Heart of Darkness Series by Pamela Sparkman

Award winning author, Pamela Sparkman's fantasy debut novel is tantalizingly wicked, drawing the reader into a world of forbidden love where nothing is quite what it seems. Lord Lochlan was cursed in the womb, condemned by the perceived crimes of his parents. On the thirteenth year of his birth, the red glow of the moon washed over land and sea like a faded bloody stain. Everything was bathed in it, including him. A constant reminder of the curse that marked him before he was born... moreAward winning author, Pamela Sparkman's fantasy debut novel is tantalizingly wicked, drawing the reader into a world of forbidden love where nothing is quite what it seems. Lord Lochlan was cursed in the womb, condemned by the perceived crimes of his parents. On the thirteenth year of his birth, the red glow of the moon washed over land and sea like a faded bloody stain. Everything was bathed in it, including him. A constant reminder of the curse that marked him before he was born. Every night he gazed at it like he was lured and haunted by it. It followed him, it beseeched him. It called out to him. Just once he wanted to see the moon glow as everyone else saw it. Bright and illuminating. But he knew that would never be possible. The all too familiar feeling of despair suffocated him, like long gangly fingers squeezing his neck, cutting off his air. He fell to his knees and begged for the sky to fall on him. He had suffered long and tirelessly and he was desperate for it to end. And yet, he fought to breathe. He fought to stand back on his feet. Because fighting back was as instinctual to him as breathing. He had come too far to let his loneliness and despair get the best of him now. He was battle worn and weary, but he still had a reason to live. Or so he hoped. He stood back on his feet and he fought against the doom that hovered over him since the day he was born and he stared up into the darkened sky. At the moon that shines red only for him. I should have stayed away from him. But I couldn't. HE was my love...my life. And he just might kill me. So I guess that means...he may also be my end. less

“I love the peculiar silence of shadows. They exist, but leave no mark.”Zeph had been a child, thrust into a war that wasn’t his. When he was older, he discovered he had landed on the wrong side of everything. He’d been fighting for sweet revenge, because of lies he’d believed—and those lies proved to be his ruin. Falling into despair, Zeph decides living is too painful. So, he writes his final act with poison and chooses to end his story... more“I love the peculiar silence of shadows. They exist, but leave no mark.”Zeph had been a child, thrust into a war that wasn’t his. When he was older, he discovered he had landed on the wrong side of everything. He’d been fighting for sweet revenge, because of lies he’d believed—and those lies proved to be his ruin. Falling into despair, Zeph decides living is too painful. So, he writes his final act with poison and chooses to end his story. But Fate has other plans for Zeph and when he finds himself in the hands of his enemies, he has to decide: Does he want to live? Or does he want to die? Or maybe that choice is no longer his to make. Ruled by shadows and armed with secrets he never intended to share, Zeph will be put through his toughest battle yet: the war within himself. “He isn’t a lost cause. He’s just—lost.” That’s what Arwyn believes. She sees the monster he has become, but what she also sees is someone worth fighting for. Armed with secrets of her own, she’s determined to help Zeph fight his demons, because there was more on the line than Zeph’s soul. So much more.Revenge may be sweet. But redemption is sweeter. The question is, can Zeph find the boy he used to be, or will he always believe that no one could ever love—a monster like him. “You are everything good. And I am everything children are afraid of.”**CAUTION**Contains a brief descriptive scene of childhood rape. This is book 2 in the Heart of Darkness Duology and is recommended the reader begin with book 1, The Moon Shines Red. less