Mona Lisa Darkening
Berkley, Jan 2009, $7.99
Queen of the Louisiana Monere Children of the Moon Mona Lisa behaves very differently towards her followers than her peers. She treats her subjects with respect rather than contempt. Perhaps it is her being the only half-breed Monere queen or her having lived amongst the humans.
On the night of the vernal equinox, Mona takers her followers outside in the bayou to celebrate the holiday by drawing on rejuvenating power of the light. However, under the full moon, something goes wrong; instead of light Mona is cocooned in an eerie darkness. While some of her shocked subjects remain paralyzed with fear and others want to act but don’t know at who or what, she vanishes. In the realm of the damned, a gargoyle captures her while the evil Monere queen Mona Louisa tries to take control of Mona Lisa’s body. However a hero will step forth to go into hell for the heavenly cause of rescuing Mona or being damned for eternity if he fails.
Using an excellent twist, Sunny totally refreshes her unique erotic urban fantasy saga. A simple celebration turns dangerous for Mona Lisa while her loyal followers feel helpless and concerned as they do not know what happened to their beloved queen, whose involved or what to do; their frustrations enhance Mona’s trek through Netherhell, the realm of the damned that makes Dante’s depiction look PG. The superb DARKENING focuses mostly on a beleaguered Mona as she struggles to survive while trying to control her appetite of wanting the hard gargoyle inside her and not succumbing to the sexual desires if becoming enslaved to him.