Dark Gold by Christine Feehan

Dark #3

          This is the third book in Christine Feehan's Dark series. The main characters are Carpathians, a race with characteristics similar to classic vampires but without the evil intent and propensity for violence. In fact, one of their purposes in life is to destroy any vampires who may come to prey on helpless humans. The Dark series tells the tales of various Carpathians males as they find their life mates - their own true loves.

          This book tells the story of Aiden Savage, a centuries-old Carpathian who left his homeland to protect the population of the United States. He finds his life mate, Alexandria, and her little brother in the clutches of an evil vampire, one of a band that has come to prey in the San Francisco area. Aiden rescues them, but to the woman and her young brother vampires are the stuff of video games, and Aiden is no different from the vampire that kidnapped them.

          Aiden must get beyond Alexandria's fear of him and her need to protect her brother at all costs. He must earn her love and trust or die. And, he must do this while destroying the band of evil vampires that have moved into his area.

          This book was much like the previous two, light entertainment. I still want to read Gregory's story which should be coming up soon.

          Read my reviews of Dark Prince, Dark Desire and Dark Predator.

Dark Desire by Christine Feehan

          Dark #2

          I listened to this story immediately after listening to Dark Prince, the first book in the Dark series. While this one had a reader whose voice I much preferred hearing, I was once again not impressed with the audio book experience of this story. The reader had some unusual pronunciations for words which I found distracting.  Also I could regularly hear background noise on the recording – pages being turned, random sounds from around the reader. I don’t know what’s up with the recordings of Feehan’s books, but I think I’ll be sticking to printed versions from now on.

          This book started with the descriptions of the torture of a Carpathian male, and his subsequent burial alive. Nasty stuff. Naturally, being Carpathian, burying him in his native soil did not kill him, just kept him so weak he could not escape the confines of his prison. He remains there cut off from both sensory and extrasensory perception for seven long years, becoming increasing mad as time passes. 

          Jacque slowly builds his strength, first by consuming the blood of insects, and then as he creates and enlarges a hole in the box in which he is buried, larger creatures. At some point he begins to be able to reach another person telepathically, Dr. Shea O’Halloran.  At first he can only hear her thoughts but as his strength builds, his ability to make contact with her also increases. At some point he realizes she is his life mate, and in his unreasoning state assumes she has abandoned him to his hideous fate.  He decides to retaliate in the only way he can – by causing her mental anguish during her dreams.

          Over the course of time, Jacque increases his influence on Shea and guides her decision making till she is living and doing medical research in the Carpathian Mountains. While out walking one day she is drawn to a location, feels compelled to open a trap door in the earth and finds the pine box containing Jacque.  At first she assumes he is dead, but he quickly and violently destroys that idea. Shea removes him from the hole in the ground, takes him back to her place and spends many hours trying to repair the damage done by the torturers.

          Once the worst of the physical damage is dealt with, Shea and Jacque must work their way through the mental damage. And, while they are doing so, another Carpathian male is abducted and tortured. The best clues the Carpathians have are locked in the broken mind of Jacque. With Shea’s help and love, Jacque finds the strength to remember who the betrayer is, and helps to destroy him and rescue his friend.

          This book will never go down in history as the best ever written, and the technical issues with the audio aspect are a shame.  But it was entertaining – that being my main criterion for a “good” book. I’ll happily read – not listen to - the next book in the series, Dark Gold.

         

Dark Prince: Author's Special Cut Edition by Christine Feehan

          Dark #1

          I struggled at the beginning of this story. I was listening to the audio book, and later determined that was part of the problem I was having. I didn’t care for the reader’s voice, and particularly the way she made Raven sound. Feehan introduced a young woman with psychic abilities whose job requires her to get inside the twisted minds of serial killers and hunt them down. She must be a strong-willed, mentally balanced person who has earned the respect of law enforcement officials, right? The reader makes her sound like a toddler with a high pitched, whispery almost-lisp. It took me a while to realize the disconnect here, and once I did I started to enjoy the story more.

          In this particular series, the Carpathians are the good guys. Vampires are Carpathians who have turned to the dark side and are hunted down and destroyed by the others. Raven is a human woman, vacationing in the Carpathian Mountains, who telepathically overhears the struggle Mikhail, the Carpathian prince, is having. Mikhail is beginning to despair of ever finding his life mate and is considering self destruction before he can succumb to the lure of the dark places in his soul. Mikhail immediately seizes upon the distraction Raven provides and then takes it up several notches of the creepy variety.

          Within the first pages of the story, Mikhail has begun stalking Raven and later psychically molests her. For reasons that completely escape me, this does not cause Raven to run screaming for the first plane back to America. It has been a few years since I last read a romance novel that starts with the “hero” raping the heroine. (Years ago it was quite common in the genre.) And, if I hadn’t been three quarters of a mile into my two mile walk, I would have stopped the story right there. But I soldiered on for lack of anything else to listen to on my MP3 player.

          Needless to say, the story improved. Raven, despite sounding like a toddler and feeling an inexplicable need to save Mikhail’s soul, stands her ground on her requirement for some autonomy.  Mikhail eventually comes around to her way of thinking, and she stops doing incredibly stupid and dangerous things to make her point.

          The plot line of the book has vicious human vampire hunters on the trail of the Carpathians. They have already found and killed one of the rare female Carpathians and are on the hunt for more. Raven and Mikhail, with the help of a few other Carpathians and the use of their special gifts, manage to track down and destroy this group. And ultimately, Raven and Mikhail live happily ever after. 

          I really liked some of the aspects of the Carpathian society Feehan created. For the most part the men seem a bit courtly and old fashioned right down to being domineering and expecting immediate and silent obedience from their women.  It makes for some entertaining reading as they encounter twentieth century women.  I also like their attitude of women and children first. Their safety and happiness are the first duty and desire of the Carpathian male. I also like the concept that the men are dark and the women are light and both are necessary for the eternal relationships they have.

          I’m glad I stuck with this book, despite the reader and the yuck factor at the beginning. I’ve got the next book, Dark Desire, uploaded on the MP3 and will listen to it next. There’s a different reader this time, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy listening to it.

         

Dark Predator (Carpathian) by Christine Feehan

          Book #22 of the Dark Series

          I knew Dark Predator was part of a series when I started the book, but didn’t realize it was number twenty-two.  The book does an excellent job of standing alone. At no point did I feel lost or left out of the story.  And, it’s a good one.

          The main character , Zacarias De La Cruz, is over one thousand years old.  For centuries he has fought evil and it has taken its toll on his spirit. Carpathians, like the more commonly known vampires, cannot abide sunlight. And, Zacarias decides to go into that great good night by giving himself to the sun.

          Zacarias heads to one of his family’s many ranchos in the Amazon rainforest, this one in Peru. As he lays down in preparation for sunrise and death, he is spotted by a young woman, Marguarita.  Marguarita and her entire family have served the De La Cruz family for generations.  She understands instantly what he means to do. And she cannot bear it.  She saves him despite his orders to let him die.

          Zacarias pays her back for her disobedience by marrying her in the ancient Carpathian tradition. But, as is usual in these cases, he is the one suffering within the confines of the relationship. 

          As the story unfolds, Marguarita and Zacarias learn to be with each other while ridding the world of great evil.

          As I mentioned earlier, this is a good book.  I now intend to try reading some of the earlier ones.  If they are as satisfying as this one, I may have just added another twenty-one items to my reading list.