Customer Reviews

Deadly Game

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Before I read Deadly Game, I read the reviews...to say that they are mixed is putting it mildly...so I really didn't know what to expect. What I found really surprised me on a couple of levels.

First, this is a brutal book. There is no sugar coating anywhere in this book. I am a twenty-year military wife. I know what military men are like. My husband still won't talk about most of the things he had to do while he was in the military. I have heard him and his friends talking when they didn't know I could hear them. They are crude. They are raw. They are military. They are soldiers. It has always been amazing to me that my husband could be two different men. My husband and the father of my children, and the soldier...and believe me they in no way resemble each other. Seeing the Ghostwalkers as they are, as they perceive themselves to be, and the way their women look at them is very familiar to me. Being in the military IS brutal...being in the Special Forces is even more so. Feehan apparently knows some soldiers, because hers are quite realistic...maybe too realistic for some readers to handle.

Next, Whitney. I knew he wasn't dead. He couldn't be...because then there would be no nemesis. Whitney is a monster...and some people have a hard time believing that such a monster could exist. I am a psychologist and have been, in my past, a rape counselor. I am not going to go into detail, but suffice it to say that monsters like Whitney do exist. Freaks like the perverted physician in this novel do exist. I have witnessed the aftermath in their victims. Enough said.

Finally, this was a necessary addition to the Game novels. This one is not for the faint of heart. Feehan had to show some reality in this one. Granted, the psychic enhancements are getting a bit out of hand, but showing Whitney's madness was necessary. Just saying he was crazy would not have packed the same punch as reading it in detail. I would be lying if I said that I was comfortable reading the most brutal scenes in this novel...I was not. In fact, I was quite uncomfortable. I can see how many people could not read this novel. It is not for the faint of heart.

One last thing, I would like to say that I am disappointed in the rude and graphic language with which Ms. Feehan is using in her sex/love scenes. I can think of many other words she can use in place of the ones that she has recently begun to use with frequency in all of her novels...not just the Game series. The crudity takes away from the beauty of what can be between two people. I would truly like to see her back away from the crudity and go back to simplicity. That is why I gave this book a 4 instead of a 5.

In closing, I would say that if you are a fan of the Game series, you should read this book. It is ugly. It is brutal. It is crude...but it also gives you a glimpse of what it is truly like in the military(the Ghostwalkers)...what monsters can lurk within even the stillest of waters (Jack, Ken, and really all of the Ghostwalkers)...and how far human depravity can really sink (Whitney). Again, a necessary addition, but it is not a comfortable book to read.

Christine Feehan has done it again, and I admitt I am amazed at her ability to make the Game books better and better. This one is no exception and takes up where CONSPIRACY GAME left off.

Ken Norton is the twin brother of Jack Norton they are members of the elite Ghostwalkers, both are matchless snipers. Jack has settled down with Briony and now Ken encounters Marigold, Briony's twin sister, on a mission. He captures her and intends to bring her to Briony. However, alot of things began to go wrong and they realize there are many plots by DR Whitney that they have to overcome.

Mari is trying to reach a Senator to tell him of the inhumanity paracticed by Dr Whitney. She is captured by Ken and finds herself drawn to the hard, scarred man who is determined to find Whitney and protect her. The scars over all of Ken's body do not in any way repulse Mari. She finds him strangely compelling. But she must return to her sisters, they are being forced to mate with the animalistic men whitney chooses for them.

It seems that Whitney has alot of powerful friends and Ken and Jack are determined to find his compound and rescue the other women held there.

The fight that Ken has to put up with himself is almost as great as the attraction he has for Mari. Two strong willed people fighting for the right to make their own choices. At least now we know Whitney is alive and he is planning something major, what we do not know.

I couldn't put this one down, the action is non stop and the fighting is very well written. You can feel each punch and really adds to the feeling of reality. The romance is hot and heavy and the depth of these characters is what makes this book so appealing.

That is what I think so I encourage you not to miss this one.

I was really looking forward to Ken's story. However, Feehan seemed to concentrate too much on Whitney and setting up his insanity. There wasn't much of a story between Ken and Mari. In Conspiracy Game, the relationship between Jack and Briony was more developed. I was looking forward to Briony being involved and spending more time with her sister, not just one page.

It was a good read, but a bit of a let down.

This book was much better than Conspiracy Game but not quite as good as the first two books of the Ghostwalker series.

Feehan did a great job addressing the hero's scars and the effects of those scars but the love scenes were possibly not to everyone's taste. They were more "raw" than her usual sensual scenes but they were very "real" when considered in conjunction with the damage to Ken's body.

Overall, this book was very gripping - I couldn't put it down until I finished it but it still wasn't the best of the series.

First off; let me say I LOVE Christine Feehan. Her Dark Series is GREAT! However, this series is beginning to bore me. I love the whole premise of the "enhanced" orphange girls and "enhanced" soilders. But Deadly Game just left me saying "not enough action at all"! There was too much musings of self loathing that it just got to be a "downer" and instead of getting over it and moving on they talked, talked, talked and talked, and yes had to talk about it some more. I did understand the reason behind the talking but man, it was just too much! The action did pick up toward the end of the book so it did go out with a bang. I will continue the series; but I am hoping the next book is much better.

Deadly Game is to Feehan's Game series as Dark Secret was to her Dark series. A very intense, somewhat dark tale of love. Sometimes when I'm reading these latest Game books, I'm wondering if I'm actually reading Lora Leigh and her Breed books instead. The similarities in characters and situations are astounding, Leigh just has more frequent love scenes.

This book also had a very intense look into what the female Ghost Walkers have endured. The story took us inside Whitney's lab for about 100 pages, and I felt that this could have been edited down to about 50.

All-in-all, I love Ken and Mari's characters and how their relationship played out. I would have given 5 stars, but the sexual/physical abuse that Mari endured at the lab was too graphic and too dragged out.

I'm extrememly disappointed. If you read Consp. Game (the previous novel) don't bother reading this one. I would have to say 1/3 of this book repeats what has already been said in the previous novel--so why read it all over again? Yeah, yeah, my dad was a real prick, his over-the-top-jealous with my mom, etc. Of course it was a sob story, but it was more of a sob story the first twenty times we had to hear about it.

Second off, what happened to the joking, lovable guy from the first book? Ken was actually likable in Consp. Game, in this one, he's all self-loathing. Sooooorry, but I don't know all that many girls who find that attractive. In case your wondering, another 1/3 of the book was filled with... Oh, woe is me, I'm not good enough for Mari, oh woe, oh woe, oh woe (Am I boring you yet? Because I sure was, after having to read it over and over in the book) oh woe (wait for it, one more) ohhhhh wooooooeee is me.

Third, Feehan must have accidently spilled all the testoterone on the female lead, Mari, because there was only so much I could take of Miss I-can-take-care-of-myself, oh wait, someone come and save me, self. What an unlikable character.

Oh, I'm sorry, were you wondering what the other 1/3 of the book was about? Partially plot and partially discriptions of Mari kissing his scarred body. Absolutely fasinating, yes? NOT!

Returning from the Congo after being brutally tortured, Ken Norton holds onto his humanity by a thread. Though he puts on a fine façade, Ken knows that the only thing that is keeping him sane is his love and loyalty to his brother Jack and his wife, Briony. When Ken and Jack find themselves on a mission that goes horribly wrong, they discover the very person that they've been searching for. Briony's twin sister, Marigold. Though Ken fights his attraction to Mari, he knows that it's hopeless. Ken is determined that he will not repeat the mistakes of his father and is determined to let Mari go after he gets her safe.

Mari's sole reason for living was to keep her sister, Briony, safe. With the insane Dr. Whitney threatening Briony's safety, Mari knows that she'll do anything if only Briony will have a normal life. When she goes on a mission to get political help, Mari is not prepared for the Norton twins. Though she is desperate to finally see her twin sister, Mari refuses to abandon her "sisters" who are held captive at the Whitney compound. After several escape attempts, Mari convinces Ken that she has to go back to help her sisters.

In Conspiracy Game, the reader was lead to believe that Jack was the tortured brother. In DEADLY GAME, we learn that Ken deceived his brother, in fact Ken deceived everyone around him. Ken is convinced that he is more like their father than anyone is aware of. When he's around Mari, he feels the same jealousy and rage that he is sure his father felt for his mother. With Jack trying to convince him that he is not their father and Mari showing him that he does have the capacity to love, Ken questions beliefs he's had his whole life. DEADLY GAME takes the reader into Dr. Whitney's world and his fanatic views on the lives of the GhostWalkers. While you could think this installment of the GhostWalkers would be monotonous, it really is not.

I felt that the last couple books in this series were more about "super" powers and finding Dr. Whitney than on the main two characters and their development and/or emotional growth. This book, however, delves much deeper into both Ken Norton (the more "popular" and personable of the Norton twins) and his very damaged and lonely heart as well as Marigold (Mari) the twin of Byrony, Jack Norton's wife. There also was some more development of Dr. Whitney's character as we begin to see how truly evil and twisted he is.

The book begins with the Norton twin's team sent to protect a senator married to a Ghostwalker, Violet. They are at his hunting cabin and there are dead deer carcasses hanging from the porch, which for me right away set a very grisly scene. The twins and people on their team know there are some other Ghostwalkers there or coming that have been sent to kill the senator. As they wait and Ken very, very slowly sneaks closer to the cabin, he sees a shadow come apparently out of one of the carcasses. He shoots it and then shoots at a sniper on the roof but not killing that person. Ken's team notices the enemy Ghostwalker team is surrounding the injured sniper and Ken gets to the sniper first and stomps on the wrist to stop them from shooting and then realizes it is a woman. Not only a woman but the very one that Jack's wife has sent them after!! Her twin sister Marigold!! She is badly injured with a broken leg from the fall plus a couple gunshots and now the broken wrist. Ken scoops her up and with his team's help dodges the enemy team as they take her to a helicopter for evacuation.

Many questions are asked and answered as Ken seeks to find out what the other team was doing at the senator's cabin, why Mari is a part of it and where she has been, how is this all connected with Dr. Whitney and finally, why he has these extremely strong and possessive feelings about Marigold.

We learn more about Ken's suffering in the Congo and how very badly scarred he is all over his body plus more what it was like for Mari growing up as a soldier.

I enjoyed the story and the only thing I hated was that the cover has a picture/drawing of a man with just ONE measly little scar!! That is NOT at all close to how Ms. Feehan describes Ken's face but I suppose an actualy drawing of that might have scared off some readers. I would rather they left the picture out in that case.

Recommended.

I really enjoy these Ghostwalker books and it was good but could have been better.

Ken was a great tortured bad boy hero, but I don't think he went all that well with Mari. Here you have a women who not only has been repeated raped and beaten as part of a "breeding" program but has also been completely controlled and manipulated since she was a child. So it is hard to accept that what she feels for Ken is not just pheromones and that her soul mate is a controlling man who only get sexual satisfaction through rough sex. If you can get past that, it is a typical action packed ghostwalker read, with more parts of the conspiracy coming to light.

The resolution at the end was quick and a bit disappointing, I thought that the author had set up perfectly to leave the reader hanging and lead into her next book. In fact I was totally prepared. Instead she gave the reader quick gratification and the predictable ending.