If you haven't been reading Feehan's Carpathian series this is not the book to start with. The beginning of this book was a rough read for me, the hero and heroine become intimate far too quickly, with no build to romance and attraction, and without even exchanging names. The overbearing "me man, you woman" attitude of the hero grates at first, but as the book goes on he "grows" and realizes that his outdated, sexist behavior is no longer de rigueur. The book settles down from that point on and will be a pleasing read for fans of the Carpathians, with a new type of heroine will skills we haven't seen before, and heavy foreshadowing into her next book in this series.

Each story is still unique, even after 28 previous stories! Julija comes from a mage family with direct ties to the villainous triples of Xavier, Xayvion, and Xaviero. She is the product of the son of Xavier and a kidnapped Carpathian girl named, Francesa, who was planned for in order to provide Carpathian blood to her family. Brainwashed and brutalized her entire life, she is still able to break away from her family to warn the Carpathian people and do the right thing. Her plans go array due to others interference and now she's running from her family, from the Carpathians, from Sergey and his vampires and still determined to do the right thing and find and destroy Xavier's evil book of spells.

Isai is on the trail of his blood brother, who took the book to protect it from getting stolen by a shadow cat. On his hunt, he finds Julija instead. His biases and her scars make for some firework level clashes as these two lifemates learn how to work together when they're coming from such contradicting life philosophies.

I thoroughly enjoyed the detail that showed more about their travels and search for safe places to bed down each day. Plus, the addition of the shadow cats was super cool too. A great addition to this series and while not a hard read, still a fun one!

Another great instalment in this long running series.
Excited to read Julija’s story after meeting her in Dark Legacy. Enjoyed her story and seeing her and Isai coming together, learning about each other and falling in love.
Love learning more about the Ancients and catching more glimpses of Elisabeta. I hope her story is up next.

This book is another in the Dark Series. It can be read as a standalone, but it helps to have the backstory contained in the previous novels. This is the story of Isai and Julija. Like all the Dark Series novels the males are over the top alphas, as are all Carpathian ancients. But Julija was raised in an abusive family who used her because she was part Carpathian as well as part mage, with a hint of Dragonseeker thrown in......got all that? Because of her early abuse she is not sure she can be what a dominating ancient needs in a lifemate, and neither does Isai. But Julija is on a quest to find a very dangerous book, and Isai is very instrumental in finding the location and destruction of said book. Can they work out their differences, find and destroy the book and find their happily ever after? You'll have to read the book to find out....
Christine Feehan is one of my favorite authors, I read all her series and have been known to squeal in delight when I see she is releasing another book. I can't wait for the next one!! Thanks Christine for all the great reading!!
Thank you also to the publisher and NetGalley for choosing to have me read this book early and give my opinion.

Another good Feehan read. My only complaint is that I would have liked a bit more at the end. The story ended too quickly. But I have read all her books and enjoyed them all and this is no exception! Bad thing now is I have to wait for the next one