Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Carpathians are back!, 5 Oct 2001
By A Customer
This anthology consists of 3 stories but I would say the best of 3 was Christine Feehan's Dark Dream. It's a continuation of her Carpathian series. An ancient, Falcon, sent out by Vladmir Dubrinsky (Mikhail's father) to Italy was on his way back to the Carpathian mountains to end his solitary existance when he meets his lifemate. This story though short did explain more of the history of the Carpathians and the problems that Mikhail's father had foreseen in the past. The story was very touching and a little different from the previous ones (where the male Carpathians converts their lifemates without their consent). In this one, you see an honourable ancient giving the choice to his lifemate. For those of you following the Carpathian series, this is a must buy!As for Amanda Ashley's story, it is about a vampire who discovers his dead wife reincarnated. It is a sweet story, if a little predictable. Somehow, I felt that it was not as good as her earlier works or perhaps it was too short for her to do justice to it. As for Ronda Thompsons', I understand this is her first paranormal but it lacks depth and the ending was a little too rushed. I would recommend you buy this book for Feehan's and Ashley's story. Trust me, it is worth it!!
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth curling up with on a dark night., 21 Nov 2003
By A Customer
I thought the best was Christine Feehan's contribution which was another of her stories about the Carpathian race. Yes is complete escapism and unreal but then again would you buy a novel about vampires and werewolfs if you wanted gritty realism? I thought the fact that the hero and heroine met and fell in love at the beginning of the story essential for the story to develop. Since I have read all of the 'dark' novels and am waiting for the latest installment it made perfect sense to me, a fan of her books. Amanda Ashley's contribution was less interesting as I found it a repeat of the other vampire novels she brought out and not as original as the other two contributors to the book. The last contribution is from the pen of Rhonda Thompson and again delivers, as does Mrs Feehan, an original story, which was easy to read yet kept me up until I had finished the book. The only real complaint about the book is that if one has to get up at six in the morning this is not the book to start at ten in the evening as it was too good to put down. Reading it on one of those cold, dark autumn nights just after Halloween, with the rain pelting the windows and the wind howling around the house, kids safely tucked in bed and husband on the ps2 upstairs, makes for a great feelgood factor. Three 'dark' stories with a happy ending.
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8 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Two stories okay, one very poor, 1 Sep 2003
If you like vampire romances - as I do - you might think that this book is worth buying; after all, it offers three different vampire-type romances from different authors. But, as with all anthologies, quality varies and in the end it’s not worth the purchase price.
Amanda Ashley’s Masquerade is better than a number of her longer novels, though it contains yet another tortured vampire who tries to give up the woman he loves because he won’t ‘subject’ her to what he is. Jason loves Leanne, but has only approached her because she was in danger. He can’t resist spending some time with her, but he knows that it’s only a matter of time before he must send her away for her own good. Anyone who’s read any of Ashley’s novels will know how the story goes. What set this one apart for me was the allegory with the Phantom of the Opera musical. Ashley draws comparisons between ‘Phantom’ and Jason’s existence as a vampire. Enjoyable - perhaps 3 stars.It’s really unfortunate that the longest story in this anthology was also by far the worst. Christine Feehan’s Dark Dream was appallingly bad. The protagonists meet and ‘fall in love’ in the space of about an hour, right at the start of the book. Oh, sure, Sara is scared of Falcon at first because she thinks he’s a vampire (he isn’t; he’s some sort of weird sub-vampiric species Feehan has invented for her books, which I’ve never read); but within seconds she ‘sees’ into his eyes and she ‘knows’ him as someone she’s known in her dreams for years. And then they’re apart for the vast majority of this 150-page novella. The rest of the story is a vampire hunt: it’s violent and ugly and unutterably boring. There was far too little interaction between the protagonists, and I wasn’t convinced that they were in love. Oh, and just how many times does Falcon have to ‘exchange’ with Sara before she’s converted?! Awful. Finally, Rhonda Thompson’s Midnight Serenade is somewhat different: Rick is a werewolf, and Stephanie is an environmentalist whose job is studying and filming wolves in the wild. This story felt rushed; I would have liked to know much more about how Rick became a werewolf, and I would also have liked to see the protagonists get to know each other better - it was more like falling in lust than in love. Overall, this isn’t a collection I’d read again. wmr-uk
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