Review: Dark Desire by Christine Feehan

Title: Dark Desire
Author: Christine Feehan
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Grade: C

Plot summary yoinked from The Barns and Noble website: The stranger silently summons her from across the continents, across the seas. He
whispers of eternal torment, of endless hunger…of dark, dangerous desires. And
somehow American surgeon Shea O’Halloran can feel his anguish, sense his haunting
aloneness, and she aches to heal him, to heal herself. Drawn to the far Carpathian
mountains, Shea finds a ravaged, raging man, a being like no other. And her soul
trembles. For in his burning eyes, his icy heart, she recognizes the beloved stranger
who’s already become part of her. This imperious Carpathian male compels Shea to
his side. But is she to be his healer…or his prey? His victim…or his mate? Is
he luring her into madness…or will his dark desire make her whole?

The Good: This one actually started out pretty engagingly. Shea is a brilliant surgeon who’s had a pretty shitty existance because her mother was depressed and withdrawn and actually didn’t give a shit about her. But during her medical school days one night, she experiences intense pain… which later turns out to have been caused by Jacques, the brother of Mikhail from the previous Carpathian book. Other stuff happens, and Shea ends up setting Jacques free from where he was being held captive, and begins the slow process of healing him physically and mentally.

Had the book continued in that vain, I’d have loved it.;.. Maybe not unreservedly, but still… it would have sufficed. Jacques’s high-handed, uber-alpha, male Carpathian behavior didn’t bother me very much in this case, because he had been rather brutally tortured and it was natural for him to be slightly insane. I’d have liked for him to have had to struggle more with his rage and his insanity than he in fact did. I also liked some of the sequel bait Feehan brings up–for example, Julian sounds like my kind of guy, all sarcastic smug self-assurance.

The Bad: Well, there were the villains, who pretty much did everything but twirl their moustaches. And there was a plot twist that any reader with a modicum of intelligence will pick up on years before it is actually introduced. Also, this book contains Gregory. The dark one. The most emo of all Carpathian males. I am sure that Melissa will probably want to smack me, but, really , if I were a Carpathian male, the mere thought of Gregory would have my inner beast hurrying to the surface so I could choke a bitch. Also, I should mention that mostly, Feehan sucks at introducing the sequel baits. Mostly, except for Gregory who I loathe and Julian who intrigues me, the rest of the male Carpathians seem to all come from the same mold and the same area in central casting.

Final Thoughts: This story had a lot of potential. Too bad it mostly didn’t live up to said potential. C for this one.