Dark Promises (Dark, #29) by Christine Feehan on March 15th 2016
Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
Goodreads
Lovers challenge destiny and risk their lives in the new Carpathian novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling “queen of paranormal romance.”*
Gabrielle has had enough of battles, of wars, of seeing Gary Jansen, the man she loves nearly lose his life when it isn’t even his fight. Once he was a gentle and very human researcher. Now he’s a fearless and lethal Carpathian warrior with the blood of an ancient lineage coursing through his veins—a man Gabrielle still needs and desires and dreams of with every breath she takes. All she wants is a life far away from the Carpathian mountains, far from vampires and the shadows cast by the crumbling monastery that hides so many terrible secrets. But Gabrielle soon learns that promises made in the dark can pierce the heart like a dagger.
And she isn’t the only one in search of answers in the corners of the unknown...
Trixie Joanes has come to the Carpathian mountains in search of her wayward granddaughter, fearing that she has been lured there by something unspeakable. Instead, Trixie has stumbled into the path of a desperate man and a woman in love and on the run. And they’re all fated for the lair of a mysterious ancient with revenge in his soul and the undying power to make bad dreams come true.
*J.R. Ward
~~~~~
~~Reviewed by AnnMarie~~
Dark Promises by Christine Feehan is the 29th book in her ‘Dark’ series. I haven’t read any of the other books, but this one can easily be read as a stand alone one.
Carpathian warriors are Vampire hunters. They need blood to survive, but they never kill for it, unlike Vampires. If a Carpathian doesn’t meet and join with his lifemate he ends up turning to the darkside. It’s the very last thing he wants, so he has a choice to live in a monastery, being looked after and controlled, or as honour dictates, they meet the dawn where they will die. This story revolves around a human turned Carpathian woman, Gabrielle. Gabrielle was turned out of necessity, but prefers to lead her life as a human. Not turning her back on being a Carpathian, but preferring to carry on living her life as normally as possible. She believes she is in love with another human turned Carpathian, Gary. The story starts where she and Gary are preparing to get married. They both believe that they are lifemates and they need to perform a special bonding ceremony.
Unfortunately they discover that they aren’t lifemates, and the bond won’t work. Gary’s dark side comes to the fore when he realises Gabrielle is destined to be with another, and his elders take him away to the monastery until they can find a way to help him. Gabrielle won’t accept that she can’t be with Gary, lifemates or not and she goes in search of the monastery to find him and convince him they can be together.
It is there that she meets her real lifemate. Aleksei is one of the Carpathians fighting to keep sane and from going ‘dark’. As soon as Gabrielle nears the monastery he senses her and the lifemate pull leads him to her. Things don’t start smoothly between them because Gabrielle still believes she is in love with Gary, and Aleksei feels betrayed by her which makes him furious. His sense of possession overwhelms him and controls his actions.
Will Gabrielle be able to let go of Gary, will she be able to give herself to Aleksei, and if she can’t, will it bring about Aleksei turning ‘dark’, or facing the dawn. And what of Gary, can he be helped? If Gabrielle isn’t his lifemate, then who is? Will he ever find her, or will he be destined to live his life in the monastery as well?
I have to say that I loved the storyline of this book, it captured me from the start, and being the 29th book in a series I was excited about reading all of the books from the first one. Sadly, despite the amazing story, as soon as lifemates meet, and in this book it happens to two couples, the book gets overrun with sex. It is very well written sex, very passionate, very moving, and without being too crude. But I think one sex scene per mated couple would have been sufficient, afterwards they still could have had incredible sex, but without going into detail. To be honest it just got boring after a while, yes we realise they had awesome sex together we didn’t need it repeated over and over again. Towards the end of the book I actually thought that instead of Paranormal Romance, this book should have been in an erotica genre. If you love erotica then this book and the whole series will be perfect for you, but if you prefer less sex and more substance then it’s not so perfect. I definitely changed my mind about reading the rest of the books in the series which is a real shame because as I said, I loved the storyline.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Readers Copy of this book.
Rating:
About Christine Feehan
Christine Feehan is a #1 New York Times bestselling author multiple times over with her portfolio including over 50 published novels, including five series; Dark Series, Ghostwalker Series, Leopard Series, Drake Sisters Series, & the Sisters of the Heart Series. All five series hit the #1 spot on the New York Times bestselling list as well. Her debut novel Dark Prince received 3 of the 9 Paranormal Excellence Awards in Romantic Literature (PEARL) in 1999. Since then she has been published by various publishing houses including Leisure Books, Pocket Books, and currently is writing for Berkley/Jove. She also has earned 7 more PEARL awards since Dark Prince.
IN HER WORDS:
I’ve been a writer all of my life — it is who I am. I write for myself and always have. The ability to create pictures and emotions with words is such a miracle to me. I read everything; I mean everything! All kinds of books, even encyclopedias. I am fascinated by the written word and I love storytellers. It is a great privilege to be counted one myself.
Leave a Reply