Reviewed by: Laura

RATING: 5/10 – Take it or leave it

GOODREADS:

Dominic of the Dragonseeker lineage, one of the most powerful lines the Carpathian people has, ingests vampire blood laces with parasites in order to be able to go the very heart of the enemy camp and learn their plans. It is a one way mission. He knows he has little time once the parasites and the blood go to work. He plans to get in fast, relay the information to the leader of the Carpathians living in the area and go out fighting—an honorable way to end his life.

Solange Sangria is one of the last of the jaguar people, a royal pureblood. Her people, once many are now nearly extinct, a dying species that cannot recover from the choices they made over hundreds of years. She has long been alone, fighting to save the remaining women who are able to shift, from the hands of Brodrick the Terrible, her own father who slaughtered her family and everyone she loved. Wounded, weary, she plans one last battle, hoping to stop the man who has made an alliance with the vampires, accepting she will not come out alive.

They are two warriors who have lived their lives alone. Now, at the end of their time, they find each other, a complication, neither saw coming.

REVIEW:

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Christine Feehan books. I have been a fan of her for a long time, and to put things into perspective I have read every one of her books. But of late, particularly with her Carpathian books, I feel like they have been losing their way. Then last year I read ‘Dark Slayer’ and was pleasantly surprised at the improvement in writing and characterisation. Sadly, ‘Dark Peril‘ seems like a step backwards.

The two main characters are Dominic and Solange. Dominic is the oldest of the Dragonseeker lineage, determined to get to the bottom of the vampire plot he has ingested vampire blood in order to infiltrate their ranks as a spy. He believes it to be a suicide mission, but an honourable way to die.

Solange is one of the last surviving women of the jaguar people, she is described a tough, physically scared from her battles and a warrior in her own right. And has dedicated her life to freeing women from her evil father Broderick, who believes jaguar women are only good for breeding and abuses and terrorises them. Solange is intent on stopping her father once and for all even if it means her own death.

The premise of the book is a good one, so I was very much looking forward to this story with two very strong characters. I’ve also been enjoying that the back story around the darker vampire plot that we have seen in recent books in the series too. But it all seemed to get a bit lost in this book.

I felt like Solange lost all of her toughness and personality as soon as she entered the relationship with Dominic. She went all meek and barely spoke to him at first. I wanted sass and fire between them.

Dominic sensitively decides not to push Solange into sex too soon into their relationship given her past. But, instead we get these strange scenes where he gets her to dress up in these sexy outfits, which seems like an uncharacteristic thing for a battle-scarred woman to do. Then there are scenes when he gets her to relax in and out of a bath while he washes her hair and gently touches her and it literally goes on and on for chapters. And I didn’t find it sexy or climactic, unfortunately I just got bored.

This is really the crux of the problem of the book, it focuses far too much on the relationship between Solange and Dominic with endless chapters of nothing much really happening at all at the expense of the plot. There is very little action – only at the beginning and the end and no twists or suspense to keep the reader intrigued. In want of a better word, it was all a bit blah. Which is a shame as I know Christine Feehan can do much better.

Also, while this book is 400 pages long, 60 pages of this is appendices at the end with details of the Carpathian language and healing chants. I do appreciate that this is the 21st book in the series and that Christine Feehan has put a lot of time, research and passion which I commend her for. But this seemed very excessive for a paranormal romance and if I’m honest I looked at it in disbelief, but did not read it at all.

VERDICT:

As a fan of this series, I was really disappointed with this book. I felt like it lost its way and I would have liked to have seen a bit more story and action and yes, I know it’s a romance, but a bit less of the love story which seemed to go on just too much.

Yet despite all of this, I’m already intrigued by Zacarias who was introduced in this story and know that I’ll be reading his story and really cannot wait for Dimitri and Skylar’s book, but I beg you Ms. Feehan re-read some of your earlier books and go back to your roots, remind me why I used to love this series so much.