Dark Storm

In the twentieth book of the Dark/Carpathian series, Riley Parker and her mother travel to the Andes (not the Carpathian Mountains as the blurb mistakenly states) every five years to perform a binding spell on a particular mountain. Since Rileys father just recently died and both she and her mom are still grieving, they arrive later than usual. That proves problematic since the mountain is actually a once-dormant volcano thats now ready to blow.

Carpathian hunter Dax and his mortal vampire enemy Mitro have been trapped beneath the volcano for centuries. Mitro had betrayed his lifemate Arabejila, became a vampire, and killed a lot of innocent people. Dax and Mitro were evenly matched, unable to kill one another, so Arabejila trapped them both beneath the volcano. Now, Arabejilas descendents must return to strengthen the bonding spell to keep Mitro, and unfortunately Dax as well, in the ground. Finally, the men escape and head straight to Riley, Arabejilas last descendant.

Riley and Dax got along amazingly well, but they didnt even met until the end of chapter eight, over 100 pages in. Hes not an over-the-top alpha and is accepting of Riley of who she is. She isnt a warrior woman, but has a strong affinity for healing the earthwhich is a common trait for Carpathian females. Riley, however, is more human than Carpathian but apparently very powerful. Dax, likewise, has evolved while sleeping in the earth and isnt a normal Carpathian anymore. There is very little drama, angst, or frustration with this H/h. They were of the same mind on almost every subject, which made their relationship a little boring.

Dax and Riley are new characters to the series, not mentioned in any prior books. Sure, previous secondary characters returnI love Gary and Jubalbut I just dont understand why Ms Feehan wrote about this particular couple without first introducing at least one of them in another story.

There are unanswered questions. Mitro was sick in the head, obviously, but how could he really betray Arabejila and become a vampire (a female lifemate is light to the males darkness, which is supposed to balance each other out)? How did Arabejila survive without him since their souls were bonded? How is Riley connected to Arabejila? Did Arabejila have a child with another man, a human? Also, how is Mitro a Daratrazanoff and related to Gregori, Lucien, and the others?

The scenery, as always, was intricately described, right down to a little bug in the gorgeous jungle. Ive become accustomed to such description in the series and usually skim over it.

3 Stars

I have the complete series so you know these are these are some of my favorite escape books. That being said this is the worst of the Dark series. At the very beginning heroic characters from the previous books make an appearance and just stand by and shrug their shoulders when the women in the story need help. Really? In any other book they would have been johnny -on- the-spot with a rescue! They really should not have been included. All of the series has to be read like fairy tales but this one read like someone else wrote it. It was the least readable and seemed to not be a Carpathian tale at all. It did introduce one element that will be used in later stories, so you might want to read it just for that so you won’t be scratching your head in later books going “huh where did that come from?”

Another favorite of mine. I really didnt have any problems with it, not how long it took them to meet, her reaction to him, how long it took for them to kill the vampire or how long it took for the conversion.

I will admit that the cover is a little busy but it is beautiful nonetheless.

The writing in this book was excellent, I could picture everything the author described, and I will say that some of it was gory.

This vampire isnt like any of the others that Ive read about so far and if he had teamed up with the remaining Malinov brothers? They might be unbeatable. Of course, this was a vampire from a very well known and powerful line and when I first read this, I was shocked when his name came up. I guess I didnt really pay attention to the blurb when I first read it because its pretty obvious without mentioning the name that hes a Daratrzanoff.

This vampire was very cunning and I loved the way he was written, instead of using the same old tricks that the readers have become used too, its a whole different game here.

I loved the way the couple was, her reaction upon meeting him and how sweet he was, I was very happy with these two and how their relationship progressed.

I wonder if Riley is from Syndils bloodline, it isnt exactly covered in the books so far but since she isnt Dragonseeker, it makes sense. And whats going on with Jubal and Jasmine? Maybe theres a book in the distant future? Im not really sure how I feel about those two, Jasmine hasnt really been in many books so Im not as connected with her as I am with Jubal. And even though shes quite pregnant, its only been months since her ordeal with the jaguar men, wouldnt she still be wary around other men now?

All-in-all, I really loved this book and I would really love to see Dax and Riley again in another book, see how hes getting along in modern society.

Having read the review entitled ‘lacklustre’ I was not quite sure what to expect when I read this book, however, while I agree that this book is not as pacey or action packed as some of the other Carpathian books and the main characters’ personal histories are not as well developed, it deserves more than two stars. The main female character in the book, Riley, is a linguistics professor and is travelling in the Amazon jungle with her mother to complete a ritual which will keep ‘a great evil’ contained within the local volcano. Riley and her mother Annabel are descendants of a Carpathian woman and a now extinct aboriginal people called the ‘Cloud People’ and this ritual has been completed by them and their ancestors roughly 100 times in the last 500 years. Gary Jansen and Jubal Sanders (Joie’s brother) also play major roles in this book and their characters help to establish the timeline. The other main characters are Dax, a Carpathian hunter, and Mitro Daratrazanoff, the vampire. Both of them have been trapped in the volcano, Dax willingly, by Riley’s ancestor for about 500 years. Obviously Mitro manages to escape and there are the usual vampire tricks and battles etc., with a few new twists thrown in for good measure. Riley’s powers are a bit different and Dax is not as dominating as some of the other male Carpathian’s have been. All in all it doesn’t move the Carpathian race’s story on a lot further, but it’s not the first time Chrisitne Feehan has decided to write a mostly stand alone story in the series. Personally, I think that if you are a regular Christine Feehan Carpathian reader you will enjoy it as a lighter Carpathian read. If you have never read her before, definitely start at the beginning of the series with Dark Prince as this is one of the best books in the series.

The reason why i love this book so much, and probably the reason why others will hate it, is because it is so different from what Feehan usually writes. I have found that Feehan’s writing and how she writes her books have caused them to become more of a chore to read but Dark Storm seemed like it had been written by another writer and Dax seemed to be different from any hunter we have previously come across but he was so likable to me, not so forceful but more sweet and understanding.

I will admit this book takes some time to get into with Riley and Dax not meeting until about 40% in but the story is still interesting and engaging and when they do meet it is so sweet and i love the Old One, Riley was also a suprise with her being human but having powers that rival a Carpathians. I also like how we see a lot of old characters and i really hope Jubal and Jasmine could get together, they were really sweet with eachother.

I would say if you love Feehan’s previous novel you will probably not like this one as it is so different, but it is still a must read for the series as we are given more insight into finding out why it is so hard for Carpathians can have babies.

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