Dark Prince really likes its male and female leads. Their names are Mikhail and Raven, and they are perfect for each other. I mean that in a factual rather than complimentary way. The book takes great pains to make them two halves of a whole, baking it into the premise of the magic system. The male vampires of the novel must find a lifemate to keep them from succumbing to their darkest urges, and just one person in the world will do.

 

Mikhail and Raven know they're in the throes of destiny right from the get-go. Raven's a human psychic vacationing in Romania when she hears Mikhail's angst via telepathy. Being a giving soul, she helps out, and their communication via direct thoughts conveniently puts their courtship pedal to the metal. Mikhail, a powerful noble Byronic hero type who doesn't take no for an answer, shows up at her tourist lodge in the middle of dinner and uses his mind-affecting powers to cow everyone while he literally carries Raven off to his pad.

 

If you're thinking this is as creepy as it reads, let me just say "uh-huh." Raven tries to resist, but can't because Mikhail is just so damn sexy. This is not from his mental commands -- he specifically mentally commands her a couple of times for other reasons, but Raven chooses not to shit a brick in absolute terror at this violation, and once she's made some protestations, falls in sweeping, all-consuming, dizzy-from-blood-loss love with him. Their banter is meant to ameliorate this power disparity (which it doesn't, really), and carry on in the tradition of heroines who find vampires irresistible despite their danger. But unlike Bram Stoker's blood-drinking-as-metaphor-for-sex, Dark Prince gets straight into sex and blood that is, um, about 75% consensual and 25% coercion. It's never rape, but a girl could use some pepper spray is what I'm saying.

 

Our hero and heroine then have earth-shaking throw-down gorilla sex for about the first half of the book. It's pretty well described the first time, which is good, because the next five times or so it says a lot of the same stuff. Everything is "silken skin" and "burning need," there's a lot of souls becoming one and manful "claiming her as his." To be fair, it's not all repetition: the stakes are upped a little bit each time from sex to sex & blood to lifemate ritual to the vampiric Embrace itself.

 

Oh, did I use a Vampire: The Masquerade term? Don't worry about it. Dark Prince is full of them. There's blood bonding, princes of vampires, sun lethargy, blood potency, lots of sleeping bodily in the earth like in the Protean discipline, and who knows what I've forgotten. To be fair, an entire generation of urban fantasy was influenced by White Wolf, so the author is not alone here. My own writing has gaming in its DNA, too. But for obvious reasons, I'll call out when a mainstream genre writer doesn't file off the serial numbers before reselling Chekov's gun.

 

There are some additional touches not in White Wolf - the weather literally gets worse with Mikhail's mood, the vampires have a fertility crisis and will die without their lifemates, and my personal favorite bit: Mikhail goes off in his own language now and then. (Honestly, I can't tell if it's made-up or just Romanian, but it added nicely to the world-building.)

 

Most of the book is sex, or flirting when the blood-bonded pair are too injured to have sex, or yearning whenever they are apart from each other for literally even a moment. This gets pretty worn, but around the second half of the book, a plot picks up involving vampire hunters and their mastermind bent on exterminating the last few Carpathians, the book's term for "good" vampires. Carpathians are established as vulnerable to bullets as well as the sun, so despite Mikhail's frequently-mentioned amazing powers, the antagonists are a pretty effective threat. It all comes together fine, but the purple prose wore me out about halfway through, so the dramatic heights of the end were not as climactic for me as the author probably intended. All in all, Dark Prince has few surprises, but as evidenced by its gazillion sequels, when your novel is primarily about vampire sex, the market value of surprises is pretty low.

 

I'd give this two stars, but I'm going to bump it to two and a half because of the research necessary to put together the Carpathian language. That doesn't grow on trees. As for who'd like it, if you thought the Mina/Dracula dynamic in that Francis Ford Coppola movie was cheeseball and you picked up this novel, I got nothin' but bad news for you. On the other hand, if you want a towering romance with mountain chateaus and that 19th-century Gothic vibe with lightning storms and noble savage blood-drinkers, Dark Prince tries hard to deliver. And if you just want vampire sex, which there ain't no shame in, you can fill in the other two and a half stars yourself.

I struggled to get into this book. Mikhail and Raven's relationship is toxic. He is demanding and domineering; not in the attractive alpha way. Thankfully, Raven calls him on it and recognizes that his behavior is not okay. There is a LOT of sex in the first 1/2 of the book. I don't mind sex, but this felt over the top, especially since Raven was a virgin. I think the excessive sex slowed the actual plot down a great deal. Once they got past the mating and all the ridiculous sex, the plot was actually interesting. I really like Feehan's take on 'vampires' and she has created a really fascinating world. I certainly plan to continue with this series!

 

Jane Heatherington studied the horizon, dread gnawing at her with small, sharp bites. The sky was a leaden mass of churning gray clouds that hung low on the water, and the ocean pummeled the shore with a strength that heralded the furor of the coming storm. Breathing in the tangy salt scent of the sea, Jane clenched her fists, making the edges of the delicate pink shell in her hand dig into the skin of her palm, grounding her as she struggled to hold her misery at bay.

 

We've got a heroine walking on rocky cliffs on a windy, dark, and gloomy day, a dark mysterious stranger, and murder mysteries. The first couple chapters felt like the author went through a Gothic list and was crossing them off as a lot of dark and gloomy elements were relayed. 

 

The story is told from the heroine's pov and this helps to keep the hero dark and mysterious but even before the half way mark he is pretty much revealed to basically be fairly benign. The hero and heroine had good chemistry, if their love felt a little rushed. 

 

The second half and whole revenge story felt somewhat cobbled together and I'm not sure I felt the emotional pull from it. The description of weather and the hero wearing a dark capped coat seemed to be the biggest Gothic themes and therefore, I was a bit let down with the Gothic feel.

Step into a passionate, lush, and powerful paranormal romance series packed with dark elves, vampires, demons, fae, shifters and angels from New York Times and USA Today Best-Selling Paranormal Romance Author Felicity Heaton.

A dark elf prince. A demon-hunting doctor. One bite will change their lives forever in...

Kissed by a Dark Prince (Eternal Mates Paranormal Romance Series Book 1)
Olivia thinks it’s her lucky night when a dangerously handsome unconscious fae ends up on her inspection table. He’s her chance to redeem herself with her employer, the demon-hunting organisation, Archangel. But when the tall, dark and deadly immortal warrior awakes, she gets much more than she bargained for…

Attacked by his enemy in the elf kingdom, the last thing Prince Loren expects when he comes around is a beautiful angel watching over him and medical technology of the mortal realm. Hazy from his injuries, all he can focus on is the pulse ticking in her throat and the sweet allure of her blood.

One single bite reveals she is his eternal mate, triggering a bond between them that will leave him weakened until it is completed… or broken, and pulling Olivia into the crossfire of his ancient feud.

To protect his people and his mate from the machinations of a madman, Loren must risk everything by working with Olivia at Archangel to find a way to break the bond blossoming between them.

But will Loren be strong enough to place duty before desire and give up the one thing he has waited millennia for and craves above all others—his eternal mate? And will Olivia be able to resist the incredible heat that burns between them and the temptation of her dark prince’s kiss?

Nearly 20 years ago, Aldi Nikolla made a play for power by killing off his best friend and associate, along with his wife. And to prevent the prophecy of their three sons taking over the Mafia, Nikolla tried to kill Aleksio, and sent his two baby brothers off, far away. Now Nikolla and Viktor are reunited and will do anything to find their baby brother, Kiro. Taking Aleksio's childhood best friend, Nikolla's daughter Mira, as a hostage, the pair race against time to be the first to find Kiro. 

 

Loving Annika's kinky bank robbers, I completely trust her to write an anti-hero I can get behind and enjoy. My faith was well-placed with Dark Mafia Prince. Yes, Aleksio is a dark killer, but his love for Mira and her faith in his kind heart prove to be a strong influence. The pair have a childhood bond that snaps back in place once they are together again. The romance is unconventional, as she is technically his captive, but their previous history and his trust in her allow the love to feel organic rather than Stockholm syndrome-ish. 

 

The story is shared from multiple first person POVs, but because each character's voice is different and unique, I never felt confused. The use of present tense gave the story a feeling of urgency; however, at times, the constant use of "I" made it feel like I was being told rather than shown what was going on. 

 

For focusing on such a dark world, full of violence and the ugly side of human behaviors, the love feels pure and right. The story was a quick read, leaving me ready to tackle Viktor's story. 

 

My Rating: B

Review copy provided by author