Seize the Night, Sherrilyn Kenyon

Yay!! Valerius is back!

OK, you have no idea who that is.

So remember Zarek from Dance with the Devil? This is the brother that I mentioned. I wanted he and Zarek to reconcile.

And Kyrian from Night Pleasures? Well, this is the grandson of the guy who crucified him (No, I don't mean that as a figurative crucifixion. I mean literally.) and who also looks exactly like his grandfather.

Oh, and don't forget Kyrian is married to Amanda now, and her twin is Tabitha, our heroine.

One big happy family, right?!

Maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh!

OK, I'm done.

So, Val's story is one of the easiest to read. He certainly hasn't had an easy time of it, and you feel bad for him, but for some reason it just didn't hit me like the others have.

And he does act like a dick. A big one. It's intentional, a defense mechanism to keep people away, just like Zarek acts crazy, but Val does a seriously good job of being a dick.

He and Kyrian come to a truce, if not a friendship, and Zarek moves to accept his brother - even making him a god like he is. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but we find out in Kiss of the Night that Zarek takes great pleasure in messing with Val using his new god powers. Well, now the sibling rivalry is on equal footing.

So, what happens? Well, everyone dies.

No really.

Night Play, Sherrilyn Kenyon

So, back in Night Embrace, we meet Vane and his brother, Fang, very briefly. They were wolves who could take the form of humans. Vane helped Talon by protecting Sunshine during the day when she needed to be out.

We find out later that in return the Daimon's attacked his pack and killed a bunch of the women and children, including their sister and her new litter.

As punishment for the decision that lead to the Daimon's attack and, therefore, their sister's death, their father (gleefully) sentences them to death. Something he's been wanting to do since they were born. To ensure he gets rid of them, he also sends some Daimon's after them.

Vane manages to fight them off, but Fang is seriously wounded and goes into a coma.

Now, present day, Fang is still in a coma and he and Vane are staying at Sanctuary. Hiding really. Their father is still out to kill them, after all. Well, once he confirms they are in fact alive.

Anyway. Back to Night Embrace. When Vane was protecting Sunshine a friend of hers, Bride, comes to chat. Vane is immediately attracted to her, but doesn't make a move because a) he's busy protecting Sunshine, and b) Bride is human and Vane is a wolf.

Only he's not.

Kiss of the Night, Sherrilyn Kenyon

I was very confused at the beginning of this one.

So, this is the story of Wulf. Wulf is Talon's best friend and he enters Talon's story (Night Embrace) by phone. What threw me off was at the start of this one, Talon is single. At first I thought I'd messed up the order, but a quick check confirmed the order.

Then Talon and Wulf have a phone conversation and I realize it's the same conversation as in Night Embrace. Just from Wulf's point of view.

This book takes place at the same time as Night Embrace and Dance with the Devil.

Once that was established it was all good.

So, Wulf is a Norse hunter - think Beowulf - who was cursed so anyone not of his bloodline forgets him after he leaves their presence. How sucky is that? He also never got vengeance.

How does that work, you ask? Well, Loki tricked him and exchanged his soul for another hunter's. It was never his choice to become a Dark Hunter.

Anyway, the reason I enjoyed this one so much was that we learn so much more about Apollites and what their lives are like. And how they view the Daimons.

Dance with the Devil, Sherrilyn Kenyon

So, at the end of the Night Embrace review, I mentioned Zarek and the cliffhanger. Luckily this book clears that up.

So, during Night Embrace, Zarek turned Sunshine over to the baddie trio. Then he changed his mind and protected her. For betraying the trio, and therefore helping to thwart their plans, they've decided to kill him. At the end, it looks like that's just about to happen.

Of course it doesn't.

So, Zarek was banished to Alaska 900 years ago when his village was destroyed. Truth be told, he's always thought he destroyed it. So did the other hunters. His memories are vague and disconnected though. No one really knows why he wasn't just executed for such a horrible crime. Turns out he didn't do it, but that's besides the point.

As horrible as the stories for Julian, Kyrian, and Talon were - as sad - this was worse by far.

Zarek was a Roman slave when he was alive - a whipping boy for his 1/2 brothers. You read that right, his father beat him into blindness as punishment for what his other sons did. His Roman sons.

That's bad enough, but now as a Dark Hunter he's alone, despised. Killing those you're meant to protect is the worst of crimes for the hunters. His fellow hunters treat him as a pariah. A rabid dog. He can't go out in the sun, so during the summer months in Alaska when the sun doesn't set, or sets only briefly, he can't go get food, so he starves. But immortals can't die of starvation.

Not to mention the emotional starvation.

Like I said, sad.

Night Embrace, Sherrilyn Kenyon

Book two in the Dark Hunter series finds us with Talon and Sunshine.

Yes, Sunshine. Her brothers are named Storm and Rain. To be fair, their father is a Native American shaman.

Anyway, Talon is our Dark Hunter. He worked with Kyrian to police New Orleans up until Kyrian got his soul back. Talon is an ancient Celtic warrior who pissed off a god of the Gauls. The god cursed him so that every human he loves will die.

The important thing to realize there is that Celtic and Gaulic gods are just as real as Greek gods. I love that. It opens up the storylines - though I'm still not entirely sure where the gods fit in.

Sunshine, as it turns out, is the reincarnation of Talon's long dead wife. They're soulmates.

She's also friends with Selena. Selena, if you remember is best friends with Grace (Fantasy Lover). She and Sunshine share a workplace, of sorts. They each have sidewalk displays, Sunshine for her art, Selena as a psychic.

Beyond the fact that all the pantheons of gods are valid, I liked this one because it doesn't end the same way as Kyrian's story. Kyrian gets his soul back and gets to live his happy human life. I expected the same basic story. Sunshine gets Talon's soul back and they live happily ever after.

Only this vengeful god makes it a little more complicated.

Night Pleasures, Sherrilyn Kenyon

OK! I'm finally seeing how these work!

Ok, so Julian, in Fantasy Lover. Back before he was cursed, his best friend was Kyrian of Thrace.

Remember Grace? Julian's love? Her best friend Selena is a psychic and is the one who found Julian's book and got Grace to call him out. Selena's sister is Amanda.

This is Amanda and Kyrian's book.

Amanda's family is like Selena, except for Amanda. She's the only "normal" one. That even includes a vampire hunter. Really.

For real.

Kyrian is the first Dark Hunter we meet and I finally know what they are! OK, a Dark Hunter is a warrior who has sold his/her soul for 24 hours to exact vengeance. Nope, not the Devil - Artemis. In payment, they become immortal hunters of Daimons. Daimons are Apollites who have decided to extend their lives by killing and eating the souls of humans.

None of those words make sense, do they?

Dragonswan, Sherrilyn Kenyon

So, this is the next instalment of the Dark Hunter series...and the series hasn't even officially started yet!!

So this is listed as "0.5." It's another prequel in the series, though it does seem to give more info on the substance of the series.

So we meet Channon and Sebastian at a museum where they're both admiring a tapestry. They go to dinner and instantly hit it off. They share an intended one night stand, but Sebastian finds he's been mated.

Oh, did I mention he's a dragon? ;)

So, Sebastian is a were-hunter. Weres, or shifters, were created as a way around a curse. I think. I was a little confused. Regardless, their creator had 2 sons. He wanted to save them, so through alchemy he spliced them with animals. Only, as such things normally do, it didn't go quite according to plan. It split the 2 boys, creating 4 - 2 with the heart of a human and the abilities of animals, 2 with the hearts of animals and abilities of humans.

If that's not clear, think of it this way: humans that can become animals and animals that can become human.

With the power to travel in time.

A little scary.

Fantasy Lover, Sherrilyn Kenyon

This is another paranormal romance series. I started it before Christmas - before things got all wonky.

A lot of times when I start these, I've gotten interested by a book later in the series. I see that one, think it looks interesting, and being a little OCD, go find the first of the series and start reading.

This is one of those.

Honestly, if I'd read the back of this one first, I probably wouldn't have given it a second thought.

I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about it.

So this is a prequel or companion novel to the Dark Hunter series. In it we meet Julian and Grace. Julian is a Greek Demi-god, son of Aphrodite, cursed by his 1/2 brother to be trapped in a book. Whenever someone says his name 3 times (Beetlejuice anyone?), he comes out of the book and must serve the person who called him for a month as a sex slave.

Grace is a straight laced teacher with a still mending heart.

Let's just set aside the whole "sex slave" as entertainment (ours not Grace's) for a second. I'll just say sex trafficking and slavery is very much an ongoing issue and shouldn't be trivialized.

Moving on...

Setting that aside, it was just ok.

Julian's story is heart rending, so that gives it a little help. Just gave it a little more dimension. Grace is strong and smart. If you like romance, I think you'll like this one. For me, I'm just not sure. I enjoyed it, and I'm going to keep on in the series mainly because I don't know where this series will go from here - Dark Hunters weren't even mentioned, so I don't even know what they are. So my curiosity will keep me going, but I think my initial reaction would have been accurate: Not a second thought.

Fantasy Lover, Sherrilyn Kenyon

Happy Holidays!

Hey kids! 

I hope you're all enjoying whatever holiday you celebrate. As the holiday's are typically chaotic, so too are my reviews. I'm still reading though, have no fear, but don't expect to see anything new for for a while. 

I will see you all in 2014!!   

Strindberg's Star, Jan Wallentin

This is a Swedish book translated into English. It takes place in Europe as the main characters travel around in search of the truth.

Sorta.

Ok, so our main character, Don, is arrested for the murder of a diver who found a body while diving in a mine. The body is perfectly preserved by some trick of the mine, so it's super old, and appears to be the victim of either an accident or a suicide. So, there's no crime there. The diver, however, took a few things from the cave where he found the body, got caught up in the notoriety, and never told anyone about them. He invites Don up to take a look, since Don is a symbology expert.

Don obviously finds him dead, hence he's arrested.

Oh, Don is also a prescription drug addict.

Eva, is his lawyer. This is where I think maybe some plot points are lost in translation. Don is in interrogation and Eva just shows up and volunteers to be his lawyer. She says she was in the station for another reason and heard about him. I admit I thought it was weird to begin with, but what do I know from Swedish police procedures?

Don gets out of the local station, but only as a transfer by the Swedish federal (?) police. They take him to the home of a German. A home that's part of the embassy, so technically part of Germany. The German tells him a fantastical story about the real reason for the 1897 Andree Expedition to the North Pole. He claims they were actually searching for the location indicated when an ankh found by the diver is combined with the still missing Egyptian star. A mystical location.

When it becomes clear the German's aren't going to take "I don't know" for an answer, Don and Eva escape. This starts the adventure to find the star and clear Don's name. Or does it....

The Lost Years, Mary Higgins Clark

OMG. So. Bad!

This is the first Clark I've ready, but I've heard her name more than once. She's supposed to be a great mystery writer, so I thought I'd  try her out.

What could go wrong?

I could not dislike this more.

Ok, in all fairness, there are elements of this I did like. It kept me guessing, for one thing. One big thing. Gotta like that.

It's just not enough.

Ok, so Mariah's father is killed over a parchment he believes, and is, a letter written by Jesus. We're not talking about Jesus' words written by his disciples. We're talking in his own hand.

Mariah's mother has alzheimers and the police think she killed her husband because he was having an affair. He was, but she definitely didn't kill him.

He'd gone to his friends for authentication of the letter and one of them wanted it for themselves.

And there's always the horrible mistress, she could have done it. And she is horrible.

I had a strange sense of deja vu with this one. Again.

Altar of Eden, James Rollins

Love.

I'm a fan of Rollins, particularly his Sigma series, but I've gotten a little...bored with Sigma. I still like it and I'll keep reading it, but the past few books have just been a bit...melodramatic? Unbelievable? No, I don't like unbelievable. All the stories are fairly fantastical. I can't really put my finger on it. Melodramatic is probably the closest.

Anyway, the point is, this was like old school Rollins. The characters are interesting but they don't take over. There's a good balance between the story and the actors in it.

Though, I could totally see Sigma wanting to snap these two up. Maybe if they did, we'd see them again. We could take some focus of Gray and the books would start moving again....

Anyway, so, here we have Jack and Lorna. Jack is a border patrol agent, and Lorna is a veterinarian.

Sounds kind of mundane, huh?

Well, Jack finds a ship full of strange animals and calls in Lorna. They grew up together, she and his younger brother were high school sweethearts. Over the course of the book, we find out that the brother died and Lorna was blamed, but Jack was party to the car accident that killed his brother too. See, Lorna was being attacked while the brother was passed out, Jack busted in and saved her. Without understanding the whole situation, he told her to drive. She crashed and the brother died.

They've kept the secret of what really happened all these years. Stupidly.

While the interactions between Jack and Lorna are great, what I like best is the actual progression of the adventure.

Dark Series in Reivew

So I tweaked it a little, but the chart shows all our combos with the books they're in. It's pretty much the same chart that's in the books.

OK, so where shall we start?

Despite the terrible covers and the mostly terrible titles, I mostly liked the Dark series. Is it a favorite? Nope. Not even a favorite romance. However, it's close. There were just a few things, small by themselves, that bring it down.

If I was comparing it to another series, it'd have to be the Troubleshooters series, mostly based on the structure - that kind of ever expanding circle of friends and family. Unfortunately, it's just not as good. Granted Troubleshooters isn't paranormal, but you'd think that'd give the Dark series more to work with. Instead it's the basics are the same every time.

This is my first complaint: at times, it was really repetitive. Maybe I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't binge read, but I did. We're talking language and overall themes. "Sinful mouth" came up a lot. And just the descriptions of sex. And then there's the basic premise of male Carpathian meets human woman. Something horrible happens, then they fall in love. It's not like I don't like the formula, but it does seem to be a formula. It definitely gets better in later books, though.

Dark Storm, Christine Feehan

I didn't know what was next, but this was certainly not even in the running.

We meet another ancient. Dax ran off the fight a vampire named Mirto. They were pretty evenly matched, so they were sealed in a volcano by Arabejila, Dax's friend.

The kicker? She's also Mitro's lifemate.

So, remember those questions and theories I had in my Dark Predator? Well, this just makes it all more confusing.

OK, Mitro is a psycho. Legit. Entitled. Always thinking he's better than everyone else, just no one can see his genius.

Dax is a hunter who has a talent for seeing someones darkness and predicting who will turn vamp. He and Arabejila's family were friends.

Arabejila had very strong earth powers. Mitro hated her because he believed lifemates made the men weak. He ends up killing her family before running off. He tries to kill her, but can't quite kill his lifemate. Instead, he does something worse: he binds her.

So, as we know, being physically separated from ones lifemate is very difficult. Meanwhile, the lifemate can typically feel/experience the things the lifemate is going through. So, all the horrible things Mitro does, Arabejila knows. He makes sure of it.

Riley and her mother, Arabejila's descendants, are traveling the Amazon to ensure the volcano with Dax and Mitro inside stays sealed. They don't know about Dax and Mitro, but they make the trip every year.

This year, it is not going well.

Dark Predator, Christine Feehan

This one was weird.

We finally get Zacarias' story, but it raised a few questions.

So, at the end of Dark Peril, the vampire coalition was going to test their attack plan for the Prince, against the De la Cruz family. After that, Zacarias was going to end his life feeling his brothers were ok without him.

We start here at the end of the battle, the good guy having won, of course. Zacarias decides to leave to go die, not even bothering to heal his wounds. His brothers try to stop him, but he's determined. He leaves to go "home," suddenly determining that home is the estate in Brazil. If you'll remember Dark Peril took place in Brazil. That's where the vamp attacked and injured the woman Zacarias saved.

So of course that's who saves him. Against his will.

So, he gets there, and he sees Margaurita, the woman he saved, riding her horse. He doesn't immediately know who she is. Watching her makes him happy, gives him peace, so he decides to sit out in the sun watching her and waiting for death. She sees him as he's starting to smoke, literally, and drags him inside to his lair.

He. Is. Pissed.

Dark Peril, Christine Feehan

Well, that's a fail. I predicted Zacarias and Solange, but nope. Dominic and Solange.

During Dark Curse, Dominic ingested vampire blood loaded with the parasites used to identify members of the conspiracy to overthrow Mikhal (Dark Prince). The plan was to infiltrate the group, find out what's up, pass the information, then take as many vamps with him as possible. The Dragonseeker family has never had a member turn vampire, so Dominic figures he has the best chance to take the blood without turning vamp quickly, as well as killing himself before turning.

Now we find him in Brazil, on his way to a big vampire meeting. Once he gets the info, he'll follow the plan: take as many with him as possible.

Solange is still fighting the good fight against the jaguar males, but she's worn out. Jasmine is safe and pregnant, Juliette has Riordan (Dark Hunger), all she has is her fight. And she's finally found her ultimate target: her father. So, we've heard that the jaguars are dying out because the men won't stay with the women; it's not in their "nature." This has caused more and more of the women to find love with humans. Some men have decided the way to save their species is to forcibly mate (read: rape) with the "pure blood" jaguar women. The idea isn't just to save their race, it's to purify it.

And we all knows that idea always ends badly.

Dark Slayer, Christine Feehan

Sigh, I was really disappointed in this one.

Possibly because I've been waiting for it for so long. See, even though this is book 20 of the Dark series, it's the first one I bought. I found it in the bargain bin and mistook it for the first in the series. So, maybe that's why I just didn't find this one that great - I'd been anticipating for too long.

I liked it generally, but not when I looked closer.

Let me fill you in what going on...

Meet Ivory Malinov. We first learned about her in Dark Possession. She's the only sister of the Malinov's, and the only Malinov not a vampire. She's been thought dead all this time, but she's been in hiding.

This is my first complaint. I'm just not really clear on why she's in hiding. I mean, I get it a little. OK, so we know she went to Xavier's school and was betrayed by the Prince's oldest son. Now we find out she was turned over to vampires who literally chopped her to pieces. Alive. They kept her alive so she'd feel the most pain possible. Keeping her alive also gave her a chance to heal, though. And she does. It just takes 300 or so years. By the time she can leave the ground, he brothers have decided to become vampires.

So, I kind of get why she might not be welcoming to other Carpathians. She feels betrayed by the Prince and by her family. But the Prince dies. And the De la Cruz family was basically her family. It just seems odd that she'd rather just hide out. I guess there was just too much trauma. I donno. I just didn't think the decision made much sense. And when she meets Mikhal and see he's a good person she still doesn't want to go back. When she finds out the De la Cruz family is ok and misses her - mourns her - she still has no interest. Even seems to resent them. I just don't get it.

Then there's Razvan.

Dark Curse, Christine Feehan

Nicolas De la Cruz it is!

So, we meet Lara here. Well, we met/learned about her in Dark Demon when Natalya saw the history of the knife. She was the little girl in the vision where Razvan, her father, was using her for blood. We also saw her escape with the help of two dragons who, we learn here, are her great aunts in dragon form.

Lara is now back in the Carpathian Mountains, an adult trying to find out if her beloved aunts are real, and to save them if they are (They are, she does). She remembers what happened to her, all the horrors and trauma, but it's also fantastical and she's become unsure if she just made parts up to make sense of her horrific life. Specifically, made up the aunts.

So, she's back and searching the mountains for the ice cave where she was held prisoner. Her first attempt is pretty fail. She and her friends get attacked and wounded. They rush back to the Inn for help. After arriving at the Inn, Mikhal (Dark Prince) takes over to help heal her friends. Before she can go into the Inn, she runs across Nicolas, looking for a meal.

Nicholas is in the Mountains to tell Mikhal about the plan the Malinov and De la Cruz brothers concocted centuries ago. He's on his way to the Inn to do just that when he sees Lara. His plan is to tell the Prince the plan, then die before he becomes a vampire. Seeing Lara, he figures it's his last meal. He figures out pretty quick that she's his lifemate.

Now, if you were used from birth as food for your father and psycho great-great grandfather, having someone take your blood is not going to be something you appreciate.

She stabs him.

Dark Possession, Christine Feehan

So, at the end of Dark Celebration, Manolito is mortally wounded saving Shea and her baby. We know he survived but that's about it.

We also know that he found his lifemate, MaryAnn, took her blood, but didn't tell anyone.

We start this one with him waking up before he's supposed to. See, we know Carpathians use the earth to heal and rejuvenate them. When one is so badly injured, the healer will command you to sleep, which the patient shouldn't be able to disobey.

So, he wakes up in the rainforest with no idea how he got there or what's going on. Even worse, because his wound was mortal, they had to pull his soul back from the afterlife (stick with me, it's fantasy). So, that means when he wakes up early, part of him is still in the afterlife. Because of that, he's existing both worlds. Think: really freaky hallucinations that can make you feel pain.

So, the question is, what made him wake up early? An evil vampire plot?

Nope. Distressed lifemate.

Dark Celebration, Christine Feehan

This book was intended as an enjoyable book for fans to revisit the characters they love.

According to Feehan, it got away from her a bit.

All the Carpathians are invited to a Christmas celebration. Most, but not all attend.

Mostly, it's an update book. Mikhal goes around visiting all the people who've come for the celebration.

There are some attacks against the women and children, particularly against Shea and her baby, as well as Skyler, but that's a fairly minor part of the story.

So, let me give you the highlights.

Raven wants Mikhal (Dark Prince) to play Santa for the kids. He's not a fan of the idea so decides to make Gregori, his son-in-law and 2nd in command, do it instead. Gregori. The Dark One. The boogie man of all Carpathian children.

Seems legit.

And hilarious.

So, as he goes around to visit, he tells them all his plan. All the men want to see it happen. All the women think it's mean. And funny.

Dark Demon, Christine Feehan

Well, as predicted, Vikirnoff catches up to Natalya.

And. She. Is. Fan-tastic!

She mentions in Dark Secret that she doesn't know how to keep a vampire dead for good.

Let me put it another way: she's been hunting for centuries and has had to learn everything herself. A more experienced hunter has never been around to teach her. Yet she's managed to survive for centuries.

She's seen a lot of movies.

But as she tells Colby in Dark Secret, there's only so much you can learn from Dracula movies.

She also calls Vikirnoff "Vik," which is hilarious.

Like I said, fantastic.

She's made her way into Romania, being drawn the the Carpathian Mountains. One mountain in particular. She's on her way there when she comes across some vampires. A fight ensues.

Meanwhile, Vikirnoff is lamenting his situation. Planning on killing himself as soon as he can. Wondering if it's already too late for him.

His psychic whining draws Natalya's attention and she tells him to shut up so she can concentrate on her battle. No, really, that's exactly what she tells him. He of course immediately realizes she's his lifemate and rushes to help in the fight. She's not entirely enthusiastic about his "interference," but they end up working together pretty well.

Dark Secret, Christine Feehan

This is the 2nd story in Darkest at Dawn, which has Dark Hunger (14) and Dark Secret (15).

We meet another of the De la Cruz brothers, actually we meet 2, but Nicolas is only around for a few pages. The main brother is Rafael, and he is the first Carpathian I really don't like. All Carpathian men are arrogant and domineering to an extent, but Rafael? He's just an ass. Riordan mentions in Dark Hunger that the brothers have always been more Carpathian than other Carpathians. Stronger, smarter, more arrogant and domineering.

He is really all about having everything his own way.

His lifemate is Colby. She's a cowgirl. No shit. A cowgirl. She also has the same last name as Gary from Dark Magic. We don't learn anything about that really, but I feel like it can't be a mistake/coincidence.

They meet because Rafael and Nicolas go to Colby's ranch to convince her to come to Brazil with her brother and sister, Paul and Ginny. See, the De la Cruz family has a human family they're close with. The Chavez family knows they're Carpathian and have been working with the brothers for centuries.

The stories a little complicated...

Dark Hunger, Christine Feehan

This is another novella, so I read it as a part of Darkest at Dawn, which has Dark Hunger (14) and Dark Secret (15).

We meet the first of the De la Cruz brothers in this one. The 5 brothers are ancients that were sent out to fight the vampires by Mikhal's father. Most of the hunters were sent out as individuals, but the brothers stayed together and resettled in Brazil. They've made a home there.

We've heard about the jaguar people before, and we meet some here.

Juliette and her sister, jaguars, attack a research facility in the middle of the rainforest they think is experimenting on animals. While in there rescuing the animals, Juliette runs across Riordan, a Carpathian who is being kept prisoner. See it's not really a animal research facility, that's just the front, really it's a way to trap and experiment on vampires, which for them means anyone they feel like. Drained of blood, in constant pain from shackles and chains coated in vampire blood, he doesn't immediately see Juliette as his savior, but as another captor. Before her, the human society of vampire hunters only came in during the day when he couldn't do anything, so he sees her presence as their first mistake.

Of course when she speaks, he realizes who she is to him, plus she's clearly rescuing him. Once she takes off the chains, he feeds. He doesn't really warn her, so she's obviously not pleased. He does it because it's the only way they both get out, but still, a bit of warning would be nice. He figures he can't take the chance she'll refuse.

Juliette is what I was really thinking when I asked for a vivacious woman (Dark Prince). Now I said something like this in reference to Jaxon in Dark Guardian, but this is much more on point. Jaxon was a cop, so she had that angle, but Juliette is a match for vivacious.

She's very sexual, and very comfortable with that. She really embraces it. Being jaguar, she goes into heat on occasion, so being sexual has never been an issue. She's also highly independent and comfortable with her own abilities. She's lived with her sister, Jasmine, and her cousin, Solange, for most of her life, battling and hiding from the jaguar men. She knows who and what she is, and she's happy with it.

The jaguar men have been kidnapping jaguar women to get them pregnant. Which means gang rape until their victims are pregnant. We discover the reason for that is, at least in part, because of a vampire's influence. Jasmine is kidnapped by one group so Juliette and Solange go after them while Riordan has to sleep. They find her, but unfortunately it's too late to save her completely. She's still alive though. They wait as long as they can so Riordan can join them as soon as possible, but they have to engage before he can.

They rescue Jasmine, but Solange and Jasmine want nothing to do with Riordan or his brothers, despite being offered safety at the family's ranch. Riordan has to take Juliette to convert her because her wounds are so bad.

I liked this one for it's simplicity. That doesn't mean it had no interest, none of that depth I've been going on about. Just that it was...light, maybe? No, that's not right, because there was the whole gang rape thing. That's close though, it was mostly a pleasant and light read. I guess it's that there wasn't a lot of mistrust and back-and-forth between Juliette and Riordan like in the other books.

Dark Hunger, Christine Feehan

Dark Destiny, Christine Feehan

Another really good one!

We have Nicolae and Destiny. What makes this one good is Destiny's story.

She was kidnapped, converted, and abused by a vampire. When she's a child she connects with Nicolae, but he can't find her to save her. So, eventually he trains her as a hunter so she can kill the vampire that took her and escape.

But still he can't find her.

This kills my theory that the reason the women before Raven (Dark Prince) were deranged when they turned was at least in part because of the vampire blood. Destiny is in physical agony due to the blood, but she's not deranged. And of course there's the psychological trauma - no conversion is going to change that.

So, there's of course a lot of trust issues. Destiny can't see the difference between vampires and Carpathians. Plus, Nicolae has always been her salvation, so she's afraid that by letting him close she'll lose him. As with many victims, there's a lot of guilt and self loathing.

Nicolae tries to heal her, but it's beyond his abilities. He calls in Gregori, who's still in the area after helping with Corinne in Dark Melody.

Destiny struggles here too. The vampire they're fighting even preys on her self loathing by telling her the Carpathians will never accept her, will insist she's killed. She already half believes that, so the vamp scores a hit with that one.

Nicolae calls in Gregori, despite Destiny's concerns, and takes her blood - the tainted blood - so that her fate is his fate - to show solidarity with her. Gregori is of course completely accepting and heals them both completely.

Meanwhile, there's a guy using hypnosis to ruin peoples lives. Not a vampire though. Destiny and Nicolae take care of him.

There was one really important scene that didn't really have much to do with the plot, but adds more understanding of the world Feehan is creating. There are two old ladies in the neighborhood Destiny has claimed as her own. They're pretty outrageous in all ways - syntax, content...fashion. They're pretty hilarious. Not to mention psyhcic. So, the vampire tries to draw Destiny and Nicolae out by attacking the neighborhood. The vamp is about to kill Destiny, when one of the old ladies puts herself in front of him with a stake. She tells him that she waited for him, asks why he never came. The vamp kinda stares at her, a look of sorrow briefly on his face, before he attacks again. The old lady kills him, with Destiny's help, and immediately falls apart. She was obviously his intended lifemate. Only he chose evil first.

This scene answers a couple questions for me and raises others. The idea of redeeming a vampire has been repeatedly shot down. The vamps choose evil, it's not an accident or something they were coerced into, it was a choice. They knew it was wrong and they did it anyway. However, I wondered about what happened when/if a vampire met his lifemate after the fact. Now we know. Now, I've thought that perhaps reincarnation might be something the Carpathians would believe in. Perhaps the vampires and lifemates return to the world to try to find each other again, to try to make better choices.

For a while I even wondered if maybe there weren't always lifemates for vampires. I mean, so, look. Most of the characters we've seen have been very close to turning. I've been wondering if the vamps are a Darwin thing. The Carpathians have a lot of power and only those with a strong will to use it responsibly can reproduce. If you don't have the will to resist evil, then you're not strong enough for the species. It seems, especially with this scene, everyone has a lifemate, it's just a matter of finding him/her. And can you hold out till you do? And do you get only one shot at your lifemate? If your lifemate is human, which most seem to be for the moment, then he/she may die before you find her. Does the human's soul get reincarnated as long as the Carpathian holds out, giving him/her more than one chance at finding their lifemate? Fate seems to put them together, but this scene with the old lady shows that they don't always find each other in time.

Maybe we'll find out more in other books...

Anyway, it's not an overly complicated, but I really did enjoy this. We learn a bit more about how the race works and Destiny is a really good character.

I do think I know what's next though. Nicholae has a brother, Vikirnoff. A vampire is looking for a woman who can touch objects and see their history. Now, that sounds a lot like Sara, from Dark Dream, but the way Vikirnoff reacts, I don't think it's supposed to be her. So, that's my prediction...

Dark Destiny, Christine Feehan

Dark Melody, Christine Feehan

So we're back with the band and I really liked this one.

For many reasons.

So, if you remember, everyone in the band (Dark Challenge, Dark Fire) has a lifemate except for Dayan. At the end of Dark Fire, he went on the run with the human, Cullen Tucker, evading the human society of vampire hunters.

He meets Corinne, a songwriter. The complication? Corinne has a heart condition, she doesn't have much time to live. On top of that, she's pregnant with her husband's child. You read that right, husband.

But don't worry, no adultery here, she's a widow. Her husband was murdered by the society.

So, all that creates a few of the dynamics I've been hoping for.

In Dark Symphony, I talked about the idea that the conversion process would eliminate any illnesses or handicaps. Here, however, we have to consider the idea that while conversion does do that, the body has to be strong enough to survive the process. In addition, can a baby be converted? Can it be converted in the womb? If conversion shifts and reshapes the organs, could a baby survive?

The answer is no. A baby could not, and the body can be too weak to survive.

Then there's the husband thing.