The Only One (Anthology 3-in-1)

“Dark Descent” by Christine Feehan

In book 9.5 of the Dark/Carpathian series, ancient warrior Traian Trigovise is going home to the Carpathian Mountains at the behest of the prince after countless centuries away. While en route, he runs across four vampires in an extensive ice cave and attacks them. Unfortunately, he’s injured, and the vampires take him captive.
Joie Sanders is a telepathic human bodyguard and is damn good at her job. Joie, her brother Jubal, and her sister Gabrielle go spelunking in some ice caves in order to find the mysterious man Joie has been psychically talking with. After she and her siblings free Traian, they soon realize vampires are very real and that there’s something not quite right about the show more caves.
Joie and Traian are kickass characters. They’ve been mentally communicating for weeks, so they already know each other before they officially met. Romance blooms fast between them, but it’s believable.
I love the introduction of the mages. The ice caves are beautifully described, but since this is a novella, the rest of the scenery and the subplots aren’t over the top as in other books.
Jubal and Gabrielle are great additions to the series. Gary returns as the prince’s emissary, and there’s definitely a romantic spark between him and Gabrielle (too bad that doesn’t play out later in the series).
Since this story is so short, the writing is tighter and the characters, especially the women, are stronger than usual.
4.5 Stars

“The Star Queen” by Susan Grant

Three generations ago, warlords decimated the planet of Sienna. The survivors sought refuge underground and are now living in caves, fighting back and struggle to survive as best they can.
Taj Sai lives her life around work and has forsaken the typical duties of women. As the rebels’ bombmaker, she creates bombs with exact precision and has never had a device malfunction. The rebel commander, Romjha B’kah, once lived a careless life of apathy but changed his ways and now leads his people in successful raids. A foreign ship then crashes on the planet and a group of outsiders bring hope and idealistic views to the people of Sienna. Romjha wants to join them and fight a large-scale war for peace, but Taj fears all-out war will lead to slaughter.
I found this story confusing, but midway through, I finally understood what was going on. Romjha and Taj have secretly wanted one another for years, but never acted on their desire until the outsiders came and Romjha planned to leave. This story ends with a HEA, but it took ten years to reach it and the H/h were separated for most of that time. I liked the characters, but not the long-term separation, that was of course off-page.
3 Stars

“Sacrilege” by Susan Squires

For almost two centuries, vampire Madga Ravel has repented her sins and learned abstinence at the Mirso Monastery. Though she wants to takes her Vow and live there forever, her friend and mentor, Brother Pietr, insist she rejoin the human world. She believes she’s evil and unworthy, and doesn’t want to give in to her blood addiction and start killing again. Her sire and former lover, Julien, takes responsibility of her, but she doesn’t feel like she belongs in the modern world.
Pietr Vladamiroff has loved Magda for years, but his Vow forbids strong emotions, so he lets her go. But when a vampire elder targets Magda for death, Pietr must go against a thousand years of scripture and beliefs in order to save her life.
I haven’t read the other books in the series, so I felt a little lost with this novella. Apparently, Magda was the villain in the previous books, but now is a reformed heroine getting her own love story. I like that twist, but I wish I knew more about her villainous character.
Magda was often vulnerable and unsure of the people trying to help her, but I liked her for the most part. Pietr was strong and stoic, but full of so much passion, more than to be expected from a vampire monk. The scene when Magda is driving a car for the first time was hilarious, and the Buffyfest was great too. I liked this story, but I think reading the series in order is best.
3.5 Stars

Book Overall – 4 Stars show less

The Only One is a book of three stories. This review is for the story Dark Descent, book 11 in Christine Feehan’s Dark Carpathian Series.

I just “found” Christine Feehan earlier this year and she’s never let me down, until now. Dark Descent is the story of Joie Sanders, professional bodyguard and amateur caver, and Traian Trigovise, ancient Carpathian hunter.

The idea was good: Traian was in danger, being attacked and used for sustenance for three vampires. He was being held prisoner deep in a cave in the Carpathian Mountains as Joie was taking a bullet for her latest boss. She was in so much pain that she was able to temporarily leave her body to escape it. As she was soaring through space and time, she felt pulled to Traian. show more

Though she was sure she was hallucinating, she felt compelled to find him when she was able, and she and her brother Jubal and sister Gabrielle went caving to find him. They were able to locate and free him, and all made it out of the cave alive and relatively unscathed. There was one more tussle with the vampires and then – “ta da” – the end.

The entire story takes place over just 133 pages, and therein lies my problem with it. I felt like it was completely rushed – no development of the characters or their separate stories or anything. They met, she accepted completely that he was not human; he was totally o.k. with the fact that her job had her perpetually in harm’s way; he converted her, making her Carpathian, and there you go.

The bottom line here: the story-line was incredibly hurried, the characters (while brimming with potential) were undeveloped and flat, and they were all too accepting of everything supernatural going on around them. I found the whole thing to be incomplete and entirely lacking the depth and drama of the rest of the series.

I’ve been reading this series a bit at a time all year, and I have to tell you that Feehan really strayed from the formula in Dark Descent. If it had been the first of her books that I’d picked up, I wouldn’t have read anything else by her, but I usually love her so much that of course I’ll be picking up Dark Melody next. show less

Christine Feehan continues her Dark Series with Dark Descent. Traian, one of the ancient Carpathians is coming home to meet his Prince before facing the dawn when he runs into a pack of vampires, wounded he has gone to ground. Joie, bodyguard extrordinare, is also wounded, performing an astral projection to escape her pain, floats in to Traian resting place, sees Traian and wow colors and fireworks ensue. I have been a big fan of Christine Feehans "Dark Carpathian' series since I first read "Dark Prince" many moons ago. I only picked up this book because it was the only way I could read "Dark Decent". This is an absolute must read for all the Carpathian fans.

A collection of 3 stories from 3 different authors, so now 3 different reviews...

Dark Decent (Carpathians - Dark series, book 11) by Christine Feehan
Wounded and trapped by the undead, Traian Trigovise gained strength and hope with the knowledge that he had finally found his lifemate, all he had to do was survive and find her. After suffering her own wounds, Joie Sanders was drawn to the man she had only seen in her dreams, for some reason the mountainous caves were calling and she had to follow even though the voice she found so alluring was telling her to run in the opposite direction, she never ran from anything and she would prove it to him.

(***** 5) Book 11 ….. For a short story, it really packed everything in it. The action of show more the vampire hunt was great, fast paced and kept moving. The discovery of the wizards artifacts was another notch in the on-going story about the changes all the hunters have seen. Joie was hilarious, she handled fear and stress with a wonderful sense of humor and Traians compassion and acceptance of her being so strong was uncharacteristic of a Carpathian (maybe it’s his age). The only thing that is missing is getting to watch the ’Meeting of the parents’ that sounded like it would be fun. I really liked Gary Jansen showing up and his interaction with Gabrielle (he could use another human around in the lab), I hope she and Jubal stick around.

The Star Queen (Star series prequel) by Susan Grant
He (Romjha B’kah) became the raider commander because of her inspiring words on the day, she (Taj Sai) became the bomb maker of their people. Together they worked to come up with munitions that would protect their people and hopefully put an end to the overlords control. To protect all of the people was Romjha’s main goal, but personally he wanted to prove himself to Taj, make her believe in him and what he promised for the future. The future was something Taj never really let herself dream about until she thought she would lose it all.

(**** 4) Prequel ….. Very interesting story, set in the distant future. I enjoyed the conflict, both the planets (with it’s 2 moons) and the love connection. The characters were great, Romjha determined and Taj always covering her emotions with anger. The general concept of the story was something exciting and even plausible, I did have a problem (occasionally) following along. The descriptions were good, I felt some of the sentences were redundant simply to make a word count, it didn’t always add to or enhance the picture. Overall, I liked it and if I overlooked some of the ‘nit - pick’, it was a very enjoyable short story.

Sacrilege (The Companion series, novella) by Susan Squires
It had been nearly two centuries, now Magda Ravel was not sure that leaving Mirso Monastery for the home of the one that made her was the best course for her. She would have to keep the nine precepts close to her if she would succeed in keeping control of her addiction this time, at least that is what Brother Pietr Vladamiroff had always told her. As she was leaving, Pietr hoped for her success in the outside world, and at that moment, he was not sure of his own success in surviving without her. As her mentor, he had held his feelings at bay, now that she was gone he could not hide from them anymore. Hearing from Rubius that the Harrier would be sent after Magda because of him, made the decision to renounce his Vows for him.

(**** 4) .....This was a fast paced, fun and exciting, short story (130 pages) with a lot of information that needed more explanations in some parts. A very different take on the Vampire myth. The characters could have used a little more, Pietr seemed to change his feelings on the nine precepts too fast after following them for thousands of years. As with others, the short story format is a hard one to find a balance between the action or plot with basic background information. Overall, a very good story, by a good author that I would be interested in reading more of. show less

A collection of three love stories featuring paranormal/scifi themes.

A Dark Descent by Christine Feehan was the best in the collection. I really enjoyed this one. A vampire love story with lots of action

The Star Queen by Susan Grant was my least favorite. Set on a distant planet, I found it boring, and the characters irritating.

Sacrilege by Susan Squire was ok. I found the main characters annoying, but the secondary characters very interesting. I would try another book by this author.

Several months after reading this I can't really remember much about it. The Christine Feehan is a pretty typical one of hers, fans will enjoy the very alpha male and pseudo alpha female.

Susan Grant's Star Queen is a SF story of rebellion, love and politics.

Susan Squires story of love and choices was the best of the three but still failed to really capture me.

A readable set of stories but nothing spectacular.

This anthology includes "Dark Descent" about Traian and Jollie. They are wonderful characters and Jollie's family is a delight. It was nice to have a heroine who thought she was strong and really was. This story falls before Dark Secret and probably before Dark Destiny.

I didn't much care for the other two stories in the anthology.