The writing is a little sketchy, especially at the beginning, but I like the world Sunny's created and I'm interested in learning more about it. ( )

Oh my!

Well first let me say I certainly did not expect the hot sex....but, well...it was very, um, let us say, scintillating! LOL!

So than, Lisa is an orphan who is soon to meet her birth mother in a very unexpected manner (which was rather contrived to say the least)....Lisa is also a nurse in ER and has the gift of healing...

In the ER is a young (old) man who has a stab wound to whom she is very drawn to (the chemistry could blow up a submarine)...and he is dying.

After he tells Lisa a bit about himself and about Lisa's possible heritage, Lisa is intent on saving him and even more intent on knowing who she might be and why the powers of healing.

Lisa is Monere (a being who has original heritage to the moon) and she is a Queen...hence her real name Mona Lisa.....

The story goes on as her quest to save this man evolves...she meets other Moneres, the Monere Queens' Council and thus a fast paced adventure begins.

There was a tad too much evilness around in such a short time frame...but I enjoyed the book none-the-less. This is a fast, enjoyable, romantic, and sexy, fantasy. I could relate! ( )

Book One.
I read a short story in Over the Moon and had to read the first book to see if I'd like the story line. Surprisingly, I do. It reads very similar to LKH's Anita Blake series -- sort of. ( )

Mona Lisa Awakening is pretty good for a first novel. And if that's not damning by faint praise, I don't know what is.

The heroine, Lisa, is not fully developed. She doesn't know who she is, so neither does the reader - she changes personae so fast you get dizzy. One second she's an insecure nurse; the next she's a hyper-dominant queen; one second she's free-loving; the next she's a moralizing monogamist. Whatever suits the moment. And there's a lot of Mary Sueism. All the men want her, all the other women are either weak or evil, and Lisa just gets more and more special.

The book reels from one earth-shatteringly climactic event to another, with not enough development between them, too much telling and not enough showing. All that high drama is ultimately numbing. This isn't helped by the fact that Sunny's writing is kind of dreamy and vague - I never had a sense of place, of entering into another world. I couldn't really see or feel what happened.

So yes, it's nicely erotic - and Mary Sueism can be a pleasant indulgence - but I was ultimately disappointed. I might read the sequel, just to see if Sunny improves as a writer, or if I feel like reading something sexy and self-aggrandizing. ( )

So this book has been sitting on my TBR pile for quite a while. I finally decided to read during the hubs and my honeymoon. And I basically pounded it out in a day and half. Although to be honest, I had tried to read it before that and couldn't get past the first chapter, it just didn't excite me and I felt like I was just looking at the words and not actively reading it.

Overall, the concept was different from other fantasy romance books I have read. The general idea of the book was about the children of the moon. One in particular, Mona Lisa, is the main focus. She never knew of her heritage of the moon and has always felt different compared to her coworkers. The realization of how different she really was, was when Gryphon showed up in her ER.

Gryphon believes that Lisa is a Queen (and the Monere "race" has many, many, queens) with advanced powers. Once Lisa is finally convinced that she is in fact a queen, Gryphon whisks her away and she is put in front of the court. And from there she gets land and people of her own to rule over.

Now there is two parts that I didn't particular enjoy. The first being that while the story was interesting, it wasn't enthralling. I didn't feel the need to find out what happens next, making the book just "okay" for me. Others though may disagree.

So, Gryphon had become Lisa's lover and loyal subject through out the beginning of the book and then, Lisa took on a second lover. Leading to my second dislike, multiple lovers who know about each other (and even if they didn't I still wouldn't like it). I don't know, maybe I'm just ultra monogamous, but just the thought of that type of relationship can turn me right off of a book. From there it lost even more interest for me and I don't care to read the second. I guess I like the good old fashioned two people fall in love and live happily ever after bit. ( )