They were masters of the darkness, searching through eternity for a mistress of the light...

WAS HE A MAN... OR A MIRACLE?

Alexandria Houton would sacrifice anything - even her life - to protect her orphaned little brother. But when both encountered unspeakable evil in the swirling San Francisco mists. Alex could only cry to heaven for their deliverance...

And out of the darkness swooped Aidan Savage, a golden being more powerful, more mysterious, than any other creature of the night. The ageless Carpathian male snatched them from a hideous fate. But was Aidan a miracle... or a monster? Alex's salvation... or her sin? If she surrendered to Aidan's savage, unearthly seduction - gave him the color, the light, the family he craved - would Alex truly save her brother? Or sacrifice more than her life?

___________________________________
I WILL BE RUNNING BOOKRINGS FOR ALL THE BOOKS IN THIS SERIES. THE ONE'S WITH LINKS HAVE RINGS CURRENTLY OPEN...

Dark Prince: Book 1 *I'm on my way to CandyDarling*
Dark Desire: Book 2 *I'm on my way to CandyDarling*
Dark Gold: Book 3 *I'm with nikel27*
Dark Magic: Book 4 *I'm with Kislany*
Dark Challenge: Book 5 *I'm with Kislany*
Dark Fire: Book 6
After Twilight Anthology (Dark Dream: Book 7)
Dark Legend: Book 8
Dark Guardian: Book 9
Dark Symphony: Book 10
The Scarlatti Curse: connected to but not part of series. (connected to character from Dark Symphony)
The Only One Anthology (Dark Descent: Book 11)
Dark Melody: Book 12
Dark Destiny: Book 13
Hot Blooded Anthology (Dark Hunger: Book 14)

PUTTING THIS BOOK UP FOR A BOOK RING...


Members:
*Kislany (Cyprus)
*nikel27 (Germany)
*Tanya04 (UK)
*CandyDarling (Finland)
*Auglaise (UK)*BOOK IS HERE*
*xtal (BC Canada)
*NeedSun (Ontario, Canada)
*Innae (Colorado, USA)
*CheriePie (Massachusettes, USA)
*bittermint (California, USA)
*Valkyrie119 (USA) Not Desire
*Kyrissaean (New Hampshire, USA) Not Prince
*sharalsbooks (Arizona, USA)

Released on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 at about 10:00:00 PM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at by mail in To the next participant, A Bookring Controlled Releases.

RELEASE NOTES:

released to first person on the list: Kislany

Received it a few days ago and I'm already well towards the middle. Should be finishing it by the end of the week.
I'd rather keep it, however, until the holidays are over (around Jan 5) just to be sure that the book won't get missing in the Christmas frenzy by the post office...If it's not ok taniazed, and you'd rather have it shipped asap after being read, please let me know.

Mmmm, lovely.
I've enjoyed a lot the first one, had a few problems with the second one, until I realised that it was not about Michail and his love anymore, but about somebody else that has already been introduced in the first novel. Now that I understood the pattern, I enjoyed the third book even more. I'm already curious to see who's life and love will be presented in the next dark book...

My only 'pet-peeve' in these novels is that all the 'carpathian to be' women are those gorgeous Americans barbie-dolls, and the poor Romanian or other Eastern European women presented in the books are nothing more than servants or 'part of the family'. Maybe Christine Feehan should travel a little bit to Eastern Europe and check out the women there as well, *grins*.

Will be sending it to Nicole right after the Christmas holidays, probl. around 26-27-th of Dec.

Released on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 at about 3:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Mailed to BC member in Mailed to another BC member, a fellow bookcrosser Controlled Releases.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending to Nicole today with another book (again for a bookring, lol). Enjoy

arrived safe at my house, TBR-Pile first more later

update:
this one is my absolute favourite so far from this series.
Thanks for sharing with me.

RELEASE NOTES:

EnJoy the Book !!!

Received today, thank you!

While I liked this book quite a bit, I must admitt that I rushed reading it because I so wanted to read Dark Magic. It was a good book though!

I'll be posting this to CandyDarling shortly.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending to CandyDarling

Received this with 3 other paranormal romance books! Thank you!

Dark Gold has been my favorite from the series so far, one reason being the change in surroundings. I found it refreshing to read a story that takes place in San Francisco, in addition to the other changes from Feehan's previous novels: this time the heroine, Alex, was turned Carpathian before her romantic relationship with the hero, Aidan, even had a chance to start. I found the human servants and Alex's little brother very sympathetic and great additions to the storyline. I also liked Thomas Ivan and his courtship of Alex.

Despite of the changes, the typical elements of Feehan's stories were there: the main characters were very similar to the main characters in the previous novels, in fact I'd go as far as to say Feehan changed only their names and outward appearance, because everything else was already familiar. Again the heroine is threatened by evil vampires and is mortally wounded but miraculously cured, again there are the sex scenes, but thankfully they annoyed me less than in the previous books (although I must admit I skipped all but the first one). And of course there is the ongoing battle of wills as the hero tries to protect the heroine and the heroine tries to keep her independence.

This is actually the reason why I give a lower rating to Feehan's books than I'd normally give books from a series I want to continue reading: I find her books ultimately demeaning to women even though in the end the heroine achieves a seemingly equal relationship with the hero. My biggest gripe is the sexual double standard so blatantly explicit in her books - the heroines are all virgins, even though the Carpathians have all had their fair share of sexual encounters in their youth when they still had the ability to see colors and feel desire. In the first book this didn't bother me, because Raven was unable to touch other humans because of her psychic abilities, so it was only natural she was a virgin. But I didn't like how Joshua was Alex's little brother - at her age she could easily have had a six-year-old son. I was also bothered by Feehan's way of describing losing one's virginity as losing one's innocense - in my experience I was exactly the same person before and after losing my virginity, and pretty innocent for a long time afterwards. The things that have made me lose some of my childhood innocense have nothing to do with sex.

And by the way, what's the deal with the Italian words Aidan keeps using? Wasn't he supposed to be Romanian...

Received yesterday. Thank you!

The only thing that I don't like about this series is that I feel like the author is concentrating so much on the seduction of the woman that we don't really get a sense of Carpathian culture or purpose. I'm really enjoying reading the series, but I can't help but compare the sense of place and character in these books to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series - there's still lots of sex, especially in the later books, but I know exactally where all the characters are coming from. I know why they do the things they do, why they react the way they do to things, and I get a sense of them as people with a culture. In these books, there's none of that. As CandyDarling said, Alex and Aidan are the exact same characters in all the previous books but just under a different name.

I rated it a 5 because, although I want to continue reading the books, it is just average. Average writing, average characters, and average plot. There's just nothing really special about it. And I really wish there was!

I just got this in the mail yesterday. I'm very much looking forward to reading it.

I apologize for the length of time that I had the book, it took me a long while to get into this book. It went much faster once I got to the second half :-) I'm very much looking forward to the next book in the series.



I've sent this off to NeedSun. It went in the post two days ago.

This arrived in the mail today. Thanks very much for sending it to me. I have a few bookrings in front of it but it shouldn't be too long before it gets moving again.

I haven't read one of these books in quite a while so I very much enjoyed this one. Unfortunately, the augst Alex went through ended up being a bit annoying.

Sent by air today.

Received this book at my new house (:, however, no internet there yet, and I was heading off to the airport, so sorry for the delay in journaling! Started reading this while on vacation in Tucson, and I am enjoying the read thus far. Will post again when I'm done.

Although I did enjoy this story, I agree with CandyDarling and Auglaise with the feeling I have read it all before. The same characters over and over. I do like Feehan's writing style, but I am getting annoyed with the "beautiful independent virgins" and the "chavaunistic Carpathian males" -- they say there aren't many female Carpathians around, but doesn't say there are none. So, how bout a "Hunky Male Virgin" and the "independent Female Carpathian"???

Still looking forward to the rest in the series...

Waiting to hear from CheriePie because I think this may be one she already has....

Yep, CheriePie has this one, now waiting for confirmation from bittermint that it should head her way...

and bittermint requests to be skipped too, so, waiting to hear from Valkyrie119 (6/13)

and now the question has become: "Will innae EVER get to mail this book to someone??" yes, I am now waiting to hear from Kyrissaean as Valkyrie119 says she has read the entire series (I am a little jealous :-) (6/14)

Trying Kyrissaean for the third time before I try sharalsbooks -- (6/24)

Ok, still no answer from Kyrissaean -- perhaps PM issues?? and sharalsbooks has asked to be skipped, so, I will be sending this book back to its home with taniazed. (6/27)

NO answer from Kyrissaean or taniazed. Sending PMs to those who read this before me for suggestions. (7/13)

Thanks to CandyDarling who played relay (as my PMs were getting to Kyrissaean but hers were not getting to me :( I will be sending this off to Kyrissaean shortly!!! Sharls has indeed asked to be skipped as well, so I will add a note saying as much. (7/13)

Well, after much craziness, Dark Gold is here! Thanks innae! (And I'm so glad we finally found a way to make contact -- thanks Candy. Isn't it wild that a message had to go to Finland to get from Littleton CO to Littleton NH? :P ) And onto Mt. TBR it goes....

This was my favorite of the series so far!

The previous journal entries have all hit the nail on the head! I agree with what everyone is saying. The cover art for this book makes it look like a bodice-ripper story from the late 1970's or early 1980's, and yet so much about this series fits in with that standard. It's all "Me big-dominating-Carpatian male. You little-helpless-beautiful (and oddly virginal) female." And then so much of what follows is about his "needs." Oh my. It's a bit of a shock to see that this was first published in 2000!

And yet, in spite of all that, the idea behind the world-building is fun. It's like I'm cheering for Feehan to become a better writer so she can do more with the setting she has created. Even the slight changes she has made to her standard plot have made a visible improvement in this book, so just think what she could do if she gave her characters a little more depth and made that last mental leap into the 21st century! Come on, Christine - it's nice here, join us!

And now, for the second time, I seem to be the end of the line for this ring and I'm not sure what to do. I haven't heard anything from taniazed, and the only person after me on the list has asked to be skipped. I'm still holding onto Dark Desire for the same reason. If anyone has any suggestions or knows what taniazed might want done with the books, let me know! I've been wondering if I should ask around to see if any new readers would be interested in being added onto the rings....