Review - Dark Prince by Christine Feehan

From Feehan's website:
"He came to her in the night, a predator -- strength and power chiseled his features. The seduction was deep and elemental; he affected her soul...She came to him at dawn, his bleakest hour. As the beast raged inside him, threatening to consume him, he vented his centuries-old despair in an anguished cry that filled the waning night. And she answered..."

Dark Prince is the first in a now twenty book deep series about the Carpathians. Feehan has a very interesting concept about vampirism. A male Carpathian must find a mate within a few centuries or detrimental changes will occur to their character. The mateless male loses the ability to express emotions, see in color, and portray a sense of morality. Once these men begin to deteriorate, only a lifemate will drag them away from the path towards becoming the cliched evil vampire of folklore.

Mikhail Dubrinsky is entering this critical time window for finding a mate. The book opens with him crying in despair, body and mind. Raven Whitney, a telepathic hunter of serial killers, reaches out to him with her mind. Yes folks, Feehan's vamps can communicate telepathically, turn into clouds of mist, and speak the languages of all wild animal species (with a particular fondness for the wolf). Mikhail decides that even though this is a first "mind meeting" that he will proceed to "mind fondle/rape" Raven, who happens to be a virgin.

Mikhail steals/kidnaps Raven. Raven finds out that Mikhail is the prince of his people and that there is a serial killer that wants to kill all of them off. Well how convenient that Raven has this amazing serial killer mind reading ability. Mikhail and Raven find plenty of time for completely boring cookie cutter mindless (very far from mindblowing) sex amid the adventure of finding and stopping said Carpathian genocide-ian. I literally skipped over the sex scenes, which annoyingly occurred about every other plot turn.

Overall Feehan has an amazing concept and unique theory; however, the execution is not all there. The characters are not developed and show limited personality. The sex scenes are predictably boring and actually take away from the enjoyment of the novel. If these scenes were deleted and filled with more character building, I would gladly read this as a paranormal novel instead of a romance.

Rating: 2/5

~Helena