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    Dark Challenge
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    Dark Challenge
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    Dark Challenge
    Ebook404 pages7 hours

    Dark Challenge

    By Christine Feehan

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Julian Savage was golden. Powerful. But tormented. For the brooding hunter walked alone. Always alone, far from his Carpathian kind, alien to even his twin. Like his name, his existence was savage. Until he met the woman he was sworn to protect…. When Julian heard Desari sing, rainbows swamped his starving senses. Emotions bombarded his hardened heart. And a dark hunger to possess her flooded his loins, blinding him to the danger stalking him. And even as Desari enflamed him, she dared to defy him - with mysterious, unparalleled feminine powers. Was Desari more than his perfect mate? Julian had met his match in this woman, but would she drive him to madness…or save his soul?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 8, 2010
    ISBN9780062013309
    Author

    Christine Feehan

    Christine Feehan is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, with over 90 published novels in seven different series: Dark Series, GhostWalker Series, Leopard Series, Drake Sisters Series, Sea Haven Series, Shadow Series, and Torpedo Ink Series. All seven of her series have hit the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list.

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    Reviews for Dark Challenge

    4/5

    433 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This one was really good. I loved Desari's story - finally a carpathian woman who's just as powerful (in some ways more) than her lifemate! The only thing that dissapointed me was the storyline between Barack and Syndil. What happened there? It seemed to me that they were lifemates but they couldn't work through Syndil's pain. And it was never explained... I don't understand. I hope there is more to their story later on in the series.
    • 4/5
      This is a great book...I adore this series.
    • 5/5
      Julian Savage is powerful hunter for his people, the Carpathians. He expertly hunts vampires, the undead, who torture and kill his people as well as humans. He has had to live a solitary life, sometimes even hunting down old friends who turned vampire. But he does his duty, without fail. Separated from family, totally alone, he finally finds his lifemate. Their new relationship is only part of the story - someone is out to hunt down Desari and Julian must protect her at all costs while dealing with her family and an enemy from his troublesome past. A story about love, peace, renewal and forgiveness. A story about learning, trusting, sacrifice and honor, not only for your mate, but for your family. I highly recommenf this entire series beginning with "Dark Prince".
    • 4/5
      What stands out most in this book is Julian's sense of humor, and Desari's common sense. So many of the female lifemates in the series have been portrayed as not having a lick of sense, so it's a refreshing surprise when we get one who's old, powerful, and practical, and willing to put her man in his place when he needs it.This makes it one of the better books in the series. It's also important to the series, as this is the Dark Troubadors' introduction, and we get to see elder Carpathian females. This is Julian Savage and Desari's story, and it's worth not skipping.
    • 5/5
      Centuries of hunting the undead had left Julian Savage ready to face the dawn, he only had one more task to perform for his prince. The safety of a singer, Desari, was in question after her name was found on a list. Arriving at the concert hall, Julian was amazed to find that even the security at the front door seemed to feel his presence. After seeing and hearing Desari, the color and light and emotions that flooded him left him unaware of the assassins in the hall. He was there to protect her but was so surprised by finding his lifemate that he almost allowed them to take her from him before he ever truly had her. Book 5.… I am really enjoying this series, getting to know all of the characters so well is the fun part. Meeting the new characters and getting to know all of them was enjoyable especially with the connection to one of the characters that we already know (trying not to drop any spoilers). The creativity of this book is higher, it is not just the same tortured male meets the reluctant to be a lifemate woman. He was tortured and she was reluctant, but they both had some good reasons and explanations for why they were the way they were. I am eager to see if Barack and Syndil have at least a short story, Darius and Dayan should each get a story, and Gabriel and Lucian need an ending for there stories, I hope to find out more for each of them too.
    • 5/5
      Dark Challenge is the 5th book in Christine Feehan’s Carpathian series. This story focuses on Julian Savage, an ancient Carpathian, and twin to Aidan, who was featured in Dark Gold. Like all Carpathians, Julian drinks blood; he can shapeshift; he is telepathic; and he can not go out in the sun. The males of the species lose their ability to see in color and can no longer feel emotion after their 200th year. Julian is around 800 and is ready to end his existence. If a Carpathian man goes too long without emotion, he can turn vampire, an evil beast who kills without discretion. The only way to avoid that (or suicide) is to find his lifemate, the other half to his soul.At the end of Dark Magic, we discover that a group of fanatical human vampire hunters have targeted some humans and Carpathians for destruction. A beautiful, mysterious singer named Desari is on their hit list. Ancient Carpathian Gregori has asked Julian to seek her out, warn her of the danger, and protect her. Once he finds her, he sees color at the sound of her singing and realizes she is his lifemate.Moments later, Desari is shot during her performance. Julian saves her life, but is attacked by a strange leopard who is also trying to protect her. We later find out that the leopard is Darius, Desari’s brother. The two of them and the other three members of their band are all Carpathians. But they grew up separated from the rest of their people. Hundreds of years ago, when humans were attacking their kind, they escaped. They were all children, but Darius took care of them… and has done so all these years.The relationship between Desari and Julian develops quickly. It’s nice to see the heroine as a grown, secure woman. Someone who is already Carpathian. So many of the female leads in the series are mere babies compared to the age of their lifemates. Desari is an ancient in her own right. And Julian isn’t nearly as obnoxious as some of the Carpathian men we have encountered before. They have great chemistry and sexy love scenes.Of course, where Carpathian women go, so goes the vampires. So Julian must band together with Darius to help protect Desari and the other female in the group. The task is even more monumental since Julian, himself, suffers from the taint of a vampire who forced a blood exchange when he was just a young boy.We get to meet a wealth of new characters and we get backstories on so many characters that will be featured in the future: not just the band members (some of whom we find out are long lost relatives to Gregori), but also the ancients Gabriel and Lucian. My only disappointment here is the missed opportunity for the reunions between Julian and Adian –and the members of the Daratrazanoff family (yes, that’s last name of Gregori’s people… although we don’t learn it in print until several books later.)4 1/2 stars.
    • 4/5
      The premise of the Carpathian books still makes all of these books worth reading. You're promised an angsty, hurting male and a lifemate to comfort away all his pain. I love the Carpathian books for that alone. This book does not fail to deliver on that. But the series does still suffer from some repetitive tendencies, particularly a few repetitive words over and over again. And the sexism in the books is enough to really annoy me.This book brought in some refreshing differences from books three and four. I was really worried about the repetition and similar plots in those books. This book is still the same format, but there's just enough new, unique things to keep my interest. There is a new group of siblings. Adding family dynamics to the story made the scenario more intriguing to me. The vampire related plot in this story was much more interesting and personal than previous books too. It still wasn't as good as the plot and twists of books one and two, but there was some unknown mystery to it to keep me turning pages. I also particularly liked that the author gave Julian some dark, guilty secrets in his past.I really like it when the story ties back into characters from previous books. This one has some of that, but I would like for that to be explored a lot more. I know the focus has to be the lifemates, but it would be really nice to actually get to see the main characters of this book interacting with the main characters of the previous books. There's good reason to do that in this story, but it never happens. That was a big disappointment for me.The lifemate isn't as young this time. She's older and actually has some powers of her own. However the women are still written as whiny. The powers given to the women are 'feminine' powers. I personally think that an ancient Carpathian woman should be able to zap some lightning down from the sky and destroy a vampire herself without even breaking a sweat. It seemed like this book was actively trying to contend with some arguments about sexism in the previous books, but the fact that her trying to dispel that was still so incredibly sexist actually made it a little worse. I still love the books because of the premise, but the sexism does really annoy me.I must also say that the ending really let me down. I won't spoil anything, but when I finished, I started flipping pages. Where was the rest of the book? Surely A, B, and C were not all going to be unresolved! But they are. It was a big let down for me that I'd been reading so fast to find out what happened with these things but never did. I hope perhaps they are at least mentioned in future books.All in all it is a Carpathian novel, and I have to love them all for their angsty males. But the sexism and repetition are annoying. However this book did have more plot and a slightly stronger female than books three or four, so I did enjoy it more than those, but it still pales in comparison to books one and two for me.
    • 2/5
      Nothing happened! -or at least next to nothing, for the enter 300 and something pages. There were 4 scenes with action where the story actually moved foward - each were at most 3 pages long. The rest of the book was filled with either Desari or Julian admiring each others beauty, or discussing the need for relationships to be partnerships, or repetitive history lessons about the Carpathian male curse.And really, Desari and Darius are Gregori's long thought dead siblings and there is no effort made for them to meet?The only redeeming feature were some tantalising love/sex scenes.
    • 4/5
      Another dark book when Capathian Males assert their authority and find themselves shock. These Carpathian women are modernizing and they don't take kindly to being pushed around or overly protected.Julian Savage wished to end his days. Gregori, the dark one, sends him to one last mission; to warn the singer Desari of impending doom. Upon seeing Desari, Julian's vision burst with color and life. It could only mean she is his lifemate. He then learns the truth about Desari and the Dark Trobadours. They were the 6 missing children pressumed dead during the Turkish invasion in Romania and Transylvania. Darius, then six, spirited Desari, Syndyl, Barrack, Dayan and Savon to safety. Savon turned Vampire and Darius had to kill him. Darius, their leader, did all to protect his now family. He was of the Daratrazanoff family.Darius and Desari were glad to know that Carpathians still lived all over the world. Although a dying race, the prince is still hopeful. The prince's daughter resides in one of Julian's descarded home and is lifemated to Gregori.Not only vampires threaten Desari and her family. Vampire-hunting societies are tracking them too. It would take the combined efforts of Darius and Julian to keep the Dark Trobadours safe. Of course, the didn't think the women possessed incredible powers of their own.Ok book. Not so wow but a must collect if you're into the dark series.
    • 4/5
      I love the Carpathian Males....they are sooo intense. Julian is just too delicious.
    • 5/5
      Loved it!
    • 3/5
      She actually uses the SAME dialogs word for word in ALL her dark books. Same plot same EVERYTHING