Dark Prince

4 stars

This was a very good story. I've actually read it before (3-4 years ago) and didn't review it then. This time around I listened to the extended audio version of the story but it's been so long since I read the normal version I can't tell the difference. I liked the story and will be continuing the series.

Raven is a american woman that has psychic abilities. She's used her abilities to help the police catch 4 serial killers but at a great cost to her own mind and risking her sanity. Raven goes on vacation to the Carpathian mountains to rest up and recover but finds an unexpected adventure along the way.

Mikhail is a Carpathian male and the prince of his people (there's no king so he's the top dog). Carpathians are born vampires with other abilities like shape shifting (to any form, even mist), magic spells and psychic powers. The males of the Carpathians have a darkness in them and if they don't find their lifemates, they can loss their souls and become evil. Mikhail's people are in dire straights because they don't have many women and the woman that do get pregnant usually give birth to males so their males aren't finding lifemates. Mikhail himself is close to the edge when the story begins.

Raven is in an inn in the Carpathian mountains and she feels a horrible pain being broadcast over psychic wavelengths. The pain is so great that she can't help but reach out to try to sooth whomever it is. Mikhail has been riding close to going evil and thought to meet the sun instead of letting himself go bad. When Raven reaches out to him, he feels hope for the first time and he has to find out who she is. When he does, Mikhail is surprised that she's human but he's sure she's his lifemate. He pulls Raven into his life without her being able to put up much of a protest. Because they're lifemates there's a strong pull between them but regardless of this, Raven is kind of freaked by Mikhail and is stuck between wanting to run from him and wanting to do anything she can to save him from his sadness.

The relationship between Raven and Mikhail begins roughly to say the least. Mikhail is the leader of his people and tends to command and be domineering which doesn't go over to well with Raven. Although he tries to continue his domineering ways for a bit, Mikhail soon realizes he's going to have to change to keep Raven happy. He does bond them before Raven truly knows what's going on though and that comes back to bite him in the behind but it also helps ensure Raven sticks around long enough for their bond to cement. There are some problems with another psychic and some vampire hunters with loose morals who are content to kill people they hope are vampires. They cause much drama and danger that has to be dealt with but may still have lasting repercussions. Things work out well for Mikhail and Raven though and they end the story starting a well deserved HEA together.

This was a very enjoyable story. I liked Mikhail very much. He was a bit domineering at times but he soon curbed his more overly pushiness. I liked Raven for the most part but she had issues with being a TSTL heroine at times. Mikhail told her that once they bonded that if she died, he'd died and that was that. Then a few different times when things were really tough, she sought death as both a way out and to "save" Mikhail...conveniently forgetting that her dying would kill Mikhail. It just happened one too many times to no be stupid. Outside of that I liked Raven pretty well. The story was very good and kept me interested through the end. I'd recommend this book.

Christine Feehan is Awsome, I did not think she could make this story any better, but I was wrong. The narrator is great too, you will not be disappointed.