Home :: Books :: Romance  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance

Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Dark Magic

Dark Magic

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 .. 10 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Book So Far!
Review: Okay, I need to admit something first. I am hopelessly addicted to Mrs. Feehan's Dark Series. That being said, I have read up to Dark Challenge (almost finished with it), and so far, Dark Magic has been my all time favorite! The character description of Gregori is almost breathtaking! You can really imagine yourself standing in front of possibly the sexiest Carpathian alive! From reading Dark Prince (the first in the series), I was introduced to Gregori, and I couldn't wait until he found his lifemate. Even in Dark Desire, you were with Gregori as he fought for Savanah's unborn life inside Raven, knowing she was his true lifemate. Mrs. Feehan really captures the details of San Fransisco and New Orleans, and the plot is totally captivating! I would reccomend this to anyone, but only after they've read the first three books in the series. ENJOY!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: They keep getting better and better¿.
Review: Ms. Feehan weaves a great legend, interlocking this plot with her previous tales. I really enjoyed reading Gregori and Savannah's story. Although Dark Magic could be read on its own, I think the average reader would start to get a little lost and would appreciate the story more if they read Dark Prince, Dark Gold, and Dark Desire first. It is a hard balance trying to explain what our characters are (as Carpathians and vampires) and not completely bore the reader who has been following the series while at the same time not confuse and loose the new reader. Ms. Feehan does a decent job of accomplishing this.

Gregori is the epitome of the Carpathian male (maybe even more so if that is possible, since he is one of the oldest and strongest), being arrogant, over protective, and over bearing. Savannah, a young, though very competent lead, is able to work through these problems her lifemate possesses and build a truly wonderful bond. I was a bit worried at how their relationship was going to be resolved, they had some pretty big "issues" to hurdle over, but they do so admirably. Gregori is an immovable object and an unstoppable force all in one, against a young novice. With a great deal of humor (a new found trait for Gregori, compliments of Savannah) and help from a new human friend, they are able to do so. I was vastly relieved that although this story had the potential for the "big misunderstanding" plotline, Ms. Feehan deftly avoided this trap. These two characters talk through their problems and don't let them fester. (Of course it is hard to NOT discuss them when you can read each other's minds.) Like her previous stories, Dark Magic leads the reader into the next book, keeping them on the edge of their seat waiting for the next in the series (a great selling device because it works!).

I have but a few small criticisms (and wonder if they are worth mentioning). The first is, although we are given a few glimpses into the previous characters, I didn't feel like there was enough interaction with them. I really liked their stories and appreciate the little tidbits we are given of them in Dark Magic, but we rarely SEE them again. My other criticism is the abundance of times we get to see Gregori's "mercury eyes". I suppose we do need the description, but I think we see through or into those "mercury eyes" every other page. Ok, a petty thing. I LOVED this story and the whole series and am impatiently awaiting Julian's story (which I assume is next).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What a cool book!
Review: This is the first Christine Feehan book I've read, and it is great! I don't want to repeat the story plotlines that were already described here, but if you like an intelligent writing style, really exciting scenes and an intriguing 'other world' to enter into, then get this book! Especially if you like the Lord of the Rings and even the Harry Potter books, this adds a whole new dimension (the romance side.) Borrow it, buy it, do whatever you need to do to read it. :) I'm not at all a romance novel reader, generally preferring the classics and even some of Oprah's picks, but I became a fan instantly. The characters are super, it kept me entertained and engrossed... Some reviewers griped about the whole 'old-fashioned' views held by the hero in the book, but for me, it only added to the sizzle. LOVED IT! Can't wait to read the rest of her books!!! PS: I'm so glad she changed the covers of the books... I have a tough time with those intolerable 'bare-chested Fabios with swooning women' covers that are so typical of romance novels. The current covers are so much cooler!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Gregori's story delivers
Review: On the whole, DARK MAGIC delivers on its promise to tell Gregori's story and give him a worthy lifemate in Savannah, the daughter of DARK PRINCE's Mikhail and Raven. Feehan's Carpathians are an interesting twist to the vampire legend and over the course of the first four books in the Dark Saga, her world-building has been excellent. She writes taut action sequences and does a lovely job with description. But her uneven pacing and overuse of certain phrases -- in DARK MAGIC it's "molten mercury" when describing Gregori's eyes -- really bog down each book and keep them from being 5-star reads. As in the previous books, the couple's challenge is to bond while hunting vampires and/or human members of the secret society of vampire killers. Some variation on this theme in future Dark Saga releases needs to happen to keep the series fresh.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very Good but NOT for everyone
Review: This is the fourth book of the Dark series. In the previous books we have seen warning after warning that if the Carpathians do not act upon their need to join physically fairly quickly then bad things happen. In the last book Aiden was worried after a week, Gregori has waited 5 years. Needless to say the first "love" scene between Gregori and Savannah has less to do with love and more to do with assult. This may turn some readers away from the book but it should not come as much of a surprize to those who have read the previous books. After the initial tramatic event the story of Savannah and Gregori settles to a familiar "we are stuck together lets learn to live together" that seems to comprise the Dark books. I really enjoyed the glimpse of how Gregori thinks but I would have liked 1 to 2 more chapters. I feel that the reader is sort of left hanging. The human characters need to be resolved a bit and the fact that Gregori could not name the vampire - muchless how much the thing damaged him should have been addressed more - so who was this unknown ancient and why doesn't he think the fact that there is an unknown ancient - even though vampire - ring all sorts of emergency bells. The vampire is proof that there are Carpathians or former Carpathian out there that Gregori doesn't know of.

As it is both my husband and I loved this book - though my husband grumbled about the cover art. Gregori is supposed to be burly and his wrists so big Savannah cant fit her hand around his wrists and the guy on the cover does not look much bigger than the girl and has delicate wrists - minor detail I know.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Gregori's story
Review: This is the 4th in the Dark series. I have enjoyed all the books even though they take me at least two days to read. Christine Feeham brings to life the Carpathian male so well that you dare not skip a single word. This is Gregori's story. We first meet him in Dark Prince. He is the hunter for his people. He has spent over a thousand years hunting down and killing those of his own kind who have turned vampire and those human vampire hunters who wish to erase all the Carpathians from the earth. He is very close to turning himself as he waits for his lifemate Savannah to grow up. She is the Daughter of his Prince Mikhail and his lifemate Raven. Gregori gives her 5 years after she turns 18 to be free before binding her to him. She flees to the US and becomes a famous magician. When he can wait no longer he claims her as his and the sparks fly. She is very independant and he is over protective. Together they must find common ground so that thier love can grow. She is his light and he struggles with the newly found emotions she brings out in him. I loved the tug of war between them when she wanted to do something and he was reluctant to allow. Together they must fight to save themselves as well as their people. I look forward to reading about them and all the previous characters in Christine's other books. Buy this series and enjoy.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Gross and offensive
Review: I have read and enjoyed the Carpathian novels in the past, about 5 or 6 of them, but this one truly disgusted me.

Gregori the Dark one has engineered Savannah in the womb by making his blood part of hers when he helps his mother Raven. He has also tricked her into intimacy for years as a child by posing as her beloved pet wolf. Really pervy.

We are told that Carpathian cannot live without their lifemate and will go over to evil if they do not have her. He is so close to the edge he might as well be over it. He has waited twenty three years for her after all-though after a thousand of not turning bad we find this hard to believe.

Despite Savannah's continuous protests, he takes her as his lover and partner. But there is no tender lovemaking-he nearly rips her to pieces in every sense of the word in an appalling scene which goes on for over 50 pages!

I do get the blood, really, but the gratuitous violence and rape in this book is simply not what I expect from a romance.

Nor does his terrible behavior get mitigated in anyway when he uses his saliva with all of its Carpathian healing properties to 'heal' her and of course make the moves on her at the same time. Really graphic, take my word for it.

There is just too much nonconsensual sexual activity in this book for any sensible modern woman reader to be comfortable with. I gave up after 100 pages, the book was so crude, violent and graphic in its portrayal of his betrayals and rape of the heroine. I will not even go into the terrible repetitive writing, with the use of hunger, need and erotic used about 4 times on every page. The shocking violence should be enough to deter any ture seeker of a romance read.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good But Not As Good As Earlier Books In The Series
Review: Dark Magic is Christine Feehan's fourth novel in the marvelous Dark series, and it is in some ways not up to her previous efforts.

Gregori has been a powerful and ageless protector of his people, the Carpathians of Eastern Europe, for a thousand years. He uses his enormous supernatural mental and physical powers to hunt and destroy vampires and to protect the weak. However, his abilities to see colors and to feel emotions have withered. He's trapped in a bleak, solitary existence, for he has not united with his lifemate-the one female who is the other half of his soul, the light to his darkness. His predatory instincts have intensified, and his darkness [may] overwhelm him so that he is close to turning into a vampire. He must merge with her soon.

Even before Savannah Dubrinski's birth, Gregori had chosen her as his lifemate, manipulating her energy to insure she would match his. Now he has waited 18 long years for her to grow up, then another 5 years for her to exercise the freedom she craved as she traveled with her crew as a world-famous magician.

But now he can wait no longer. When he finally claims Savannah in San Francisco-amidst protecting her from a series of vampires who wish to claim her for themselves and from humans who want to brutally exterminate all supernatural beings-fireworks ensue. Savannah finally convinces Gregori to go with her to New Orleans, where they find a new set of adventures.

As usual, this Carpathian couple has enormous barriers to working out their relationship but they share an amazingly sensuous and intense [physical]chemistry. The plot also contains significant action as they fight the vampires and eventually become friends with a good human named Gary, protecting him from the bad guys.

I'd looked forward to this book from the Dark series above all others because Gregori is the most ancient and powerful of the Carpathians. However-while Feehan's writing is as lushly sensual and action packed forever-I found myself getting surprisingly so bored I could barely finish the book.

This is somewhat due to reading too many Dark books in a row, as they have a great sameness in their characters and situations, and perhaps also to my inflated expectations, but I think it also reflected a defect in characterization. Gregori is simply too powerful and too perfect-his sense of guilt is the only Achilles heel that hampers him at all. He needs more dimension to carry him through the book. And Gregori's enormous irrational possessiveness (seemingly even more extreme than that of other Carpathian males) finally wears thin on the reader.

The novel becomes too insular between Gregori and Savannah, and they are not quite capable of carrying the number of pages in which they appear alone together. (This could have been remedied if their characters had been developed further over the course of the novel to sustain the reader's interest.) Some new blood is infused into the story with the appearance of Gary; it is refreshing to see them from his point of view. But he is not developed far enough to become fully real and interesting to the reader-he seems more like a device the author created to give the story a much needed shot in the arm.

Don't get me wrong; Dark Magic is still a very well-written and fun read. It just seems to lack some of the juice of the earlier novels. Perhaps by this time, Feehan has grown somewhat weary of the world she's created and so doesn't advance it enough beyond the earlier novels to fully hold the reader's interest.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A die Hard Christine Feehan Fan
Review: Gregori, the Dark One has been one of my all time favorate characters since I read Ms Feehan's first book in the dark series. I have been hoping to get the chance to read his story and now that I did. I must say that it was worth the wait. When I first read about him in Dark Prince, my heart went out to him. Most of his race, feared him because of his powers and yet they needed him the most. He has done some horrible things in the name of his people and others called him a monster for it. Even those that write these reviews about him or Ms Feehan, say that he is a monster or Ms Feehan's books make no sence. Well I for one will tell it like I see it. Some people need to keep their warped opinions to themselves. I mean come on people, even a child can understand this book. It's straight and too the point and the story behind it is amazing and startling. It describes a world pretty much similiar to the real world because it has been proven in our past that humans in fact fear and sometimes kill what they don't understand. Over all, I like this book,it describes the characters more realistically than some other authors do with their characters in their books. Ms Feehan has done a great job in creating her carpathians and basing them as close to the vampire legends as possible. Which is more than what I can say about some other authors in this catagory. Sorry to sound a bit harsh, but it is just my opinion and although my opinion may sound warped to those that don't like Ms Feehan nor her books. Atleast mine does make sense.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: OK but not great
Review: I enjoy romantic vampire novels, and this one was OK. I had a couple of problems with it. The hero is overwhelmingly macho. The heroine changed from extremely self sufficient to willing to accept the hero's macho attitude too suddenly for me to be comfortable with the change. At least she didn't change into a total wimp.

There is some plot in addition to the love story, which is something I like. Since I've only read one book from the middle of the series, I don't know if the plot is part of an arc involving several books which changes over time or if it will simply be a plot device that affects each of the couples in pretty much the same way in each of the books.

I have begun to read another of this author's books, but I can already tell that it isn't a series I will return to over and over again. It seems all the men in this series will be overwhelmingly macho. It is built into the "universe" the author is writing in. Oh well...


<< 1 2 3 4 .. 10 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates