Customer Reviews

Dark Demon

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

BOOK #1: DARK PRINCE
BOOK #2: DARK DESIRE
BOOK #3: DARK GOLD
BOOK #4: DARK MAGIC
BOOK #5: DARK CHALLENGE
BOOK #6: DARK FIRE
BOOK #7: DARK DREAM
BOOK #8: DARK LEGEND
BOOK #9: DARK GUARDIAN
BOOK #10: DARK SYMPHONY
BOOK #11: DARK DESCENT
BOOK #12: DARK MELODY
BOOK #13: DARK DESTINY
BOOK #14: DARK HUNGER
BOOK #15: DARK SECRET
BOOK #16: DARK DEMON
BOOK #17: DARK CELEBRATION
BOOK #18: DARK POSSESSION
BOOK #19: DARK CURSE
BOOK #20: DARK SLAYER
BOOK #20: DARK PERIL (NOT RELEASED YET)

I've read most of Christine Feehan's Dark Series, and enjoyed them overall.

This book was no different.

What I didn't like:
Now again, I've read and enjoyed most of Feehan's books, but yes, the basic plot line, character presentation and dialogue does get repetitive. The differences are very subtle at times... too subtle.

I didn't like the way Vikirnoff treated Mikhail in the beginning...as if he [Mikhail] was a child needing a babysitter. How annoying! Which again made the ending fantastic. (No worries, I won't tell)

I could've done without the Carpathian language at the end. I would've preferred a preview of Dark Celebration, her new book soon to come out. (That's just me though)

What I liked:
I liked Natayla's abilities. The lady had Carpathian and mage blood in her, and that was awesome. Her magic made her a formidable opponent, and her fighting abilities were on a par with Vikirnoff's. She was strong, independent, and very skilled in her powers and abilities. She was Vikirnoff's equal in every way. Yes, she did tend to be slightly annoying at times (resisting the idea of being lifemates in the beginning to the point of extreme annoyance as all the female leads do at times) but overall I enjoyed her. Oh, one definite plus was her jealousy and seeing how she reacted at other women being near her man. That was funny and endearing, considering the men are always seen as the jealous type. Women can get jealous too!

I loved, absolutely loved, seeing the other characters from Feehan's previous stories in this book, especially Mikhail, Raven and Gregori.

The action scenes-this seemed to bother many people, but I loved them, especially the last action scene where...all right I won't give it away. Personally, I think Feehan has too many sex scenes, which can quickly become tiresome so I'm usually happy to get back to the dialogue/action scenes.

And the new introduction of characters like wizards and dragons, and others (who may not have been new but I hadn't read their stories) were all very nice. All the new details helped give more information about the Carpathians and the world they lived in.

Overall
I liked the book. I liked the wizards, the dragons, the new characters and enemies, the action scenes and the reappearance of old characters. The two lovers weren't as engaging to me as some of the others from Feehan's stories, but they did all right.

Like many of the most devoted Feehan fans, I too have been feeling like one of my most treasured series was getting bland and boring! After reading all the reviews I was prepared to be dissatisfied with "Dark Demon." Well, low and behold, I loved it! The H/H were great, but what I loved most was the added lore (Wizards, Dragons, ect.). Seeing the old characters was wonderful because they were some of my favorites, and the main battle scene was awesome. I thought the intimacy aspect was touched on perfectly, personally I always feel like her sex scenes are so redundant that I don't need an excess of them. This story line with the heroine being Dragonseeker added immensely to this latest installment. I definitely could have done without the second language, especially when it isn't translated as your reading. I also wish she would divide the stories into sequenced groups or families so that we could better enjoy the series. I already feel that I need to go back and read previous books so that I can enjoy the newer installments more. But, at this point it wouldn't help. We were introduced with "Dark Prince" and the following stayed pretty consistent. Then she broke off a bit with the "Troubadours." Which was fine, but then she introduces us to the eldest hunters thought to be long dead, which I loved but this is where it gets confusing. Why oh why doesn't she finish with the elders, then the Jungle De La Cruz Brothers then the Wizards and Dragons. I'm so confused it's ridiculous! She tries to explain that the publishers are behind the confusion on her web site, there you can read more about the history and background but it's not all that helpful. I will say that after reading "Dark Demon" my faith in her future is restored and I am again looking forward to the next with a lot more enthusiasm, all the confusion aside.

In a way, Dark Demon is sort-of a wrap-up book of several plot lines that Feehan has had going for the last few years. We finally get to revisit the wizard cave and find out what the vampires have been searching for desperately enough to actually band together. We see the master vampire, and realize that magic and chemistry are being used to enhance his powers and those of his followers. We also get to finally see Vikirnoff (Dark Destiny) find his lifemate, Natalya, kin to the famous Dragonseeker clan. While the story is satisfying because it weaves several threads together to answer many questions, it disappointed me on several levels.

First of all, there is none of the deep and satisfying "getting to know you" interaction between Natalya and Vik. While the beginning of the book started out promising enough in this regard, their relationship was quickly cast aside in favor of violence and fight scenes - LOTS of fight scenes.

Second, other interactions were discarded in favor of action. 1. When Natalya meets her uncle, Dominic, for the first time, it was like, "oh, hi". 2. Vik doesn't ever contact his brother Nicolae to tell him he found a lifemate. What's up with that? 3. When the other Carpathians finally meet Natalya, it's like, "so what?" Isn't a new lifemate to a Carpathian a BFD?

Spoilers here - Other questions arose -Falcon's lifemate Sarah displayed power when she forged the sword, what kind of power was it, what is it called and what else can she do? Why does she have power, when she is such a new Carpathian, or was this something all the women can do? Natalya was converted to the Carpathians. Her tiger form came with her and so did her magic, but why didn't she grow in magical strength as her niece Colby did after her conversion in Dark Secret? Did the skin graft on her ankle leave with her conversion? Natalya's chemistry experiments were altered by Gary and then by someone else to cause the new parasite vampire blood. Can it be eliminated, and what else does it do? Lots of plot holes in this story.

And lastly, actually my largest complaint - What's with this stupid Carpathian language? How over the top can you possibly be? I DON'T want to learn a new language, which is basically a mixture of Finnish and Hungarian. I DON'T want to read stupid endearments in it every 5 minutes. It disrupts the flow of the story. I DON'T care about the translations - which were just as stupid. I DON'T want to pay 9.99 for a book with 30 pages devoted to an appendix of the Carpathian healing chant in the new language and various translations of certain phrases. Give me a break!

Author Feehan has developed a pretty interesting and fascinating world with her Carpathians, but she did it on romance, interaction between two main characters and tastefully done sex scenes. Since Dark Symphony, Feehan has started to vear from what made this series so successful. With each book since then, she has ventured more and more into a world building more similar to fantasy fiction than romance. I'm not sure I like the new direction, and I don't think a lot of her fans will either.

I was in the book store looking for something to read, I say the cover, the discription didn't bore me so I started to read it. I became hooked, I may be easy to please but I really liked it. Another reviewer said that the guy acted like he couldn't do anything without his mate, now the first fight sceen left him weak and slightly defenseless but, he more than made up for it in other fights, also it seemed like this book was more about her demons and her fight and not his.

I don't know about others but I totally love a woman who doesn't cower in the corner as the man fights for her life, and there is a difference between being taken care of and standing by the person who is trying to take care of you. I like this book for what it was, not what I thought it could be.

Although the appendix did suck, bored me to tears.

The story begins with a full pack action scene as the main character Natalya clashes with a scum sucking vampire and meets her lifemate the sophisiticated, the elegant, the handsome (yet a caveman regarding women) Virkirnoff. From the start Dark Demon takes you into a world full of suspense, drama, cliffhangers, action, mystery and a little bit of romance and comedy. And therefore you have to read it a couple of times to appreciate the format. It was a good book yet it could have been better had the author spent more time developing and building the dark love and desire that the Carpathian male feels towards his Carpathian female after he finally finds her. In any case I am going to summarize the high points and low points of the book. Let's start with the low:
-In Dark Demon the two main characters are much like two best friends arguing on who kills the vampire or whether they should venture into something more. Although the love scenes were hot it felt as if they were just messily inserted to shut up the reader. In fact the first love scenes takes places towards the end of the book. ( A big no no )
-Too much cliffhangers There are at least three or more cliffhangers in the book is Natalyas twin alive or dead? Is Xavier the wizard alive or dead? What is in the dark book? Sometimes too many cliffhangers takes the edge out of the book and creates unnecessary frusturation at the author when you just want to say, " Just spill the beans already!"
-Not enough romance between the two charcters in the book and I believe this was done deliberately by the author so that she could focus more on the action and mystery and thus sacrificed the romance.
-Main heroine too .... much. Okay we got your point that Natalya is a fierce indpendent [...] warrior woman but jeeez. Now I am totally into being an independent woman however her independence and her attitude towards the main character makes the reader want to shake some sense into her and slap her silly
High Points of book, which by the way saved it for a rating of 4 stars
-All of the cliffhangers left by the other 10 Dark novels for the most part are finally answered..The death of Rhianonnon, the dragons in the cave, the society, Xavier, the dragonseeker clan
-More interaction with secondary characters. In this book we see the return of the Prince Mikhail, Gregori, Falcon, Sara, but most importantly the reader is introduced to the hot dark and handsome older brother of the De la Cruz family: Manolito and from the Dragonseeker's Rhianonnons brother Dominic.
-A woman is converted to a carpathian without finding her lifemate!! I am not telling who it is???
In any case dark demon was a good book and most importantly it was written as an introduction to the next book Dark Celebration which is why I feel Feehan sacrificed this book so that we can be either introduced or reacquainted with the old characters.

All in all I give it a four ......

I was so excited to read Vikirnoffs story. The first part of the book where they met was wonderful but even there something was missing in the Romance department. I have read all Feehans Carpathian books and they have changed and gone away from Romance into fighting. I thought the fights would never end page after page of slogging thru fighting vampires with no romance. Then the sex felt like it was something Feehan felt like she had to throw in there. No imagination and I felt like there wasn't really any love between the characters. I think Feehan has lost her knack for Romance and is heading towards Sci Fi and it is too bad. I never felt like she explored even half the potential she had in a character like Vikirnoff. I am giving this a 4 because I love the Dark Series and was so happy to see Michael and Gregori briefly. I doubt if this one will get read over and over like some of the others. This book was a wonderful Promise that is not fully fulfilled.

I was so engaged by this novel. I've read all previous Dark novels and this one rates as one of my favourites, along with Dark Challenge and Dark Legend.
There are more action scenes in this novel than Feehan's previous works but I didn't feel that the romance angle was lacking in any way. The action held me in suspense and the developing storyline of the mages was absorbing. If your interested in equal parts romance and fantasy, you'll love it. If your more of a romance buff, then other novels in the series might interest you a little more. Me, I love the combination of action packed fantasy and romance and can't wait to see where Feehan takes the series in future.

I love the dark series and I can't wait for the next one. This book wasn't like the others in the series but I feel it was just as good. You learned more of fight between the hunter and the hunted. I hope Christine doesn't stop writing these book I would be lost. My husband thinks I'm a nut case because I reread her books from time to time.

One of the things I love most about the Dark Series is that while each book stands alone, each also contributes to the world Feehan has created and to an overarching story/mystery plot that continues from one book to the next.

I loved Natalya. She was a fresh, sassy, [...] heroine with some really cool powers of her own. Vikirnoff was the perfect foil for her.

I loved the deepening of the mystery, the added glimpses into ancient Carpathian history, and it only makes sense they would have an ancient language of their own.

The action scenes were not at all boring - each was fascinating and each was different than anything we've ever seen before in a Dark book. At last, we're getting closer to getting answers to a mystery that has been building for years. Who is behind the Morrison agency...why are the Carpathians having such difficulty bearing children and keeping them alive.

Overall, I found this a fresh and fascinating edition to my favorite romance series.