I have loved the Carpathian novels, The Dark Series by Christine Feehan for a while now, and I hadn’t read any in a moment and when I saw Dark Promises on my library shelf, I got myself caught up with the series in order to read this. I was only one novella and one novel behind and I quickly read those. I completed Dark Promises in one day, this is a bit unusual as I don’t normally have a day to commit to nothing much more than reading and laying around, so this was a treat. Read on to see how I thoroughly enjoyed it!
In having read the series up to this book, I went into it prepared for the normal story arc as presented in the realm of the unique circumstances of the main characters in this book, but was totally rocked off my chair (out of my bed) of normal Carpathian storyline in Chapter 1, page 24 (hardcover edition)! This installment in the world of the Carpathians is NOT the same and already I am so shocked by what is happening I had to put the book down and process my feelings about it.
Now, to be honest, these books are not for anyone triggered or with a general dislike of themes where the woman is dominated both mentally and physically by the man. I don’t find the domination to be overtly sexual in the way of BDSM (as recently popularized in fiction writing), but in the Carpathian world, the males have strong personalities and often come from a time centuries earlier when the main objective was keep your woman safe and cherish her at home. Often a woman is brought into the Carpathian world (they are not human) without her full knowledge of it and this heavy handedness, as some may call it, is usually tempered by seeing that the woman has a feeling this is the right man and the right thing to do, but doesn’t mindfully know it is. She wants this new reality but will probably have a very difficult time admitting it. In this installment, this theme is very prevalent. In some past installments, the woman is less dominated, often has a dominating personality herself which then has to be understood by a male working on a centuries old dynamic of his word being law. That is not the case in Dark Promises. If you can get past that, keep reading.
In Dark Promises, someone at odds with herself all her life has been forced into a new life. Now she is being ripped from her perfect fantasy life and trying to claw her way out of it into reality. This reality also has the benefit of showing her what strengths she has always had. The essential theme in Carpathian novels is the immutable bond between life mates, and one of the things I love most about Ms. Feehan’s world is that the players involved always find out that the bond isn’t the real glue in the relationship, it is the trust and care built, even in a short time, that makes you root for the couple. It makes you scream in frustration and weep in joy as they stumble through learning trust and care in a strange, exciting, often terrifying new world. Also, the couples often feel the lifemate bond has it wrong due to the vast gulf of differences and opposite personalities, but often this bond cements the idea that a loved one’s opposite demeanor helps expand our perceptions and makes us stronger. This story actually covers two couples and moves the story of The Dark Series along well. The two couples’ lives are intertwined and while one couple’s story is prominent and the other secondary, both are told well and fit in the realm of one book. This installment in the storyline depends heavily on the book immediately previous, Dark Ghost, but if this is the first Carpathian novel you have picked up, it won’t be hard to follow. But, I will warn you, if you read it and love it, you will likely want to go back and start at the beginning to see all the great lives changed in the world of the Carpathians.
Dark Promises gave me a jolt out of my preconceived notion of how things and people worked with the Carpathians, and that was great. Especially since I didn’t know my notions needed a jolt. Yet, this didn’t feel forced or contrived, it was plausible in the world Ms. Feehan has built. While it moved the overall storyline and ended with my own searing need for the next book in the series, it was still a lovely, self-contained story of people being grown outside of the box they have forced themselves into by an otherworldly and all encompassing love. And that, my friends, was superb.
Month: April 2016
Read All The Books!
How much do you read for your pleasure? Not the tomes you may be relegated to reading for work, not the books you have on your Goodreads list because you think it makes you appear erudite, I am talking about the ones you can’t take to the playground because the covers aren’t safe for little eyes! Or maybe your pleasure books have safe covers but you still feel the need to pretend to the world you don’t read anything that doesn’t raise your IQ by 10 points!
Well dear friends, I must confess to my fascination with the pleasure read. I read many things that may raise my IQ, I used to read a lot of technical papers, I now often read discourses on raising kids, following Christ, empowering myself, and how to stay married for 50 years. Yet, I love losing myself in fantasy, romance, paranormal fantasy romance (is that even a genre?). Anyway, I will give almost any book with people falling in love, lust or sometimes just steamy intercourse that might not lead to love, a chance. After all, I get tired of being responsible and reading about the best way to motivate your 6 year old! And in this age of the digital book, I have that many more ways to fill my book lover’s heart with words! I often have 7-10 books, in hand, to be read. I am also usually reading at least 2 of them at once (it is probably more like 3). I have no problem keeping the characters straight and though I try to just pick 2 or 3 books in total, I inevitably end up with pages and pages of books I want to read, then I see a new recommendation and off I go to add to the list. I am never going to complete these lists, great things are being written and found too often. How will I ever complete the task of reading all the books?!
But this little escape is starting to take over, I find myself being interested in the historical fiction, history, mysteries, and the ‘literature’ of the book world, but never enough to actually pick up the book and read it. I don’t want to come to conclusions about the protagonist, I don’t want to be wooed by backstory and research and real seeming lives. I want escape, fantasy, fast and steamy and I want these things all the time. Yet, I really want to read it all, both the latest literary thinker by Bill Beverly, the latest contemporary romance by Katie Meyer, the next steamy erotic romance from J.S. Danielle, or maybe the latest thriller by Daniel Silva. How is that possible? I am consumed by reading, just as I was as a child. Words and stories bring me all the feelings and I really enjoy that. I would just like to enjoy it a bit more responsibly, too bad I have no idea what that might actually look like.
What do you like to read? And do you think I will every break this habit of all fluff and no meat?
Trying to Say Yes to No
What just happened? I am sitting in a room breathing hard like I ran a marathon, my 8 year old is screaming in his room and I just wanted to finish our homeschool day. As agreed. We agreed, but he exploded when it was time to stop playing video games. I mean full Hulk green anger over having to stop playing the game and finishing his math, which is mostly review at this point and a subject he does well with.
Backstory you say, okay, no problem. My son, X, is autistic. He has Autism Spectrum Disorder. Yes, he is what many term high functioning, and would have a diagnosis of Asperger’s Disorder if the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – Fifth Addition ( DSM-V) hadn’t done away with that diagnosis. He has been diagnosed since the age of 3 and has made many strides, yet there is more to do. He is behaviorally behind many of his peers and socially awkward in that he doesn’t always know what is an appropriate response. Many times changing tasks can be arduous. This is why why we discuss our schedule, time frames, and what is expected. This often works, often I say, not always. Today I gave the patented parent countdown to task change. You know, where you say, ‘Okay sweet child o’ mine, we will be starting math in 10 minutes. You should wrap up your game and prepare for school time.’ (Do you hear the sarcasm written here?) Sweet child acknowledges the information, you know after you stand there for eternity then ask him does he understand? Five minutes later, you give the same spiel, only now he has 5 minutes and he repeats acknowledgement.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
‘Alright sweetie, time to get started, you may leave that game on because we won’t be long.’
Immediately there is screaming, foot stomping and a lot of ‘this isn’t fair, you hate me, why can’t I just have a few more minutes to see this update, you don’t understand’ along with actual tears and spittle flying! I was proud of myself, I was calm through much of this, I repeated the request, I pointed out the feelings on his stress scale, I reminded him of his acknowledgement of the agreement, I was hitting all the buzz words used to help alleviate the stress of these situations and get the desired outcome. And then, I wasn’t. I was yelled at one too many times, I was given aggressive body language and hateful words and my heart broke, again, and I needed time to pick it up and put it back together before I could go on. X was sent to his room to calm down, Mommy was sent to her room to cry and put herself back together. She needed to remind her heart that her son loves her, has made vast improvement, doesn’t know how to express his frustration, and really feels strongly about changes. In this case, a video game was updating, that meant things were changing, by leaving before he could see these updates, he felt adrift in a sea of the unknown. You may feel adrift when you are at a party where you only know the host, X feels adrift when he has to leave things undone or unknown. He thinks that isn’t right. I think it isn’t always a big deal. Somehow we have to meet in the middle, we don’t always do it gracefully. Today, he had a hard time being okay with a no, you may not do that right now. Today, X could not say Yes to No.
How do you or your kids if you have any, handle saying Yes to No?