Lucinda, Darkly: The Demon Princess Chronicles, by Sunny

Sunny’s other two books (Mona Lisa Blossoming & Mona Lisa Awakening) dealt with the Monere, who are decendants of a race of people who came to Earth after the Moon became uninhabitable. Where the Mona Lisa books were extremely similar to Anne Bishop’s “Black Jewel” series and Laurell K. Hamilton’s books, what set them apart were her characters. They were wonderfully written and you grew very attached to them. Unfortunately, that is not the case here. “Lucinda, Darkly” takes us into a parallel world where most of the Monere go to when they die. Lucinda is the Demon Princess of Hell who has many issues of her own which she tries to work out through the book. In this book, the only two characters I liked were Lucinda and Talon ( a denizen of Hell, yet not a demon). The other characters were weakly written and didn’t inspire a lot of interest. However, we learn much more about Hell itself in this book, and about Lucinda’s relationship with both her father and brother, both of whom are introduced in the Mona Lisa books. It left me interested and hopeful enough that I will try the next book in the Demon Princess Chronicles.