Customer Reviews

Dark Desire

5 star:		(97)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Fighting to survive unendurable torment, Jacques Dubrinsky's shattered mind manages to establish a connection with a stranger. A woman who might be able to save him, or who may be the cause of his agony. American surgeon Shea O'Halloran feels compelled to travel the thousands of miles to the Carpathian mountains, where she discovers a being like none she has ever known. In her desperate race to save Jacques, Shea must face the truth about what he is and about herself. Christine Feehan has given us another can't- put- it -down page turner with Dark Desire, the second book in her series about a race of people who face extinction and are hunted as vampires. I was pulled deep into the emotional impact of Jacques' destructive madness from page one. The relationship between Jacques and Shea reminded me of the Beauty and the Beast story. He desperately needs her but at the same time is dangerous to her, and she is drawn to him in spite of the fact that she knows it may lead to her destruction. Not for the faint of heart, this book does contain some graphic violence and some pretty hot romance. A very well written, entertaining story that I highly recommend.

"Dark Desire" is the second book in Christine Feehan's Carpathian series. This novel stands alone and it is not necessary to read the first book to appreciate this one - although I think you will enjoy it more if you do. Carpathians are a unique race of beings, originating in Romania's Carpathian Mountains, who have existed since humans first inhabited the earth. They are definitely not vampires. They are, however, a different race than man, gifted with the ability to change shape, fly, and move faster than the eye can see - and also able to communicate through both telepathy and language. Acquiring sustenance from human and/or animal blood, they do not kill or turn people into vampires. Carpathians mate for life but since the females rarely live to adulthood, and their childrens' mortality rate is high, not many males are able to find a female suitable for a lifemate....or any female at all. The women provide the light to the males' darker side. After 200 years, the Carpathian male loses all human feelings, unless he has a mate. The race is dying out and many males, having lived for centuries without wives, often choose to end their existence or turn rogue, (vampire), in despair.

Jacques Dubrinsky, a brooding and once powerful Carpathian, was betrayed to vampire hunters who tortured and imprisoned him in chains where he has remained for seven years. His memory gone, Jacques' shattered mind reaches out in agony and finally manages to establish a connection with dedicated American surgeon Shea O'Halloran. His voice haunts her dreams and finally she feels compelled to find his place of imprisonment and try to save his life. Her compassion, courage and ability to love will return Jacques to sanity and restore his memory if anything or anyone is able. Shea has a rare blood disease and needs constant blood transfusions to remain alive.

Shea does find Jacques but they are both in terrible danger. They must deal with Jacques' past and also Shea's - which is much more unusual than she knows. Also, the evil men, and vampire, who originally tried to take Jacques' life are hot on their trail, as are his Carpathian family. They believed he was dead and now want to help both Jacque and Shea.

This is an extremely exciting and imaginative novel. The romance is sensual and scorchingly hot, but violent at times - remember, Jacques is not quite sane at first - also the descriptions of his torture are graphic. Ms. Feehan brings back characters from her first Carpathian novel and introduces others. These creatures, (beings?), are wonderful - certainly enough so that most women would offer up their necks without a qualm. Highly recommended. I can't wait to read the next Carpathian novel.

JANA

My sister introduced me to the first book in the series, Dark Prince. I was the one to find Dark Desire on the shelves, and I bought two copies and rushed directly to my sister's house to give her one of them.

Jacques is a man teetering on the brink of insanity after years of torment. Shea is a brilliant surgeon with an endless supply of compassion and a lifetime of loneliness, struggling to find the cure for a blood disorder that will eventually claim her life. She is the one person who can keep him from madness, the other half of his soul. He is the one person who can end her loneliness and provide her the unswerving, unconditional love she both needs and fears.

Christine Feehan has created a fascinating world, filled with drama, passion, and characters that grab your interest and hang on. The Carpathian life mate bond is an intense merging of souls, wonderfully depicted by Ms. Feehan's talented pen. What woman could resist the idea of a gorgeous man who will love her unconditionally, for all eternity, putting her life and happiness before his own?

Whether you're a fan of vampire romance or not, this series is not to be missed for romance readers who love intense, passionate, emotional reads. I can't wait for the next installment.

Good job, Ms. Feehan!

Whew! I must say that after reading Dark Prince, I could not wait for the next installment of intense passion. Even though I was--and still am--anxiously awaiting Gregori's story, I do not regret reading Jacques and Shea's story. Among other things, I appreciated the way Ms. Feehan set up the beginnings of the relation between Gregori and his future bride.

In Dark Desire, Mikhail's brother Jacques is teetering on the brink of insanity after suffering innumerable wounds, being left for dead, and buried for years. He establishes a telepathic connection with Shea, a human American doctor. Shea doesn't know why she is being followed by mysterious men, but she hears Jacques' call and eventually goes in search of him. She finds this animalistic, riveting "man" and gets him on the way to recovery, but slowly realizes that her relationship with him is getting weirder by the minute. Together, Jacques and Shea must deal with his tenuous grip on reality, her acceptance of Carpathians, their intensely passionate bond, and being hunted by vampire killers.

I loved both leading characters. Shea's scientific outlook makes it believable that she wouldn't totally lose her mind when confronted with the differences between Carpathians and humans, and that she could accept the existence of an entirely new species. The idea that Jacques is so detached from everything around him that Shea is his only reality, and only interest, was immensely seductive to me. His need for her is mental as well as physical, and he has the possessiveness of a caveman. His reactions and motivations are purely primal, which again I found incredibly appealing.

With the Carpathians series, Ms Feehan does a wonderful job of re-introducing readers to the basic, instinctive rapport between male and female. Sensual heat radiates from every chapter, and leaves one lying in bed at night hungering for more.

The sequel to Dark Prince was everything I had hoped for and more. Jacques, the egotistical brother to DP's hero Mikhail and a very likable character, was tortured, staked through the chest (but not the heart), and left locked in a coffin in the basement of an abandoned cottage for seven years. In all that time, his only tie to sanity was a tenuous mental link across the ocean with another woman, one he believes to be his traitor but is his lifemate. Shea O'Halloran, an American doctor, doesn't know the dreams she's been having for years are about a real man until she finds him locked in a coffin with a stake through the chest in the Carpathian mountains. She feels drawn to this man whom she believes has the same blood disease she does, but as she tries to help this tortured man who claims she is his life mate she comes across the secret to her own past. I really, really loved the hero in this book. Christine Feehan had taken the tortured hero to a new level, yet let us retain our pity and adoration for him. Jacques is the epitome of a tortured hero, and those who read the previous book may feel more deeply the loss of the funloving yet sarcastic brother. The heroine is strong as well; she has to be to be able to put up with/recuperate the tortured Jacques. We also get a glimpse at the previous characters and get some ideas on future book characters. I very much recommend this book, whether you like vampire romances or not.

There are not many authors whose subsequent books are as good as the first. This author does it hands down in Dark Desire. The sexual tension is descriptive and riveting and the portrayal of a male who will always love you and put you first is impossible to resist. I liked it that the personalities of Jacques and Shea are totally different, as well as their emotional needs are different than those characters of Dark Prince. There was enough to tie in the previous book and keep the story flowing, as well as information to lead to new books. It was exciting to see Jacques as more animalistic and almost out of control and Shea act as his anchor; how as his lifemate, even when his emotions were off the deep end from his torture, he still couldn't hurt her and recognized her as his lifemate even when he wasn't all there. I am looking forward to the stories of Byron and more so of Gregori. I can't wait to get more books by this author.

After reading Feehan's first book in the series, Dark Prince, I did not think it would be as good but I was wrong! Dark Desire definitely measured up to it's predecessor. The book had the right blend of everything: growth between the characters, steamy love scenes, action and even homor in various places. I was surprised when I found out who the hero was, because he was such a changed character from the first book, but Feehan pulls it off nicely and more importantly believably! Definitely do yourself a favor and read the series by order of book, you will be less puzzled by the references made. This book was great!

P.S. For those who loved her first books, her next in the Carpathian saga will be out in April, entiltled Dark Gold.

I really like the Dark series by Feehan and have now read several of the books in her series, but it's just all getting a litle bit old. Dark Desire started out promising and just fell flat on its face. For one, the females are always complaining and throwing up excuses about their lost independence and the repulsion having to take blood to survive. Quit your whining! I am also tired of the constant reinforcement of how the Carpathian males are little more than beasts who must have their lifemates to survive. The cliches and overused phrases are also becoming a bother, such as "black velvet voice" and Gregori's "molten mercury eyes", and the "stark possessiveness" in the Carpathian males' glances. I was glad that in this novel that Ms. Feehan limited the number of sex scenes which have run rampant in her other books. Also, the battles with the vampires are so built up throughout the novel, and then at the end, there is such an anticlimax that the reader can't help but feel deflated. I must stress that I really do like the concept of the series, but it's all getting too repetitive, even with the introduction of the "lost" Carpathians in Dark Challenge, Dark Fire, etc. Ms. Feehan needs to breathe new life into this series, because it could be so much more original.

Run, don't walk to get this book. A must read for fans of paranormal romance. Erotic, and seductive, Dark Desire draws you in and doesn't let you go until the last page is read. Two tormented individuals, one carrying physical and mental scars thanks to his torturers, and the other carrying emotional scars from her childhood. Their struggle and how they heal each other will keep you enthralled. Ms. Feehan, keep writing, and I promise to keep on reading about those sexy, dark, dangerous Carpathian males, and the spunky women who tame them. Can't wait to read the rest of the series.

Also, recommend Dark Prince.

I realize that many others have different favorites among the Dark books. In terms of a feisty heroine (one who actually stands up to the hero), DARK GUARDIAN is much better. In terms of a truly tortured (mentally) hero who becomes a passionate lover, some prefer DARK MAGIC. I however consider this story - that of Jacques (younger brother of Mikhail, in DARK PRINCE) and a half-human half-Carpathian doctor Shea - to be the best in the ouevre.

This is an unusual book in more ways than one. The heroine's identity - that her father is Carpathian and her mother a human (who was *not* converted) - is one. Shea is also a very gifted doctor, and of course a psychic human female. One who also needs to drink blood, but cannot bring herself to do so, so she survives with frequent transfusions. The hero is a truly tormented hero, in that we meet him at the very lowest point of his life. He has been tortured and locked into a coffin, where he has somehow survived physically but with his mental powers and his sanity largely gone. [Did I mention that this book in particular is not for the squeamish?]. Shea rescues him from the coffin only to have him turn on her and nearly kill her. Even when he claims her as his lifemate, he is capable of inflicting pain on her - not something that we expect from the usual Carpathian hero. Jacques of course is not in full control of his sanity. And both he and Shea are in serious danger - from a betrayer among the Carpathians and from a group of humans hunting vampires and Carpathians alike.

For those wondering - Carpathians are not vampires. Vampires are Carpathians who have "turned", who have chosen to experience the brief rush of power when they kill rather than destroy themselves when the temptation is great. And the temptation is great indeed. Without a lifemate, male Carpathians lose emotions and their ability to see in color some 200 years into their long lives. Without a lifemate, male Carpathians are in danger of turning. And virtually no female Carpathians are being born. There is quite an imbalance in the sex-ratio, and the entire race seems doomed.

This was not a very easy book to read. There seemed to be less purple prose in it however, and the plot was dramatic enough. I kept wondering if Jacques would ever regain his sanity, if he would also regain the mental link to others of his kind. And I also wondered if Shea would adapt successfully to life as a Carpathian, given her resistance to drinking blood (if only from her lifemate). And for once, the confrontation between the villain of the book and the hero (Jacques) made sense. The villain was not easy to kill for many many reasons, even after his identity had been discovered.<P...P>Rating = 4.6 (A)

Breakdown = romance A- (4.5); characterization A (4.7); plot development A (4.8); writing A- (4.4)