Mona Lisa Blossoming: A Novel of the Monere [Paperback]

"Mona Lisa Blossoming" is the second book in Sunny's "Monère; Children of the Moon" series and a stunning sequel to "Mona Lisa Awakening". In this book Mona Lisa, the first ever half-blood Monère Queen arrives at her newly appointed territory of New Orleans; a territory confiscated from Mona Louisa after she attempted the murder of Mona Lisa (see book 1). In the company of her skilled warriors and half-blood friends, Mona Lisa uneasily takes on the role as Queen to people whose very loyalty she instinctively questions; powerful full blood Monères who until very recently lived under the ruler ship of her enemy, Mona Louisa. It appears her concerns are fully justified as within hours of her arrival, one of her warriors is challenged for the right to bed her by another who threatens the tight rein she exerts over her blood thirsty inner beast (which just happens to be a deadly Bengal tiger) and later she discovers that Mona Louisa will stop at nothing to eliminate her to regain her territory; even strike out at the people Mona Lisa holds most dear.

My one small gripe (although not big enough to warrant losing a star) was that I expected far more interaction between Mona Lisa and the people she now rules; however she is surrounded predominantly throughout this sequel by familiar faces; her lovers Gryphon and Amber, her newly found brother Thaddeus, Halcyon the High Prince of Hell, the various full blood Monère warriors she's accumulated and the half-bloods she protects. Only several new faces actually make an appearance; including the impressive Blaec, the High Lord of Hell (Halcyon's father), Dontaine, a Monère warrior with a very rare and powerful ability and Wiley (aka Wild Boy) a feral half-blood.

This wonderful dark fantasy filled with personal tragedies, intrigue, treachery, murder and love will have you devouring pages; however with an ending that will break your heart, I almost wish I had stopped before reading the last few chapters. This series is an absolutely fascinating read; Sunny has created some intriguing characters set within a well developed (although somewhat warped) society in which it is expected that Mona Lisa prove herself worthy of ruling by either dealing with her powerful enemies or die trying. Already known to harbour powers unheard of in other Monère, in this book Mona Lisa discovers not only a closely guarded demon dead secret, but also displays another rare ability, a power that would cause every other Monère Queen to rise up and kill her if known.

I didn't realise that another story in this series was currently in print; "Mona Lisa Three" found in the anthology "Over the Moon". Although set during Mona Lisa's preparation period before moving to New Orleans, it isn't necessary to read this story prior to "ML Blossoming"; however it does clue you in about Halcyon's sister Lucinda, a demon dead Monère Queen who has her own book due for pub. Aug 07, "Lucinda, Darkly". If you find yourself greedy for more of the Monère, then keep an eye out for book 4; "Mona Lisa Betwining" will appear in the anthology "On the Prowl", also due for pub. Aug 07.

I had quite looked forward to this sequel but was disappointed. First the setting. Why Louisiana and New Orleans, the spiritual home of vampire stories? This evoked too many comparisons to Laurell K Hamilton's darkly erotic Anita Blake series - and Sunny did not win the comparison stakes. Readers of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy may well spot some similarities: the all powerful psychic Queens feature in both; Bishop's Warlords & Warlord Princes compared to Sunny's Warrior Lords; Bishop's demon-dead compared to Sunny's demon Monere dead - what was missing was Bishop's compelling narrative. The shape change? I think Christine Feehan's Carpathians do it more convincingly.

Mona Lisa is still a promising heroine with elements of originality - the Goddesses Pearls, the Basking but, although the potential may be there, I fear Sunny is a pale shadow of the aforementioned mistresses of dark fantasy.

This is the second in Sunny's Monere, Children of the Moon series, and it's every bit as silly and entertaining as the first. We join our intrepid heroine as she takes up position as Monere Queen of Louisiana. The first ever half-blood queen, Mona Lisa has a tough time winning over her suspicious subjects, but of course she manages it through her winning mix of threats and sex.

There are new men to contend with as Monere warriors vie to take their place in her bed (even though she's so totally not going to bed anyone beside the two men she already has, Gryphon and Amber.) Wannabe lover Halcyon returns to tempt Lisa again (but she can't get with him because, you know, she met Gryphon and Amber first and it would be mean.) And there's old rival Mona Louisa, who's hanging out next door in Missouri plotting revenge and rubbing her hands together evilly. Then there's Lisa's brother, Thaddeus, a half-blood male capable of Basking (calling down the moon's rays for regenerative purposes, something no other Monere male can do.) He's got to enrol at school.

All in all, it sounds pretty action-packed, no? Well, yeah, but ... Although Sunny's writing is more fluid and sophistocated this time around, I still felt there was a lack of setting and description. Sunny offers lavish descriptions of the house Lisa and her court occupy, but I never got a sense of the city they lived in, the land surrounding them, etc. I sort of had this image of a grand, palatial manor house floating around in mid-air somewhere near New Orleans.

There's a stronger, more coherant plot this time too, but never any real sense that Lisa won't triumph over evil, because everyone just loves her too damn much. She has a coterie of men flinging themselves in front of oncoming buses for her just in case, so there's no chance she's ever gonna be, like, tortured and hurt. The sex scenes are pretty entertaining, for the wrong reasons (the phrase "quivering sheath" springs to mind) and, as per Mary Sue guidelines, everyone wuvs Lisa.

On the plus side, Sunny is refreshingly unafraid to cull her characters when need be and I did find the ending unexpectedly poignant. All in all, a step up from Mona Lisa Awakening in terms of writing, but just as wonderfully ridiculous. And yes, I will be buying Mona Lisa Craving. I don't care how dumb the title is.