Dark Secret ….. A Carpathian Novel. Christine Feehan.
Back cover …….
Rafael De La Cruz has spent centuries hunting vampires with his brothers, and with each passing year his capacity to feel emotions has grown weaker and weaker until finally there’s barely been a memory left–until only sheer willpower keeps him from turning into the very abomination he hunts. But it’ll take more than will to keep him away from the woman who is meant to be his and his alone. . .
For five years, rancher Colby Jansen has been the sole protector of her younger half-siblings, and with fierce determination and work she has kept her family together and the ranch operational. Now, the De La Cruz brothers are threatening that stability. They claim that her siblings belong with their father’s family, not with her. Colby vows to fight them-especially the cold and arrogant Rafael De La Cruz. But Rafael is after more than her family-he wants Colby and will not let anything stand between them. After ages of loneliness, the raw desire to possess her overwhelms his very soul, driving him to claim her as his lifemate. . .
My Review…….
Rafael De La Cruz is almost at the end of his life ……
He has lived for centuries, fighting both the vampire and the ever growing darkness inside him. With his brothers help and their honour, they continue to live and fight for their prince and the Carpathian people.
Whilst feeding he feels the demon inside him urging him on, to feed, to drain the body heโs feeding from dry, to take a life, and to feel if only briefly……
Colby Jensen is holding her sanity together by a thread, her half brother and sister are being fought over, her step fatherโs family want the siblings to come and live with them in Brazil. Colby isnโt having any of it. Their father had been disowned for loving and having children with someone they didnโt approve of, but now heโs gone, they want her siblings, Colby isnโt having any of it, if her step fathers family want her brother and sister, then they are going to have to fight her for them, but they have money and connections, Colby has nothing. And now hearing the family have their employer helping them, Colby is afraid she will lose them and the Ranch……
Standing on a cliff overlooking the ranch his employees are coming to visit, Rafael knows his time is limited, refusing to drain the woman, he wants to go home, here nothing is familiar, he misses Brazil, but he promised his older brother that he would go and sort out the issue with this โJensenโ woman, he would get the children that he had come for, then go home.
He spots a rider on horseback, the voice carries up to him, stunned he sees the horse and rider in colour !!!! Itโs her ….. his lifemate.
Colby had anticipated meeting the De La Cruz family, what she hadnโt banked on was meeting them whilst being thrown from a horse !!!!
The De La Cruz brothers (all five of them) are centuries old, they remember carpathian women being meek and mild, in a time where they would stay at home, looking after the children. So meeting his lifemate in this time came as a huge shock to Rafael, Colby wasnโt meek, not was she mild. Sheโs a very strong willed individual.
At first I didnโt like Rafael (heโs still not one of my favourite characters) but you have to read past the fact he seems to be a bully (demanding Colby give up her life and move to Brazil, to alter her whole way of thinking) they are from a time when women were home makers. But they do want to protect their women (even though most of the women in these books are more than capable of looking after themselves) they keep the Carpathian hunter from turning into a vampire, the women are the light, keeping the darkness at bay.
So …… we have a few big battles. We have many battles of will between Rafael and Colby, we do have a few light moments and we also meet a hunter thatโs been in a few previous books ( Vikirnoff)
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