In Susan Squires ONE WITH THE SHADOWS we met Gian's mother Contessa Donnatella Margherita Luchella di Poliziano. Now with ONE WITH THE DARKNESS, we get Donnatella's full story. Donnatella has always regretted one thing in her life and that was that she never turned her mate. She outlived him and had to watch him die centuries before.

When getting dressed for the opera one evening, she opened her jewelry box and discovered a secret compartment with a note in it telling her to go to the end wall and behind it she will find something that will make her dream come true. She doesn't know what to make of this note and why does she find it now after all these years. Still it intrigues her and she decides to investigate.

What Donnatella finds astounds her. It is Leonardo Da Vinci's time machine. Dare she use it and go back in time. Which time should she go to? Should she go to where she first discovers her mate or to a later time? She decides to go back to where she first meets her mate, Jergan in Rome in the time of Gaius Caesar. The strange thing is when she sees her other self, she is absorbed and becomes Livia again. Will she be able to do what needs to be done when the time is right?

Susan Squires' regency vampire romance novels are amazing. They are so rich in detail and history that I tune everything around me out just to absorb the ambience and the details to the fullest. It is my fervent wish that Ms. Squires will write more and more of these fabulous novels for me to enjoy!