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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Review One With the Night (Companion #4) by Susan Squires

18++ ONE DESIRE
ONE DESTINY
ONE WITH THE NIGHT
a realm of shadows and secrets, where desire holds dominion and passion know no limits…

REVIEW

The first volume of the Companion series was published, according to Goodreads, in 2002, and One With the Night in 2007, when vampires were already high in vogue in their new version. Thus, I was curious to see how the author’s vision has changed and whether she was influenced by the new trend.

Ms. Squires’s vampires are modern, but with a flavor of classic and authenticity. I liked how they are presented, as well as how she led the "game" between the extremes offered by the biological predispositions and free will. The parallel with another myth, but clearly of an animal nature, artistically highlights these issues. The winner of the game is always another and totally depends on the morality and mental constitution of the player. From moral to immoral, from innocence to depravity there are many phases in which the characters, main or secondary, are to be found.

From decadence and abuse to the sublime moment of transformation, the eroticism has its significance in the story. Some aspects seemed to me a bit exaggerated (only by their repetition), but maybe another reader will have a different opinion. However, these scenes have a defined role and they are useful to the plot. One With the Night is clearly an adult story through these scenes, but also through the aspects that are arisen.

The main themes of: survival, redemption, finding love and make peace with yourself entwine tightly with the social and moral observations regarding the individual and its species (human or vampire) that add value to the story. They offer new and new opportunities to portray the characters without breaking the rhythm of the story. The pace is sustained, but it is not that fast forward characteristic to many of the newer stories with similar topic.

The style and the language of the author are artistic, and I enjoyed to find, here and there, a figure of speech, a beautiful description or one small fragment whose message deserved to be kept in mind as a quote.

That said, I added Ms Squires’s books to my TBR short list.

About the author:
Susan Squires is a New York Times bestselling author known for breaking the rules of romance writing. Whatever her time period, or subject, some element of the paranormal always creeps in. She has won multiple contests for published novels and reviewer's choice awards. Publisher's Weekly named Body Electric one of the year’s most influential mass market books and One with the Shadows, the fifth in her vampire Companion Series, a Best book of the Year. Time for Eternity, the first in the DaVinci time travel series, received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly. 

Susan has a Masters in English literature from UCLA and once toiled as an executive for a Fortune 500 company. Now she lives at the beach in Southern California with her husband, Harry, a writer of supernatural thrillers, and three very active Belgian Sheepdogs, who like to help her write by putting their chins on the keyboarddddddddddddddddddddddd.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the wonderful review and for participating in the Tour. Victoria at My Family's Heart

SusanSquires said...

Thanks so much for the articulate and perceptive review. You've noticed things many others have not. I'm glad you liked this book. I love Jane and Callan as characters, and I also loved the research I did to write it. We took a trip to Scotland which included Loch Ness, of course, as well as Edinburgh and Glasgow. Again, thank you so much for reviewing.