Dark Curse (Carpathians, #19) - Christine Feehan

400 pages

Rating: 5/5

Lara Calladine is haunted by childhood memories of being held prisoner in an ice cave and kept sane by the whispered stories told to her by her imprisoned aunts. They instilled mage and Carpathian magic deep within her and then helped her escape. She has spent years searching for the cave in hopes of finding the answers to the riddle of her past as well as finding her aunts who may have given their lives saving her.


Nicolas De La Cruz has returned to the Carpathian Mountains--his homeland--on orders from his eldest brother, Zacarias, to bring news of a conspiracy to the prince of their people. He is weary of his long existence and plans to end it away from his brothers where they will be unable to stop him once he has fulfilled his duty.

Lara and Nicolas paths collide in an explosive adventure that rocks the Carpathian world

I know when i reviewed Dark Secret i said i probably wouldn't like any of the South American Carpathian men because Rafael was just so obnoxious to me, but i think Nicolas more or less redeems all the brothers in this one. Eventually.

The prologue itself got me completely involved in the book and with Lara. I've been looking forward to reading more on Razvan, Xavier and the past between the mages and the Carpathians, and this book added a lot to that story.

Nicolas is here to tell Mikhail about an old conspiracy against the Carpathians which they believe is now being carried out. But before that can happen, he sees Lara. The whole scenario of how Lara and Nicolas meet was absolutely ridiculous and seemed completely out of some cheesy movie

He sees her and bites her. She stabs him with her knife. He uses the Carpathian binding words and gives her the knife back so she can kill him if she wants to:

"It is not my choice. Life or death is the choice of my lifemate. If you reject my claim, then you are condemning me and I willingly die by your hand."

All this in the half a page since he's met her.

And Lara's words more of less sum the whole situation up :

"You might be the hottest man in the village, but your brain is about the size of a pea"

Lara was the small girl who Natalya had seen through Xavier's knife in Dark Demon. She's Razvan's daughter and here to rescue her aunts. And there's more of her horrible childhood with Razvan and Xavier in this book.

In the beginning, Nicolas thinks he knows whats best for Lara and makes decisions for the both of them without any regard to her needs. What ended up was a very very bad trip down memory lane for Lara and a huge awakening for Nicolas. I liked Nicolas after that.

Lara finally helps with the answers for why the Carpathians aren't having kids - a solution which means she cannot be converted to a full Carpathian until the problem is solved.

Dark Curse also brings back Vikirnoff and Natalya, who is Lara's aunt - my favourite couple. They do a suspense filled double date back to Xavier's cave to rescue Lara's aunts - the same ones who were in dragon form in Dark Demon.

This book didn't end in the typical Feehan manner. Dark Curse went from a woman who was ready to do anything it took to get away from the man who had bound him to her to a couple who needed each other for their very breath. It added more characters and more promising stories in the books to come.

The only part i didn't like was the constant reference to spiders in all of Lara's spells. But i figured that wasn't reason enough to keep this great book from a 5 stars.

I like the latter part of the series where the stories are more varied and more captivating compared to the ones at the beginning. Although they all were good in their own manner. The only thing i can say now is Write Faster Woman!! I know Feehan has quite a few series running, but i cannot wait to find out what happens next in Razvan and Ivory Malinov (Dark Slayer, releasing September 1st 2009)