Dark Predator Review

Dark Predator (Carpathians, #22) ~
Christine Feehan
Publisher ~ Berkley
Published ~ 6 September 2011

My Rating ~ squeaked a 3 out of 5

Zacarias De La Cruz is a Carpathian, one who is a creature of the night, feeds off blood and is a shapeshifter. Those of his race that succumb to the evil of killing when they feed become the hated vampire and the prey of the hunter Zacarias. A hunter who has not found his lifemate must struggle everyday not to turn into that which he hunts. Zacarias has been a hunter for over a 1,000 years and has put aside the notion of ever finding a mate. Those with no mate lose the ability to see in color and they lose all emotions. Zacarias has lost those things even younger than any other Carpathian. All that has kept him going for a millennia is his honor and the fact he needed to be sure his four brothers and his Prince were safe.

Now that his brothers have all found their lifemates and there are many capable hunters to keep the Prince safe he has decided to end his life in honor instead of embracing the shadows on his soul and forcing his brothers to hunt him. He heads to his ranch in Peru in time to meet the sun, but a woman intervenes and saves him.

Marguarita Fernandez has served the De La Cruz family her whole life. A few months before the start of Dark Predator she is attacked by a vampire and refuses to give up the De La Cruz’s resting place, so the vampire rips out her vocal cords. Before she can bleed to death Zacarias arrives and saves her life. Now, he has returned and she feels compelled to save him from himself.

After 22 books of the Carpathians I wondered how Christine Feehan was going to write this one since we saw very little of Zacarias in any of the other books. I really liked the character development of Zacarias and the fact that Marguarita couldn’t speak. Zacaraias is touched by shadows and is disconnected from his emotions. That makes him an excellent hunter, but a not very good mate. Luckily, Marguarita is a psychic and can touch those that are wild, mostly animals, but Zacarias counts. She can sense the emotions that he thinks aren’t there and helps him.

The bad thing about this book is the repetition. I lost track of how many times Zacarias thought about the shadows on his soul, how he had no emotions, how he was a solitary hunter and how his erection around Marguarita was ‘heavy’.

I loved the story itself and how the characters were flawed yet managed to be whole when together, but the constant repetition and reiteration drove me near insane. Ms. Feehan did this early on in the series and looked to have gotten it under control in the last books, but this newest book was, I believe, the worst offender so far.