Worthwhile read. not the best in the series though. ( )

Book four.
I feel like I'm reading a requiem. The story arc keeps getting more dire. ( )

This is the fourth book in the Mona Lisa series by Sunny and in this latest installment Mona Lisa finds herself in NetherHell - a realm for the dammed. Souls so far beyond saving for the evil they have committed that they cannot find a place in even hell. Though this is not my favourite of the series so far I can honestly say I enjoyed it despite it's neat little ending. Though I suspect that it is merely a starting point for another chapter in the series which I shall be looking forward to reading. I found the prospect of NetherHell an interesting and fresh focus point and Halcyon's and Gryphons's POV an interesting turn, I'm hoping to see maybe more of this in the future. If not, I hope we see how the events here shape her future relationship with both men. I was hoping to see more of how Mona Lisa is integrating herself into life as Queen of Louisiana - we get a glimpse of the vast wealth she commands in the last pages, but I'd like to see something a little more in depth. I'm starting to wonder though, when Mona Lisa will start seeing some true happiness in her life that isn't stolen away at an opportune moment? All in all I really enjoyed this book, got stuck in a few sections, but it also had be intrigued enough to keep me going. I hope this isn't the last we've heard of the goings on in NetherHell and that we discover more of the new races Sunny has introduced us to here in this installment. ( )

This is the fourth book in the Children of the Moon series by Sunny; and it was actually my favorite of the series. The setting was more interesting than previous books and there was a lot more action; there wasn't as much sex and romance so people who really dig that may not like this book as well as some of the previous ones.

The book starts out with Mona Lisa basking for her Monere. Suddenly a black light comes out of the moon and Mona Lisa is taken somewhere else. Strangely enough Mona Louise's personality is stronger in the new place and Mona Lisa soon finds out she is in a different version of Hell than she ever knew existed. Can Gryphon and Halcyon save her before something more deadly finds her?

I really liked that Mona Lisa's character took things into her own hands in this book. Mona Lisa's compassion matched with toughness really set her character above all other characters and made her character something special.

I loved that both Halcyon and Gryphon were in this book a lot; Halcyon is my favorite character and it was interesting to see him have to deal with limitations to his power. Once again though Amber was absent for most of the book. Mona Lisa did make some progress in her relationship with Dontaine which was nice to read about.

I thought this book had more purpose, a better story, and a faster pace than the previous book. There are less sex scenes than normal; the ones that are present are well written. I enjoyed that this left more room for action scenes. After the third book I was ready to give up on this series, but after reading this book I am convinced to stay with this series a bit longer. ( )

I was so excited when I started reading the books in the “Mona Lisa” series by Sunny. I mean, there are throngs of supernatural series’ out there, but most of them center on vampires or lycanthropes. Or the people who have set out to destroy them. It can become a pretty generic genre. Needless to say, the Monere society appeared to be a breath of fresh air.

The first three books in the series (“Mona Lisa Awakening”, “Mona Lisa Blossoming”, and “Mona Lisa Craving”) were really good. In fact, after reading book one I was so hooked that I immediately went out and bought books two and three and pre-ordered book four. (And after finishing the first three books, I impatiently awaited the release of “Mona Lisa Darkening,” going so far as to troll around unsuccessfully for ARC’s.) By the time it actually arrived, I was practically slavering with anticipation.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, the Monere are a race that migrated to the earth from the moon 4000 years ago. ‘The children of the moon’ are beautiful creatures who appear human enough to blend in, and who can in fact interbreed with humans. They are supernaturally fast and strong and live hundreds of years. They are a society led by ‘queens;’ females who are born with the ability to draw down the rays of the moon in which the other Monere’s are then able to bask in, thus sustaining their life on our planet.

In this installment, Mona Lisa’s true love, Gryphon, has recently been killed and in inhabiting the realm of hell. And she is sharing her body with the spirit of his killer, Mona Louisa. Immediately, Mona Louisa pulls some messed up sh*t and kills Mona Lisa, sending the two of them not to hell but to NetherHell “the cursed realm of the damned.” (Direct quote from the back of the book, LOL).

This situation starts a chain of events that send Gryphon and Halcyon (the High Prince of Hell and one of Mona Lisa’s mates) on a perilous decent to NetherHell to bring her back before it’s too late.

Frankly, there is not a whole lot in this book that makes sense. And (spoiler alert) at the end, we are simply right back where we started from.

As much as it pains me to do this, I feel obligated to give this book a single star rating. Unfortunately, Sunny seems to have taken a swift and drastic downturn when it comes to the quality of her writing. I hope this is just a fluke, and that any future Monere novels will be closer to what we loved from the beginning of the series.

The plus side is that if you do love this series, you should be okay to simply skip this book. As I said before, the book pretty much ends up exactly where it started, so you won’t be missing anything. You can pretend that “Mona Lisa Darkening” never even happened… ( )