ARC Book Review-Dark Whisper by Christine Feehan

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

About The Book

Embrace the seductive call of the latest novel in Christine Feehan’s #1 New York Times bestselling Carpathian series.
 
Vasilisa Sidkorolyavolkva is a Lycan of royal blood. She knows what is expected of her, but all she wants is to be out from under her family’s watchful eyes. There is a fire inside her that is building. A restlessness coupled with a sense of growing dread. Every day she feels the weight of the legacy passed down through generations. The prophecy that says a man will come to claim her as his mate, and that she will guard his soul. She knows nothing about him except that he is hers. But nothing seems real until the night she meets him in the flesh….
 
Afanasiv Belan is a Carpathian, an ancient one. In all the centuries of his existence, no one has ever affected him like Vasilisa. He can see into her mind and feel what is in her heart. They are so alike, warriors bound by honor and plagued by secrets. They both know they must reveal the darkest parts of their souls if they hope to survive and protect the ones they love.
 
But if they claim each other as lifemates, it will change them down to the bone. They will become something more—something feared by both of their kinds….

My Review

First Impressions

Dark Whisper is the latest in the Carpathian/Dark Series. I have had so much fun with these books, and I know its a LONG series, but the world building is so fascinating. And we are in a new serial arch of the world building so its so fascinating to see what Christine Feehan is building here. I was so curious to see what she would deliver with Dark Whisper, it does have some unique elements and we get back to the Lycan’s and their society. I loved the Lycan books about ten books ago, so I was so pleased that Christine Feehan returned back to them. This story was so intriguing as the heroine is royalty and there is plenty of action and thriller feel to the story, so if you are a fan of romantic thrillers or romantic suspense mix in with paranormal aspects then this is going to be a book for you.

What I Loved

I will say that there were so many aspects to this story that I truly ended up loving. The first is the characters that I want to discuss first. We have our hero, who is one of the ancient Carpathians but is also a bit more modernized as well. So if that type of hero works for you, then you will really end up loving that. He is so respectful of the heroine all the way through and understands what she needs from him and gives that to her. I love his steady faith in her and has his own abilities but isn’t super dominant unless she is in danger, but even in those scenes, it’s so well done and he is a healthy hero for sure. He is so encouraging and protective of those under his care and that is such an attractive quality. Then we have our heroine, who is a fighter but also royalty. Her mother trained her to fight because she knew that her path would be different from her siblings and that she would be lifemated to a Carpathian. I like the heroine, she is feisty and strong-willed but also has a level of grace about her. I did like that she didn’t get too offended by certain things from the hero, but took time to think through things. The world-building is superb and we go on an adventure with our couple that I have NEVER seen this author do, and wow what an adventure this book ended up being. I didn’t know what to make of it, to be honest, because there was something so different in the plot and the aspects of the world-building. I am becoming more and more intrigued by the four gateways and the tarot card reading. Christine Feehan never ceases to surprise me with her wit and talent of penning such remarkable growth in her world-building that literally stuns me with every serial arch.

What I Struggled With

I will say that what I struggled with the most was the romance unfortunately with this one and is the reason that it didn’t quite make it to five stars like I was expecting it to. After the last two previous books got to five stars, I was expecting this one to do the same. However, it didn’t quite make it. Not saying that I didn’t enjoy my reading with this one, because it’s a definite solid 4-star! However, I feel like the plot working and the world-building made it so that the actual romance actually suffered the most from it. I wanted so much to feel the connection that these two had, but I just wasn’t quite feeling it as I was expecting to. And side note, the heroine drove me nuts at times. I wanted to love her so much, but she was a bit too much of a modern woman for my tastes. She can fight and everything but I wanted to feel her more feminine side that we only received small glimpses of.

Overall View

I found Dark Whisper to be a powerful read that kept me hooked from beginning to end. It’s a story of unique storytelling, a plot with its challenging archs that will leave the reader breathless, and a romance that will intrigue and fascinate the reader in such a way that you will be charmed by their story and keep you yearning for more!

Title: Dark Whisper

Author: Christine Feehan

Genre: Paranormal Suspense Romance

Format: eARC

Source: Berkley Publishing Group

Length: N/A (but probably between 400-500 Pages)

Book Links

Amazon| Barnes and Noble| Kobo| Goodreads| LibraryThing| StoryGraph| Literal Club

Series Order

Carpathian Series