Dark Destiny - Christine Feehan

ISBN 9780843950502

Love and courage blossom from the ashes of a childhood ruled by violence and pain.

Ms. Feehan's skills as an author and her ability to pull the reader into her work are shown once again in Dark Destiny. Despite my own deadlines and work as an author I found myself compelled to continue reading beyond my short, self allotted time of indulgence as the characters in this dark story refused to let me go.

Destiny's childhood had been a nightmare of violence and pain until she heard his voice calling out to her. Golden and seductive, the voice of an angel, but she'd already learned, much to her horror, just how dangerous a seductive voice could be. As a child she'd unwittingly led the vampires to her home, witnessed them destroy her family before the monster had turned on her. In those early years, when she should have been exploring the dreams and hopes the world offered as an innocent, Destiny instead learned to live in pain as the beast attempted to convert her into a monster to walk at his side.

But through the darkness his voice called to her, showing her how to turn into a hunter, a vampire hunter instead of one of the damned. Now, as an adult, Nicolae finds himself drawn to this dark angel. She holds the key to his salvation, if he can just convince her that she isn't evil. Her blood may have been corrupted but her heart and soul are untouched by the darkness of the damned.

Ms. Feehan's world of the Carpathian's and vampires is both seductive and entertaining. Even in the darkest of her books there is a source of humor, of hope and light. Not just in the relationship between the Carpathian and his life mate, but from other sources. In this case the hint of humor comes in the form of two older women in the neighborhood, who offer Nicolae advice on how to court Destiny. I couldn't help but smile as I saw their characters come to life across the pages.

It's the authors ability to make you care about her characters that is, perhaps, one of her strongest skills. Carpathian males are overbearing and arrogant and yet I'd quite happily spend the rest of my life with one, if I weren't happily married to my own Alpha male husband already. They have a need, a desire, to protect their mates, yet in her works often have to struggle to come to terms with the fact that their mates are not weak willed or helpless females.

This is a wonderful novel, not just for those who enjoy paranormal romances, but for me it also reminded me that no matter what I've been through in the past there is always a way to push the darkness back and look for the light.