DARK PERIL

Author: Christine Feehan ISBN: 9780425236598 9/2010 PARANORMAL Publisher: BERKLEY

Dominic, of the Dragonseeker lineage—one of the most powerful of the Carpathian lines—is desperate to go to the very heart of the enemy camp and learn their plans. There’s only one way to do so: ingest the parasitic blood of a vampire. He knows that it is a mission from which there is no return. With little time before the blood takes effect, he’ll get the information he needs, relay it to the leader of the Carpathians, and go out fighting. There is no more honorable way to end his life. Solange Sangria is one of the last of the jaguar people, a royal pureblood, a dying species that cannot recover from bad decisions made over hundreds of years. She has long been alone, fighting to save the remaining shapeshifters from the hands of Brodrick the Terrible: her own father, who slaughtered her family and everyone she loved. Wounded and weary, she plans one last battle, hoping to stop the man who has made an alliance with the vampires, accepting that 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—an obstacle neither can hope to ignore.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I am so happy to know that I can still read a Carpathian novel from Christine Feehan and not be bored. The last one I read, DARK SLAYER, was great, but I thought perhaps that was going to be the end of my love affair with the whole Dark series. I am so happy to be wrong! Feehan manages to take the formula I have read from her for at least ten years and keep it fresh and action-packed. Of course, the heated romances are always a positive too!

Sure, DARK PERIL is filled with all that I come to expect from a Carpathian novel, but it has the added twist of some really nasty Jaguar villains. This is not the first time I have encountered those malicious shape-shifters, but it is the first time I have realized how truly awful they are. Coupled with the vicious vampires, the jaguar menace takes over the story with heart-pounding battles and an adrenaline rush that made my fingers grip the page in anticipation of the outcome.

While DARK PERIL will never be counted as my favorite Feehan read, it is well worth the paper it is printed on.

Shannon Johnson