#1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan brings the love story of Skyler and Dimitri to vivid life in this breathtaking, seductive entry in her dark Carpathian series.He is Carpathian. Ancient and unassailable. She is human. Young and vulnerable. Without her, he will not survive. Caught between two warring species, Dimitri has spent centuries hunting the undead to keep his people … undead to keep his people free and humans safe. He has survived honorably when others have chosen to give up their souls. Now, marked for extermination by the Lycans, Dimitri finds himself alone, and fearing for his life. But salvation is coming…
No Lycan would ever suspect someone like Skyler to dare mount a secret rescue operation. A teenage girl. A human of untested abilities. But she has something no one else does. She is predestined for Dimitri—as he is for her. And there is nothing stronger for Skyler than her desire to see her life-dream come true. Whatever the risk.
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In the twenty-second book of the Dark/Carpathian series, Skyler Daratranzanoff enlists her two best friends, Josef and Paul, to help her track down and rescue her missing lifemate, Dimitri. The Lycans captured him two weeks earlier, and no one—not her adopted parents or the prince of the Carpathian people—are keeping her informed of the situation. Desperate to save him, she and her friends go to Russia and run afoul of a dangerous military-trained Lycan pack.
Dimitri Tirunul is more than just an ancient Carpathian warrior. After centuries of sharing blood with his half-Lycan/half-Carpathian brother Fen, he now has Lycan blood running through his body. The Lycan species calls mixed bloods Sange rau and the fanatics want to kill them all, so they kidnapped and tortured Dimitri. Meanwhile, the Lycan council is visiting Mikhail, the prince, in hopes of establishing an alliance between the two species.
Like most fans of the series, I’ve been looking forward to this story for years, ever since Dark Celebration came out. Dimitri and Skyler have been lifemates for the past three years, but he hasn’t claimed her in the way of his people. After all, she was only 16 when they met, but she’s grown up a lot in the past few years. She had suffered much physical, emotional, and sexual abuse as a child, so she wasn’t ready for a relationship with a man. Dimitri understood that and gave her time, all the while getting to know her and becoming friends. Even though he risked his life and soul to give her time, he remained honorable and put her needs before his own, as all Carpathian males should do with their lifemates.
Dimitri is an amazing person and respects Skyler for who she is. He’s not controlling, insanely jealous, or demanding as some other heroes are in this series. He accepts her male friends and considers them his friends, which few Carpathian warriors are capable of doing for their women.
Skyler wants to move past her trauma, but feels she’ll never be strong enough or good enough for Dimitri. Despite her doubts, she’s a powerful healer and psychic, and the perfect match for her mate.
I loved all the scenes with Skyler, Josef, and Paul. Even though they goof off and play, and the elder Carpathians consider them children, they’re really adults and powerful in their own right. Josef is especially wonderful, but feels unwanted, expendable, and a burden to his family. Luckily, he realizes how wrong he is.
I definitely enjoyed the scenes with Skyler and her birth father Razvan. She’s kept her distance from him, but she’s finally reaching out, wanting to get to know him.
There are a few inconsistencies. Skyler and Razvan are Xavier’s great granddaughter and grandson respectively, but twice throughout the book they are called his granddaughter and son. Also, Paul’s last name is Chevez (his father’s name), not Jansen (his mother’s maiden name), so why is Paul suddenly going by his mom’s name?
I enjoyed the story, but I had to reread parts of it to figure out what was going on and who was talking or thinking because of all the head hopping. The narrative is repetitive and there are lots of lengthy chants and rituals, which I skimmed over. Zev and Bronnie’s story is next, so stay tuned for that review.
4 Stars
This is my first Christine Feehan read and although I am kicking myself for not reading the series in order, I was not disappointed in the book. I did feel a little lost when there were so many other characters introduced and not knowing their histories made it difficult to connect with them in the story. I would recommend reading the series in order.
The Carpathians and Lycans are on the verge of war. Mikhail, the Carpathian prince and the Lycan council members are working on an alliance but there are those in the Lycan community that feel all mixed bloods are dangerous and should be eliminated.
Dimtri, Guardian of all and a mixed blood, is being held hostage by the Lycans and the council assures the prince that Dimitri is being well cared for. In reality, Dimitri has been given a death sentence and is enduring an unbelievably painful torture, unbeknownst to the council. It seems there are traitors among the Lycans and no one is sure who can be trusted.
Skyler, Dimitri’s lifemate, along with her two best friends, Josef and Paul, set out to find Dimitri and free him before the Lycans kill him. As the trio begins their journey, the odds seem to be in their favor since everyone they encounter dismisses them as threats because of their youth. Can the trio save Dimitri and get out of Lycan territory with their lives in tact or are their plans doomed from the start?
Dark Wolf is a classic love story. Two destined lifemates face insurmountable obstacles in order to find each other. I absolutely fell in love with Dimitri. Finding out his lifemate was so young and terribly scarred from an unthinkable childhood, his faithfulness, kindness and unwavering patience with Skyler is amazing. Dimitri is protective, possessive, supportive and loving and I was swooning every instance he shared page time with Skyler.
I also enjoyed the interactions with Josef, Paul and Skyler. They were, undeniably, the comic relief in the story. There’s action, excitement, humor, romance and death-defying love so pure that it can conquer anything. Four Stars for Christine Feehan!
***I received an eBook copy from the publisher via Net Galley in January 2014 in exchange for an honest review. All conclusions reached are my own***
Great book by a great author. I will read anything by Feehan since everything she writes is fantastic! I love the whole Dark series as well as her Leopard, Game And Seahaven novels. I’ve started her Torpedo Ink books and I can’t wait for the next one in the series.
This has been a much anticipated book by her loyal fans…..
Skyler has been in many books, we first met her in Gabriel and Francesca’s book (Dark Legend) they adopted her as a young girl, she had been horribly abused by her stepfather (mentally and physically) and so Skyler is very afraid of men, it’s taken her a long time to get over a few of her fears.
Skyler is a psychic and so a potential mate to a Carpathian. She is mage, Carpathian and human. She is also a “lost” child of Razavan (Dark Slayer) her father had been possessed by the mage Xavier to father children to feed off and experiment on. Her mother ran off with Skyler as a child, (escaping Razvan and Xavier) but fell in with the wrong people. She was rescued by Francesca and called “daughter” all she felt was loved and cherished, but there is another who “loves” her ……
Every day without his lifemate has been pure torture for Dimitri (Fenris’s brother from Dark Lycan) he has known for a few years that Skyler was “his,” the other half of his soul, his light in a dark and colourless life. Feeling helpless as her memories of being assaulted ran though his mind. Not being able to “save” her, knowing his precious lifemate was in the world, and not being protected and cherished by her parents. The beast that calls to him on a daily basis to kill is so strong, but his honour and love for Skyler keeps him on the right path.
Dimitri has been taken and tortured…. no one knows where he is, and why he was targeted (but in the last book Dark Lycan, we found out) wrapped from head to toe in chains, he’s been beaten and starved of blood. His only concern is for his lifemate, if he dies he is worried that the trauma would greatly affect Skyler.
But Skyler has amazing abilities, she finds her lifemate, and with the help of her friends, they go and rescue Dimitri. Rescuing him was easy, healing him was a lot harder. And in the middle of this we start a war.
As usual the battles were described in fantastic detail. The banter between Fenris and Dimitri was funny. And it was nice to catch up with a few of the couples from previous books.
There were a few really sad moments, the laughs kept coming, and one or two Oh My God moments.
I have to admit, I was disappointed with this book, it wasn’t her usual style. In the UK the age of consent is 16, so I didn’t have a problem with Dimitri claiming his lifemate at an early age. But the connection in other books was always so strong and tender. This book spent so much time finding Dimitri, the interaction between the main characters felt rushed!!!
And all those spells!! Did we really need them all? I felt they were a page filler, not really necessary to the story. I’m glad Skyler and Dimitri got their story, but if the author wasn’t happy, then maybe she should have waited.
All I can say is LOVE HER1111111
Wow Dark Wolf was awesome. Skyler and Dimitri’s book was well worth the wait. I fell in love with young sweet little 14 year old Skyler in Dark Legend. Then I fell in love with Dimitri, Skyler’s supportive and amazing lifemate in Dark Celebration. As the series went on I have been teased with little bits of their love story here and there since book 17 building up my anticipation and always leaving me wanting more. So when I finally got my hands on this book I was a little worried it wouldn’t live up to what I built it up to be. I was not disappointed it was better then I hoped!
This book picks up where the last book left off which was Dimitri had been kidnapped by the Lycans. When this book starts we get Skyler, Josef, and Paul mounting their own rescue misson. Skyler, sick of everyone leaving her out of what was going on with Dimitri, knew he was in trouble, set out with the help of her two best friends to get back her man! Skyler and Dimitri were adorable. Both so brave, loving, caring, and loyal. They had a very sweet romance. I loved Skyler’s two friends Paul and Josef. Josef was hilarious. The things he did in this book had me crackin’ up. I really really really hope that CF writes Josef a book. God I need his love story so much!
I enjoyed Zev in this book but I was kinda disappointed in the way he stood by while the other lycan’s were slowly killing Dimitri in the most painful and evil way. I get that he was following orders and that he helped by giving Dimitri blood and water but still I expected more from him. I really enjoyed getting more time with Razvan and Ivory in this book. I pretty much loved everything about this book but one thing. All the spells. For God Sake enough with the spells already! Page after page after page of spells. The overabundance of spells is why I took a half a star off my rating. I would have taken a whole star but I just loved Dimitri and Skyler too much to give them less than 4.5 stars. Zev’s book is up next and I can’t wait!
Absolutely love this
A great paranormal romance read
Strength in the pack
By now this author has perfected her Dark Carpathians. I love how the characters are recurring and yet each story is fresh and new. I especially enjoyed the fact that Skylar and Dimitri finally have their moment. The author took the time to develop these characters and they now seem to be old friends. The action and danger in this story was intense and drew me completely into the book. How exciting that once again we got to see so many connections happening. We might not know which couple is going to find their HEA next, but I can guarantee that I will love every minute of it.
The later books in this series are not as well written as the first ones, but I still enjoy the world Feehan has built!