Dark Promises by Christine Feehan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Gabrielle has had enough of battles, of wars, of seeing the man she’s engaged to nearly lose his life when it isn’t even his fight. Once Gary was a gentle and very human researcher. Now he’s a fearless and lethal Carpathian warrior with the blood of an ancient lineage coursing through his veins—a man Gabrielle still needs and dreams of with every breath she takes. All she wants is a life far away from the Carpathian mountains, far from vampires and the shadows cast by the crumbling monastery that hides so many terrible secrets. But Gabrielle soon learns that promises made in the dark can pierce the heart like a dagger.
❤️🩹
And she isn’t the only one in search of answers in the corners of the unknown….
🤷🏻♀️
Trixie Joanes has come to the Carpathian mountains in search of her wayward granddaughter, fearing that she has been lured there by something unspeakable. Instead, Trixie has stumbled onto the path of a desperate woman on the run. And they’re all fated for the lair of a mysterious ancient with revenge in his soul and the undying power to make bad dreams come true.
Dark Promises
A Twofer!
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: 💙💚🖤💛❤️
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌎🌍🌏🌎🌎
Character development: 🧐😕😍😗
The heroine(s): Gabrielle – she was a researcher who worked with Gary, whom she loved for years. They were helping the Carpathians overcome issues with fertility and childbearing. She worked in a lab and liked being away from all the action and safe in her little lab. However she was stabbed multiple times and then turned into a Carpathian by prince Mikhail, while Gary was turned by Mikhail’s bodyguard and protector Gregori.
Trixie – She is the grandmother to Teagan from the last book, Dark Ghost. Teagan had come to the Carpathian mountains to find a cure for Trixie whom Teagan thought was going crazy because of her insistence that vampires are real. Now Trixie has come to the Carpathian mountains to find Teagan.
The Hero(s): Alexi – He is an ancient Carpathian who spent his life hunting vampires. He is now a resident of the monastery high up in the mountains. The Carpathians who have holed up at the monetary do so because they have lived an honorable existence fighting against vampires who kill humans and Carpathians indiscriminately. Now that they are ancient they are dangerous and very close to turning into the very vampire’s they fought.
Fane – Fane is also an ancient Carpathian living at the monastery. He is charged with guarding the gate since he is the least dangerous of the ancients. He is also the de facto leader of those housed in the monastery. He led them to go and help Andre and Teagan after Andre fought against the master vampire Popescu, and helped feed Teagan and Andre when they were in need of blood after the battle.
The Story: The Carpathians at the monastery have all but given up on finding their life mates, each of them has traveled the world in search of their mate, but retreated to the monastery after they stopped seeing colors and feeling emotions. Having led honorable lives they feel that to go out in the sun and end their existence wouldn’t be an honorable death. So they stay at the monastery away from others and battles and try to live as long as possible. If any of them turns into a vampire the rest have sworn will put them down before they cause destruction.
I liked the dual storylines and romances in this book quite a bit though there was a few things that I disliked. First of which was the how stupid and naïve Gabrielle was despite supposedly being an intelligent scientist. She denied the fact that she was turned into a Carpathian and buried herself in her lab work. So she didn’t know all the in’s and out’s of being an immortal and of life mates.
Gabrielle thinks she loves Gary and fights to be with him, which is ridiculous after they find they aren’t life mates. Even not knowing everything about life mates, she should know enough to figure out that things weren’t going to go anywhere with Gary. Also the fact that she is still a virgin even though her and Gary were in love when they were human is against the odds of being possible. Since she and Gary were both scientists (years of college) and had worked for the carpathians together for years after that, it is just a bit outside of reality that she is still so naïve and innocent.
Then we get to Trixie, who I really liked, but when she says she has so little experience that she is practically a virgin, that completely defied all reality. She is grandmother to Teagan, and even has great grandchildren from Teagan’s sisters. So are we really to believe she is nearly innocent? Why even put that out their?
The narration was terrific. I can’t say enough how much I love it when the guys do the guy parts and women do the women parts even when in the POV of the opposite person. I just loved it. Phil Gigante and Natalie Ross both are awesome at doing different voices for different people.
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