Dark Prince: Author's Cut Special Edition

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.

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.

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??

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'.

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.

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.

A narrator can really ruin a book and that is what Juanita Parker did to the first few books in the dark series. Abby Craden did a much better job and I really enjoyed listening to this book again!!!

Great start to the series - good storyline - took a bit to get past the long drawn out sex scenes but ffwd works well.

The best thing about this book was the narrator. Smooth as silk voice. The rest was just well, boring. Whiny heroine, arrogant male hero and just endless dialogue that really didn't move me emotionally or entertain me with the plot. I know that's asking a lot of PNR BUT JR Ward and Jeanine Frost seem to manage it.

narrator changed voice to fit each character nice way to hear book. but sex scene to long.