Like a thousand suns...: BOOK REVIEW!!! The Prisoner of Paradise (The Paradise Series, Book 1) By Rob Samborn #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @robsamborn @maryanneyarde

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This is a hauntingly beautiful novel about love lost in time. The novel begins with a very ordinary couple, Nick and Julia, who are very much in love. However, when they take a trip to Venice, things take a sudden unexpected turn.

Julia loves the art and culture of the country they are visiting, Nick, however, enjoys the food and drink more than he enjoys the artwork! That is, until he begins to hear the voice of a woman who is seemingly trapped inside a painting. When Nick tells Julia about the voice, she is understandingly concerned and implores him to see a doctor, fearing a recent head injury is a cause for the voice. However, Nick is convinced that the voice he is hearing from the painting, the voice of Isabella Scalfini, is real.

The story continues in the sixteenth century, where we are introduced to Angelo, who so happens to know a woman named Isabella Scalfini. There are not many chapters from Angelo’s perspective, but he provides backstory and an insight into the workings behind how the mysterious group, the Order, seems to be trapping souls inside Paradise. Between Nick and Angelo, we get a rounded story of how Isabella ended up where she did, and while Angelo does not get a chance to do anything to help her, Nick has an opportunity to do something. The only issue is that the Order is fiercely protective of Paradise, and there is no way they are going to simply let Nick figure out how to free the trapped souls.

Filled with mystery and non-stop action meant that this book was utterly compelling from beginning to end. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this novel. My only complaint is that I would have liked to have spent a little more time in the sixteenth century, but that aside, this is certainly a book I would recommend.

The world’s largest oil painting. A 400-year-old murder. A disembodied whisper: “Amore mio.” My love.

Nick and Julia O’Connor’s dream trip to Venice collapses when a haunting voice reaches out to Nick from Tintoretto’s Paradise, a monumental depiction of Heaven. Convinced his delusions are the result of a concussion, Julia insists her husband see a doctor, though Nick is adamant the voice was real.

Blacking out in the museum, Nick flashes back to a life as a 16th century Venetian peasant swordsman. He recalls precisely who the voice belongs to: Isabella Scalfini, a married aristocrat he was tasked to seduce but with whom he instead found true love. A love stolen from them hundreds of years prior.

She implores Nick to liberate her from a powerful order of religious vigilantes who judge and sentence souls to the canvas for eternity. Releasing Isabella also means unleashing thousands of other imprisoned souls, all of which the order claims are evil.

As infatuation with a possible hallucination clouds his commitment to a present-day wife, Nick’s past self takes over. Wracked with guilt, he can no longer allow Isabella to remain tor-mented, despite the consequences. He must right an age-old wrong – destroy the painting and free his soul mate. But the order will eradicate anyone who threatens their ethereal prison and their control over Venice.

Trigger Warnings.

Violence, a rape scene, a torture scene.

If you would like to read this novel you can find it at the following bookstores:

In addition to being a novelist, Rob Samborn is a screenwriter, entrepreneur and avid traveler. He’s been to forty countries, lived in five of them and studied nine languages. As a restless spirit who can’t remember the last time he was bored, Rob is on a quest to explore the intrica-cies of our world and try his hand at a multitude of crafts; he’s also an accomplished artist and musician, as well as a budding furniture maker. A native New Yorker who lived in Los Ange-les for twenty years, he now makes his home in Denver with his wife, daughter and dog.