Friday, December 23, 2011

DARK PREDATOR by Christine Feehan

Publisher: Berkley Publishing
Date published: September 2011
ISBN: 9780425241974
Hardcover
Paranormal Romance
Reviewed by Tammy
Obtained via Publisher


Christine Feehan’s latest Carpathian novel, DARK PREDATOR, is the long awaited story of Zacarias, the eldest of the five South American De La Cruz brothers. For centuries, Zacarias has hunted vampires, protecting his brothers and all the Carpathian people with only the slim hope of finding his life mate and having his feelings and humanity returned to him. Now that his brothers are mated and happy, Zacarias can take the darkness no more and returns to his family ranch in Peru to end his existence. But then Marguerita finds him and drags him out of the sun. Could his life mate have been living on his ranch and he not know it?

Having read several poor reviews and quite frankly starting to tire of this series, this reader has to admit that my expectations for this book weren’t very good going in. What a pleasant surprise to find that the book centering around one of the most feral and farthest gone Carpathians, has turned out to be one of most heartwarming and interesting stories in the series.

Zacarias is a hardened warrior who has fulfilled his duty to his family. He is all hard edges and determination with a strong sense of honor. Marguerita is unable to speak after narrowly escaping a vampire attack that almost destroyed her throat, yet she seems the perfect match for her Carpathian mate. Although Zacarias has an unusual interest in Marguerita, he initially thinks her a mage out to ensnare him. His confusion really adds some entertaining moments to the story as they struggle with accepting their life mate bond. Unlike so many of the Carpathian novels, the bond this time allows them some time to come to grips with their mating before all the sex scenes start coming.

The only really disappointing thing about DARK PREDATOR is that while in prior books we saw the deep caring the De La Cruz brothers have for each other, in this book we aren’t even treated with Zacarias’ brothers finding out he is mated.

Feehan’s DARK PREDATOR is fast paced, full of complex characters and the scenes with the vampires were interesting and moved along the overall storyline of saving the Carpathian people from near extinction nicely. Though this reader wasn’t expecting to really enjoy this book very much, DARK PREDATOR has shown why Ms. Feehan remains at the top of the best seller lists. This is an author that obviously listens to reader feedback and incorporates it into her writing without losing her vision for her stories. Fans wondering if they should spend their book dollars elsewhere, think again. DARK PREDATOR is well worth the money.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

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