Dec222010

Christmas Week – GUEST REVIEW: ‘The Twilight Before Christmas’ (Drake Sisters #2) by Christine Feehan

by Carolyn • Posted in 3.5 Star Reviews, Authors E-H, Book Reviews, Christine Feehan, Christmas Week 2010, Guest Review, Paranormal Romance

Title: The Twilight Before Christmas (Drake Sisters #2)

Author: Christine Feehan

Publisher: Pocket Star (US)/San Val (UK)

Publication Date: 1st November 2003

Paperback: 284 pages

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Source: Own Copy

Guest Review by Zosia

RATING: 7/10

BOOK COVER SUMMARY:

Bestselling novelist Kate Drake is one of seven sisters gifted with amazing powers of witchcraft. Returning home in time for her northern California town’s annual Christmas pageant, Kate catches the spirit of the season and decides to open a bookstore in a charming but run-down historic mill. Decorated former U.S. Army Ranger Matt Granite, now a local contractor, doesn’t mind working in the undeniably eerie house — not if it means getting closer to Kate. There’s something about the quiet, sensual woman that powerfully attracts him.

When an earthquake cracks the mill’s foundation and reveals a burial crypt, Kate senses that a centuries-old evil has been unleashed and that it’s coming after her. Though Matt vows to guard her from dusk till dawn, Kate knows she will have to summon all of her and her sisters’ powers to battle the darkness threatening to destroy both Christmas and the gift of soul-searing passion her hometown hero wants her to keep forever….

REVIEW:

In probably the stupidest reason a person has ever had to read a book, I took the ‘Which Drake Sister Are You?’ quiz on Christine Feehan’s website and came up with the heroine of The Twilight Before Christmas (I got Hannah the second time, but anyway). So, thanks to that quiz, this was my introduction to the sweet, occasionally dark Drake Sisters series about a family of seven sisters with magical powers.

I loved this book the first time I read it a number of years ago, but then read a negative review which pointed out some strange things about it. The story still entertains me all the same, so I’m not going to give it a really low rating regardless of any problems it might have!

Sea Haven is a small Californian town where everybody knows everybody, but the Darkes are celebrities. Many of them are famous by career choice (there’s a supermodel, a rock singer, and bestselling writer Kate), but also because they’re always using their powers to save the day. When an evil spirit is unleashed right before Christmas, Matt finds himself doing his best to protect the woman he’s always loved from afar, while that woman just keeps throwing herself in the path of danger.

This is definitely a ‘cosy’ paranormal. It’s Christmas and everyone’s being festive, and the danger comes in the form of flying Christmas wreaths and children having strange nightmares. I don’t approach the Drake Sisters series as particularly dark and twisted however, and while I know some people (like that pesky review that’s always at the back of my mind now!) thought the schmaltz was laid on a little heavily, I didn’t mind it so much in this book. I see the series as contemporary romance where some of the characters just happen to be able to do some cool magic tricks.

In the end this is a story about family and sticking together. As far as Christmas romances go, this is a pretty good one. I didn’t once feel a cavity coming on.

VERDICT:

There are some strange things happening in this book, but who cares when it’s so much fun to read?! Kate and Matt probably aren’t the world’s most memorable characters, but this book did everything I expected it to do, which was enough for me.