Name: Dark Peril
Author: Christine Feehan
Published: August 31, 2010 by Berkley
Purchased: 2010 or 2011, $7.99 on Kindle.
☆☆/5
Blurb: Dominic of the Dragonseeker lineage, one of the most powerful lines among the Carpathian people, ingests vampire blood laces with parasites in order to be able to go the very heart of the enemy camp and learn their plans. It is a one-way mission. He knows he has little time once the parasites and the blood go to work. He plans to get in fast, relay the information to the leader of the Carpathians living in the area, and go out fighting — an honorable way to end his life.
Solange Sangria is one of the last of the jaguar people, a royal pureblood. Her people, once many, are now nearly extinct, a dying species that cannot recover from the choices they made over hundreds of years. She has long been alone, fighting to save the remaining women who are able to shift, from the hands of Brodrick the Terrible — her own father — who slaughtered her family and everyone she loved. Wounded, weary, she plans one last battle, hoping to stop the man who has made an alliance with the vampires, and accepting 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 . . . a complication neither saw coming.
Review: This has got to be my least favorite book and it’s all because of the couple. All of my notes and everything I dislike about this book is because of the couple. Everything else was fine, though the pace of the story was slow.
I just really dislike this couple and it’s made worse by the fact that it’s after Dark Slayer. I’ll be honest here, the last time I re-read this series, I skipped this book and if I wasn’t writing reviews, I most likely would have skipped it again.
Here are some notes that I took while reading:
The beginning is tedious, I really don’t need pages and pages describing the journey and jaguar.
“He had to be a warrior, of course. She needed to be able to respect him.” I really hate that line of thinking, like what? If he was a gem caller, swordsmith, or sculptor she couldn’t respect him?
The book before this one, Dark Slayer, another warrior woman who was alone for centuries and also didn’t know how to be a woman, she was a warrior with a mission, the slayer of vampires. Did she turn into a doormat when she met her lifemate? No, she laid down some rules and was still a good character. It just seems like the author is trying to make Solange more of a girly girl than she needs to be.
He says it would please him if, when they are alone, she would wear one of the dresses he made for her. She isn’t a dress girl, she isn’t even comfortable imagining herself in dresses yet he wants her to wear these reveling, tight dresses when at home? No, home is where you should be comfortable and this whole book, he makes her so uncomfortable. I think he’s a little bit emotionally manipulative.
He needs to settle down and help calm her fears, not make her uncomfortable in every aspect of her life. And she needs to stop over thinking everything, just because you hold his hand doesn’t mean people are going to think you’re girly and weak.
This book was just so slow! Also, it seems like Solange has a bad memory. Wondering if he wants her when he literally just told her about the vampire blood and parasites, saying he doesn’t want to risk her.
Done with the notes in my little notebook, now back to my review.
With the girly girl thing, what kind of warrior woman worries about not smelling like perfume after a battle? You’re not supposed too!
When I wasn’t just skimming the romance parts, the story was a little better. The fights, the meeting, the big showdown with all the vampires and the mystery of royal blood.
I looked at comment of the book on the authors website and there are comments saying that they didn’t like Solange going into the book but they loved her after. I’m the opposite. I loved her being a man-hating warrior woman, wanting her to let down her guard and let her lifemate in while still remaining awesome and keeping that warrior spirit. Maybe it’s like Algebra and Geometry though, those that are good at Algebra are bad at Geometry and those that are good at Geometry are bad at Algebra. If you hated Solange going into the book, you love her after and if you love her before, you hate her after?
Thank you for reading my review.
Fiction - A Separate World 