Dark Prince

By: Christine Feehan

Narrated by: Abby Craden

Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

Enter the enchanting world of the Carpathians, where dark adventure, mystery, and love await, and the desires of two daring hearts unite in one irresistible passion.

A telepathic hunter of serial killers, Raven Whitney helps to catch some of the most depraved criminals. But her work keeps her from getting close to others, and has drained her body and spirit. In need of rest and rejuvenation, she embarks for a vacation far from home.

Mikhail Dubrinsky is the prince of the Carpathians, the powerful leader of a wise and secret ancient race that thrives in the night. Engulfed by despair, fearful of never finding the mate who can save him from the encroaching darkness, his soul cries out in loneliness - until the day that a beautiful voice full of light and love responds, softly soothing his pain and yearning.

From the moment they meet, Raven and Mikhail are helpless to resist the desire that sparks between them. But just as fate unexpectedly brings these life mates together, malevolent forces threaten to destroy them and their fragile love. Yet even if they survive, how can these two lovers - Carpathian and human - build a future together? And how can Mikhail bring Raven into his dark world without extinguishing her beautiful goodness and light?

©2011 Christine Feehan (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

Very good start to the series :)

4 stars

This was a very good story. I've actually read it before (3-4 years ago) and didn't review it then. This time around I listened to the extended audio version of the story but it's been so long since I read the normal version I can't tell the difference. I liked the story and will be continuing the series.

Raven is a american woman that has psychic abilities. She's used her abilities to help the police catch 4 serial killers but at a great cost to her own mind and risking her sanity. Raven goes on vacation to the Carpathian mountains to rest up and recover but finds an unexpected adventure along the way.

Mikhail is a Carpathian male and the prince of his people (there's no king so he's the top dog). Carpathians are born vampires with other abilities like shape shifting (to any form, even mist), magic spells and psychic powers. The males of the Carpathians have a darkness in them and if they don't find their lifemates, they can loss their souls and become evil. Mikhail's people are in dire straights because they don't have many women and the woman that do get pregnant usually give birth to males so their males aren't finding lifemates. Mikhail himself is close to the edge when the story begins.

Raven is in an inn in the Carpathian mountains and she feels a horrible pain being broadcast over psychic wavelengths. The pain is so great that she can't help but reach out to try to sooth whomever it is. Mikhail has been riding close to going evil and thought to meet the sun instead of letting himself go bad. When Raven reaches out to him, he feels hope for the first time and he has to find out who she is. When he does, Mikhail is surprised that she's human but he's sure she's his lifemate. He pulls Raven into his life without her being able to put up much of a protest. Because they're lifemates there's a strong pull between them but regardless of this, Raven is kind of freaked by Mikhail and is stuck between wanting to run from him and wanting to do anything she can to save him from his sadness.

The relationship between Raven and Mikhail begins roughly to say the least. Mikhail is the leader of his people and tends to command and be domineering which doesn't go over to well with Raven. Although he tries to continue his domineering ways for a bit, Mikhail soon realizes he's going to have to change to keep Raven happy. He does bond them before Raven truly knows what's going on though and that comes back to bite him in the behind but it also helps ensure Raven sticks around long enough for their bond to cement. There are some problems with another psychic and some vampire hunters with loose morals who are content to kill people they hope are vampires. They cause much drama and danger that has to be dealt with but may still have lasting repercussions. Things work out well for Mikhail and Raven though and they end the story starting a well deserved HEA together.

This was a very enjoyable story. I liked Mikhail very much. He was a bit domineering at times but he soon curbed his more overly pushiness. I liked Raven for the most part but she had issues with being a TSTL heroine at times. Mikhail told her that once they bonded that if she died, he'd died and that was that. Then a few different times when things were really tough, she sought death as both a way out and to "save" Mikhail...conveniently forgetting that her dying would kill Mikhail. It just happened one too many times to no be stupid. Outside of that I liked Raven pretty well. The story was very good and kept me interested through the end. I'd recommend this book.

23 people found this helpful

Truly Awful. A Major Snoozefest.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Really the whole novel could have been a short story...and even then, not a very good one.

What was most disappointing about Christine Feehan’s story?

The story is shallow and desperate and endlessly repetitive. None of the characters are relatable or even particularly likable. Further, there is NO humor at all. This story takes itself WAY too seriously. For the record, I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to slutty vampire books. I'll read (or listen to) pretty much anything in the genre but I cannot even make myself finish this one. Really, find something else. This one is a total waste of a credit and your time.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator speaks VERY slowly and the dialogue is breathless, and urgent...all of it, not just the times when you think it should be. Everything the girl character says is just waaay over the top. Uber annoying.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Dark Prince?

Um...pretty much like every third scene and about 80% of the endless and lame sex scenes. It just goes on and on and its always the same. Outside of the steamy bits, the scenes propel the story at a snails pace making it virtually impossible to become invested or engaged in the story.

8 people found this helpful

Induces excessive eye rolling

Although I have enjoyed other books written by Christine Feehan, I couldn't recommend this to anyone. It was honestly difficult to finish. I think the storyline had great potential, but unfortunately, the main characters never gained appeal to me. At first I thought it was just the narrator's voice for Raven (the female protagonist) that was grating on my nerves, but after a while, I realized it was just the character herself. If there was a stupid choice to be made, Raven predictably made it every time. Trying to understand her reasoning (her compassion for others, her belief in free will, etc.) didn't help at all. She came across as ridiculous damsel, who was always in distress. And the male lead, as attractive as he was written, lost some of his appeal to me, because of his willingness to cater to and coddle such a dolt! So disappointed. Don't waste your credit here. If you want to listen to Christine Feehan, I'd recommend the Ghostwalker series over this.

31 people found this helpful

The 2nd time around is just as good or better

Christine Feehan is Awsome, I did not think she could make this story any better, but I was wrong. The narrator is great too, you will not be disappointed.

22 people found this helpful

Good but....

I'm a guy who can enjoy an occasional romance and this book is a good one, occasionally. The sex is drawn out, overblown, full of every cliche imaginable and hard to get through sometimes. Come to think of it, that describes much of the book. The premise is interesting though and keeps me listening. Have large doubts about making it "deep into her velvet sheath" of a series.

20 people found this helpful

Utterly Supurb!!!

Like the last reviewer said Juanita Parker didn't do this series justice. Abby Craden does a fantastic job, and she can actually say 'Gregori' instead of 'Gregory' unlike her predecessor. Is there any chance she could re-do Ms Parkers efforts??

11 people found this helpful

Could have been so much better

To start with...the narrator was absolutely fantastic! I have a soft spot for Phil Gigante but Abby Craden was even better because she was able to do an excellent job even with the male voices. FANTASTIC!
The story line was good and could have been great. Truthfully, if I hear "possession" one more time - I am going to puke! If you're a female who enjoys being "possessed" by a male, then go for it. It irked me to no end. The heroine is smart but stupid, Mikael gentle but possessive. How idiotic. She kept saying she has a mind but acted like a stupid ditsy girl. He kept saying he wants to accommodate her independence but when it came down to it, it was "do as I say or I will take over and do it for you!"
I really like the story but was greatly annoyed by the two main characters. I had also listened to another Feehan novel (out of sequence) with a similar annoyance ( so, I haven't learned my lesson!) and this one seemed to be the first of the series. But, it was added very recently. It made the whole storyline a little confusing for me.
Overall, if you can manage the cons, there is none better than Feehan to write those steamy scenes. But, beware of being 'possessed'.

23 people found this helpful

Don’t waste the credit!

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who likes to be bored

Has Dark Prince turned you off from other books in this genre?

Yes

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Made it even worse

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Dark Prince?

Scratch the whole story & start again

2 people found this helpful

It was a dark and stormy night ...

I think this is the book that Snoopy spent so many years typing out as he sat on top of his dog house.

On the old SCTV series, the actor Joe Flaherty used to play a cheesy vampire character named Count Floyd, who spent most of his time trying to convince the audience that something totally silly was actually quite "scarrrrrry" and wiggling his eyebrows. I think the author had Count Floyd in mind when she created these characters. If she tried to make the book sound scary, it might disguise the fact that it was silly.

Unfortunately it doesn't work this way. Making the narrator speak slowly and ponderously doesn't help either.

Silly book. I didn't finish it.

14 people found this helpful

ugh waste of a credit

Cliche romance novel. Maybe its the way Abby read the book. Maybe its the way Christine wrote it. But I it made me want to blow my brains out as I listened to it.

5 people found this helpful

disappointed!

I've read a few of her books but confess that I tried 5 times to get into this and found myself more and more annoyed each time. The girl Raven drove me nuts, she has less spine than Bella Swan who at least had the idea of what was going on, but not this one. Sadley I have consigned this book to the back bedroom shelf to gather dust!

2 people found this helpful

interesting

the book is interesting and the story is worth listening to. but I didn't like the reader so much.

Louis, Louis, Louis... Still whining, Louis...

The story was ok, but then I was expecting that because I've read the paperback version of this book. By ok, I mean that it's not going to win any awards but it was entertaining, and I went on to ready the rest of the series.

What put me off is the way the heroine whines and simpers her way through every interaction. It grates on the ears and ruins any lingering notion that she is actually an independently functioning human adult. I couldn't even enjoy the saucy scenes because of it.

Dark Prince authors cut

I loved this book so much I ordered the next 4 books. I love how the characters blend with each other and learn to adjust to each others differences both species, beliefs, Social, how the Carpathian species who are used to being dominant in a relationship learn that the Female of the species are just as stubborn. It is good to watch them resolve their issues or compromise. I have read hundreds of books in this genre' each author beliefs are different however' they nearly all believe that if our human species suddenly became aware of another species . Our first reaction would be to destroy it. We fear what we don't understand either because we can't control the new species or for our own selfish reasons.
Mikial finds our human species cruel, destructive and selfish however like the humans he judges from his own moral code and beliefs and Raven is the same however they learn that despite their differences they can gain more than they lose by learning to adapt to each others beliefs. They also have to deal with the world around them the Fanatics whose only aim is the destruction of any species they feel may have more than them or become more
powerful. Their fears are based on greed, religious fanaticism, hatred of anyone who they deem to be different. since reading this series I have gone on to the next and so on I love the fact that you go on to see some of the other characters find their True mates. the stories have everything love hate anger sex healing paranormal basically everything you want from a book and more keep it up Christine K.