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Dark Prince

Christine Feehan
HarperCollins (Author’s Cut 2011)
ISBN 9780062009623
Reviewed by Tia Bach for RebeccasReads (6/11)

Can I start a review asking a simple question, “Where have I been?” When I received Dark Prince, I noticed this was the Author’s Cut Special Edition. Christine Feehan clearly states, “The novel, with one hundred fewer pages, was the author’s first book. Back in 1999, content was cut to reduce the length.”

Intrigue set in, so I typed the author’s name into my internet search engine. Sure enough, Christine Feehan is a NY Times Bestselling Author with over 40 novels, including four series, to her credit. Dark Prince is the first novel in the Dark Series.

Mikhail Dubrinksy is the unmitigated and powerful leader of the Carpathians, an ancient race of men who need human blood to survive and heal by sleeping underground during the day. Vampires, right? Wrong. Carpathians do not kill humans and use intense telepathic ability to make sure the humans don’t remember donating to the cause. So do vampires roam among this fictional world? Yes. They are essentially Carpathian men who let their dark sides take over.

Raven Whitney flees to the Carpathian Mountains to heal her wounded mind. Telepathic, she’s drained from connecting with the demented thoughts of serial killers. But she senses a dark soul in pain. When Raven touches Mikhail’s troubled mind, human and Carpathian worlds collide. 

Their attraction is intense but fraught with peril and confusion. Mikhail has no doubts about their union, but Raven struggles with questions. Reconciling their worlds initially seems insurmountable. Then things get worse. Once a Carpathian male turns into a vampire, the rest of the Carpathians hunt him down. They realize vampires are a plague, but it’s a vicious cycle. The more Carpathians kill, the closer they become to turning into vampires. Their only hope lies in finding lifemates. Enter another problem. Carpathian women are failing to reproduce girls.

Raven is their only hope, but she must be turned; something that has not been successfully done in centuries. Christine Feehan does an excellent job presenting Raven as a gifted human with the strength to maintain her gifts even after becoming Carpathian. She is a strong character who loves deeply but refuses to lose herself.

I don’t want to give too much away, because the book is quite the journey. I did find Mikhail overly brooding and caveman-like at first, but his ancient customs and beliefs are all he has. Thankfully, Raven clings to her humanity and makes them both the better for it. Gregori, Mikhail’s brother and confidant, and Father Hummur were my favorite ancillary characters. Along with Raven, these characters softened and fleshed out Mikhail.

There’s romance, intrigue, good versus evil, and well-developed characters to boot. Please note when I say romance, this isn’t Young Adult romance. For readers looking for a more mature and more original “vampire” novel, this series is for you.
I feel compelled to read more of this series to find out if Raven indeed brings the Carpathians back from extinction, and I also plan to read the original version. I’m interested to see the effect of one hundred extra pages. Plus, I admit it; I’m now a fan and have a lot of catching up to do.

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