Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If we're really being nitpicky about how many female Carpathians have been featured as leads, there have been more than two: Francesca, Desari, Syndil (not necessarily a lead, but she had her own story) and Savannah. I don't think Destiny really counts, since she was born human and was converted. I had mixed feelings about this book. I would of course recommend it to anyone who's a fan of the series already, because while Feehan does tend to go off on her "cause" tangents, Dark Destiny still works well as part of the series and furthers the storyline of the Carpathians in general. I'm not sure anyone reading this as their first "Dark" book would be all that impressed though, and that would be a shame since there are some really wonderful books in the series, books that are better than this one. The pluses: Destiny has more backbone than nearly all the previous female lifemates combined, although we have to rely on Feehan telling us so every few paragraphs rather than on any actions she takes. We see very little of Destiny's hunting skills, although there are a few scenes where it's refreshing that the hero actually lets her fight. Of course, as per the usual, in the end, the heroine needs to be saved by one of the menfolk (rolling my eyes here), but up until that point, Destiny has more autonomy than any other Carpathian woman except maybe Desari and Francesca. I wasn't even remotely attached to any of the human pals this time around and found the whole lost lifemate story thread to be a snooze. We already heard what happens when a lifemate goes unclaimed in Shea and Jacques' story with Shea's mother; rather than feeling any sadness for the lifemate here, I thought the character (and her sister) were unnecessarily corny and cliched. The priest was a yawner too, despite what we find out he knows - if the intent was to create a new Father Hummer, Feehan failed. The biggest quibble I have with Dark Destiny is introducing a character like MaryAnn and then doing absolutely nothing with her. Let's face it, we read these books not for the sidekick humans but for the Carpathians - why bother shoving a character on us as hard as Feehan does MaryAnn and then have it utterly fizzle out because there aren't enough pages to tell two stories? I only have one thing to say about the choice of names for Nicholae's brother - Vikirnoff? Surely Feehan realized that the name was close enough to a brand of vodka that it would induce giggles? The other irritant was having Feehan introduce a "new" line of ancients and have us believe none of the rest of them knew about it, not even the other ancients. I realize Feehan's running out of characters mentioned in previous books, but there still has to be more than a dozen Carpathians running around; I'd rather hear about them than have her make up more ancients just because they're the most powerful (and I guess she thinks that makes them more interesting). The romance between Nicholae and Destiny is sweet and given her issues, proceeds in a believable way. I didn't find the whole victim mode Destiny keeps going into as annoying, given that she's been basically alone her entire life. I'd be more unhappy if she turned out to be well-adjusted and fell into her lifemate relationship easily. Ultimately, this isn't the worst book in the series (that honor goes to Dark Gold) or the best (three way tie between Dark Prince, Dark Magic and Dark Fire). It falls somewhere in the middle, probably close to the Carpathian/Scarletti hybrid, Dark Symphony. I find it quite amusing that any review not wildly adoring of these books gets a lot of unhelpful ratings. I happen to love reading Feehan's books, especially the Dark series, but think it's absolutely ridiculous that some of Feehan's fans are doing such a disservice to other fans and potential readers by deliberately skewing the reviewers' ratings. I can't imagine any author approving of the kind of rabidly blind loyalty that doesn't allow for honest discussion of the merits of a book and I think it's unfortunate that some very good reviews keep getting lost because they're rated so poorly by people who really don't want to hear an honest discussion.