The CRYSTAL SKULL: A Sentinel 10 Novel by Daniela Valenti – Thriller and Suspense Action Fiction, Romantic Action/Adventure, Psychic Thriller

Med student Amanda Griffith can see the supernatural world in Daniela Valenti’s supernatural thriller, The Crystal Skull: A Sentinel 10 Novel.

Over a year ago, Amanda joined a secret group of people with similar gifts, becoming a Sentinel 10. They fight the evil that normal humans can’t see. As a Sentinel 10, she strikes fear in entities seeking to harm her world. With the support of her fiancé James, a fellow Sentinel, Amanda has defeated every challenge – until now.

Someone or something kills lower-level Sentinels around the globe, draining them of their powers and their lives.

Wrongly accused herself, Amanda debates whether she wants to help the Committee. However, when the entity attacks her and her mentor, Basil, Amanda knows she has to fight. She finds an unlikely ally who bears a striking resemblance to her dead fiancé, Alain. He makes Amanda question her feelings for her current fiancé.

With her emotions in tatters, Amanda has to protect her best friend, Lydia, a Sentinel 4, when she becomes the next victim. Uncertain whether or not she can win and doubted by those she cares for most, Amanda decides to take the fight to the one responsible. But will she be enough to save humanity?

The relationship between Amanda and James presents a strange duality, fraught and uncertain.

James, a war veteran with his share of emotional scars, has an innate need to protect. His physical strength belies a significant emotional weakness. The ravages of war in the Middle East have left behind a neediness that far outstrips his prowess.

He often projects this neediness onto Amanda and disguises his over-protectiveness as love. James wants a wife raising his children at home, not saving lives in the hospital or with her psychic power. He becomes upset when she saves him, threatening the traditional male-female roles.

Amanda, though not physically potent, wields abilities incomparable to any other Sentinel.

Though she has doubts at times, Amanda possesses a mental confidence in her power. She knows her role in the group and her duty to the world. However, she still needs to feel loved and comforted. She needs that from James even if he can never give her exactly what she desires.

With a shared loss of their first fiancés, Amanda and James understand loss in a way most couples do not. They both know that their current love can never reach that of first loves. For a time, the relationship between the two creates its own balance. The two lovers metaphorically complete each other, not soulmates – never that – but the “next-best” thing.

Betrayal becomes a major theme in Amanda’s story.

At every turn, Amanda feels that harsh sting. Her initial betrayal begins in the first novel of the series with the death of her fiancé, Alain. Alain and Amanda shared a unique, eternal love. He was the first man to show he loved and needed her, and his loss causes a resonating pain.

The darkness within Alain takes him from Amanda when he takes his own life. Her soul-deep love suffers, and throughout this novel, she continues to feel it.

When she reunites with a resurrected Alain, she again endures betrayal at his refusal to acknowledge her. He denies any memories of their life together and physically pushes her away. This resurgence of love for a dead man makes her feel as though she betrayed James, an arguably worthier partner than Alain had ever been.

She spends her days trying to force away a love that cannot be.

Worse yet, Amanda’s feelings of betrayal extend beyond her love life. When the monster attacks the Sentinels, Amanda becomes a possible suspect. Despite Amanda’s shock and disgust, her beloved mentor Basil does not defend her. In the short time that Amanda has been a Sentinel, Basil has become a father figure to her.

His lack of protection when others attack her integrity makes Amanda question her own loyalty to the Committee and its goals.

After she clears her name, Amanda’s fellow Sentinels betray her with lack of trust in her ability. Even James doesn’t think she can defeat the creature who attacked them. The Committee’s twenty-four-hour deadline doesn’t bolster confidence in the others. Only Amanda knows that she can defeat this evil and overcome this betrayal.