Member Reviews
Silke Vriese Reinder has spent her young life as a demon slayer. She is also the repository for the soul of an ancient Carpathian, who is her lifemate. Silke has mostly been focused on the great battle with the big evil, Lillith, and her army that she knows is coming. Many of the advance guard of demons, vampire, mages, and assorted other bad guys have been assaulting Silke’s rural village. Silke knows she has a duty to Benedek Kovak, the millennials old Carpathian who arrives to make his claim; however, she is not sure about relinquishing her autonomy to a centuries old, set in his ways, very powerful man.
Benedek has come close to giving up hope of ever finding his fated mate as well as being on the verge of transitioning to something almost as bad as his enemies. The long years of constant fighting, the impending war, and his struggles against dark forces have pushed Benedek to the brink.
Once Silke and Bendek connect, they spend most of their time trying to negotiate terms of their mating while fighting against a new barrage of supernatural enemies. Having been trained from a very young age as a demon slayer, Silke is having a hard time letting go of her solitary life to partner up with Benedek even though she is inexplicably drawn to him.
This is book number thirty-four in the series. Things seem to be ramping up for the big battle as this story has a lot of fighting and training for Silke and less relationship emphasis than previous stories. The escalation on Lillith’s part is a strong portent for what is coming. Benedek’s companions will also be seeking their fated mates in the tales to come.
Christine Feehan is one of my favourite authors and I never say no to reading one of her books. Dark Hope is the latest installment in her Dark series. I love the Carpathians, and Benedeck was interesting in his initial reluctance to be bonded to his life mate. I did find overall though that I wish there had been more development of the relationship between Silke and Benedeck. Much of the book focuses more on the history of their people as well as battling of demons, vampires, and mages. Much of the relationship building is simply them going into each other's minds and seeing their history or feeling the other person's feelings. The ability for them to go into each other's minds actually takes away from the sense of tension or mystery. There is a cliffhanger at the end for Justice and I'm wondering where Feehan will take his character - evil demonic vampire or a misunderstood, pained hero.
Title: Dark Hope
Author: Christen Feehan
✩✩✩.5
💠Life Mates
💠Ancient Warrior
💠PNR
💠Demon Slayer
I am a huge fan of this series and own all the paperback. These Ancient warriors from the monastery have been some of my favorite. I really enjoyed Silke confidence and strong personality. Normally we see the FM with the struggles of acceptance but Benedek is the one that has to work through his feelings and past betrayals. I did feel this one was a little slower and not as much physical connection between Silke and Benedek. I really like the ending that seems to set up for maybe getting to see some of my favorite characters from previous books.
Over all a good addition to this series.
“𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒, 𝑆𝑖𝑙𝑘𝑒. 𝐴𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑚𝑦 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒.”
What a wonderful series, every book is interesting and engaging and this book is no exemption. I do recommend starting at the series beginning though.
Great new entry in Feehan's Dark series. I love the ancients and how they have to learn to live in the modern world. This one was action packed and the characters were well written. Can't wait for the next in the series.
3.5 Stars
This is another solid addition to the series, the overall storyline running through the last few books has been really engaging and it’s keeping me very invested in the series. This book had a unique take with Benedek being unusually reluctant to form the lifemate bond. In the series it has typically been the heroine who doesn’t want to bond or is unsure and while Silke definitely had doubts, she was much more open to bonding than Benedek. I thought that was a refreshing change and enjoyed watching Benedek work through his past and realize his true feelings for Silke. And I loved what a strong woman Silke was, she knew how to handle anything thrown at her and took the time to think things through before reacting. I did feel like the middle of this book, maybe 50%-60% in, got a little bit slow and then the big battle at the end was very quickly wrapped up. I’m looking forward to the next book especially with how this one ended, seems like we might get to see some characters from past books which I’m really excited about. And I can’t end this review without once again saying, please give Justice a book, don’t just make him some big evil to fight, pretty please.
ARC provided by NetGalley/Berkley Publishing for an honest review.
Dark Hope, book 38 of the Dark Series by Christine Feehan @authorcfeehan. First, I am a massive fan of Christine’s & this book was no different!
I enjoyed this book about Silke & Benedek! My only complaint was it was a slow-starting book. Tropes: PNR, MF, SLOW SLOW BURN, Demon Slayer, Carpathian Ancient Hunter, Lifemate negotiations & HEA.
I ADORE, Christine Feehan! I love the Carpathian story line, and she is now taking it to a new level of expansion. I am super happy to see the continuation of the ancients finding their soulmates.
I had such a great time reading this book! I love this series, and I've enjoyed it from the start, and now that it's 34 books deep, and still going strong, that's great! We're about done with this run of tarot inspired books, I'm not sure if Justice, and , would be getting stories now, or be part of that, though they have been a part of what has tied these 4 books together. We'll see!
Silke is a demon slayer, and she knows she's the one that's going to have to deal with the battle against Lilith, and be the lifemate for the Carpathian for whom she holds the light of their soul. But she wants a partner, not to be dictated to, which is always a concern when dealing with anyone as old as the Carpathian men tend to be.
Benedek is one of the Ancients at the monastery-but the vow that they all made, to wait for their lifemate, he doesn't really believe in, he's never lived in a loving home, because his "parents" weren't healthy, and caused him a lot of issues. So theirs' was an interesting dynamic to read about!
I really enjoyed reading about their fight against Lilith and her army. She's learned from previous battles, which made it more difficult for them, plus they're in Silke's remote village, which added it's own unique challenges and benefits. It was just so thrilling to read, another great addition to the series!
This was another really fantastic read and I can't wait for whatever's next from Christine Feehan!