In the sixteenth book of the Dark/Carpathian series, Lara Calladine is exploring some mountainous ice caves, hoping to find her imprisoned aunts. Years earlier, her great aunts—long trapped in dragon form and incased in ice—helped the child-Lara flee from her evil great grandfather and father. Xavier and Razvan would viciously beat her, drink her blood, and verbally abuse her. She’s part human/mage/Carpathian and comes from the Dragonseeker line, so she’s a powerful woman but unsure of her abilities.
Nicolas De Le Cruz is close to turning vampire and finding his lifemate is a shock he didn’t expect. Instead of introducing himself to Lara and treating her with respect, he feeds from her and binds her to him with ritualistic words. He’s so controlling that he literally shackles her to him. He doesn’t see her as a person or considers her feelings. After she attempts suicide to escape him, he brings her back from near death, fully linking their minds in the process. By doing so, he witnesses the travesties and horrific pain and fear she endured as a child and shamefully realizes he’s treated her just as bad as Xavier and Razvan did. After seeing the error in his ways, he learns to be gentle, understanding, and finally puts her needs above his.
I liked this story more than I thought I would. It’s no secret (if you’ve been following my other reviews) that I’m not a big fan of the De La Cruz brothers, but Nicolas learns humility real fast. Of all the Dark books I’ve read, Nicolas changes the most and truly regrets his actions. He starts to see all women, not just Lara, as brave and intelligent.
What I love most about this series is that there are so many characters shared from book to book. It’s always fun to catch up with the previous couples and learn about new characters.
I loved the scene when Lara, Shea, Skyler, Natalya, Syndil, and Francesca were working together to save the lives of Raven’s unborn son and Savannah’s unborn daughters. It’s rare for Carpathian women to have children—most babies are miscarried or die before the age of one—but Lara has finally figured out why. This is huge news!
While that was going, Nicolas, Gregori, Mikhail, and several of the men and two of the warrior women, Destiny and Jaxon, were discussing the future of the species and whether or not women should fight the vampire. That became a very heated meeting, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
I definitely cried at the end. Razvan was so tortured and not the monster he’s been portrayed. Branislava and Tatijana are finally rescued, but will surely suffer much mental anguish even after their bodies heal.
All in all, I’m happy I gave this book a chance.
4 Stars
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Just okay. The dragon bit was a bit too much for me. ( )

I have really enjoyed reading all of the books in the Dark series. I believe this book really lifted my spirits for the Carpathian people. They've finally found out what is causing their women to miscarry and their infants to die. For me, there is finally hope and I am really excited to continue on with the series now that the problem has been uncovered. I think Christine Feehan is an amazing writer and I really enjoy reading her books. ( )

A nice progression on the storyline explaining why the Carpathians are having problems reproducing. Nicholas was also surprisingly more modern than the others lately, even though he was one of the 'ancients'. ( )

The best dark carpathian novel in a long time! Doesn't just forget the rest of the characters, pulls the new lovers into the legend and lives and challenges of the Carpathians. The narrative makes sense as you're reading, you can connect the events, I liked it. I was ready to give up after the weird after-life surrealism of Dark Possession. ( )