One with the Darkness (The Companion Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Susan Squires (Author) "HER FRIEND, EURIPEDES, used to say, 'Time cancels young pain..." (more)
Key Phrases: Livia Quintus, Praetorian Guard, Gaius Caesar (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Squires combines extreme sensuality with dangerous drama.”—Romantic Times BOOKreviews

“Passionate and completely riveting.”—Romance Reviews Today on One With the Night

Product Description

Contessa Donnatella di Poliziano has power, beauty, and—as a vampire—eternal life. Her overwhelming regret is a mistake she made centuries ago when she chose not to transform her one true love, Jergan, into a vampire too. Donnatella’s choice has deprived her of the only true love she’s ever known. But just as all seems lost, the discovery of a 300-year-old note leads her to a gift left by her old friend, Leonardo da Vinci: a machine to take her back in time to rewrite the history of her heart…

Once back in time, Donnatella’s memory of the intervening years is lost. Yet when she sees the breathtaking Jergan from afar, she feels like she has always known him. The instant attraction she feels draws them together. For Donnatella, the romance is tantalizing, awakening a passion that feels both old and new. But as the two fall in love again, a new danger threatens to tear them apart. Now Jergan’s love for Donnatella will be tested in a most perilous way—and if he fails, the two lovers will be separated again…for eternity.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (June 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312941048
• ISBN-13: 978-0312941048
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #504,663 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 7 in The Companion Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb time travel vampire romance , June 15, 2008

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Eighteen hundred years have past since Contessa Donnatella di Poliziano followed her species' strict rule outlawing the creation of a new vampire. Over the eighteen centuries, she has been lonely, angry and acerbic because back then she had the chance to save the life of the only man she loved, Jergan, but timidly let him die instead of converting him to what she was and is.

In 1821, her Renaissance friends Michelangelo and Leonardo left Donnatella a note that they knew of a time machine that would enable her to back to that first century and mend her broken heart. However, upon her return to the age of Caligula when she was and once again is Livia Quintus Lucellus, she forgets her quest. Instead she is part of a group wanting the Emperor removed from power. However, fate intervenes when she buys Jergan the slave, but will the second time around end any different than the first tragic time.

This is a superb time travel vampire romance starring a courageous heroine who goes after the love of her life in an attempt to rectify what she believes was an error on her part. The underlying second chance at love theme enhances a strong plot in which Caligula's Rome is a key element. Susan Squires knows her vampires as she provides a strong tale of forbidden love in Ancient Rome.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent continuation of The Companion series, July 2, 2008

By	Helen Hancox "Auntie Helen" (Essex, England) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

What if you believed you had made a huge mistake in your life but had a chance to travel back in time and rectify it? Perhaps this is not a completely novel theme for a book, but in One With The Darkness Susan Squires adds an extra layer of interest - her heroine, Donnatella Luchella di Poliziano is a vampire. Donnatella has lived for nearly two and a half thousand years and has spent the last eighteen hundred years mourning the death of her human lover, Jergan. Donnatella has been friends with the great and the good of the Renaissance and when she discovers a 300-year-old message from Leonardo da Vinci to her, follows his instructions and finds a time machine, she is given the opportunity to go back in time and change the future. There was a point when she was with Jergan that she seriously considered turning him into a vampire as he was seriously injured; at the time she obeyed the vampire Rules and didn't change him, but now she has the opportunity to return through time and behave differently at that point.

When Donnatella travels back through time to AD40 she finds herself assimilated into the body of herself back in that time, rather than being a separate spectator. And thus starts a fascinating story as we follow events through the eyes of Donnatella back then, known as Livia Quintus Lucellus, living in Rome and mingling with the great and the good. She buys the slave Jergan from the marketplace to serve as a bodyguard, often feeling strange pricks of memory or having dreams about him, the only opportunities that the time-travelling Donnatella has to influence Livia. Jergan discovers fairly quickly that Livia is unlike other slave owners, having care for her people and aiming to free them as soon as possible. He also discovers that she's heavily involved in plotting against the Emperor, Caligula, and that her small band of plotters is under suspicion.

There are some excellent scenes in this book as Livia tries to navigate the treacherous waters of Roman politics, as we are shown the worst of the excesses of high-class Roman society, and as Jergan, apparently a barbarian, shows he has more honour than the supposedly honourable Romans. Unfortunately for the time-travelling Donnatella, she is barely able to communicate with Livia, and it becomes clear that history is changing. Will she be able to save Jergan? Might their plot against Caligula fail this time, although it was successful last time? Who can she trust?

This book was always interesting, the Roman setting adding a great deal to the overall story. The inclusion of genuine historical characters, and Squires' addition of Livia's part in history, is very enjoyable. This book had far less of the sexual violence/rape of previous books which have spoiled them a little for this reader - instead it includes a gentle love story about two very different people who recognise strengths in each other and who are accepting of each other. It's a very enjoyable book, yet another triumph from the creative pen of Susan Squires.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

3.0 out of 5 stars good, October 29, 2008

By	Jenniferlmaloney "Jenn" (Jenn) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

it was ok had read better and read alot worse but it is a good story with a happy ending