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Dark Curse (The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 16) | 
 enlarge | Author: Christine Feehan
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $11.95
You Save: $13.00 (52%)
New (44) Used (33) Collectible (1) from $10.48
Rating:  75 reviews
Sales Rank: 2113
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.2 x 1.8
ISBN: 0425223434
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780425223437
ASIN: 0425223434
Publication Date: September 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand New!!! bce
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Product Description
A new Carpathian novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling queen of paranormal romance. (USA Today)
Born into a world of ice, slave to her evil father, Lara Calladine knew only paralyzing fear as a child. Only by escaping with her mysterious gifts unbroken would she survive to claim her great Carpathian heritage as a Dragonseeker
Now, Lara is in search of the source of her nightmares the cold, dark corners of her childhood just on the edges of her memory. Only one man has the power and the will to help her: dangerous, arrogant Nicolas De La Cruz.
Together, Lara and Nicolas search the treacherous Carpathian landscape for the truth about their pasts and discover a passion that neither has ever known before.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 70 more reviews...
 Vampires, Dragons, and Mages Oh My! November 18, 2008
R. McFeeters (Kansas City, MO)
Lara, a slave to her evil father, she knew only paralyzing fear as a child. Human, yet mage, yet dragon seeker -- she is of the blood of three species yet belongs to none. She is now a loner, guided by the wisdom of her aunts (the only ones who showed her love as a child)--she only wishes to blend in and let no one know of her ancestry and powers.
Now grown Lara is the leading expert in the field of ice cave study around the world and the healing microorganisms that thrive in them. She's also in search of something else: the source of her nightmares--the cold dark corners of her childhood. Only one man has the will and the powers to help her: Nicolas De La Cruz, for whom centuries of hunting and killing have long since taken their toll. Dangerous and arrogant, he still longs to feel sensual love without the hunger for blood. Now, between Lara and Nicolas, a tenuous trust has emerged, and a passion neither has ever known before as a melody of dark promise begins.
Spoiler: This newest installment to Freehan's Dark Series has more of a plot then most. I found this particular book to be darker then usual and the characters considerably more deep. I didn't necessarily like it though. Her Carpathian male was your typical brooding dangerous man. Although, he is considerably more understanding then the other Carpathians she wrote of, in fact he is tremendously understanding. Lara -- his life mate was annoying at times, and I found myself dreading her constant flashbacks and wining. It left me feeling sorry for poor Nicolas who certainly has his hands full attending to Lara's low self esteem and suicidal tendencies. I didn't feel near as much anticipation or existent as I did for Freehan's other charters in the prior installments, instead I found myself wanting to hurrying up and get it over with.
 Dark Curse (The Carpatians) Dark Series, Book 16 November 16, 2008
Mondi (Florida USA)
I have read the entire Dark Series and always check Ms. Feehan's website for any new publishing's to continue the Dark dream. This is a story steeped in European history and folk lore which you will enjoy learning about while you read about men who need life mates to keep from turning to the dark.
 A torture to read. November 5, 2008
Francis A. Timpone (Spring, Texas United States)
This book is so boring that I have to make myself to finish reading. A waste of time.
dark curse book November 5, 2008
Carolyn Mcdaniel (waterville,me)
I loved this book, great read, can't wait until the next book in the series comes out.
 Die hard fan having a hard time here November 2, 2008
D. Cook (Los Angeles, CA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I discovered Feehan's series two years ago, and at the time I systematically devoured all of the books released in about two weeks time. I have to say that Dark Legend and Dark Demon are two of my favorites.
Once caught up, I began the fan's burden of waiting impatiently for new books to come out one by one as the year progressed. I tried getting into her other series as a means of distraction, but as enjoyable as some of them are, they don't really compare to the mythos she's created here in the Dark series.
Well, when Dark Possession came out, I had a really hard time. Feehan's blatant theft of White Wolf's World of Darkness games has always been a bit bothersome, especially when she pulled the mages in (mages who get corrupted into vampires by way of greed is the storyline for house Tremere in Vampire, the Masquerade), but injecting "eco-protectors" that are nature magic using Werewolves got a bit much, even for me.
On top of the plagiarism of ideas, Dark Possession was not very well written. The dialog and flow of events would get jumpy and confusing at times - like she didn't have as good of an editorial staff telling her where to go back and check flow in certain passages. Also, her heavy handedness with Solange and her obvious lifemate status with Zacarias was a bit harsh going down.
I thought maybe that I was imagining the drop in quality, so I went back and re-read the series from the beginning - nope, I wasn't imagining it. Books like Dark Desire and Dark Challenge are just much better framed, with better development, more seamless transitions and dialog, and more character development. They're also a bit longer - and the pages used for development show the benefit of the work.
So, it was with a bit of trepidation that I picked up Dark Curse. I wanted to know about the De La Cruz brothers and I had high hopes for their lifemates.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I didn't have the problems that some other reviewers had with Lara as a character - having a flawed heroine is not a problem and I agree that her fractured nature seems like a deliberate attempt to illustrate her mental scars. Unfortunately, Feehan has done the same kind of damage better in characters like Destiny, Jaxon, and Skyler.
Using language is not a bother - I've gotten used to it in my plethora of fantasy novels, and she was very good about giving us an approximate translation immediately after for those of us that didn't want to break pace to look up crap in the back of the book.
My biggest problem was the book itself. Again, jumpy imagery and flow, again, confusing switches between character focus, description, and dialog. Again, poor plot diagram and obvious places that needed better fleshing out - again, it looked like she isn't using or listening to editors of the same honesty and caliber as her previous work.
The book ends abruptly, with no resolution on Lara's status in the Carpathian society. The inclusion of extremophiles feels well researched but not well communicated and not embraced enough to connect the reader well with what Feehan is trying to convey.
I feel she needs to go back to her roots, spend time in the heads of her characters and spend the pages making us love them as opposed to trying to come up with the next weird gimmick to toss into the story line.
Most of us are here to find out what happens to our favorite characters, not to have to filter more incidental facts into an already convoluted storyline. Finish what you started with the mages, let us fall in love with your characters, stop adding more layers to a stack of problems that you haven't finished developing yet.
I'd rather read a sweet story about Skyler falling in love with Dimitri - focused on character development , a strait forward plot and no more weirdness piled on top - then another book like the last two.
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