Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Book No. 26, Dark Blood, is the third book of a trilogy within Feehan's long Carpathian series. This is the story of Zev and Branislava, which is no surprise, as we could see it building from the first two books. Recently Zev has found out that he is a half-breed, part Lycan and part Carpathian. What he didn't know is that he is also Dark Blood, a bloodline similar to the Dragonseekers in power and respect. Most of the book hinges on the development of Zev and Branislava's relationship, talking about Zev's history, and fight scenes - lots of them. I struggled on whether to give this book one or two stars, and eventually settled on one due to the fact that author Feehan spent a good deal of time writing "fillers" for the book instead of an actual story. Naturally we did have the 30 page "Carpathians for Dummies" at the end of the book. But there was also a great deal of this imaginary language sprinkled throughout the book. On her Acknowledgement page, Feehan thanks the professor who put this language together at her request. Feehan obviously admires and respects him, and has taken great pains to tell him how wonderful the language is and how much she loves it, so don't expect this stupid stuff to go away anytime soon. We also had the "mage" spells, which were indented and italicized. As the book went along, they became more and more frequent, especially during the last 25%. I read the first five and skipped the last 30-40 or so. These spells offered nothing to explain the story or make it better, and were entirely skippable, which means they were just threw in to make the story longer for the hardback edition. Both the appendix and the spells were just a way to hit word count, and consequently, were a rip-off for the reader. The sex scenes actually just became another type of filler instead of a way to deepen the connection between Zev and B. There were entirely too many, and once they got started, these two went at it for what seemed like hours. I got extremely tired for them. I also got extremely tired of Zev's lovemaking described as "brutal", because he is an alpha elite jackass, don't you know, and Branislava's acceptance of it, because she understands him, and evidently knew he was an alpha elite jackass too. *Yawn* The story itself was absolutely one of the most boring books I have read in quite a while. As one reviewer stated, the cinnamon-honey spice phrase concerning Branislava went from being a romantic description to a big gooey mess. After a while, all I kept thinking was this chick is kind of icky - like going to bed with a large piece of carrot cake. I also was bored out of my mind with the fight scenes. While quite a lot of imagination went into them, they just became repetitive after a while and just another thing to skim over hoping to get back to a story that was barely there. I especially loved how at one point, Branislava and Zev took away "traps" and a portal out of a victim's mind. It stated that both were completely and totally exhausted. However, within two seconds they were up and running as another disaster happened, and after that they had one of their marathon sex nights. Either they were at the end of their strength or they were not. This type of incident weakened the plot; however, that wasn't the real kicker. The real problem was the fact that Xavier, the evil and deadly mage who was killed after many books turns out to be an identical triplet. Yes, ladies and gents, who knew? What a lame, lame plot device. I gave a deep sigh at that point, because there was no hope for the book, and actually may not be any for the series going-forward. Feehan had milked that particular villain to the point that he just became a boring caricature, and she brings back two just like him? Really? Yes, really. I don't know if I will ever buy another Dark book. I have loved Feehan's books for a long time, but lets face facts here, folks. The things that kept us coming back (interaction with the other Dark characters, fellowship, love and community) have become slimmer and slimmer. Her books now are only half written. When you start triplicating your villains and relying on sex scenes, you are in serious trouble. I would suggest Feehan goes back and rereads her own books starting with the beginning and working her way to Dark Demon, which is where the series started to veer off. She needs to get back to her roots. .