Dark Nights audiobook

The book contains two previously released novellas by Christine Feehan. If you follow the series and haven’t already read these stories, or if you desire to keep all books/stories within a series shelved together, than this book will be a good purchase. Being short stories, we aren’t being bogged down with the Carpathian angst with the darkness in their souls. If you are new to the series, this isn’t a bad place to begin, although starting with Dark Prince is a better choice. But if you’ve read the stories and are looking for something new, you won’t find it here, even with the enhancements made to Dark Descent.Dark Descent was first published in the anthology “The Only One.” It’s the story of Traian & Joie Sanders and our first glimpse into the mage ice cave and the existence of the dragon line. In this story we learn that master vampires are working together to rule the world, a theme carried forward from here through the series. I believe it’s also the first story since Dark Magic to bring Gary back into the picture and in this one he meets Gabrielle, Joie’s researcher sister. The author has enhanced the original story, although since it’s been so long since I had read it, I couldn’t point out to another exactly where. There were a number of times where I thought something might be new. Over half of the story still deals with finding Traian and escaping the cave. What I really like about this particular story is that Joie is such a kick butt character, both mentally and physically. We don’t just get a heroine but an enter family and you won’t find a “victim” among them. Well at least we meet and interact with her brother and sister. We’re teased a number of times that Traian is going to have a difficult time being accepted by their mother who does not like alpha males. Unfortunately we still don’t get to meet the parents or see how that plays out.Joie has the ability to astral travel and uses it at the beginning of the story to escape pain when being worked on in the hospital after getting shot. It’s how she meets Traian, who is lying in a cave trying to recover from his fight with vampires. Off screen they converse every night for weeks and she knows she’s got to find him. It’s the way the author is able to explain Joie’s fast acceptance with the concept of being his lifemate.Dark Dream was first published in the anthology “After Twilight” and tells the story of Falcon and Sara. Their story begins at the 64% area on a Kindle, so it’s a shorter story than Dark Descent and it is published here in its original form.Falcon is on his way home after spending so much time on his own doing what Prince Vladimir had requested; kill vampires to protect their race. He can’t hang on any longer and wants to meet Mikhail before meeting the sun. One thousand years ago, while still recalling memories of emotions, he wrote a journal hoping his future lifemate would find it. He’s about to be jumped by a number of men who want to rob him when Sara jumps in and tells him to run.Sara watched her entire family killed by an ancient vampire who wants her and she’s been hiding from him for the last 15 years. The only thing that kept her going was finding Falcon’s journal and just knew it had been written for her. She’s learned how to fight, always has an escape route, and her passion is children. She’s been working to establish a safe place for 7 gifted kids from the street.The journal and Sara’s familiarity with Falcon as a person through it, is how the author is able to pull the two together in an accepted manner in a short story. What I really like about Sara is her compassion, both for Falcon and the children. The woman is distressed to find out it might be more than 100 years between being able to birth children, but you can bet there will be a lot of adoptions. We get an added bonus with this story. The prologue gives us Prince Vladimir’s difficult decision to ask warriors to do the unthinkable; live alone, away from all other Carpathians in order to hunt vampires and protect their race.Read as ARC through Edelweiss.

It has been a long time since I read this series. I stopped at book five because the stories were too repetitious for my taste. I actually got stuck with this book, but the funny thing is I really enjoyed it. As I was reading I remember one thing about this series that I really enjoyed, it’s the way the author writes her fictional characters. They take what they want and will stop at nothing to get it. Most writers write their paranormal creatures way to fluffy now days and I don’t enjoy that very much. After reading this one I am very well considering picking up this series again. Dark Nights contains two re-writes from two previous stories. Like I said above I haven’t read this series in forever, but I picked up on the storyline very quick and really enjoyed all the characters in both stories. I found the stories hot and full of action. If you’re a lover of this series you’ll very much enjoy this addition because you get to know more about the characters from the previous books and who doesn’t want more. I know I always do. LOL. If you just by happen to pick this up you should be fine just reading it, just remember this is part of a series so you’ll find more beef in the previous books these characters were featured in.

Traian Triovise, Carpathian male a little on the medieval side with long dark hair to his shoulders and smoldering eyes he is an ancient warrior among his people. Sent away centuries ago by his Prince to go after, hunt the undead, to rid the earth of the vampire population. He like so many other males of his species always looking, longing for the one woman that can bring light to his darkness, the other half of his soul, his life mate. Some never find their life mates and succumb to the darkness making them the very thing that they hunt. Traian, on his way back to his homeland discovers vampire activity in the Romanian mountains, too close to his Prince and has to investigate in a series of tunnels and caves. Caves that have clearly been used by powerful mages. Full of traps, twists and turns he finds himself face to face with a master vampire and two of his minions. There is a terrible, horrific fight and Traian is injured severely and is forced to go to ground to heal in the life-giving soil of his people. She comes to him as a mist, an aberration he thinks. Is he dreaming, he is beginning to feel changes in his body, a heat that is scorching his veins and skin? He begins to see color, feel emotion, something that he hasn’t experienced in centuries, a happening that he never hoped to bear witness to. Joie Sanders, a bodyguard on assignment in Austria is shot and severely wounded ending up in the hospital. Joie, a strong personality with a very unique ability to be able to astral project her spirit goes out of her body to avoid the pain that she’s being forced to endure. She has to get away but can she do it with pain relieving meds that she is being injected with? She projects herself to the country side; it’s so quiet, beautiful and peaceful, her spirit flying through the night sky. She discovers a cave entrance and slips inside following the tunnel down deeper and deeper into the earth until she comes to a large chamber. Inside this chamber is beauty that she has never seen before. Walls lined with ice, stalagmites and stalagtites everywhere looming like large sentinels in this room surrounded with beauty. You see Joie is an experienced caver, something she has done since she was a very young child. She, her sister and brother often go caving and exploring, a life she is familiar with and loves. The unknown of walking where no one else has been, seeing sights and wonders that one can only imagine. Joie discovers Traian’s resting place, which is just not done as the Carpathian males always safeguard their resting places as this is when they are the most vulnerable. But somehow she has gotten through.Is he real? He can’t be but he is the most beautiful man that she has ever laid eyes upon. They begin talking to one another and Traian discovers that his life mate, the other half of his soul has found him. It’s a blessing! After Joie has to depart his company as she is getting very weak holding herself in her astral projection, they begin speaking to one another telepathically over the next weeks. She becomes obsessed with finding the truth about her mystery man. Does he exist? Her and her siblings go caving in search of this mysterious and beautiful cave that has only been in her dreams so she thinks, she has to know the truth, it’s an obsession, a drive like never before in her heart and soul, they find Traian staked to an ice wall deep inside the earth. He has suffered unbelievable injuries, pain and torture from the vampires and much to his dismay he has discovered there is actually now two master vampires one more powerful than the other calling the shots. They feed upon his ancient blood taking and taking to weaken him, to keep him sustainable to their tortures ways.Joie and her sibling free Traian from his bonds and they begin to make their way out of the maze of tunnels running into not only the vampires chasing them but also the traps of a powerful mage. From here the story unfolds of unknown dangers, shadow warriors, traps, bugs and a great many disguising creatures of the undead.This is a good book, a little on the short side for a Feehan book, but she constantly moves with this story line. It’s like the characters are talking to her so fast with so much of their story it would be hard to get all the details. She immediately goes into battle with this story, a brutal, deadly encounter with master vamps and minions. The love story between the two main characters Joie and Traian moves quickly. It’s a book that is easy to read, great editing on this one as always with one of Feehan’s books. The love scenes are typical Carpathian, hotter than hell, but the way Christine describes the scenes make them so sexy and sensual which is typical from a Carpathian male mating. It draws you into the scene that makes you feel like you’re an actual part of the story with all it twinges and tingles.I wish this book had been a little longer and there may be a fuller version out there, but it just leaves so much left unsaid concerning the master Vamps especially since Traian discovers three not two master vamps, one he suspects is one of the infamous Malinov brothers. And if you’re an avid Dark reader your familiar with the Malinov brothers that turned to the darker side.One thing about the Dark Series; I never have really liked the covers too much. Even though the male model on this cover is hot beyond belief, his eyes are just, wow there are no words for his eyes, maybe sexy, hot and penetrating, and I've no idea who he is. For such a sensational series the covers are just drab in my opinion. Unlike her Leopard Series where the covers are phenomenal.But, I’m an avid Feehan reader and will never say anything bad about Christine’s writing. Her characters and their stories come to life with her imagination and ability to relay in type so that they come alive and make you actually think to yourself, could there really be these kinds of creatures roaming upon our earth. Sharing our existence in the darkest of night? And is there a race of people like the Carpathian’s, males of superior strength and power, super sexy chivalrous males. Do they exist?This is by far not one of my favorites of her Dark Series but all in all it is a good book. I’ve noticed that as time has passed and more and more stories are upholding in the Carpathian world the warriors are beginning to be a little more amiable toward their life mates. Their more humorous and light in mind and spirit. More accepting of the modern day human females. I like this; it brings it more into the present day way of life scenarios of what a love match would be like with a Carpathian male.Keep on going Christine, your great and I love your imagination.

Two storiesGreat characters , lots of romance and full of adventure. What more could anyone want. I am so enjoying this series

Sara & Falcon's story is short but, intense. I wish it had been longer but in the short time they had they made the most of it!

Originally posted at: http://www.longandshortreviews.blogsp...Hard to go wrong with a book of back-to-back stories of hunky, hot Carpathian men as they battle to win the hearts of their women and fight for their lives against those evil, gross looking vampires with bad breath. Not to mention all the other creepy crawlies that sent shivers up my spine but, unlike the heroines, I didn’t have my own Falcon or Traian to save me. Although Joie and Sara had all the fun, there was a high price to pay, which in turn, meant a book full of drama, suspense and action for me.The first book is Dark Decent and it’s about a female body guard with an unusual talent. As is typical for Ms. Feehan, the heroine is capable, has a strong personality and although successful in her career, experiences feelings of not quite belonging, even, as in Joie’s case, when she’s surrounded by a loving and extremely supportive and exceptional family. She has a healthy sense of humor and a yen for adventure and it’s explored a tiny bit as to why that is. There is a lot of mentioning of her parents and by the time the story came to its conclusion and happy ever after, I was so intrigued by the possibility of Traian actually meeting her parents that I was a little let down that there was no mention of that even happening in a future book. Truth to tell, I would greatly enjoy that. I realize that Ms. Feehan’s stories commonly have dark themes because it’s about the war between good and evil. Just once, I’d love to see a tale with a more lighthearted and comedic bent, and having Traian meeting Mr. & Mrs. Sanders would do it. I mean, Joie mentions it quite a few times throughout the story and I think it’s a great idea. I hope other readers will feel the same way after reading Dark Descent and perhaps mention it. I guarantee it would be an auto-buy for me, because it’s a great hook.Traian is your typical Carpathian male that fans of the series adore and clamor for. He’s arrogant, logical, commanding and aggressive. That’s easy to be all those things when you have no emotions and don’t have to deal with the fallout of messy hurt feelings. He’s not had them in so long, he can’t relate. That is until Joie sort of pops into his cave and blasts his eyes with color. Along with the good comes lots and lots of bad and the hero is up to the task of defending his woman, after a quick nibble or two. I liked Traian because he had a sense of humor too. It was a bit rusty, sure, but it worked. I enjoyed how the author described him and was greatly entertained as the hero navigated dealing with a woman who was at heart as fierce a warrior as he was.Secondary characters were Joie’s brother, Jubal, and her sister, Gabrielle. They were an interesting addition to the story because they both presented teases as to what makes Joie and her whole kin more than the average American family. I also liked how they all worked together to get out of a nasty situation and how tight they were as a familial unit. They weren’t military, but they could have been.The villains, as always, are the vampires who want power and will corrupt and kill anything and anyone to get it. Things were exceptionally gruesome in the cave and it seems the author must have a particular dislike of icky bugs and maggots because they were used to good effect. Squeamish readers might want to skim the scenes with the little beasties but rest assured Traian saves the day. Or, in his case, saves the night.Dark Descent was an intense read with tons of suspense, drama and action to keep a reader wide-eyed. The romance was as powerful as the conflict; both giving fans what they expect when they pick up a book about those mysterious Carpathain men and the women who make them whole.Dark Dream is a more intense romance with a lot of feeling and as close to mushy as a book about an alpha Carpathian male can get. Falcon is an ancient and he’s nearing his end game. That is until he meets a woman who has a connection to him forged in his personal long ago history. It’s a blessing and a curse and with all good stories, the curse is going to be broken, eventually. In this case, the evil that follows isn’t a spell or concept but an equally ancient evil that I suspect was drawn to the book the same as the heroine was, but for different reasons.Sara is a tortured heroine. So much of her life has been lived in despair, with fear, and is beaten down with feelings of failure. Her inner strength is what carries her through as well as her ability to connect with Falcon’s past. He was her inspiration but nothing could have prepared the heroine for when the man of her dreams appeared on her porch. Her waffling emotions matched the situation. At times, I think she waffled too much but ultimately, the strength of the overall writing allowed me to overlook it. Her initial wonder and bemusement quickly dissipated as reality reared its fanged head and she came face to face with her pursuer. This time, however, Sara isn’t alone. It takes her some getting used to having someone that isn’t afraid of the bad guy and in fact looks forward to the battle. She’s so accustomed to being on her own; it was interesting watching her having to come to grips with Falcon. He wasn’t going to abandon her, nor was he going to allow her to be in harm’s way, nor would he let her hide behind misconceptions. In his revealing all, it reached Sara on her most sensitive levels. She loved the man her imagination and talent introduced her to, but loving the man before her, with all his fangs, baggage and save-the-world agenda was a whole other kettle of fish. I enjoyed her journey of discovery, even at its bumpiest.And it is rocky. The heroine wants to help kids but evil doesn’t care for the welfare of the innocent. The runaway camper was the most intense scene but it also heralded a lot of great cameos. For fans of the series, Dark Dream gives readers a look at how things are going with old friends. It was great to see them in action again and kicking vampire butt.Falcon is delish, but I’ve yet to ‘meet’ a Carpathian hunter that wasn’t. I liked how tender he was towards Sara and how he pampered her. His open communication was very seductive and his entreaty to her about his needs was powerful. He came across as a most sensual and sentimental man who put his woman first before all things. All of the heroes in the series have, but Falcon’s declarations were much more potent and Sara’s response was very uplifting. There are obstacles to fulfilling the hero’s needs but eventually, Sara, with the help of some friends, pulls through and everyone gets their happily ever after.As with the first story, there are bugs and rats and other things that made me go “EW!” Good thing there are guys who save the day. It was deadly, hectic and full of drama and suspense, but that is what Ms. Feehan excels at and this story was equally entertaining as the first.Dark Dream is another bite-your-nails-to-the-quick tale that sucks you in with the romance and keeps you reading while the suspense and action plays out.Both stories in Dark Nights showcase why Ms. Feehan’s work is a keeper.

Dark Knights consists of two short stories Dark Descent and Dark Dream. I enjoyed everything about Dark Descent. There were no lures in the story and was constant excitement and adventure. I liked all of the characters. It was a well written story. Joble, Gabrelle and Joy are three siblings who find Joy’s life mate in a cave where he was being held captive by vampires. The three siblings rescue the Carpathian. While the Carpathian goes to ground the vampires attack the siblings and Joy sacrifices herself to save her siblings while it’ll take the Carpathian to save Joy, his life mate. What I liked was none of the characters were written as victims and all were supportive of one another and worked well as a single unit. Dark Dream/b> wasn’t as well developed as Dark Descent. The story opens with the life mate being a strong independent woman who thinks clearly and making valid decisions but as we delved deeper into the story she makes a snap judgment that puts her in danger showing her to be a different personality. I believe this was the way the author chose to make the transition to the next section of the story that didn’t work for me. I give the story three stars.Jennifer Bradshaw is an exceptional job in narrating both stories.

The early stories are the best by far .A lot of readers divide the Dark Series into two parts. The early stories starting with Dark Prince and ending with Dark Predators. The second division starts with Dark Storm up to the lastest offering Dark Song. The reason for this ? The early books are as different as day and night. In fact the books written after Dark Predator feel like a completely different hand wrote them. The difference is startling. Those use to the first books usually don't care for the latter while those who started with the latest care little for the oldest. As for me I stopped buying any of the newest books in this series after purchasing three and completely disappointed expecting to find the same Alpha male, strong women, and loving community . Instead I found a unrecognizable story that held little relationship to the stories I had come to love. I still believe strongly that the new books were written by ghost writters not Ms. Feehan.

Joie and Traian 's story was a very compelling 5stars . It was not just about the couple but Joie's siblings which added so much more than the tradition Carpathian theme. I would love to read about Juble even Gabby altho she was the weakest character of the "family"Falcon I did not care for. His initial approach to Sara in her home would have terrified any sane individual but a person with her background was cruel. Sara's parents and brother were murdered while she hid in a closet and watched their blood flow under the door ! So Falcon rushes into her home takes her to the ground and restrains her ?!? Not what we are used to with Ms. Feehan's depiction of a male life mate. I was disillusioned from then on so really a 2 star at best

The only reason I didn't give this five stars is because of the fast pace. I understand that it is two short stories but the women were far too accepting of the abrupt change in their lives. There was little to no fighting the attraction between the man and woman as is customary in the Carpathian novels. other than that detail missing, I thought both stories were good. It gave some insight into plot points that would show up in later novels. And I will admit it was good to finally see the stories of theses characters that you see in other books. I wish she had made these into novels in their own right just because there was so much more that could have been done with the stories.

Two stories for the price of one. Yay! First up is Traian - whose name sounds like a locomotive according to Joie, he female counterpart and lifemate. They spend a fair amount of time in caves, looking for something the vampires want (not knowing what it is), but spend most of the time evading vampires and mage traps. The banter and snarky comebacks had me chuckling. Next up is Falcon and his lifemate Sara. Again the banter and humor had me chuckling. Sara has spent a good portion of her life running from a vampire and managing to evade him for all that time. Until she runs into Falcon. Both stories are well written, the characters and storyline engaging.Well done.

** spoiler alert ** Me encantan porque estas historias se salen del común denominador de los machos carpatianos; son más comprensivos, más amorosos y abiertos (tal vez porque son muy muy antiguos (recordemos que Lucian tampoco era tan aprensivo como Gregori, por ejemplo)) y la sabiduría los guía con verdadero amor hacia sus parejas.¡La forma en la que Falcón y su compañera se encuentran se me hace tan romántica! Creo que en mis mejores fantasías pude haber deseado algo similar. Y el equipo que hace la familia de Joie con Traian es simplemente fantástica.

A pleasure as alwaysChristine Feehan is one of my top 5 favorite authors. As usual I couldn't help but read it in one evening. Can't put her books down once I start until it's finished. Can't believe I'd missed this one in her Dark series.

Once again the carpithians do not disappointI loved it just like everyone i have read before looking forward to my next one as always the drama and the humor continue to entice me to by book after book of all of her series.

Another Winner by FeehanLoved J and T story. She has a wonderful family. Feehan never fails to deliver a wonderful story that lingers. I always feel like the characters and stories are real.I want to be their when he is introduced to her parents.