Roberto Carderas, a dangerous drug lord of mixed Monère heritage, arrives in Cozumel to eliminate a rival. But the jaguar-shifter has encountered a much more valuable prize on the island: Mona Lisa, the first female Monère he’s ever met—and one especially vulnerable in that she has lost her memory. Now, with all knowledge of her real life as stripped away as her defenses, Mona Lisa can be manipulated into believing…anything.
Convinced that Roberto is her kind and sensual protector, Mona Lisa thwarts all attempts at her rescue—including those made by her desperate lover Dante. As Roberto’s devious scheme gets underway, Dante can only hope that the touch of his warm flesh will reignite total recall in the body and mind of the woman he loves. But escape for both of them could be as forever elusive as Mona Lisa’s past.
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This is definitely one of those titles where the back cover blurb is very misleading to the actual story. Yes Mona Lisa loses her memory and meets/kidnapped by this guy Roberto - for maybe 50 pages. It sounds so huge and all encompassing if you go by the back cover, along with implying significantly more sexy time than is actually in that part. Yes there's a lot of tension with Roberto, but compared to what happens next things are mostly innocent and abuse free.
After that though? Not so much.
Maybe I've just fooled myself because it's been so long since I've read a Sunny title, but I totally forgot how dark these books can be. There's a torture scene in particular where I had to just start flipping pages because I didn't want any more vivid imagery to happen in my head. Now if you haven't read the other books I think here some readers might have been turned off by the seemingly random sex scene, but for Sunny and her Monere series, this makes complete sense. It even took me a minute to go along with everything, especially considering Mona Lisa's amnesia at the time, but mostly I just said screw it and decided to go along for the ride.
The best part, and sadly one of the smallest, is the last 1/4 of the novel. I think Sunny starts to really up the directions in which the characters and the story can go, which is fantastic when you're a reader like me who wants the series to keep going. I think exploring what exactly (***MINOR SPOILER***) the Monere mean in the world of today, living in America and dealing with humans, is necessary and makes a lot of sense. I was just sad at how rapid everything happened and how quickly it was all over - until the next book that is.
It took me a few days to man up and read this latest book, mostly because I think I get almost apprehensive with new books. I start to worry about what horrible things could happen in the story, how abused my favorite hero/heroine might get, and I completely psyche myself out. I'm happy to say though that Sunny does a great job with Mona Lisa Eclipsing and she's got me very excited about what's coming next.
Overall Feeling - Thumbs up.
Series - 1) Mona Lisa Awakening 2) Mona Lisa Blossoming 3) Mona Lisa Craving 4) Mona Lisa Darkening 5) Mona Lisa Eclipsing
