This is really a 2.5..... so-so...could have been better, could have been worse.

I was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Excited to get this book....and really there isn't much of a plot. Mostly, Lust, sex, fighting, death, lust, sex, fighting, death, revenge, sex, fighting, death.... until the next installment.

Ok, so aside from that: Mona Lisa (a Monere) and her entourage; Gryphon, Amber, Thaddeus, Tersa, Chami, Aquila, et. al. arrive at their new new home in New Orleans (which was once the home of rival Monere Queen Mona Louisa). Immediately one of Mona Louisa's former "guards" challenges Amber for the right to be with Mona Lisa.... Then there is the mixed blood locked in the room....and a fight with a alligator....Halcyon and a few others show up....then Mona Louisa shows up and tries to get revenge.....and then.... well I'm not going to tell you.

So after all the blood & sex, I'm just going to have to read the next book, which I hope is better than this one. I'm always soooo unhappy when a sequel isn't as good and the prequel. ( )

IF possible even better than the first installment of the series. I thoroughly enjoyed it read it in 8 hours ( )

Book Two.
I'm still impressed. I requested holds on the rest of what is currently (as of 2008) published from my library. ( )

When I finished the first book of this series, I was sort of intrigued but not really hooked. I knew I would want to read the rest of the series, but I wasn't in any rush. Now, having finished book two, I'm a little more interested. I like where some of the characters went in "Blossoming", and I found Mona Lisa more likable than she was in "Awakening". I do have a bit of a hard time taking these books seriously given the strong and blatant borrowing from other books. For instance, the author so heavily takes from Anne Bishop's "Black Jewels" books that I sometimes feel like I'm reading a piece of fanfiction. Of course, I fanatically love Bishop's Daemon, the basis for Sunny's Halcyon, so all that isn't entirely a negative mark in my estimation. ( )

Halcyon = Hot ( )