After centuries as the prince of the Carpathians, Mikhail Dubrinsky fears he can't protect his people for long from their greatest threat: the extinction of their species at the hands of their immortal enemies--who are devising a scheme to slaughter Carpathian females. But even with his own lifemate, Raven, and their daughter, Savannah, vulnerable to the encroaching evil, Mikhail's hope is not lost.
Carpathians from around the world are gathering to join their souls and their powers to bring light to the darkness. But so too are their adversaries uniting--hunters, vampires, demons and betrayers--bringing untold dangers into the fold of the Carpathian people.
When Feehan first started publishing the Dark series I was a huge fan and I devoured the first 9 books as soon as they came out. But, as I read book after book, I started feeling the plots were a bit repetitive with, with one exception, it being always Carpathian hero vs. human heroine. I started feeling like I wanted to read about a Carpathian heroine vs. a human hero just for a change. And so I went on a long break from the books, a couple of years ago I reread the first two before lending them to a friend and thought they were still as good as I remembered but it didn't make me want to start the series all over again.
This weekend I was going through my shelves looking for something to read when I found this Dark Celebration, a book I had bought two years ago because I thought it would be nice to revisit all the characters again. I couldn't resist picking it up and now I am really glad that I did.
Feehan managed to write a funny story and a moving story without showcasing one couple in particular. It's the Christmas season and Mikhail and Raven have decided to invite all the other Carpathian couples, and a few hunters, for a celebration in the mountains. And we see a bit of everyone's life when Mikhail goes around visiting all of them and telling all how he is going to get his son-in-law Gregori to be Santa Claus for the children. I think I agree with the lifemates that Gregori would probably scare everyone but the fact is that he actually does a pretty good job of it in the end (and I guess he deserved a bit of ridicule for claiming Savannah so young). As is usual in the Carpathian books there's the common worry about women and children, finding more mates for the hunters and finding the a way to avid that the women miscarriage and the babies die in their first year. The pressure is bigger due to the fact that Shea is pregnant and about to give birth. And there always the threat of their enemies banding together to destroy them.
I did feel that I was missing out on something because I did not know all the couple involved, not only that but the enemies seem to have grown from the usual vampires to a certain Razvan who used to be a Carpathian and has been doing some pretty bad deeds. This made me want to go back to the series where I left it so I could better understand who everyone is. Another thing is that for a long time readers had been asking for Skyler and Dimitri's story (at least when I used to read them they were) and in this book there is a definite advance regarding their relationship... and another hunter finds a mate, she just doesn't know it yet...
Overall the story was a success for me... it made me want to go back to the series and I couldn't really ask for more. Be aware that the Carpathians will invade this blog again in the next few months...
Grade: 4.5/5
Like you I gave up on the series after about 10 books, but you've made me want to read this book. It might be nice to catch up with all my old favorites.
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