Monique Marie .
Monique Marie currently resides in South Carolina. She is a black belt in the martial arts and a two-time national champion in fighting. In 1986, she was chosen to fight for the United States in the Pan American games in Israel.
She enjoys scuba diving, biking, hiking, saber fencing, horse back riding and anything outdoors.
Monqiue is a member of Romance Writers of America and genreliteraturerack.com. She writes adult Vampire & Historical Fiction and dabbles in Erotica.
Prince Eternal: Sacred Soul, Book One of the Prince Eternal Trilogy
Author: Monique Marie
Synopsis: Enter a world of darkness and forbidden love…
Vladimir Dracula, born to a gypsy woman who was seduced by Lucifer, returns home to his clan after fourteen years of exile. Upon his return, Vlad discovers his cousin Vashti, with whom he shares a mysterious bond, seeks his death.
Vashti struggles against Vlad’s alluring sensuality in order to avenge her father’s death. Once she learns of his taste for the purest of wines—blood—Vashti discovers how deeply they are bonded.
As Prince of Wallachia, Vlad leads an army against the Turks, while he fights to keep his soul from Lucifer’s grasp. To save Vashti from the ensuing darkness, he vows to sacrifice his own life…and his immortal soul. Vashti must convince him that by sacrificing himself, Vlad condemns them both…
Our Review [notes by Jennifer Vayda, review by Michelle L Olson]:
Monique Marie provides an extraordinary twist on the tale of Vladimir Dracula; a story that truly makes you delve into and understand the trials and tribulations of Vlad and what he had to go through in his battle against virtually life itself.
Vlad is born to a peasant woman who slept with Lucifer not knowing that it was the devil himself. His mother wants nothing to do with Vlad after he’s born, and for better or worse, he is left an orphan. In all of Vlad’s life, there is only one person he feels truly wants and accepts him and who gives him a semblance of peace; his cousin Vashti.
As Vlad grows up, he’s forced away from Vashti to fight with the Turks and must endure an evil Prince who loves nothing more than the act of torture itself. Unlike the history that we’re familiar with, it’s not Vlad who does the torturing. Instead, Vlad is a sympathetic character and you can’t help but feel for him and feel WITH him.
In the act of trying to help some of the Prince’s victims, Vlad runs into Vashti again, but they don’t connect. She, like us, thinks that it is Vlad doing these despicable things and cannot help but vent her rage, and Vlad doesn’t understand why she’s acting the way she is when all he has done was try to survive and help, all the while thinking about Vashti and using her memory to keep above the evil that threatens to overwhelm his soul.
Vashti is under the impression that Vlad was the one to rob her of everything, and all she sees is the evil in him (or the evil that was constructed based on what was said about him at any rate). She relies on Alton, a man who has been like a father to her, who has shown her the ways of a warrior, and how to protect her heart. Unfortunately, her heart has always belonged to Vlad, though she has never understood ‘why’.
Vlad almost gives in to despair when he adds fighting an invisible evil keeping him away from the one he loves to the never ending battle that has followed him each and every day of his life. He knows that if he gives in to the evil around him he’ll be giving in to Lucifer and therefore letting him win and finally take EVERYTHING from him, but he’s literally willing to sacrifice everything for Vashti, and there’s no denying the changes taking place in himself…
Prince Eternal: Sacred Soul was an enlightening read! A topsy turvy tumble into the world of Vladimir Dracula—how he came to be who and what we all assumed him to be based on stories in history, who he really is, etc. It definitely made us change our perception of Vlad, and it made us love him even more!
LITERAL ADDICTION Paranormal Book Club gives Prince Eternal: Sacred Soul 5 Skulls and would highly recommend it to Urban Fantasy, Dark Urban Fantasy, & Paranormal Romance Readers of the adult persuasion who love a truly gripping vampire tale.
Prince Eternal: Sacred Soul:
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