"Finally, the story of the first female vampire hunter!"
This, the latest book in the Dark saga, will reel readers
in, be they new or old fans. Also, Ms. Feehan introduces a
new kind of heroine, her first ever, female vampire hunter. Destiny is a rarity in the Carpathian world. She is a
female vampire hunter, which before now was absolutely
unheard of in their society. At a very young age, her
family had been horrifically murdered by the hated
vampire, and she was kidnapped, brutalized and converted
by him. As a result, she has always felt alone in the
world, soiled and ruined as a result of her experiences.
Except for him... Nicolae is an ancient, sent out centuries ago to hunt the
undead, the vampires, those of their race who lost all
hope and turned to the bad as a result. He was on the
brink of losing his hold in the world and turning himself,
when a powerful connection to a young girl in agony saved
him. He taught her everything he knew about hunting
vampires, giving her the power and control she needed to
keep herself alive and sane. Nicolae and Destiny finally come face to face when he
finds her and rescues her from a vampire ambush. As a
result of the tragedies she lived through as a child,
Destiny trusts no one, especially Nicolae, whom she at
first believes to be a vampire. He can do no other then
protect her, his lifemate, as it is ingrained into all
Carpathian men from birth. When it becomes apparent that
Destiny's town is about to become a battlefield between
Carpathians and vampires, Destiny and Nicole have to fight
what could very well be a fight to the death, to rescue
the people they have come to love. Will they succeed and
will Destiny finally be able to overcome her past? This story is different then the previous books in the
series, with a darker feel. Destiny is mentally and
physically scarred from her conversion by a vampire and
her battles to destroy them. She believes she is unclean,
contaminated, and will never be good enough for her kind.
Nicolae has always been powerful and never loses a battle.
It tears him up inside that he can't help Destiny win her
emotional battles, or take them upon himself and spare her
the misery. Though it contradicts his very nature, he
knows what she needs to be whole again. As always, the author expands on the world she has
created, introducing new aspects previously unknown to
readers. There are even a few sideline stories, which will
interest, and maybe even answer a few questions, fans have
long wondered about. One will experience many different
emotions while reading, from tears of happiness to tears
of sorrow, pleasure and pain, anger and joy. One will also
love to see new characters who may later get their own
stories?, as well as some returning favorites. However, for this reviewer, in spite of some appealing
details and plot lines, this story just did not captivate
as previous books have done. There were a couple sub-
plots, which felt unnecessary to the story, though their
intended purpose was evident. It just seems the reasons
for them could have been handled in another way through
the main story line. It felt like this particular sub-plot
could have been completely removed and the story would
have been no worse off for it. Also, some of the new
details and vivid descriptions of some aspects of
Destiny's conversion and subsequent suffering were too
unbelievable for this reviewer to fully appreciate them. One other thing about this story which didn't sit well
with this reviewer, was some of the writing itself. There
were so many sentence fragments and one-word sentences
through the entire book that it became very distracting.
Whether this is a new situation or an old one that was not
really noticed before, or just the need for more editing,
it took away from the story. It is apparent that this
writing style was used for a reason, possibly to give the
feel of stream-of-consciousness and thoughts of the
characters. Where this worked fine for the dialogue and
for the internal thinking and conversing of the characters
as it suited how they'd be thinking, it just did not work
at all for the narrative portions of the story. All in all, a passable story for the series, and likely it
was just a "bump in the road" for the author, with future
books to be back to what one has come to expect from a
story by Ms. Feehan.
Reviewed by Kelley Hartsell
Courtesy Love Romances
Posted August 10, 2004
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