“Squires combines extreme sensuality with dangerous drama.” - Romantic Times BOOKreviews
“ONE WITH THE DARKNESS is one of the finest, innovative vampire novels I've read.” -Romance Junkies
Description:
Published: October 6th, 2015
Cover Artist: Rebecca Poole, Dreams2Media
New York Times bestselling author Susan Squires invites you into the world of two lovers who share a seductive past and a dangerous desire…
DIVIDED BY CENTURIES
Contessa Donnatella di Poliziano has power, beauty, and—as a vampire—eternal life. Her overwhelming regret is a mistake she made centuries ago when she chose not to transform her one true love, Jergan, into a vampire too. Donnatella’s choice has deprived her of the only true love she’s ever known. But just as all seems lost, the discovery of a 300-year-old note leads her to a gift left by her old friend, Leonardo da Vinci: a machine to take her back in time to rewrite the history of her heart…
UNITED BY OTHERWORLDLY DESIRE
Once back in time, Donnatella’s memory of the intervening years is lost. Yet when she sees the breathtaking barbarian slave, Jergan, from afar, she feels like she has always known him. The instant attraction she feels draws them together. For Donnatella, the romance is tantalizing, awakening a passion that feels both old and new. But as the two fall in love again, a new danger threatens to tear them apart. Now Jergan’s love for Donnatella will be tested in a most perilous way—and if he fails, the two lovers will be separated again…for eternity.
TOP TEN
Bad/uninspired/wrong trends in our day "vampire literature"
Ooooh! I get to be snarky? Here goes. Forgive me.
1. Making the vampire characters too heroic immediately. They’ve got problems. Let them be bad boys (or girls.)
2. A lot of characters I see are too simplistic to be interesting.
3. There’s an awful lot of vampire erotica around now. Much of it is definitely uninspired.
4. Speaking of interesting, I like some fresh takes on the vampire mythos, and new explanations of their traits. Lots of authors just copy others’ original ideas, so you can tell exactly where they got their version of vampires.
5. In an effort to be more interesting, some authors pile on arbitrary attributes. Vampire angels. Vampire dragon-shifters. I made these up but you get the idea. I like to see writers have the courage to explore vampire-ness.
6. Lots of books make the supernatural elements of the vampire sort of “wall-paper” for a standard love story. I like stories that really “go-there” and make you feel what it would be like to be a vampire, or be in love with one. No just going through the motions.
7. As long as we’re talking writing the story, there are lots of vampire stories out there that aren’t well-written. This comes under “bad trend.” This isn’t limited to vampire stories of course. Some people are just publishing whatever they type, just to get it out there.
8. The love triangle with a vampire and a werewolf. It’s a great idea. But it’s been done to death.
9. I devoured the Twilight books just like everybody else and enjoyed them. But no more sparkly, ancient high-school vampires.
10. Vampires who sulk. No one likes a pouty vampire.
EXCERPT
“Let me get your property, my lady,” the trader said. They turned to the back of the stall. Three men clustered round the straining barbarian, laughing as he tried to twist away. Blood dripped from his wrists where he had pulled against his shackles. He spat at them. It was his only means of defiance.
Graccus wiped his face and laughed. “Oh, he’ll be a joy to break.”
“I agree,” she said. The three yanked their gazes up, as did the barbarian. He flushed in shame. “Now unhand my new slave, sirs, so I may begin.”
“What? But I am buying him for my brothel!”
She waved the receipt scroll. “Too late.” Her She turned to the trader. “For the price I just paid, you can throw in a pair of shackles.” The trader nodded and clapped his hands. Slaves appeared with the required bindings. They unlocked the barbarian’s wrists from the poles and chained them behind his back before they released his feet. His ankles, too, were bloodied. Those green eyes stared at her, burning with intensity, as though he was still not sure what had just happened to him. Excitement churned inside her. This was the start of something—she didn’t know quite what. “Come quietly, slave,” she ordered, putting all the force of her personality behind her words, just shy of raising her Companion for compulsion. “You two—see that he does.” Two of Titus’s bodyguards nodded. Each took one of the slave’s arms and dragged him forward.
“You knew I wanted him,” Graccus was saying. The trader only shrugged. He couldn’t have gotten two thousand dinars for a slave bound for a brothel.
They pushed into the market throng. “There you are,” Titus called, hurrying over. Livia saw him frown as he registered the barbarian. “Livia Quintus, what is this? You’ve never purchased this creature!”
“I have, Titus. He was a soldier, therefore skilled in martial arts. He even speaks Latin. He’ll be a perfect bodyguard.”
“Livia, return him at once. This is no slave for a woman.”
Livia turned to her new purchase, seeing him through Titus’s eyes. Bloody and sweating, he looked fierce, with those intense green eyes and all that hair. But he was the one she wanted. She knew that as certainly as she knew her own name. “Once we clean him up you won’t recognize him.”
“He needs more than a bath to make him suitable.”
“You were the one who suggested a bodyguard slave, and now that I’ve meekly done as you ask, you rail at me.”
Titus rolled his eyes. “Meek? I would welcome meek.” Livia gestured her entourage forward. Titus sighed and fell in step. “I just hope you haven’t bitten off more than you can chew.”
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.
Mrs.Squires, thank your for your "snarkiness"! I new I would like your answer!!
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