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| Dark Curse (The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 16) | 
 enlarge | Author: Christine Feehan
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $10.99
You Save: $13.96 (56%)
New (20) Used (9) from $10.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 76
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.2 x 1.8
ISBN: 0425223434
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780425223437
ASIN: 0425223434
Publication Date: September 2, 2008 (New: This Week)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A new Carpathian novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling queen of paranormal romance.(USA Today)
Born into a world of ice, slave to her evil father, Lara Calladine knew only paralyzing fear as a child. Only by escaping with her mysterious gifts unbroken would she survive to claim her great Carpathian heritage as a Dragonseeker
Now, Lara is in search of the source of her nightmaresthe cold, dark corners of her childhood just on the edges of her memory. Only one man has the power and the will to help her: dangerous, arrogant Nicolas De La Cruz.
Together, Lara and Nicolas search the treacherous Carpathian landscape for the truth about their pastsand discover a passion that neither has ever known before.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Mixed Feelings On This Offering From Feehan September 4, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
For those of you who are fans of Feehan's Dark Series, you are already familiar with Lara, who escaped on the back of a dragon from the evil mage's cave. Flash forward and Lara is an adult who has spent a lifetime searching for the same cave in order to give her two aunts a decent burial. Reaching the village of the Carpathians, Lara is found by Nicolas De La Cruz, her lifemate. Nicholas is so close to turning vampire that he actually begins to feed on Lara before her voice brings him into the light. Lara and Nicholas begin to work out their differences and also begin helping to solve the low birth rate of the Carpathian women. Why mixed feelings?
Positive - A truly excellent hero. Even when Nicholas is doing things the reader doesn't approve of, Feehan still manages to create sympathy and empathy for her tortured hero. By the end of the book, Nicholas is a terrific lifemate and one you won't soon forget.
The mystery surrounding the Carpathian women's low birth rate is becoming clearer and clearer and the answers are intriguing and complex.
As Lara is a Dragonseeker mage, she uses various "rhyming" spells to work her magic. Some of them in the book are very descriptive, touching and very well done.
Negatives - Lara is a heroine that is too hard to like or to figure out. She is by turns insecure, confident, weak, strong, indulgent, selfless - the reader has a hard time figuring out her true nature. I realize that Feehan was trying to show that Lara was damaged emotionally as a child and is growing as the book goes along. However, the mixtures of emotions don't seem to ring true. At one point in the book, Lara tries to commit suicide. This was such a departure from the heroine's character that I was like, WTH? This is the same woman who escaped from a mage, became an adult, practiced her magic and went all over the world trying to find one ice cave. Someone that determined decides to throw it all in? I don't think so.
Feehan once again used the new Carpathian language which she introduced in Dark Demon. Her hero uses it constantly and the reader is forced to skim it, looking for the next English word to understand what he really said. It jars the reader from the story and makes it very frustrating to get a flow going - especially when you realize that it isn't really a true foreign language, but rather an imaginary one.
Feehan spent 32 pages at the end of the book on this so-called language to give translations to various words and phrases. I felt cheated and ripped off. Those 32 pages could have been used to write more to the story. At the end, I briefly considered taking the book back to the bookstore and asking for a return on my money.
So definitely mixed feelings about this book. I would recommend it to other fans of the Dark Series, but just be aware that along with a really good story are some serious flaws.
 One of the better "Dark" novels September 3, 2008
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
After last year's Dark Possession, I was leery about reading Dark Curse. Perhaps not the best of the "Dark" novels, Dark Curse is definitely one of the contenders for that distinction.
Yes, we have the Alpha male and the strong female totally at odds. He is determined to claim her, she is equally determined to flee. Her desperate attempt was heart-wrenching for the reader and eye opening for Nicolas.
Feehan artfully includes lifemates from previous novels as she relates the story of the Carpathian's fight for their survival. We learn more about the Dragonseekers (first introduced in Dark Demon) and the role they play. Although there are the requisite fights with vampires, this story masterfully deals with the deeper evil facing the Carpathians.
I cried through much of the book, and so now begins the long wait for the next installment in this series. Thank you, Christine Feehan!
 Never again! September 3, 2008
6 out of 11 found this review helpful
I, too, was very leary about reading this book after the last 2 releases. I have been a big fan of Feehan's for 6 years now. The last two Drake sisters books disappointed me so much that I stopped reading them halfway through. I wish I hadn't read this book either. Since her publisher change a couple of years ago, Feehan's books have gone downhill.
The book has no ending and has become so scientific that I wanted to take notes. I will not read another Dark Series book again, except for Skyler's book when it EVENTUALLY comes out, as we have been waiting SEVERAL years already for it. Go back to your old publisher, because they knew what they were doing. I rarely leave a bad review on amazon, but I am now. Not to mention, I work at a public library, and this is one book I will NOT be suggesting to other people.
superb entry September 3, 2008
4 out of 13 found this review helpful
Carpathian Nicolas De La Cruz has come home to report bad news to his prince. However, he also plans to commit suicide ending his centuries of loneliness.
Lara Calladine has finally escaped the ice prison of her abusive father and even eviler grandfather. A half-breed she spent her childhood tortured by the pair in odious experiments to understand the dilution of her dragonkeeper bloodline with human DNA. She knows they are coming for her although that might be the nightmares that frighten her. When she and Nicholas meet, Lara knows she has found her soulmate; so has Nicholas, but trust of another person is something she has learned first hand to never do. Still the time to confront her nightmares is now as she has a persistent champion demanding to be at her side.
The latest Dark novel is a superb entry that can stand by itself as a powerful romantic fantasy yet also augments the super saga plot. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action; both trademarks of Christine Feehan. Lara makes the tale excellent as a unique individual who has suffered torment and torture her entire life. Nicholas realizes rather quickly that he has her love, but gaining her trust seems impossible even as he risks his life to help her. Ms. Feehan provides a terrific thriller to the delight of the Carpathian crowd.
Harriet Klausner
Different but wonderful September 3, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I'm going to be completely honest, I was a little taken back after I finished this book. It certainly takes us on a different track than the one we have been on with the Carpathians and it has all the romance, conflict, and fights that we would expect. But it is also poignant and rough to read at certain points. In the end, we are given a happy ending but with a twist I hadn't expected. I highly recommend it but it is not the Carpathian novel that its predecessors were. I think its probably the beginning of a new arc in the story and I can't wait for more.
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