DARK DESTINY.

DARK DESTINY by CHRISTINE FEEHAN.


As a child, Destiny saw her family butchered by a vampire who then attacked her and turned her into a creature of the night. The only thing that saved her sanity was a strange psychic connection with a soothing male voice that gave her hope and taught her how to survive.


Nicholae Von Shrieder is an ancient Carpathian vampire hunter, and it is he who has been helping Destiny. Convinced she is his lifemate, he has been desperately searching for her, as only she can save him from turning into the very abomination he hunts. Destiny however, does not recognise any difference between Carpathians and vampires and repeatedly refuses his advances. Now Nicholae must find a way to earn Destiny's trust, and fast.
........ Outer back cover.


FIRST SENTENCE (Chapter 1): She woke to the knowledge that she was a murderess and that she would kill again.


MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 118): At once she saw them in their true form. Tall, gaunt figures with jagged, stained teeth and gray skin stretched tight over their skulls. The illusion of physical beauty was projected by their minds, while their bodies had decayed to match their rotted spirits.


KEEP IT OR NOT?: Not.


The first Christine Feehan book I have ever read, Dark Destiny is the 11th book  in the Dark: Carpathian series. Did this is any way impair my reading? I don't believe so as I am led to believe that this is quite different from other books in the series and read well as a stand-alone novel.


What did however impair my enjoyment was that certain elements of the book were prize winningly repetitive - our heroes (Destiny and Nicholae, forged together by a psychic link) would enter into battle, make love, the details of which though not graphic went on for page after page after page, before observing that, oh, they hadn't 'fed yet'. Agggghhhhh.


A shame really as there were other elements of the book that were almost interesting and exciting, the ending being quite dramatic.


But what of Destiny, Nicholae and the other characters?


To be honest I didn't particularly get either of the two main characters and whilst I found it interesting that the author explored the more vulnerable side of Destiny  which saw her fighting her inner demons, it annoyed me that this supposedly 'tough cookie' ultimately always seemed to defer to Nicolae.


Much more interesting to me where the secondary characters of whom I particularly liked sister's, Velda and Inez, two seemingly eccentric elderly women, one of whom, has a surprisingly important role to play.


The best thing about the book? It was good to have proper vampires, none of these gloriously handsome hunks as in the Twilight/True Blood books, as my Memorable Moment shows these were quite loathsome characters, their beauty merely an illusion.


Not my cup of tea at all, this was ex-library stock that was labelled as supernatural fiction though to me it could have equally been labelled as romance with a supernatural element to it.