Review: Of Blood and Bone by Courtney Cole

As a little boy, Luca Minaldi was told he was a monster.
As an adult, he knows it is true.

He lives in Malta, a fairytale-like place filled with sunshine and sea, beauty and secrets. And Luca’s darkest of secrets is the best kept of them all.

Eva Talbot arrives in Malta for the summer to finish up her doctoral dissertation. When she meets Luca, a mysterious and handsome shipping tycoon, there is an instant attraction, a disturbing and beautiful energy that she has never felt before. But she senses the darkness that lives within him.

Eva is hired to care for his mother, who suffers from dementia, but it is Luca who Eva will eventually risk everything to save. Her life becomes a swirling chaos of darkness and romance, of secrets and mystery. And the question that emerges will become the most important answer of all.

Can she save Luca from the darkness that plagues him without losing herself?

The answer is a matter of life or death.

 

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 I found this to be a very good book and the only thing that kept me from giving a 5 Demon rating is because the main character Eva started to get to me. She was a very emotional character, cried a lot. 
Some parts of the book it fit in but in other parts I wanted to smack her. This is just my opinion don't let it deter you from picking up this book it was very enjoyable!

Book one in the Minaldi Legacy starts off with Eva who has traveled to Malta to finish her dissertation, she is trying to open her own Psychiatry practice in the States. When one night she is unexpectedly woken up by a native 8 leg predator a gorgeous mysterious man named Luca comes to her rescue. She feels a bit ridiculous but the instant attraction she feels for this man is overpowering. Eva's the type to immediately start forming opinions about a person and make a list in her head the qualities a person has, with Luca she is at a road block. He is a complete mystery and she is determined to figure him out.

Luca has not had a normal upbringing. His family is famous on the island of Malta and he has lived his life secluded from the public but it's not only because of the fame. He has a dark secret that no one can find out about. He's not a normal Man, a darkness lives inside of him and it's starting to take over more and more. He blacks out and wakes to find he's done terrible things. Luca was a very interesting character to me, go figure the bad boy draws me in haha. I was a little anxious with him though, you don't find out more about his "condition" until well into the book. I kept thinking what is it already!  But the story comes together very well and this book has a lot of twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat!
I loved how the story unfolds and how the relationship progresses with Luca and Eva. The secondary characters really have their fair share of drama as well. Revenge and hatred is a big part for one secondary character. 
This is an adult book, there is talk of rape, drugs, murder and sex so be forewarned on that. If those don't bother you I suggest picking it up!

FAVORITE QUOTES

• "He is filling me, filling an emptiness that I didn't even know I had. I find myself wishing I could do the same for him."
• "Life is what it is. We must deal with the hand that we are dealt. This is my burden to bear. Everyone has one, including you."
• " I would pray but I know God doesn't want to hear from Monsters."
• "No one dies from Heartbreak."
• "They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But I say that hell hath no fury like a man on a mission. And Luca Minaldi is my mission."

TEASER EXCERPT
                                                        Eva's Point of View

“Evangeline,” he says softly, his dark eyes glued to mine. “I’m so sorry about the other night.  I wish I could remember.  I wish I could take it back.”

“I don’t,” I tell him honestly.  “I really don’t.”
He gazes out the window for a scant moment more, seemingly deep in thought, before he crosses the room to me.  He kneels in front of me and looks into my eyes.  In this moment, he is as vulnerable as I’ve ever seen him, as I’ve ever seen anyone. He’s completely open to me, hiding nothing.
I want so desperately to kiss him.
“I can’t,” I tell his dark eyes, praying that I don’t fall into them.  “I want to kiss you right now.  But I can’t. You’re my patient.  There are ethics…”
Luca shakes his head, his hands on my knees and his gaze upon mine.  “You aren’t my doctor, Evangeline.  You’re my friend.  I’m simply talking to a friend who wants to help me tonight.  You’re not licensed to practice medicine in Malta, remember?  So where does that leave your ethics?”
He smiles wolfishly and waits without moving.  He’s offering himself to me.  I know that.  And it is against his better judgment. He has told me that, as well.  Yet here he is, on his knees in front of me.
I suck in a breath and inhale the air that is so charged with everything that Luca is.

Whatever that is.             

It is dangerous on many levels.  I know that.
I reach out unsure fingers and trace the top of his shoulders, moving over the contours.  They are so broad, yet so slender at once.  He’s perfectly built.  Strong, lithe and powerful.  I drop my head.  I know that I don’t want to resist him anymore.  For the first time in my life, I’m going to do something that my heart wants to do, not what my head tells me to do.
I grip him tighter with my fingers and pull him to me.  He folds in between my knees, pressing me to his chest.  I can hear his heart thumping rhythmically against mine as my fingers linger on his warm back.
He dips his head and presses his forehead to mine, staring into my eyes.  His are a smoldering and stormy black.
“I’m afraid to get close to you,” he tells me.  “I’m afraid for you.”
“I’m not,” I whisper.  “I’m not afraid of you.  Kiss me, Luca.”
Even I can hear the thick desire in my voice and Luca hears it too.
He groans and covers my mouth with his own, muffling the sound with my lips.  He is pressed so close that he seems to absorb me.  Every plane of his body is against every plane of mine.  I don’t know where he stops and where I start, but it doesn’t matter.  All that matters is him and me and this.

About Courtney Cole 

Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could.

She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds. Every Last Kiss is her debut novel and she followed it with the rest of The Bloodstone Saga (Every Last Kiss, Fated, With My Last Breath and My Tattered Bonds).Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.

• Courtney Cole's website | twitter | facebook | facebook fan page
• Of Blood and Bone on goodreads 
• Release: September 16th by Lakehouse Press