Dark Prince

TEST

Dark Prince is an excellent example of a book that starts out so well, you’re led to believe you’ve hit on a pretty good thing. Then, about a third of the way through, you realize you’ve read these same words before, nothing new has happened, and not much action has taken place. By the middle, you wonder where the book is going, and end up reading the whole thing only because you’re mildly curious about what happens to the characters.

To set the record straight, Dark Prince is not really a vampire story. Our hero, Mikhail Dubrinsky, is a Carpathian, which is not the same thing as a vampire. According to the interesting premise of this story, a vampire is the result of a Carpathian gone mad, turned monster, due to the lack of a mate. Carpathians have one, and one only, life’s mate that they recognize immediately upon meeting them. Therefore, before Mikhail even meets Raven Whitney, he knows she is his life’s mate and that he must have her.

The problem is, Raven is not Carpathian, but is simply a human with incredibly strong powers of telepathy. Mikhail and Raven meet in their minds when she picks up on his thoughts as he considers ending his own life – seven hundred years without sex has driven him near the brink (I know it would put me in fit of pique, too).

They meet. They are attracted. He pursues. She resists. He kidnaps her. She resists. He tells her she is his life’s mate. She resists. He drinks her blood as he has sex with her. She nearly dies. His family tells him to let her go. He resists. She tries to get away. He resists. Bad guys strike. He sends her away for her own safety. She resists. Cycle this information three or four times, and you then come to a quick and unremarkable ending.

Okay, so why didn’t I grade this book lower than I did? Because it had so much potential, it’s a shame it wasn’t better and the parts that were good, were really good. The author has talent, but the story suffered from the circular plot and repetitive dialogue. That the hero was tortured and lonely, in need of the heroine’s love and trust, I got the first hundred times it was said, but words such as this were repeated in every chapter as though they were some kind of Carpathian mantra.

Although Mikhail and Raven have sex many times, each time is told from the hero’s point of view. Being a woman, I wanted to know what Raven was thinking and feeling when hunky Mikhail made love to her, but it never happened. It was the worst case of coitus one sidedness I’ve ever seen.

If you love vampire stories and if you are aware you may be going around in circles and if you don’t mind villains who are so weak and stupid they are easily overpowered by the centuries-old undead, then you might like this book. Although I cannot really recommend Dark Prince, I will be on the lookout for this new author’s next book.

Reviewed by Marianne Stillings

Grade: C-

Book Type: Vampire Romance

Sensuality: Hot

Review Date: 22/09/99

Publication Date: 2005

Recent Comments …

  1. excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.

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