Dark Melody (Carpathian Novels) [Mass Market Paperback]

I felt just like Corinne as I was reading this story. My heart felt likeit would give out, it was pounding that much. There was so much tensionin this story.
Dayan, one of the dark troubadors is travelling. He is playing with asmall band when in walks Corinne, his lifemate. Something is wrong withher. She is dying & is pregnant. What we have next is a race againsttime to save Corinne & her baby daughter. She has to be converted toCarpathian life. But that can't be done until her baby is born. Corinnehas to have healing sesions from Gregori & Darius intil Shea & Jaquesarrive to deliver the baby. But Shea is pregnant as well & can't travelvery fast. The scene at the birth was one of the most beatiful & heartrending I have ever read.

There must be story in here somewhere. Really. Wait, wait maybe... No. This story (if you can call it that) was really quite dissapointing. Having read the other books in the "Dark" series, and really quite enjoyed them for the most part, I was surprised at the lack of any storyline at all in this one. The premise of this novel is a good one, and theoreticly, a suspensful one as well. But, alas, the novel gets too bogged down in, actually, I'm not sure what. The hero and heroine giving each other heart-felt declarations of their undying love for each other, or something.

The premise. (I hesitate to call it a story line) is that Dayan, one of the Dark Troubadors has gone to Canada, to seperate himself from his band mates, so that he will not endanger them, being the only one of the group who has not found his lifemate. While there, he meets her, being Corinne, a telekinetic. Only Corinne (a widow) is burdened with a failing heart, a pregnancy and a helpless cousin who earns a nice living as a model. And that is the whole thing in a nutshell. The charaters never develop, as they are already perfect for each other. There is no element of suspense. There is no feeling of endangerment. There is no chemistry between the hero and heroine. There isn't anything to help this book get off the ground, and actually be interesting. Many of the previous charaters make cameos in this book, but that is boring too. Although they play an important part in what would usually be called a narative, here, they spend time introducing themselves to the eventually bed-ridden heroine, and that is about it. All of the (very-little) action is told in a reporting style. As in, it has already happened, and now I will tell you about it.

I suggest you skip this book, and try something else. I kept reading, only because I thought that eventually, it would have to get better. Please, don't make the same mistake!

This is the first of the Carpathian books by Christine Feehan that I have read; I've often come across comments about them and thought they sounded interesting.

This book was disappointing. Firstly because the plot was incredibly thin; the first really interesting thing happened halfway through the book (which was a lot to plough through). Secondly, I didn't really like the characters as they were pretty one-dimensional; Dayan is a Carpathian (a sort-of proto Vampire, but a good one) and he has discovered Corinne, his lifemate, whilst singing in a bar. Unfortunately for him Corinne has a serious heart defect and is also pregnant with her now dead husband's child. Dayan could heal her himself but it would cause the death of the child, so he needs to find some other way of helping.

The relationship between Dayan and Corinne is unsatisfactory in this book. Not because they don't like each other - they do - but because it's instant liking. There's no tension, no disagreement, no confusion; romance novels work much better when the hero and heroine have to overcome misunderstandings to find true love. Dayan and Corinne just fall headlong into it. I also found a lot of his behaviour pretty questionable - he gives psychic suggestions to anyone around and that includes Corinne and her sister-in-law Lisa; half the time it read like a mind rape to me.

I thought the character of Lisa was one of the most successful - she spends the first half of the book burying her head in the sand about the problems they are facing because she doesn't like change and wants security. This was believable, as was her horror when her attitude caused serious problems to Cullen, her lover, and to Corinne. I didn't particularly like her as a person but at least she added a little spice to the narrative.

Corinne is whisked away to a place of safety to be worked on by Dayan's fellow Carpathians in order to attempt to heal her and here we get a roll call of all the other Carpathian books' heroes and heroines. Perhaps this was meant to encourage me to buy the rest of the books but instead it made me a bit irritated by all the happy partnerships being paraded around. Yes, the romance genre hopes for happy endings but too many together at once remind you that you really are in the world of fiction. Sometimes a bit of dissent, sparky antagonism and alpha males getting bested by their women is far more interesting to read - but you don't get much of that in this novel.

It wasn't particularly badly written and there weren't any colossal clangers such as plot holes (after all, the plot was scanty!) but the book just read to me like the author's fantasy fulfilment of poetic dishy men with superpowers who want to look after their weaker women. This book has not inspired me to read any of the others by this author.