arrive without asking permission. Same voice. Same wit. Same refusal to flinch.
The Dark Photography Folio — reading order
1. Eyes of the Beholder
2. Hands of the Maker
3. Mouth of the Muse
4. Heart of the Warrior
5. Soul of the Saviour
6. Fall of the Assassin
On ne choisit pas ce qui nous choisit.
We do not choose what chooses us. Yet we are chosen.
You have been chosen.
Read it. I dare you.
“Delightful summer read!”
– Iona Whishaw, best-selling author of the Lane Winslow mystery series.
Review
Eyes of the Beholder by Swinn Daniels is a genre-bending erotic romance that combines the rarefied world of high-fashion photography with an intensely sensual relationship and the beginnings of a much darker mystery.
Juliette Burns, a talented young photographer determined to succeed without relying upon her famous father’s reputation, earns the coveted position of first assistant to Saxon Payne, one of the most celebrated photographers in the industry. Their immediate attraction develops into a consuming romance, while a legendary tiara, an unsettling commission and the concealed truth about Juliette’s childhood gradually suggest that far more is at stake than either of them initially realises.
The novel is at its most compelling when it explores photography as an instrument of beauty, commerce and power. Author Daniels’ professional experience behind the camera is evident in the descriptions of lighting, equipment, studio etiquette, portfolio construction and the almost ritualistic relationship between photographer and subject. The discussions surrounding advertising imagery, particularly the way authentic emotion can be attached to a brand and used to bypass a viewer’s defences, give the book an unexpectedly intelligent thematic centre. Saxon and Juliette are not merely attracted to each other; they recognise and release something creatively powerful in one another, which makes their relationship more interesting than a conventional workplace romance.
The supporting characters add much of the novel’s colour and emotional weight. Maxine, with her wit, sensuality and hidden abilities, is far more layered than her initial appearance suggests, while Juliette’s father, Jack Burns, emerges as one of the book’s strongest characters. His relationship with his daughter gives the story genuine tenderness, and the passages concerning his art, his past and his legacy are among the most affecting in the novel. The mystery surrounding Juliette’s missing childhood memories also introduces a disturbing cult element that shifts the story into darker and more intriguing territory.
The novel is unapologetically explicit, and readers should certainly know that the erotic content is both frequent and highly detailed. While Saxon and Juliette’s chemistry is convincing, some of their intimate scenes, flirtatious exchanges and repeated physical descriptions occupy so much space that the more compelling threads involving Juliette’s past and Saxon’s morally troubling professional commission occasionally lose momentum. A tighter balance between sensuality and suspense would have allowed the darker storyline to exert a stronger hold much earlier. I also found the ending rather abrupt: it delivers a striking revelation, but leaves nearly every major mystery unresolved for the next volume. Giving at least one of those narrative strands a more complete resolution would have made this instalment feel more satisfying on its own.
Nevertheless, Eyes of the Beholder is bold, imaginative and refreshingly unconcerned with remaining inside a single genre. It will appeal most to readers who enjoy highly explicit romance, dominant personalities, glamorous creative settings and mysteries that unfold across a longer series. Beneath its provocative surface lies an absorbing meditation on who controls an image, what beauty can persuade us to believe and how much of ourselves we surrender when we allow another person to truly see us.
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