Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57431 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 366 pages

Customer Reviews

Lair Of The Lion
"THE BEAUTY
Impoverished aristocrat Isabella Vernaducci would defy death itself to rescue her imprisoned brother. Though fear formed a fist around her heart, she'd even brave the haunted, accursed lair of the lion of the lion - the menacing palazzo of legendary, lethal Don Nicolai DeMarco....

THE BEAST
Rumor said the powerful don could command the heavens, that the beasts below did his bidding ..... and that he was doomed to destroy the woman he took as wife. It was whispered he was not wholly human - as untamed as his tawny mane and slashing amber eyes."

I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to give this book full 5 stars, but decided to do so in the end. Why not sure ? Well ....
The story is very catchy. The characters very well described and introduced to the reader. The mood throughout the book is quite dark, which I enjoyed immensely. What I did not enjoy was the overly "colorful" love-scenes. I have read Christine Feehans' Dark series and loved them. It is not at all like her to be that "aggressive" with those scenes. Generally I do not have a problem with those, however I did not find them fit for this particular story, or maybe they were just done the wrong way.
To keep this short, I do not at all feel like I have wasted my time reading this book, despite for a few unfitting pages. I loved the story, the characters and the mood of the book. The book is definitely recommended !!!

Very hard work and not worth the effort!!
I have to disagree with the other reviewers about this book! It took me weeks to get throught it. Normally I read a book in one or two days but found myself putting this book down and starting a different one. I soldiered on thinking that the story might make a change for the better but it didn't. Hard work with little reward.I have all of CF's carpathian novels and this just does not compare.

Gothic and surreal
Lair of the Lion is a wonderful gothic romance by Christine Feehan. She bends the genre of gothic by including a supernatural element (which is explained away at the end of most gothic lit.) Isabella comes to the dnagerous lands of Nicolai DeMarco, a Don that visitors do not see. His family has been cursed, or blessed with the ability to become a lion and to control the beasts that they legendarily rescued from the Roman beast pits. The present Don also appears to be a lion all of the time to his people. But when Isabella comes, she sees him as he is, a man.

Isabella has come to the valley, asking him to rescue her brother from the dungeons of their neighbor. She is all alone, and her families lands have been confiscated. She comes to the Don as a petitioner, but his price for his help is marriage.

This is a great Beauty and the Beast addaptation. (Dark and Dangerous castle, girl learns to sees the person inside the monster, fall in love, curse is broken.) Even though you know there will be a happy ending, there is a wonderful job of creating suspense, tension and danger. You know how one of the bad guys is, but not all of them. People are hiding secrets, and you learn disconcerting information as you go through the book. A wonderful story told in a wonderful way.