Dark Secret (The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 12) (edition 2005)

I don't really enjoy this series, but I liked the plot of this one the most. I've always thought the Carpathian males were skirting the fact that they force themselves on their lifemates. I liked that Colby called Rafael out on that. ( )

This was the hardest book to get through in the Series. Once I got halfway I could finally finish it. To me Rafael was not good, but I grew to like him along with Colby. ( )

Easy hot read for a lonely night. Loved it but not for the plot. It's main idea of mating even if the woman wants nothing to do with it is a bit of a down but it's a romance book of a semi-classic kind. ( )

Dark Secret by Christine Feehan is book 15 in the Dark Carpathians series. High in the Cascade mountains, Colby Jansen fights with everything she has, to hold on to custody of her two young siblings Paul and Ginny, and to save the ranch their father left in her care upon his death. Day after day she works herself to the bone, just so that she can cling to the only way of life she's ever known. Misfortune seems to be darkening Colby's ever step, when Juan and Julio Chevez arrive to take their brother's orphaned children back to Brazil with them. Colby refuses to give up her brother and sister, until she comes face to face with the Chevez family's employer Rafael De La Cruz.

Traveling from their homeland in Brazil to the Cascade mountains is a matter of honor for the powerful De La Cruz brothers. Nicholas and Rafael are powerful Carpathian hunters, sent to Brazil centuries ago to fight the growing evil of the vampire. They are tied to the Chevez family and can do nothing else but see to the protection of the family that has worked for them for centuries: the Chevez children must return home with their uncles, and the De La Cruz brothers will do whatever is needed to make Colby Jansen see to reason.

Immediately upon meeting Colby, Rafael is able to see colors and feel emotions, something lost to him for centuries. Colby Jansen is his lifemate, there can be no other explanation for the new sensations flooding him.

In most other Carpathian books, the reader can feel the deep suffering the hunter goes through when he finds his one true lifemate; the passion and love and rage etc. are terribly overwhelming. I didn't feel that in this book - something was definitely missing. Rafael was so cold throughout most of the book (except when in the bedroom.)

In the other books I've read in this series, both lifemates "come together" and try to understand one another, at least half-way through the story. In Dark Secret, both Colby and Rafael were so dense and hard-headed - almost to the very end - it was very frustrating. They each lacked a certain warmth and compassion for each other that is always present in the series, and in the absence of this feeling, I found it hard to relate to them and just sit back and enjoy the book. ( )

The wealthy, high and mighty De La Cruz brothers (Nicolas and Rafael) had come to the Cascade Mountains to take her brother and sister (Paul and Ginny) away from her (Colby Jansen ) and into the hands of the Chevez family. Even if they were their fathers family, she didn’t want to relinquish control and allow them to be taken to Brazil and away form the only life any of them had ever know. After Nicolas’ failed attempt to persuade Colby, Rafael was determined to gain her cooperation, as soon as he saw her working in the coral, his reason for persuading her changed. The colors and emotions hit him as he watched her work, realizing the danger around her he began to wonder which would be the more difficult battle, the one with the vampire or the one for Colby’s heart and acceptance.

Book 15.…. A lot of the same characteristics as most of the other Carpathian books, the fight for Colby’s heart was much more strained. The resistance Colby showed was odd, some of the pages were awkward in the reading. Any lacking was more than made up for in the action and fight with the vampire. Rafael never said he was a gentle man, the emotions were so well written for this character, the anger and constant fight jumped off the pages. Loved the inclusion of Natalya Shonski, Vikirnoff Von Shrieder, the blanket from Francesca, as well as the mention of so many other characters that we have come to know so well. ( )