Dark Need

Ok, I will come back to this series at some point, since this is the first one I've read and it's the third in the series. So I'll give it another chance, but I really didn't like the men in this one. They were assholes. Not in that "I'm rough around the edges, brooding, and misunderstood" kind of way but in that "I'm a misogynistic douchebag" kind of way.

Originally posted on http://rubysreads.com

Lynn Viehl is, of course, only one of many writers that has dipped her toes in the vampire genre. Her take is that vampires (here called Darkyn) are former Knights Templar that contracted a sort of viral infection that forced them to drink blood, grow fangs, have supernatural gifts and be sensitive to the sun. Oh, yes, and live very long lives. In the first book, we meet the head of the American vampires, Michael, and his lifemate, Alexandra Keller. In their story, Alex becomes a Darkyn, but not quite. She doesn’t feed from any human directly and is devoted to finding a cure for the “disease” of vampirism. Or Darkynism. Whatever. Alex and Michael make more than an appearance in this novel, show more as they did in Private Demons. I should mention that Alex was the first Darkyn to be made in centuries, but since her change there seem to be more on the way.

Each of the Darkyn novels so far has had an individual plot that feeds into some larger, overarching ones. There is, first of all, the fact that the High Lord of the Darkyn has appointed Michael the seigneur of the United States. Michael’s rule is in its infancy, and so it suffers from all the things that fledgling governments suffer from. Rivals who wish to usurp his power, renegade members who don’t follow rules…and I lost interest in my list already. Also concurrent is Alex’s aforementioned search for a cure. Oh, and I can’t leave out the continuing conflict between the Darkyn and the Brethren (who are basically evil priests). Each novel brings the readers and the characters further into the story. In that way, the Darkyn novels remind me of Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series.

That said, Viehl is not as talented a storyteller as Singh. She does not quite pull through on the romance front. Her stories are compelling and I enjoy her writing style, but through all three of the Darkyn novels that I’ve read so far, the heroes and heroines have spent more time apart than together. This would be fine except for the fact that I always end up wondering what, exactly, brings them together and keeps them together. Except, of course, for the hot sex. This is one reason why I am glad to see Alex and Michael pop up in each installment. It gives the readers a chance to see their relationship develop in a way that their own story didn’t.

By now you’re probably wondering, what about Dark Need in particular? The hero, if you can call him that, is Lucan. Lucan’s special Darkyn power is an ability to kill by touch. For many years he has acted as assassin for the High Lord, Richard. Lucan has also been the enemy/rival of Michael and was very much put out by Richard’s decision to appoint the latter as seigneur of America. Lucan is a Tragic, Misunderstood hero, who Loved and Lost. Plus, he is also Tormented By The Gift of Death. Samantha, the heroine, is also Tormented. She is an Orphan. She has an Amazing Figure that she downplays. If my random capitalization didn’t do the job for me, I will point out that many of these attributes are Paranormal Romance Standards. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Sam may or may not be a lesbian. Until she meets Lucan, of course. Then there’s no question at all. Finally, Sam has a Special Ability. Since she was shot twelve years ago, she has developed the talent of seeing the last moments of murder victims’ lives. This turns out to be both useful and convenient since Sam is a homicide detective. Sam’s occupation is also the instrument for the meeting between the two. When someone starts killing people and framing Lucan by leaving objects that link him to the crime scene, Sam and her partner get the case. When Lucan first sees Sam, he is struck by her physical resemblance to his lost love—and her ability to withstand the hypnotizing trick that is the specialty of the Darkyn.

I did enjoy reading this story, Paranormal Romance clichés or not. The problem was, I wasn’t satisfied when the book was over. I felt the story was cut off too soon. This may be because Viehl was setting her readers up for the next chapter in the Darkyn universe, but I’m guessing that the next book probably won’t feature much about Lucan and Sam. I base this assumption on the fact that Dark Need does little more than mention the hero and heroine of Private Demons in passing.

The other thing I have to confess is that I skimmed many of the later chapters with Alex’s brother John. I just plain don’t like him. He’s boring, self-righteous and altogether unsympathetic. I stopped caring about his personal journey in the first book. I just hope Viehl is going somewhere with this guy—but I’m having a hard time bringing myself to care. show less

Ok, I will come back to this series at some point, since this is the first one I've read and it's the third in the series. So I'll give it another chance, but I really didn't like the men in this one. They were assholes. Not in that "I'm rough around the edges, brooding, and misunderstood" kind of way but in that "I'm a misogynistic douchebag" kind of way.

While this story of the romance between Samantha Brown and Lucan is interesting I found Lucan quite irritating and couldn't really understand why such a strong person like Samantha would find Lucan so attractive and not want to slap him more. He's a suspect, he can control her mind and she's not quite as strong as she should be.

This series is straying a little to close to Christine Feehan's series, and I'm starting to get more than a little impatient with the characters and the idea the some of these people would have survived centuries without someone killing them due to irritation or them making themselves be too obvious in the world.

Definitely not the best in the series. Lucan, the main character, was characterized as the "eeeeeevil" assasin in the first few books, and now he's running a Goth nightclub? And falls madly in love with a cop? I spent most of the book wanting to slap some sense into the characters, alternating between Lucan, Sam, and Sam's weirdo Goth neighbor.

I disliked this book intensely. This is what I get for impulse buying and not waiting to read reviews. I would estimate that well over half this book was spent in povs that weren't the main characters. A lot of time was spent on one of the previous character's brother, John. That man was the most boring character to read about! Why was so much time spent on him? It wasn't his book!

I have once again accidentally picked up a book in the middle of a series. I hate when that happens. I think I'm going to stop buying books on the spur of the moment.

Usually I'm distracted by all the other characters that appear from previous books and hate it because it detracts from the main characters. This time I wasn't irritated so much as transfixed with show more horrified fascination. Alex and Michael appear from some previous book in the series. I guess they have a history with Lucan. Alex makes some mention about giving Michael a face back. He had no face? Really? That little tidbit right there derailed my attention from the story while I tried to figure out exactly how that worked. I know I could always read their book to see, but I'd rather not. There was also another part where Lucan and Michael's pseudo-daddy, Richard, has sex with this girl and there's mention made of his uh... manly parts not being recognizably human any more. I was disgusted but seriously entertained. I went and tracked down my husband and we spent a very enjoyable 30 minutes trying to guess what kind of parts he now had.

Well, enough about the side characters. On to the main characters! What was Samantha's deal? She was supposed to be a smart cop but she seemed dumb as bricks to me. Also, she doesn't know what Goth is? Seriously? That stretches credulity to the max. A cop definitely would have seen stuff like that before. When something happens to her partner she feels horrible for it because she was screwing around while the event happened. I couldn't help but notice that she got over that one in no time at all. I did however feel really bad for her with the situation with her old partner. That's a really horrible situation. I can't really see events going down like that, but what do I know? I can't claim to be a cop.

Lucan had the potential to be interesting but... nope, he was just creepy instead. He wants Sam because she looks like an old flame he never got to be with. I know he denies it later but he thought it often enough to make his denial of it ridiculous. The man was so hot and cold too. It was bad enough that he groped her while he invaded her mind, he could at least stay consistent. One second he wants to do her the next he ignores her. Then he threatens her with injury by glass while they're doing it and she's forced to ignore it to prove her feelings. Now that's just stupid right there. What if he loses control of it mid act? Ouch!

The finale was a big let down and the final reveal of who the villain was made me lift my eyebrows in disbelief but I don't want to get too into that and spoil it for someone. Needless to say this was not my style of book and no one can convince me it was a Romance just because it was in the Romance section. show less

Review for "Dark Need" by Lynn Viehl

Lucan has killed for the Darkyn King for hundreds of years. Feared by his own people and hunted by the corrupt brethren, Lucan now has bigger problems. Samantha is a tough cop looking for a seriel killer, someone close to Lucan. To survive they will have to trust each other. Niether is very good at that.

Previous characters in the series show up in this book. Alexandra and Micheal fight their way through most of the book, they have issues. It is really cute. I love the complexities of the series. There is a lot of action, great love scenes and plenty of mystery.