Thank you for visiting my stop on the Of Blood and Bone Tour hosted by Kismet Book Touring. Please check out my review as well as an excerpt from the novel. Also, a Thank You to Courtney Cole for providing the eARC for review.
Of Blood and Bone
The Minaldi Legacy, #1
by Courtney Cole
Published: September 16, 2012
Published by Lakehouse Press
Format Reviewed: eBook (eARC from book tour)
Synopsis:
Luca Minaldi is powerful, rich and mesmerizing. But he is also a reclusive enigma. He lives in Malta, a fairytale-like place filled with sunshine and sea, beauty and secrets. And Luca’s darkest of secrets is the best kept of them all.
Eva Talbot is spending the summer in Malta to finish up her doctoral dissertation. When she meets Luca, a mysterious and handsome shipping magnate, there is an instant attraction. He has a disturbing and beautiful energy that she has never felt before. But she senses the darkness that lives within him.
Eva is hired to care for his mother, a woman who suffers from dementia, but it is Luca who Eva will eventually risk everything to save. She desperately wants to reach inside of him and fix what is broken, while at the same time, she knows that she is falling for him. Her life becomes a swirling chaos of darkness and romance, of secrets and mystery. And the question that emerges will become the most important answer of all.
Can she save Luca from the darkness that plagues him without losing herself?
The answer is a matter of life or death.
My Thoughts:
While spending the summer on the Island of Malta working to complete her dissertation in psychology, she meets Luca Minaldi. Actually, he happened upon her while she was screaming from an encounter with Malta's resident giant spiders (Ewww!). Her initial impression of Luca was that he is gorgeous, but that he was different - he radiates dark energy like an electrical storm. And one minute he is rational and then the next he is ruthless. She can't quite figure him out which is odd because that is what she does; she reads people based upon first impressions. But Luca is an enigma and Eva decides that she must get to know him.
Eva spent some of her childhood years in Malta with her father and loves the people, the beauty of the island, and knows that this will be the perfect place to work on her doctoral work. Little did she know just how much she would learn. Luca's mother is a recluse and has been since her husband passed five years earlier. She has fits, hallucinations, and believes that her son is evil. Luca hires Eva to help his mother, even though she is not licenced to practice in Malta. However, once Eva starts working with Luca's mother, she finds out that there is more to Luca's wealthy family that meets the eye. They are cursed. But not all of them, just certain men, but Luca is, like his father and grandfather before him. Eva thinks that the idea is just the ranting of an old, paranoid woman. But after one night of rough sex that Luca can't remember Eva knows something isn't right. And more than that, Eva is falling for Luca and she wants to help. Most importantly she wants to find a rational, scientific reason for what is happening.
Eva is Light to Luca's Darkness. When she is around his darkness dissipates. I love that she is a stubborn, independent woman and isn't easily swayed by anything. She is able to see people for what they are, a talent she learned while studying people's minds, and uses her intelligence to her advantage and doesn't play it down. Luca is dark and brooding and knows that he isn't normal and that he has blood on his hands. But he doesn't know why, only that he is cursed, but he doesn't know why or how it works. Adrian, Luca's friend and employee, is one of the only people to know of the curse outside the family. His family has worked for the Minaldis for years helping each generation's cursed one.
Of Blood and Bone is Courtney Cole's debut adult novel. I haven't read any of her young adult novels yet, but this is decidedly different from anything that would be considered YA. The language is more mature as are the dark and sensual sex scenes which makes this an adult novel. The plot flows beautifully and each character you are introduced to, no matter how inconsequential, you feel a connection. I really liked that there wasn't too many flowery descriptions. Everything is very blunt and when something is expanded upon, it is because of the dark psychological workings of the mind. There are many difficult issues discussed in this book and may be hard for some to read.
When I first agreed to review this book, I had thought that it was going to be a Paranormal Romance, but I was wrong. It is more Psychological Thriller mixed with a taste of Gothic Mystery. I loved everything about this book. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. I never would have guessed the ending, even though I tried! I can't wait to read the next installment in the series. Courtney Cole has written a dark tale of suspense and mystery that is bizarre yet enthralling. The way she brings the feeling of an old Gothic style romance and horror together is extraordinary. I recommend this novel to anyone who likes creepy, suspenseful mysteries. Definitely a perfect book for October!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Favorite Passage:
"We find her perched like a bird on a window sill, staring out over the estate. Her white filmy dressing gown hangs over the ledge and I can see from here that there is a beautiful view of the sea and moon form where she is sitting. But she isn't enjoying it. Her face, which is normally lovely I am sure, is twisted at the moment into something unrecognizable as a human. I can't help but suck in my breath at the eeriness of this situation."
Excerpt:
“Evangeline,” he says
softly, his dark eyes glued to mine. “I’m so sorry about the other night.
I wish I could remember. I wish I could take it back.”
“I don’t,” I tell him honestly. “I really don’t.”
He gazes out the window for a scant moment more, seemingly deep in thought, before he crosses the room to me. He kneels in front of me and looks into my eyes. In this moment, he is as vulnerable as I’ve ever seen him, as I’ve ever seen anyone. He’s completely open to me, hiding nothing.
I want so desperately to kiss him.
“I can’t,” I tell his dark eyes, praying that I don’t fall into them. “I want to kiss you right now. But I can’t. You’re my patient. There are ethics…”
Luca shakes his head, his hands on my knees and his gaze upon mine. “You aren’t my doctor, Evangeline. You’re my friend. I’m simply talking to a friend who wants to help me tonight. You’re not licensed to practice medicine in Malta, remember? So where does that leave your ethics?”
He smiles wolfishly and waits without moving. He’s offering himself to me. I know that. And it is against his better judgment. He has told me that, as well. Yet here he is, on his knees in front of me.
I suck in a breath and inhale the air that is so charged with everything that Luca is.
Whatever that is.
It is dangerous on many levels. I know that.
I reach out unsure fingers and trace the top of his shoulders, moving over the contours. They are so broad, yet so slender at once. He’s perfectly built. Strong, lithe and powerful. I drop my head. I know that I don’t want to resist him anymore. For the first time in my life, I’m going to do something that my heart wants to do, not what my head tells me to do.
I grip him tighter with my fingers and pull him to me. He folds in between my knees, pressing me to his chest. I can hear his heart thumping rhythmically against mine as my fingers linger on his warm back.
He dips his head and presses his forehead to mine, staring into my eyes. His are a smoldering and stormy black.
“I’m afraid to get close to you,” he tells me. “I’m afraid for you.”
“I’m not,” I whisper. “I’m not afraid of you. Kiss me, Luca.”
Even I can hear the thick desire in my voice and Luca hears it too.
He groans and covers my mouth with his own, muffling the sound with my lips. He is pressed so close that he seems to absorb me. Every plane of his body is against every plane of mine. I don’t know where he stops and where I start, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters is him and me and this.
“I don’t,” I tell him honestly. “I really don’t.”
He gazes out the window for a scant moment more, seemingly deep in thought, before he crosses the room to me. He kneels in front of me and looks into my eyes. In this moment, he is as vulnerable as I’ve ever seen him, as I’ve ever seen anyone. He’s completely open to me, hiding nothing.
I want so desperately to kiss him.
“I can’t,” I tell his dark eyes, praying that I don’t fall into them. “I want to kiss you right now. But I can’t. You’re my patient. There are ethics…”
Luca shakes his head, his hands on my knees and his gaze upon mine. “You aren’t my doctor, Evangeline. You’re my friend. I’m simply talking to a friend who wants to help me tonight. You’re not licensed to practice medicine in Malta, remember? So where does that leave your ethics?”
He smiles wolfishly and waits without moving. He’s offering himself to me. I know that. And it is against his better judgment. He has told me that, as well. Yet here he is, on his knees in front of me.
I suck in a breath and inhale the air that is so charged with everything that Luca is.
Whatever that is.
It is dangerous on many levels. I know that.
I reach out unsure fingers and trace the top of his shoulders, moving over the contours. They are so broad, yet so slender at once. He’s perfectly built. Strong, lithe and powerful. I drop my head. I know that I don’t want to resist him anymore. For the first time in my life, I’m going to do something that my heart wants to do, not what my head tells me to do.
I grip him tighter with my fingers and pull him to me. He folds in between my knees, pressing me to his chest. I can hear his heart thumping rhythmically against mine as my fingers linger on his warm back.
He dips his head and presses his forehead to mine, staring into my eyes. His are a smoldering and stormy black.
“I’m afraid to get close to you,” he tells me. “I’m afraid for you.”
“I’m not,” I whisper. “I’m not afraid of you. Kiss me, Luca.”
Even I can hear the thick desire in my voice and Luca hears it too.
He groans and covers my mouth with his own, muffling the sound with my lips. He is pressed so close that he seems to absorb me. Every plane of his body is against every plane of mine. I don’t know where he stops and where I start, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters is him and me and this.
About the Author:
Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could.
She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds. Every Last Kiss is her debut novel and she followed it with the rest of The Bloodstone Saga (Every Last Kiss, Fated, With My Last Breath and My Tattered Bonds).Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.
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