Review: Dark Gold

Reviewed by Jen
 

Dark Gold is the 3rd book in Christine Feehan’s Carpathian series. This book centers on Aidan Savage. He is born of the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. He is 800 years old. Like others of his race, he drinks blood; he can shapeshift; he has telepathic abilities; and he can not go in the sun. Like all Carpathian men, he lost his emotions and his ability to see in color after he turned 200. Those gifts will not return unless he finds his lifemate, the other half of his soul. If he does not find her, he will lead a barren existence, until he chooses to end his life or become vampire, an evil being who kills and inflicts misery on others.

Aidan finds his lifemate, Alexandria, in the clutches of a true vampire. The beast is trying to take her for his own mate. And he has tortured Alex to a point where, when Aidan first sees her, he thinks she is a deranged vampiress and attacks her. Once he realizes his mistake, he gives her his blood to save her life. After his brutal attack, Alex does not see the difference between Aidan and a vampire.

Aidan brings Alex and her young brother (who she is raising) back to his home. He realizes that the vampire had two blood exchanges with her –and his own blood exchange was the third necessary to convert a human woman to Carpathian. The conversion is hard on Alex and she doesn’t want it. She fights her attraction to Aidan. She fights becoming Carpathian. It’s hard to see her stripped of her choices; her independence ripped away.

Even though Aidan killed the vampire who first kidnapped Alex, another is searching for her, which puts her life in danger. And there is drama in that, but the real issue at the center of the book is her fight against what she has become and her fight against her feelings for Aidan. It takes a long time for her to get past the idea that he is using his telepathic abilities to make her want him, as he pushes his will on her in so many ways. I found I got angry for her many times in the book. As with all the other Carpathian men, Aiden believes his way is always the right way… and with the strength of his abilities, that’s a tough pill for Alex (and me) to swallow.

Of course, the sex scenes are pretty hot. That’s one thing you can always count on in a Carpathian book. But I think we can start a fairly good drinking game, where you take a shot every time Feehan uses the word “velvet.” Everyone will be tanked before we get halfway through the book. Between the velvet sheath, the velvet fist, the velvet tip, the velvet over marble, and velvet voices, we could open a fabric store courtesy of Dark Gold. If you can overlook that, the love scenes alone make the book a great read.

Despite my issues with bossy Aidan (and of course my rant on “velvet”), I enjoyed this book.  It was fun to see the heroine running away from our hero, despite the fact that he is gorgeous, rich and head over heels for her.  4 stars.

Dark Gold

by Christine Feehan

Release Date: April 2000

Publisher: Love Spell