Summary of This Same Earth
Beatrice De Novo has a good life. No, make that a great life! Following her trauma on a Grecian Island, her scary nightmares have stopped for now, or have they? Her story is beginning to unfold as we see more into her mind and feelings about her perceived reality.
In This Same Earth (2011), the second book in the Elemental Mysteries by Elizabeth Hunter, vampire and professor Giovanni (Gio) Vecchio realizes something or someone is missing from his life. He let her go once but won’t let it happen again.
Beatrice or B is a human who caught his attention five years ago, and she’s still under his aegis whether she knows it or not. When B and Gio parted ways at the end of A Hidden Fire, B left determined and hopeful about escaping the supernatural world. In California, B has finished her graduate degree and attained her dream job at the Huntington Library. She also has her own house and a satisfying life with an adoring boyfriend named Mano.
If life is so good, then why keep accepting plane tickets from Gio to fly to the Cochamó Valley, Chile? B goes because she can’t get Gio out of her mind. She thinks, maybe this year will be different, and she’ll be with him again. Well, she hopes anyway.
Once a year, Gio sneaks into her apartment or home in the United States, leaves her a plane ticket and a postcard, but he never sticks around. B notices that his Chilean house smells like him–smoky. He clearly visits the place sometimes when she’s gone. However, he remains nowhere in sight. His pattern is to leave her a journal and lots of reading materials. B wonders why Gio seems to prefer lurking in the darkness and shadows.
B and Gio dance around each other for five years. On her last visit, B’s decided she is done with Gio, or so she tells herself. Determined to move forward, B goes home ready to take the next “big” step with Mano, whatever that is. B doesn’t care too much. For example, if Mano asks her to marry him, she tells Gio she intends to accept his proposal.
Two months later, and back at work, B’s boss Dr. Karen Stevens asks her to cover for the evening shift one night at the library. Dr. Stevens tells B to expect a group of visiting scholars from the University of Southern California, and another academic professional interested in the Huntington’s Lincoln archives. It is business as usual.
While studying some archiving letters, B hears footsteps and smells smoke before she sees HIS green eyes. “’I’m looking for Miss De Novo,’” Gio says (Hunter, 2011, p. 24).
“’Hello, tesoro,’” he murmurs to her (Hunter, 2011, p. 25), which is to say treasure, darling, honey, or sweetheart.
“Giovanni had expected her anger, but he hadn’t expected the sheen of tears that touched her eyes when they finally met his own” (Hunter, 2011, p. 25).
“’You don’t get to call me that anymore,’” B retorts (Hunter, 2011, p.25).
“…Why are you here?” she says. “’For you,’” Gio plainly says. “Her mouth fell open before she finally sputtered back, ‘Well, you are about five years too late’” (Hunter, 2011, p. 26).
So, where has Gio been?
He’s been traveling the world to look for Stephen De Novo, B’s father, a Dante scholar who disappeared about 15 years ago. Gio believes his son Lorenzo turned B’s father into a vampire. Stephen ran away from Lorenzo and stole a valuable alchemical manuscript that Lorenzo wants back desperately. Gio goes from country to country, and he can’t seem to catch the slippery young vampire. Stephen is always one step ahead of him. However, he does find clues left behind by Stephen that only B might understand.
In this book, Gio asks B for her help to find her dad, and he also asks for a chance to win her heart. B isn’t sure. She’s worried that Gio will abandon her again, and she is already in a serious relationship. Gio’s arrival brings with it the return of her nightmares, and she can’t shake the trauma she suffered when Lorenzo held her captive in Greece. She thought her life was safe, and she painfully learns that her perceived safety is an illusion. Her safety depended on Gio and not herself. Behind the scenes, Gio made deals and alliances to protect B.
After a lot of persuading, flirting, and maneuvering by Gio, B finally agrees to partner with him to find her father, but she hesitates to let him back in her life as anything more than a friend. Does that change? You’ll have to read and find out. Gio and B do end up on another globetrotting mystery adventure, and B, unfortunately, has to quit her job. This life is not the one she planned!
Book Review
B expresses her feelings to Gio at the end of A Hidden Fire, and he admits he has feelings. However, he stubbornly refuses to explore the depth of those feelings openly with B. When Elizabeth Hunter left the story hanging like this, I screamed, “NO, you can’t leave them like this!”
In This Same Earth, Hunter tells a fascinating, emotional, and well-developed story as she helps Gio and B work through their relationship issues. I’d say it is about time these two quit tiptoeing around each other and get to the truth of their feelings for each other. Their relationship issues go from awkward and uncomfortable to complicated, deep, and very emotional. I blame a 500-year-old vampire who disappeared for five years when he didn’t have to.
B feels abandoned and resigned, but she still hoped Gio would come for her someday. She tries to move forward by throwing herself into school, work, martial arts in hopes of impressing Gio, and he doesn’t come for her. So, she tries making friends and dating other men. No one ever seems to measure up to Gio even though she develops a close attachment to Mano.
I love Gio’s character, but I find him arrogant and controlling as he attempts to give B the appearance of the everyday safe life. Maybe I shouldn’t have expected much since he is a vampire after all. I don’t understand all his reasons for stringing B along for years with yearly plane tickets to Chile. In my opinion, he was hedging his bets with her. I think he wanted to find her ready and waiting when he came calling. I find it a selfish and mean thing for him to do. His actions show that he wanted her to be independent yet still dependent on him all at the same time.
When Gio arrives to claim B as his woman, he finds her angry, sad, hurt, and unwilling to resume their relationship. I am glad B values herself enough as a character to stand up to him for being a jerk. It makes me happy when she doesn’t fall into his arms immediately. B does an excellent job humbling and chastising him. B grows into a more self-assured and mature character in Gio’s absence. In my opinion, Gio has a lot to answer for B due to his duplicitous way of handling their separation.
Hunter explores themes of love, friendship, truth, lies, trust, betrayals, family ties, and redemption via Gio and B’s friendship and relationship evolution. By analyzing Gio and B’s strengths and faults, I learned to take opportunities to love when they are presented because you don’t always get a second chance. These characters had to learn how to take risks and trust each other with everything to move through their pain. Gio underestimated the depth of B’s pain and her love for him. I also think he misjudged himself. He gets caught off guard by B’s initial rejection of him when he returns. I doubt many women have ever done that to him.
Trust is something that is earned and fragile. Love can also be tender, and therefore should be handled with care. In addition to all that, the story teaches that life is often more complex and layered than you might think. Life is like an onion, a food item with smelly layers and fumes that can cause tears when handled sharply or taste good when prepared or cooked well.
This Same Earth was an emotional reading experience for me. Hunter does a great job explaining her characters’ thoughts, wants, needs, and emotions. I experienced their lives with them and not as a detached observer. She communicates the story’s drama in a clear, believable, creative, well-planned, and engaging manner. The time it took to read the story passed by quickly because I was engrossed all the way through. This story is a fantastic repeat read!
Score
On a scale of 1-10, I give this book a 9.5.
Melissa K. Cannell Copyright, 2020
Work Cited:
Hunter, E. (2011). A Hidden Fire, [Kindle version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com.
Paranormal Afterthought 