Dark Carousel

Finally, I’m beginning to get thoroughly back into this Dark series. The last few (too many) main books have been rather disappointing, with the male Carpathians being abusive and cruel partners. In this book, we see a Carpathian male who has accepted a more modern and independent American woman for his Lifemate. I’m pleased with the move of the storyline to the United States, because the Hunters there seem a bit more open-minded than some of the Carpathian ones.

This story brings back memories of Falcon, because the children play a major role. Unfortunately, the children are targeted by the Vampires. Their torture is sad and disturbing. Helping the main characters are various other Carpathians, including the ones from “Dark Crime”, as well as several “Ancients” from the monastery featured in “Dark Promises” (who are in the U.S. searching for their lifemates).

This book, unlike so many of her recent books, has a nice balance between sex and Vampire fights. It has brought back not only the romance between Lifemates, but it has also reintroduced their love of children and family. I think that this large ‘Family’ complex in the United States (especially if Andre, Gabby, and the rest from Dark Promises travel there) will open up a fresher plotline and more modern environment for the noble Carpathians.

I hope that this trend continues, because I’m a fan of this series and I want to, again, look eagerly and impatiently forward to the next installment–which I haven’t recently been able to do.

I’ll admit, after reading Dark Ghost and Dark Promises and being thoroughly disappointed, I was hesitant to continue with a series I once loved. Where before I bought the latest Dark release on the day of and read it the same day, it took me over a year to finally crack open Dark Carousel. I’m glad I did. With this book, and Dark Crime before it, Ms. Feehan was back to what I loved about the series originally, a great story filled with conflict and suspense. Yes, it has the usual sex scenes, but it wasn’t filled with just those scenes as Dark Ghost and Dark Promises were. There was the story, conflict, and fighting against Vampires who want to bring the Carpathians down.

Dark Carousel is reminiscent of the three books, Dark Lycan, Dark Wolf, and Dark Blood. The intense story took precedent over the sex, while still telling the love story of the lifemates. It is what I love about Ms. Feehan’s writing and sadly missed over the few books between Dark Blood and this one. I will add, I did enjoy Dark Crime, as it too contained the same as Dark Carousel, but was a bit too short for my liking. I would have liked more of a story in that one, but it was still satisfying even at its length.

Thank you, Ms. Feehan, for getting back to the stories I had come to love. I don’t know what happened in those couple of books, but you found your way back to telling the story that originally drew me, and so many others, in and turned us into fans.

Ive been reading this series for over 10years and so Ive followed the trend of how theyve gotten somewhat less good than they used to be. This is in line with that deterioration BUT its not as bad as it could be or as bad as some of the books in this series have been in the recent past.
First of all, Im a huge and loyal Christine Feehan fan. Ive read all her books and continue to read them as she releases them, never writing her off, even when theyre massively disappointing. I think in this novel, Christine Feehan is back on the right track. Yes, Im MASSIVELY over the seemingly endless Malinov Brothers vampires story arch and the increasingly deliberate use of the Carpathian language in the novel without always explaining what is meant continues to be something I could definitely do without, but at least this is not a book 75% filled with Carpathian songs and chants, at least all that has been relegated to the appendices where it belongs. This is not also one lazy, disturbing sexcapade masking as a fantasy romance novel which we have been subjected to in the past in this series, so again, not that bad.
Character-wise, I really liked what CF has been doing with making strong, kickass heroines in recent books with Blaze and now with Charlotte, and whilst I dont mind the caveman Feehan Dark series heroes, its nice from time to time to have an evolved hero like Tariq.
Just as an aside, with the amount of Dark heroes still floating around lifemateless, I think CF might need to look into doing a few more twofers like she did in Dark Promises otherwise, we might be at this endlessly.

This is not just Charlotte and Carpathian Tariq’s story but so much more. There’s an whole host of new, intriguing characters for future books in the mix, so don’t expect this series to end any time soon.
And the plot? YES, we do have one! It isn’t pages and pages of repetitive sex, (although this is Feehan, so there are some ‘heated’ scenes!) The plot and storyline is classic Feehan! It’s extremely dark and emotional, deeply compelling and magical. Even those of us who have little imagination are taken to the twisted, evil depths of the vampire, and the glorious eternal love between lifemates.
I would rate this book back up there with her earlier works. (Thank God!) Previous books, (and not just in this series,) have been void of any remotely good storyline or even likable characters…THIS is definitely back on track. I hope the author hasn’t lost too many reader fans, (myself almost included,) to poor writing over the past couple of years.
However, having said all that, is it really necessary to print the extra 40 odd pages for the ‘healing chant’ and the ‘Carpathian language’??? Does anyone actually read that???
Overall, a much, much, MUCH improved read of late and would recommend. Not for the faint hearted though!

This was incredibly frustrating. I love Christine Feeghan’s books, and the Carpathian series in particular, but this book was somewhat ruined by the mistakes. There were a few different typos but one was particularly bad. The word “gift” is mistyped throughout as “jpgt” and she uses this word A LOT. It’s odd. It’s as though someone has done a ‘search and replace’ for the word gif (as in the type of file) and replaced it with the word jpg (a different file type). Why on earth someone would do that in a novel is beyond me.

Christine Feehan is very good at weaving a story in a way that draws you in. Unfortunately, in this book, the typos keep pulling you back out of the story. It was incredibly jarring.

What is particularly annoying is that Christine Feehan is a big name with a traditional publisher (who has a budget for editing and proofreading). There is no excuse for the poor quality in this book. Particularly when I see complaints in other reviews and still nothing has been fixed.

I’m glad I didn’t spend 9.99 on this (I refuse to pay so much for an ebook) and waited until the price came down.

The story itself was good, and I loved Tariq. Typos aside, I thought the book was well-written and engaging. I just wish the editing had been of the same quality. To me, the fault lies with the publisher rather than the author who has been badly let down. I hope the publisher takes more care with the next book.

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