This Same Earth (edition 2011)

Ok so maybe the way I feel about this book is my fault. I read the first book A Hidden Fire because it looked interesting and it was a cheap buy on Amazon. I really liked the twist on the vampire genre with the addition of the elemental powers. I really liked B - strong female character who knows what she wants. She has had to work hard to get what she wants. Stands up for herself, etc.
Then she meets Gio and even by the end of book 1 she is still pretty independent and wants to live life her way. I loved the secondary characters - Isadora, Caspar and Carwyn probably more than B and Gio.

Then we get to This Same Earth and here is B getting on with her life. She has made a life for herself, has a job she loves and everything is going well. Then Gio comes back after "deserting" her for five years and he wants to start their relationship again. At first B is against it but after a couple weeks she is over it and ready to jump on the Gio Express again. Most of the book is B whining about how she loves Gio but, can't trust him. And Gio just can't live without B because she is his balance and he has never found that with a woman ever. Ugh! On and on and on and on. I love him - I don't trust him - but, I love and want to be with him forever. This drags on way too long. Too much tortured angst - she might as well be a moody teenager.

I knew this series was going nowhere for me once B began considering becoming a vampire so she can be with Gio forever. That was the beginning of the end for me. I just hate the notion that the weak human female has to become a vampire in order to be with the hunky, sexy vampire forever. Why? If she was so intriguing as a human that Mr. Vampire has to possess her then why does she have to turned into a vampire too? To me this is the classic - oh I love you but, I will love you so much more if you change this or that about yourself first. Dye your hair, lose some weight, get implants, become a vampire - all the same in my book. I had this same issue with Cat and Bones in the Night Huntress series.

So I got halfway through the book and decided I would stick it out because I had paid for the book and maybe I might be ok with the plot line. Maybe this time it would be different, maybe she won't become a vampire. but then I got to the point where B realizes that she can't be on extended vacation from her job forever and says, "Well, I guess I'll have to quit my job" and Gio smirks! Smirks!!!!! Flames shot out of my eyes at that point. Really?? She works for years to get where she is and gets her dream job but Gio is so smug about her giving all that up to be with him? GRRRRRRRR!!!! If this hadn't been an e-book on my Kindle Fire I would have thrown it across the room!

So, I'm done with this series which is a shame because it had potential for me. I like the new twists although some of the conventions kind of get old. Like all the vampires having "children" - it gets hard to tell who belongs to who and if they are genetically related "children" or "sired" children. Oh, and the one thing that seriously bugged me that the author uses over and over is the way B asks Gio questions.

"Gio?"

"What?"

This makes B sound like a five year old instead of the intelligent woman she is supposed to be. Just makes my skin crawl to see a strong character reduced to being a pet.

I know I am in the minority here as there are many five star reviews and as I said my disappointment with this book is probably my fault. I probably need to give up on the vampire genre because the convention seems to be that the human must always become a vampire so that hero and heroine can live together forever..... I wish just once that an author would have the guts to defy that logic and end it without the traditional vampires living together forever ending. ( )

Far better than the previous one; review to come. ( )

Really looking forward to reading the third book and seeing where this is leading. Great characters and good story. ( )

The adventures of Gio, Carwyn and Beatrice are some of my favorites. Without giving much away this is one of my favorite vamp series.

I enjoyed reading A Hidden Fire so much that I promptly bought and read the next book in the series. Giovanni and Beatrice's story continues in This Same Earth, book two in the Elemental Mysteries series by Elizabeth Hunter. Beatrice has been abducted by Lorenzo and was held captive for several weeks before being freed by Giovanni, Caspar and Tenzin. Although she wasn't tortured or hurt physically, the emotional torture has left its mark, primarily because she thought that Giovanni had willingly traded her for a book.

It takes awhile for Giovanni to convince Beatrice that this was not the case, but he gradually gets her to see that Lorenzo was going to abduct her no matter what so he simply played along with him. To give Beatrice time to heal from the emotional trauma of her abduction, not to mention witnessing the horrific fight between the two different vampire factions, Giovanni takes to the mountains of Chile. Beatrice and Giovanni are given the opportunity to show their feelings for one another and their relationship becomes much closer, or so Beatrice thinks. Regrettably their lives cannot be put on hold forever and Beatrice must return to the States to attend graduate school. So off they go, Beatrice to LA for school and Giovanni to try and track down her father, his errant son and to amass allies in the ongoing battle with his son.

Beatrice spends an enjoyable few years in graduate school and makes friends. She returns to Chile each summer but her time there is spent without benefit of Giovanni's company. She knows that she loves him and tells him so in a series of journals. Each year she says she's not going to return to Chile but her ticket is mysteriously left at her home and she returns. Fortunately she is afforded the opportunity to read through some of Giovanni's journals and learns a bit more of his past lives.

Fast forward a few more years and Beatrice is twenty-eight years old. She is an accomplished young woman, fluent in several languages, a homeowner, an employee at the Huntington Library in California, and in a relationship with a loving man, Mano. It has been six years since she saw Giovanni and she's trying to move on with her life, or so she thought until Giovanni mysteriously reappears. Giovanni is now the legal guardian and "uncle" to a precocious, street-smart twelve-year-old named Ben.

Beatrice must deal with renewing her relationship with Giovanni and building a relationship with Ben, her eventual breakup with Mano, and an introduction to her great-great-great-grandfather (I think I left out a few more greats but you get the idea), who just happens to be a water vampire that oversees LA. What follows is a series of fast-paced incidents including the abduction of one of Carwyn's sons. Beatrice and Giovanni wind up going to Ireland, England and France trying to track down leads on the whereabouts of Lorenzo and Beatrice's father, Stephen. Through it all Beatrice must confront her feelings for Giovanni and ultimately decide if she wants to have a relationship with him as a human or be turned.

This Same Earth is another fast-paced paranormal, romantic suspense read. There's slightly more action and intrigue in this story and more background information is given providing insight into Giovanni, Carwyn, Tenzin and even Lorenzo. The story ends leaving the reader hanging and waiting for more. Regrettably the third book in this series, The Force of Wind isn't due out until February/March 2012, but I'll definitely be putting it on my TBR list (wish we could pre-order ebooks 3-4 months in advance). ( )