It is Thursday and Tynga’s Reviews is hosting- DARING YOU TO READ.

Every Thursday, we offer a previously published book or series and Dare You To Read. This week we offer: DARK SLAYER by Christine Feehan. Christine Feehan just released her new cover for her next Dark series book-DARK STORM to be released September 2012.
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Dark Slayer by Christine Feehan

“Dark Slayer” by Christine Feehan, is different then most of her books in the Dark Series. Whereas, the majority of the books have a male Carpathian as the lead in the story, as he finds his lifemate, in “ Dark Slayer” the lead Carpathian is a female….the long thought dead, Ivory Malinov is our heroine. Christine does surprise her fans with this book, as she brings together two people, whom you never thought would have a story. Ivory, who we had learned in earlier books was killed by Draven, Mikhail’s brother; and her lifemate, Razvan, whom we had been led to believe was equally as bad as Xavier.

This is mostly Ivory’s story, as she is the strong warrior in this book. She had been left for dead centuries ago, having been cut up into pieces and left for the wolves. Ivory used her ability to talk to the wolves to help her, and they put all the pieces of her body buried together. Her promise to them was to take care of them and their pack forever. She ends up spending most of her life with the wolves, and at some point when they had been attacked by vampires, she finds the baby wolves barely holding on to life. Her grief overcomes her, afraid to be alone, as they were all she had, Ivory gave them life with her blood. Centuries later, these same wolves are still with her, magically enhanced by her blood, and converted to Carpathians.

The story of Ivory and the wolves is one of my favorite parts of this story. It is awesome to see how they work together to kill vampires, share blood when necessary, and you truly see their magical love bond. Having spent hundreds of years underground to recover from her horrific injuries, she lived to seek vengeance against vampires, as well as her determination to one day kill her enemy…Xavier. It is this will that makes her possibly one of the strongest Carpathians.Not only her physical strength, but her overall intelligence, ability to unravel spells, as well as her affinity with mother earth that makes her so powerful. She learned early on how Xavier’s mind works, and has spent these solitary years learning everything about him. She has trained herself to become a Mage, a strong warrior, and the Slayer, that is feared by all the vampires.

Razvan, who is Natalya’s brother, has been Xavier’s prisoner for centuries. We have been led to believe that he was evil, but unbeknownst to the Carpathians, Razvan has been forced against his will to commit horrific crimes against his family and the Carpathians. Xavier tortured Razvan beyond endurance. It is those terrifying memories that haunt him about his daughter (Lara), and his two aunts, whom were held prisoner by Xavier. Razvan, had already sold his soul to Xavier to save his sister, Natalya. Razvan was as hunted by the Carpathians, as was Xavier. After centuries, he finally escapes, and makes his way to meet the dawn, so he could die. As he lies dying, while the sun is close to rising, he is near Ivory’s hidden home.

Ivory, out hunting with her wolves, she sees someone lying in the snow. She immediately recognizes that he is her lifemate, and is compelled to save him, though he fights her to let him die. She has to knock him out, and takes him to her hidden home. Over time, while he recuperates, you see their romance slowly develop, since both have
had a brutal lonely torturous life. Ivory is determined to help Razvan recover, and he is still intent to end his life, as he fears Xavier will find him, as well as put her life in danger. Ivory tries to show him how strong he had to be to have survived Xavier’s torture all these years, she also tries to convince him that her goal is to kill Xavier, and she needs his help.

When she leaves him alone in her hidden enclave, as he is still recovering, Ivory comes across a child tied up in a trap. She tries to help the boy, Travis, and finds herself face to face with her brother Sergei, who is a master vampire. With Gary’s help, she was able to fend off Sergei, as Mikhail and Gregori arrive to help, just as Sergei escapes. Ivory is injured, but refuses Gregori’s help to heal her, as she wants nothing to do with the Carpatians.

Back in the hidden enclave, Razvan awakes to feel the sense of danger to his lifemate. He mind speaks to her for help to get out the cave, and he goes to her rescue. With a knife held against Mikhail’s neck, Razvan is convinced that they will not hurt her, and tells Ivory to allow Gregori to heal her. What Gregori finds out while healing Ivory, shocks him. He sees how she was cut into little pieces, cannot imagine how she survived such torture. He tells Mikhail that his brother was the one who did this to Ivory. Slowly, both Ivory and Razvan begin to trust them a little more. Then Gregori tries to help remove Xaviers shards from Razvan, with Ivory’s help, but two shards escape. The story from this point on becomes extremely exciting, as Ivory shows how powerful she really is. She is as good a warrior as any male Carpathian, and her powers are enormous. She saves them from the attack of the monsters Xavier has created.

But still, Ivory and Razvan, are hesitant to totally trust the Carpathians. They promise to come visit them and talk about her plans to kill Xavier. Gregori also wants Ivory to help with saving the babies, who are dying, since she knows all the spells of Xavier.

The action scenes were exciting and there were so many of them. It was non stop entertainment all the way through. You could not put this book down, as it went from one action packed moment to the next. Sergei turned out to be a great bad villain, and Xavier was truly evil. Some of best parts were when Sergei almost killed both of them, Ivory’s perseverance to fight him, and to do all she could to save Razvan. The Carpathians coming to help to heal them was great, as we got to see so many of our favorites in this book. Gregori, Mikhail, Raven, Savannah, Francesca, Shea, Natalya, Vikornoff, Nicholas, Lara, Skyler, Syndil, just to name a few.

When Sergei and Xavier’s plans to frame Razvan for Lara’s injury almost culminate in Razvan’s death, Ivory’s powers come full force. She is a weapon like they have never seen before. When they come to realize their error in accusing Razvan, Ivory is convinced by Gregori and Mikhail to use her ability to help break Xavier’s spell to save Savannah’s unborn twins. This part of the betrayal, the saving of the twins was one of the most exciting scenes in the book. I loved every moment of it. The ending was good, with Sergei now becoming the ultra evil to reckon with in the future. The acceptance of
Ivory and Razvan, his meeting of his many children, and their own acceptance that they are part of the Carpathians was also great and emotional.
I really enjoyed their romance, as it was different then the others. Razvan did not have the ego that the Carpathian males normally have, and he lets Ivory be the warrior that she was meant to be. They were true partners in every sense of the word, proven when they faced Xavier at the end, and having Natalya and Vik help was a nice touch. I loved the added element of the wolves, and loved how Ivory & Razvan interacted with them. Dark Slayer has become my favorite book of the Dark Series, and I loved Ivory. I found this story to be totally exciting, action packed, with suspense, drama, humor, discovery of family and their romance.

Reviewed by Barb