I love the idea of one soul mate fated forever. There is just something I love about the Carpathian series. Julian and Desari are a very sweet couple and I enjoyed reading about Desari’s family. But for me a little slow which is why it’s a 4 star and not 5. Review #4 Dark Challenge audio narrated by Abby Cradenĭark Challenge the 5th book in the Dark series by Christine Feehan was a nice read. Yeah… Feehan is still a standard for Paranormal romance. The sophisticated, caring, gentle, loving way the men interact is closer to the realistic relationships I have seen in my life than the overly-macho, socially damaged bad-boys that have taken over a lot of romance. I have to say, both Books 4 & 5 (Gabriel & Julian’s stories) are particular favorites. I just started book 10 and the rest have been as fresh as the first one, redundancy is kept to an absolute minimum and she hasn’t recycled the same plots/characters. I can see how so many authors would try to emulate Feehan’s style! After having read this one, I just went ahead and bought the rest of the series (Happy Birthday, to me!). The world just seems to fall into place, book after book. Articulate, well-developed story lines and fabulous characters. Still, I was not prepared for how wonderful they truly were. Review #2 Dark Challenge audiobook in series Darkĭeliberately waited to start reading any of Feehan’s books, because I heard they were addictive. Overall, it was a tedious and rather unenjoyable read. While I have been able to read and enjoy the previous books in the series, I had to skim through many parts of this one in order to get through them. I guess I was just expecting a lot more from this story. And even though I loved Julian’s twin brother, Aidan, in his book, I found it hard to really connect with Julian’s character in this one. She was rather dull and somewhat whiny (and an all around annoying pain in the rear), so those factors were problematic for me. I didn’t particularly like Desari, so that was another factor. I think the inclusion of those other characters also prohibited the natural development of Desari and Julian’s relationship. That whole family deal complicated everything and made the story vastly annoying.

I think if Desari had perhaps been by herself (or at least not shackled by those others), I would have enjoyed this story more. I found the whole “family” ordeal of Desari, Darius, and the other three to be an annoying addition to things. If one lover chases another.I was very disappointed in this one, as I was looking forward to reading Julian’s story. Click on a plot link to find similar books! Plot & Themes Time/era of story - 2000+ (Present Day)

Dark Challenge by Christine Feehan