Christine Feehan - Dark Prince
On Tuesday, I finished my first book by the author Christine Feehan. The book is titled Dark Prince. Its the first book under her Dark series.
Short synopsis
The story is all about vampires, and another race of people called the Carpathians. And before you ask, the vampires are not the main characters( sorry to disappoint!)
Now the Carpathians are not humans, but also not vampires. they drink blood, can live for a very long time, are adverse towards the sun, and prefer the cover of night but they don't kill for the fun of it, and they can shape shift into many different creatures, not just bats. Carpathian males need to find their lifemate, which must be another Carpathian, in order to feel anything ever again. If they give up hope at finding their mate, they will either kill themselves, or else turn into a vampire. This is because they no longer have any feelings, and killing is the closest they can get to feeling anything at all.
The hero of this story is Mikhail, the prince of the Carpathian race and the leader to his people. He is perilously close to turning into a vampire, and have decided to end his own life before that happens. Unexpectedly, a female psychic heard his thoughts and felt his despair, and intervened before Mikhail could carry through with his decision.
Surprised at the human woman's psychic link to him, Mikhail went in search for her and that's when he realized that she, a human, is his lifemate. How can he know that? That's because for the first time in a very long time, Mikhail is looking out into the world in colour. The woman's name is Raven.
Now, of course, a romance story would not be complete is there is no sexual tension thrown into the picture. That is also another one of the signs that a Carpathian male has found his mate. His sexual appetite, which would have disappeared over the eons, would suddenly return, and in full force.
So it is with Mikhail when he saw Raven. Of course, they had to face a lot of obstacles before they finally got together. Among them is the fact that she is human, while he is almost and immortal. So, there is a struggle on conscience, "should Raven be converted or not?"
Then, there is the threat of the vampires in the life of Mikhail and Raven. You see, the Carpathians are a dying race. This is because there have not been a female infant born into the clan for eons now. So that means they are running out of lifemates for the men in the clan. And as such too, the men are slowly going crazy, turning into vampires and killing themselves.
Anyway, there is the vampire threat, the conversion problem and of course, lots and lots of sexual tension all around between the two leads.
For a happy ending to happen, of course the Carpathians won the day, and love conquered against Mikhail's personal demons(the threat of the vampires, of course! in case you didn't read the above synopsis..hehe..), the decision on the conversion of Raven, and the future of the Carpathians (everyone is putting their hopes in that Raven will conceive a girl for the men of the clan to find as a lifemate~not really a pretty picture. Imagine, their child becoming their friend's wife!~)
Thoughts
The storyline is actually quite interesting as there is much intrigue and chemistry among the characters. However, almost three fourth(3/4) into the book, when the lovebirds have found their connection, I was already waiting for the story to end. I guess for me, the thriller part of the story wasn't engaging enough to pull me along into the whole realm of the story.
The introduction of the various side characters who will of course be having their own stories in the following books under this series are well written. i say this because from just the whole array of the supporting characters, I wasn't able to correctly guess who would be in Book 2. And this keeps the story fresh, because then, even though I'm still not a fan of her books, I will want to pick up the next book in Christine Feehan's Dark series, just to find out who is in the next book.
Now for the main characters. Mikhail is painted as the typical alpha male, and he acts almost like a Neandarthal when he is with Raven, protecting her, surrounding her, stifling her at every turn. Good thing Raven is the (above) average modern woman of the twenty-first century, and doesn't stand for all this testosterone show-play. She stands up to Mikhail at every possible turn and keeps his ego in check. At the same time, Christine Feehan still tries to inject a little fragility into Raven's character. I guess its just natural to do so, since she is after all the female character, and will need to be saved by the hero sometime in the story. I like female characters that have a mind of their own, and the men to be strong and heroic. Just my average, typical love story..haha..
Overall, its an interesting books, with some good twists in the story, and a pretty good build up of the suspense and the sexual energy(the first 2/3 of the story, anyway) between the leads.
If you're a fan of supernatural stories, or vampire-like stories, or alpha male and strong "damsels in distress" stories, then I recommend this book for you. Its a good book to introduce you to Christine Feehan's stories.