Mona Lisa Awakening (Monere: Children of the Moon, Book 1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Sunny (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 2011

A smoldering debut novel.

From the time she was a child, Mona Lisa knew she was different?but she never knew how different until a man of otherworldly beauty entered her life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Once readers get past the silly premise of Sunny's sizzling debut—a humanoid race called the Monère came to Earth from the moon 4,000 years ago—they'll find much to like in this intrigue-filled erotic paranormal. The "children of the moon" are ruled by "Queens," rare females whose ability to pull down the moon's rays allows them to heal rapidly and live 300 years. Gorgeous, shape-changing males protect, serve and have sex with the often ruthless Queens, who sometimes cruelly abuse them. After treating one of these males, Gryphon, at Manhattan's St. Vincent's Hospital one night, 21-year-old ER nurse Lisa discovers she's not only a part-human Monère herself but also the first "Mixed Blood" Queen, Mona Lisa. Her human blood makes her impervious to sunlight and silver—the banes of the Monère—and her latent powers pose a threat to the nastier Queens, who want to destroy her. Mona Lisa shares many traits with Laurell K. Hamilton's heroines, including having lots of hot sex for good causes, but mercifully without their kvetching and self-doubt. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Sunny is a former physician and the wife of novelist Da Chen. She with her family. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; Reprint edition (April 5, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425224554
• ISBN-13: 978-0425224557
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #130,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A family practice physician and Vassar graduate, I was finally pushed into picking up my pen by the success of the rest of my family. Much to my amazement, I found that, by golly, I actually could write a book. And that it was much more fun than being a doctor. As an author, I have appeared on Geraldo at Large and CNBC.

When I'm not busy reading and writing, I'm editing my husband's books, New York Times bestselling author Da Chen, and being a happy stage mom for my young actor son, Michael Chen.

Mona Lisa's story continues in March 2011 with MONA LISA ECLIPSING. For contests, excerpts, and more information please visit my website at www.sunnyauthor.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I Have No Clever Title For This One, November 19, 2006

By 

Snark Shark (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mona Lisa Awakening (Monere: Children of the Moon, Book 1) (Paperback)

A friend pressed this into my hands the other day. "You liked Sailor Moon as a kid, right?" she asked. "You have to read this. It's killer."

As soon as I finished I called her up and said if she ever pulled a stunt like that again, I'd tear her arms off. But I don't think she heard me over the sound of her own maniacal laughter.

Mona Lisa (no last name, apparently, like her creator) is an ER nurse working in Manhattan. She's had a Tragic Childhood -- abandoned as an infant, the only identifying artifact a silver cross around her newborn neck with her name inscribed on it. She's been bounced around foster homes for most of her life, and is now alone the world at the tender age of twenty-one. She informs us right away that sickness "calls to her," and is working the rounds at St. Vincent's when an astonishingly handsome patient exerts some juju on her, calling her attention to the fact that not only is he awfully pretty, but he has powers similar to her own. (More on that later.) Sashaying up to the fellow, he promptly informs her that she is a Monere, though a "Mixed Blood," and feels like one of their Queens to boot. The Monere, he tells her, are a special race of creatures with magical abilities that once lived on the moon and have now retreated to Earth in territories ruled by different Queens. His own Queen stabbed him with a silver blade, which is poison to the Monere and doomed him to a slow death unless he can attain the help of another Queen. (We're just reached p.12, by the way.)

You think we're in bad fanfic territory already? We've only just begun.

But as much as my friend wanted me to associate systematic rapes and sexual healing (again, more on that later) with my childhood heroine, this book reminded me much more strongly of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy. Other reviewers have noted the similarity, including Romantic Times. Of course, though matriarchal societies built on a sexual power structure are reminiscent of Bishop, she doesn't have a patent on them. But when the author introduces Prince Halcyon, the son of the King of Hell with a penchant for white shirts and black trousers, who wears his nails long, is "demon dead" and drinks blood (not characteristic of the original, but Bishop's exact concept AND terminology), and I start calling him "Daemon Sadi 2.0" in my head, you have to wonder if the homage is being taken a little far.

But even without obvious borrowing from other authors, the book isn't very good. Mona Lisa is the Sue-iest Sue I've seen. She can already withstand silver and walk in daylight because of her human blood, unlike other "Moonies." As for her other talents, she tells Gryphon: "I can see through the darkness and hear for miles around me... My sense of smell is acute. I am fast like a cat, strong as a lion. With effort, I can control people's minds with my gaze... I can detect ailments within the body and, to a small degree, ease some of the pain, but I have yet to obtain the ability to heal." (p.33-34) And don't worry, gentle readers, she will. Through sex. She'll also have learned to call silver, demonstrate her abilities in "street fighting and a hodgepodge of other disciplines," bear the Goddesses Tears (which haven't been seen in generations), and be able to transmit her tolerances to those who follow her. Again through sex. She's practically perfect in every way -- oh, except she's a trifle lacking in the bosom department. Quelle horreur.

And hey, Mary Sue-type characters can be fun -- especially those this shameless. But the prose fails to back it up. Mona Lisa's narration and dialogue switches between a stilted, almost archaic diction and a more laid-back slang, and the incongruity threw me right out of the story time and time again. Even worse was when the two were blended -- my favorite phrase is when Mona Lisa comments a character "creeped [her] out most ardently."

Add to all this cardboard characters, wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am love interests, and half-baked world building... it's hard to grade something like this, because how to you determine the reading worth of mindless fluff? But sorry, can't bring myself to give it more than one star.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Rip Off not Inspiration, September 20, 2007

By 

S. M. Russell "librarian at large" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mona Lisa Awakening (Monere: Children of the Moon, Book 1) (Paperback)

I finished this book over a day ago, and I'm still angry. It's not inspired by Anne Bishop and Laurell K. Hamilton, it's ripped off from them. It's not so bad to play with big ideas that have been around for years like Ms. Hamilton has done in her books, though I never liked her style of PWP eroticism with a blatant self-insert character in Anita Blake. But Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy is a unique fantasy realm and magic system that wasn't derivative, so borrowing names and ideas from is just not professional. I'm surprised this book is still for sale. The copy I read was from the library so thank goodness Sunny didn't profit from me.

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars RIP OFF, March 17, 2007

By 

T. Kelley "The one and only" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mona Lisa Awakening (Monere: Children of the Moon, Book 1) (Paperback)

This book was a combination of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy, Laurel K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series and Ms. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, all rolled into one.

I lost count of the number of times I recognized entire societies, class structures, characters and explanations that caused me to flash back directly into those other books. Sunny's entire construct of Hell, complete with the demon dead and having the psychic strength to transform to demon dead...it was stolen DIRECTLY from Anne Bishop's series. Satean, Andulvar - demon dead!

Learning to control your beast - uh...Anita Blake, anyone.

Creatures that have sex and glow...Merry Gentry

Queens ruling territories, abusive queens...heck...this is an amalgam of all three...well, lots of vamp novels include territories so I'll give her a by on that one, but come on!

The line has to be drawn somewhere. I am returning this book posthaste!

Ugh!