Product Description

Manolito De La Cruz discovers his lifemate only to hear she would never accept a male of the species. Mary Ann Delaney has been around the Carpathians for a little while now, and having met several of the men, she knows she would have a difficult time being a lifemate to any of them. She's a counsellor for women and she wants to go back to her home turf. Manolito was born and bred in the Carpathian mountains, but has lived in South America with his four brothers on their extensive cattle ranch. They are laws unto themselves, and have long ago taken on possessive, passionate and arrogant ways that only magnify the already dominant traits of their race. MaryAnn, modern city girl, is about to meet a rainforest predator.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #219715 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Christine Feehan has received numerous honours including being a nominee for the Romance Writers of America RITA and receiving a Career Achievement Award from ROMANTIC TIMES.

Customer Reviews

A great read, Carpathians enter a new realm....
From various reviews, I'd expected this to be a great novel, and from the trailer on CF's website, I knew we were in for a treat, and this book did not disappoint. Apart from Rafael's story (another De La Cruz brother), this was the most passionate of the series. I'm used to CF's books being hot, but this was entering the realm of erotica/romantica, and like Rafael's one, this book is a keeper. A note to readers, there are frequent and VERY graphic sex scenes, with some very frank language, which may shock, but boy, do they add to the story!! Keep it up Christine, can't wait til the next book!

The De La Cruz's brothers never look so tempting until now
I waited impatiently for this book but ironically I forgot about it for some time until it was giving to me as an early gift and once more, I was not disappointed. I have been a fan of Christine Feehan from the first Carpathian novel and own most of her novels. I for one was not disappointed and establish this book a great addition on my shelf. In here we have our hero on the verge of becoming a vampire; Manolito De La Cruz is called back to his Carpathian homeland and unexpectedly finds his destined life mate, MaryAnne Delaney, who has no idea of the lengths that Manolito will go through to keep his mate.

Well after reading this I found the characters to be strong, absorbing, and very hard to ignore in different ways. I did wish, however, for more of a continuance of the story from the "Celebration". Like what happened to Manolito from the time he was stabbed till he woke to early in the rainforest? How did he manage to convince Mary Ann to take a journey with people she didn't know? What exactly did Gregori do to bring Manolito back - and (while I understand the concept) what exactly did he do during his journey to the tree of life to retrieve Manolito's spirit. Since this spirit journey has great deal to do with the actual story line, I wish that it had been better explained. I enjoyed meeting Vlad and his life mate in the shadow world, but wondered why Ivory wasn't there with them. Is this another story? Is she really dead? Enquiring minds want to know or am I asking too much.

I liked meeting some of the new old ones for pretty much the first time. There will be readers (dedicated fans really) that will be put off by Feehan's direction. And this story definitely threw in some new factors that hadn't been really mentioned in previous books. I'm sure if you loved her other books and actually pick this one up, you're going to love it. A must read for paranormal lovers and romance lovers alike. This book along with her other work makes you feel you're actually a character taking part in the story and not just reading it at a distant. This book draws you in completely and keeps you there and if you lucky it might even take you away. I wouldn't mind reading Zacharias' story next but here's hoping.

Formulaic Feehan...
I'm surprised I'm the first to write a review. I bought this book ages ago.

I'm a great fan of Christine Feehan's Carpathians in the Dark series and have read all of them. I was very interested in this one because this was the first with a Black character in Mary Ann Delaney. We know this because it was mentioned in Dark Destiny with lots of 'coffee coloured skin' references. Absolutely fine because I wanted to know how Christine was going to deal with her.

So, starting from where we left off in Dark Celebrations, Manolito De la Cruz has been stabbed by a poisoned umbrella meant for the heavily pregnant Shea, and is hovering between life and death in a sort of in-between world. Mary Ann has been bitten once and so is pining for what, she doesn't know, but Mano still in communication with his brothers, ask them to protect her while he tries to make his way back to the land of the living.

The story is a good one but, I think, spends far too much time in the in-between world. We meet Mikhail's father and mother there - and a psycho brother who wants power. it's not as claustrophobic as many of the other books, as we meet many other characters, like the Jaguars people. Mary Ann's character doesn't develop as much as it should but, she does find out more about herself out there in the jungle. And when she does realise her 'attraction' to Manolito, things spice up rather nicely.

This one was slightly different from the others, in that involves werewolves and jaguars. Takes place in South America, which is fine because we're dealing with the De la Cruz brothers. (By the way, if they're originally from Romania, where did the 'De la Cruz' thing come from?). Christine's also changed the wording in the bonding ritual in this one. I always loved the words in the other books and suddenly it's different. Why?

It is a good read but this IS textbook Feehan. I still recommend it.