The Summoning: Eternal Beauty, Eternal Darkness

Tara runs a small bookshop in Connecticut. She enjoys both crime and occult books, and started up a rebinding service because many of the rarer old books needed special attention. Tara had just finished working on an antique spell book for a regular customer, Mr Christos, when a strikingly handsome man called in to collect it. She is debating whether to hand the precious book over to Garon Rothwell when an eerie scream is heard. Garon appears to glow as he fights off an unseen force. Initially Tara cannot move. Yet, she is desperate to reach her friend Helen, who is a teacher at a private girls school. Helen is in a back room with the spell book.

After the unsettling event passes, Garon reveals that he is a sorcerer with a Hungarian heritage. He is disturbed to see the ancient tome in Helen’s hands; he recognises the book as once belonging to a female vampire from Transylvania who had killed many young girls. The disturbed woman’s punishment was to be walled in a room with only a small opening until her death. Garon senses that evil, maybe a spirit, has been unleashed from the spell book. It is only a matter of hours before they hear that a young virgin has been slain, coincidentally one of Helen’s students.

Garon is gifted with mesmerising masculine beauty. Helen becomes determined to have him. She is uncharacteristically irate that his attention is focused on Tara alone. Tara is taken aback that he is able to ignore Helen’s obvious charms and wishes to spend time with her. A virgin by choice, Garon was raised to believe that his purity made his psychic abilities and sorcery potent. It is ironic that just as he meets Tara, a woman who will sorely tempt him with the pleasures of the flesh, he is up against the greatest occult challenge that he will ever face. He needs his strength intact now more than ever before. Tara is recovering from a terrifying event in her past, but what she will battle with this truly vile spirit will shatter her beliefs and change her life in more ways that she could have ever foreseen.

An obsessed vampiress, a coven of teenage witches and a sexy Slavic sorcerer are sure to keep readers enthralled right from the opening chapter to the tension-filled conclusion. Lynne Connolly’s latest paranormal thriller is a suspense-filled sexy romance with many surprise twists. The erotic moments were eagerly anticipated by this reader, and serve to increase the apparent danger. Key factors of romance, murder mystery and the paranormal element are blended to create a tale that will have readers unable to put the book down. The characters are believable, their actions and reactions are natural under unnatural circumstances. The obvious ploys of every female to gain Garon’s attention are quite humorous at times when seen through Tara’s eyes.

Although loosely linked to The Summoning: Chemistry of Evil; Eternal Beauty, Eternal Darkness is a stand alone novel. As a huge fan of Lynne Connolly, I would recommend that even readers who do not normally enjoy paranormal murder mysteries should pick up a copy of this compelling story. Once you have sampled this author’s unique style, you are sure to want more.

Reviewed by: Naomi