Dark Wolf

I wanted to forget the major percentage of the happenings in the books. I wanted to wait and come back to the series to see if I was over the frustrations I’d been feeling about how it’s all played out.
Still frustrated. Still not sure why it’s continuing. Still lost as to when Ms Feehan developed into a formula writer.
So many things are the same book to book. So many things in the books are repeated four times easily in the same span of a paragraph.
The men are still over controlling borderline abusive (Aside from being sparkly Edward Cullen fits in here too) and they always have a situation to use as a fall back plan for placing blame on everything and everyone else. The women still continue to Bella Swann it up and being “ok just fine loving it” when the blame is basically put on them.
Then we have the always present “hey we’re in danger there’s a war on we’re gonna get killed soon” knob polishing. In the middle of serious stuff oh hey im a total kind of own myself girl but let me let you force all kinds of cray cray and even with the abuse I was dealt no problem I’ll bend over and be happy for it.
I loved her work in the dark series for the longest time. Who was the guy that absorbed volcano aspects …mated to Riley? Dax? Yeah that one kind of lost me and soured my joy. It just went out there and spun around for a bit too long story wise…
In my rereading im on dark blood. I was ecstatic up to page 150. I thought her original style of the series was right there. To a point it is….then the danger hits they’re being hunted. She does the frail made ‘make me yours’ and in the middle of being hunted hey let’s stop so you can loose your virginity! C’mon!
You are no where near anything like Danielle Steele. You’re better. I miss the original zest. There’s just no connection for the majority of each story past Dark Slayer. I hope we find you again soon.

Since so many others posted such great comments about their disappointment in Ms Feehan’s recent writing of the “Dark” series books; I will say that I totally agree with them. Besides so many of their comments were worded better than what I could have said. So I will just add a few of my comments to the fact the I so anxiously awaited Skylar and Dimitri’s story because Ms Feehan had built such a great character connection buildup between Skylar’s and Dimitri’s storyline throughtout her previous books; I was jumping for joy and was hoping their story was going to be as good or better than Rafael and his lifemate in Dark Secret book. Talk about being shocked and let down. I felt like someone punched me in the gut; my disappointment hit me that hard. The Skylar and Dimitri in this book were like two different characters altogether. IMO they were not the people the author had wrote about with such verve and passion in the buildup of their characters in her previous books when they were mentioned in the storyline. As a result I have backed off purchasing a Dark series books from Ms Feehan. The only one I have purchased was Dark Ghost. I started reading it, but stopped simply because it became too confusing to me and I started coming across spelling errors. I will just go back a start reading from the beginning with Dark Prince, Dark Magic and Dark Secret, etc. At least those books had great in your face and heart storylines. Plus I simply can’t afford to buy these books anymore, especially since when they are such letdown.

In the twenty-second book of the Dark/Carpathian series, Skyler Daratranzanoff enlists her two best friends, Josef and Paul, to help her track down and rescue her missing lifemate, Dimitri. The Lycans captured him two weeks earlier, and no onenot her adopted parents or the prince of the Carpathian peopleare keeping her informed of the situation. Desperate to save him, she and her friends go to Russia and run afoul of a dangerous military-trained Lycan pack.
Dimitri Tirunul is more than just an ancient Carpathian warrior. After centuries of sharing blood with his half-Lycan/half-Carpathian brother Fen, he now has Lycan blood running through his body. The Lycan species calls mixed bloods Sange rau and the fanatics want to kill them all, so they kidnapped and tortured Dimitri. Meanwhile, the Lycan council is visiting Mikhail, the prince, in hopes of establishing an alliance between the two species.
Like most fans of the series, Ive been looking forward to this story for years, ever since Dark Celebration came out. Dimitri and Skyler have been lifemates for the past three years, but he hasnt claimed her in the way of his people. After all, she was only 16 when they met, but shes grown up a lot in the past few years. She had suffered much physical, emotional, and sexual abuse as a child, so she wasnt ready for a relationship with a man. Dimitri understood that and gave her time, all the while getting to know her and becoming friends. Even though he risked his life and soul to give her time, he remained honorable and put her needs before his own, as all Carpathian males should do with their lifemates.
Dimitri is an amazing person and respects Skyler for who she is. Hes not controlling, insanely jealous, or demanding as some other heroes are in this series. He accepts her male friends and considers them his friends, which few Carpathian warriors are capable of doing for their women.
Skyler wants to move past her trauma, but feels shell never be strong enough or good enough for Dimitri. Despite her doubts, shes a powerful healer and psychic, and the perfect match for her mate.
I loved all the scenes with Skyler, Josef, and Paul. Even though they goof off and play, and the elder Carpathians consider them children, theyre really adults and powerful in their own right. Josef is especially wonderful, but feels unwanted, expendable, and a burden to his family. Luckily, he realizes how wrong he is.
I definitely enjoyed the scenes with Skyler and her birth father Razvan. Shes kept her distance from him, but shes finally reaching out, wanting to get to know him.
There are a few inconsistencies. Skyler and Razvan are Xaviers great granddaughter and grandson respectively, but twice throughout the book they are called his granddaughter and son. Also, Pauls last name is Chevez (his fathers name), not Jansen (his mothers maiden name), so why is Paul suddenly going by his moms name?
I enjoyed the story, but I had to reread parts of it to figure out what was going on and who was talking or thinking because of all the head hopping. The narrative is repetitive and there are lots of lengthy chants and rituals, which I skimmed over. Zev and Bronnies story is next, so stay tuned for that review.
4 Stars

have looked forward to Skyler’s story since her introduction to the series and felt the story lived up to my expectations. My only complaint is the 20% (according to my Kindle) that is a repeat of the Carpathian chants/ history/ vocabulary that have accomplnnied that last half dozen books- bring an end to them or drop the price 20% to make up for it. I don’t buy 6 copies of any book why would I want 6 copies of a chapter?

I’ve been waiting for this book since I first read Dark Guardian in Gabriel and Francesca’s story, way back in book seven of this series. Skyler came to them as a damaged young girl, but, it seemed, with a pre-destiny to be a lifemate to one of the Carpathian men, who had a link to wolves.

Here we are, eighteen books later, and her story is now being told. We’ve met Skyler and Dimitri in previous books and due to Skyler’s disturbing past as a child sex slave, I always wondered how CF would bring her story out, consider all her books are filled with romance and erotic deeds.

I was a little bit let down that more than anything their story took so long to get going, and Skyler’s connection with Dimitri was talked about so repetitively that I wondered if she’d ever get beyond his rescue–from the scenario set up in Dark Lycan. But after seemingly taking her time for the new couple, considering Skyler’s troubling past, and the fact she was only 19 years old, once the couple reached a certain point it was business as usual. And there was nothing different about them than any other Carpathian couple.

I have loved the Carpathian series ever since I first discovered it, and I have bought every book as and when it was released (in paperback). CF has managed to see her way through some massive plots within the series and cleverly invented new dilemmas to keep challenging the Carpathian race. But I do wonder if now is a good point to break with the series, as despite the new larger plots, the writing in each book; the relationships and the action, all follow the exact same blue print.

With the release of Dark Blood already slated for Sept 2014, I am torn. There’s a taster at the end of Dark Wolf which I have so far refrained from reading. But at the end of this book there’s also all the normal translations and Carpathian culture, which I know from reading other people’s reviews hardly anyone reads and everyone finds frustrating as they want more story rather than lessons in Carpathian. Dark Wolf is no different in this respect either; the story ends abruptly and leave a rather sour taste when you consider there are over 50 pages remaining which could have been used to give us more Skyler and Dimitri.

I am on the brink of falling out of love with this series.

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