Christine Feehan's Blog - Posts Tagged "dark-series"

High up in the Carpathian Mountains sits a monastery that is both sanctuary and self-imposed prison to ancient Carpathian warriors. These men know they are dangerous. They hope to keep others safe and prolong their existence by remaining within the walls of the monastery and keeping their darkness at bay. They are men, not of humanity, but of honor; not of this world, but of one long gone. The ways of the world are not known to them. Their savageness, needed to protect the world from evil vampires, is now their downfall. Who could love them, even if a lifemate was found? Who could overcome their savage nature, understand their break from humanity, accept their darkness enough to bring them into the light?

I created the monastery and the Carpathian warriors in it because I thought it would offer a unique hero, or heroes, to the Carpathian world. These are men who never served the new Prince. We don't know how old they are and how they felt about Mikhail's father. All we know is that they served as warriors who fought evil and kept us safe. They gave of themselves knowing it could kill them. Knowing they could be sacrificing their chance at finding a lifemate. And to ensure they remain honorable now that they have slipped into such darkness they are nearly savage, they shut themselves away to protect those around them.

I know there will be some people who will not care for the monastery Carpathians. They are too savage, too primal and lack even empathy. They feel nothing. They go entirely on instinct and what they remember of feelings. And therein lies the opportunity for me to create amazing heroines. The women who become lifemates to these men will have to have great courage and selflessness. They will need to be strong in ways they never imagined.

Dark Promises gives us a look at some of these men. We get a chance to look within the walls of the monastery. We have an opportunity to see the struggles of these men and just how far outside humanity they have come.

Who will save these men? Who would care for such savage warriors? Who would give of themselves to bring them back from the darkness. And if they cannot be saved, what should be done with them? It's these questions that I think make the monastery and its inmates so intriguing.

Dark Promises

Dark Carousel is the 30th novel in my Dark series, also called the Carpathian novels. I wrote the first in the series, Dark Prince, in the late 1990’s during a very difficult time in my life. I’d lost my son and writing became a sort of anchor for me. I’d always written, even as a child, but this time I wanted to write about warriors who couldn’t die, and who would save the world. And in return, if the warrior was honorable, he stood the chance of finding the greatest gift there is; love.




It didn’t occur to me that Dark Prince would be published. My best friend, Kathie, encouraged me to turn it in and I relented. I can honestly say that I was shocked when I received a call from Dorchester Publishing in New York offering me a contract.
My next book, Dark Desire, was published not long after and there began my journey as a career novelist. I realized I had more stories about this amazing race and I knew I could write in this world without ever tiring of it.

Each novel in the series meant something to me. They were characters I wanted to give life to and wanted people to care about. Dark Gold was next, and by this time I was hearing back from readers on what they loved and how they felt about the book, the world, the characters. So many readers were interested in a character who’d shown up in the previous books; Gregori. Gregori was, at the time, a very dark and foreboding character. He still is, but he’s mellowed a bit with marriage, like so many of us do. Lol I also realized how important hearing from my readers was to me.



Dark Magic won many awards and hit several bestseller’s list, though not the New York Times. But, readers loved it and so I kept writing. It would be Dark Fire, the 6th book in the series that would make it onto the NY Times bestseller list first. Since that time, Dark Prince was reissued and hit the NY Times list, as did Dark Dreamers, and all those that came after.
It’s always a challenge to evolve such a long-running series, but if you love it and you’re committed to it, you find a way. Writers have a big imagination, so the opportunity for growth was infinite. We started with our Carpathians nearly extinct, then found a conspiracy as to why, the series went from primarily paranormal romance with an edge of urban fantasy to paranormal romance having dragons and mages and eventually lycanthropes.

With Dark Carousel I introduce something new to the picture, and something old-made-new again. We deal with magic and curses and threats to Carpathians and humans alike. But, what is constant is the promise I make with each of these novels; a happily ever after ending where love triumphs and heroes are rewarded with the love they fought so hard for.


Dark Prince
Dark Magic
Dark Carousel

If you would like to discuss any of of my novels I do hope you'll join my online community where thousands of readers come to talk about the stories they enjoy.

Starting Tuesday September 5th I'll be posting an exclusive blog each day to celebrate the release of Dark Legacy!



Here's the line-up!

Sept. 5th- The New Guard- Unsworn Ancient Warriors
Sept. 6th- The Lifemate Mythology
Sept. 7th- There's Something About Gary
Sept. 8th- What Has Happened to Aiden Savage?
Sept. 9th- Sympathy for the Devil - A Look at Carpathian Villains

I will be reading comments and responding. Please feel free to ask questions, but know that anything that's a spoiler I may not be able to fully answer.

In a monastery high in the Carpathian Mountains is a brotherhood of warriors. All they have left is their honor and each other. Unlike many others of their kind who were sent out in the world by their Prince in order to find their lifemates and protect the human race from vampires, they came here to learn how to protect the human race, from themselves. Time would take from them their ability to see in color, and once the pull of the darkness ended, leaving them without emotion, they’d become too dangerous to be among even their own kind, so they sought the monastery.



These ancient warriors had once sworn fealty to Prince Vlad and felt that Prince had betrayed them. So when a new Prince came they were not quick to swear an allegiance to him. It was the same family. Same blood. The same line that had betrayed the Carpathian people and lead them into the darkest time in their history. There was no reason for them to come out of their self-imprisonment and join the new Prince.
Vlad had known something horrible was coming. He had known his people were about to enter a war. Instead of looking to the protection of his people, Vlad hid a terrible secret and looked only to his own self needs. Vlad’s lifemate, Sarantha had hoped to find a cure for their son’s madness. Draven Dubrinsky was slowly going mad. Draven was dangerous and had he been the son of any other Carpathian, Vladimir would have had him killed to ensure the safety of others. But, Sarantha had held out hope her son could be saved and Vlad hadn’t the heart, or the strength to do what should have been done. Their daughter Noelle also suffered from madness. The Dubrinsky family, for as powerful as they were, seemed cursed. Madness and weakness had, in the eyes of the Ancients, infected the Dubrinsky line and the Prince couldn’t be trusted to do what was best for his people. The Prince’s son and the feelings and desires of the Prince’s lifemate was more important than the Prince’s people. And in that Prince Vlad failed his entire race.
Now the Ancients are the New Guard and they’ve left the monastery in search of the promise of lifemates in various parts of the world. They have lived together for so long it was natural for them to band together and remain close. When they find themselves needed by Tariq in San Diego, California they arrive to find an enemy too dangerous to ignore and their honor demands they remain to protect both humans and Carpathians alike.



Will this New Guard ever swear allegiance to Mikhail Dubrinsky? It’s hard to say, but they do stay and fight with Tariq who has pledged his fealty to Mikhail. They’ve not shown any outward disobedience to the Prince, but what happens if Mikhail demands something of them? There are a lot of questions about this New Guard, but in the end there’s no doubt that these warriors are a shield of protection against this new threat and each one an integral part of the future of the Carpathian race.
Dark Legacy

I thought I'd do a round-up of news to make sure you didn't miss anything fun!



RT Book Reviews – “Unbosoming” interview


Unbound Worlds – featured in “Best Sci-fi and Fantasy Books of September 2017”


Reading in Pajamas – excerpt


Night Owl Romance – excerpt


Book Binge – Sunday Spotlight exclusive excerpt


PopSugar – included in “Must Read September” column


USA Today/HEA – quoted in feature on authors’ favorite fall treats


Buried Under Romance – review, excerpt & giveaway


I Smell Sheep – exclusive excerpt & review


The Reading Café – review & excerpt


Ever After Book Reviews – review


Tome Tender – review


Grave Tells – guest post on world building and expanding the mythology of an established series


The Lifemate Mythology Blog -
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The New Guard Blog-
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There’s Something About Gary-
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What Has Happened to Aiden Savage?
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Sympathy for the Devil- Carpathian Villains-
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USA Today HEA Sharing Childhood Games-


BookBub Best Books of Summer 2017-


I'd love to know which of the articles you enjoyed most!

I’m one of those people who like to read an entire back list when I come across an author I love. I’m excited when I see they have this huge body of work because I know I love their writing and it’s like finding buried treasure. But, I realize not everyone is like that. Some people find a long-established series to be daunting and get overwhelmed so they won’t read it. I understand now wanting to commit to starting from the very beginning when everyone else is talking about Book #30. You want to participate in what’s going on now and don’t want to have to invest time you may not have at the moment.





With this in mind I thought I would talk a bit about each series and whether or not you’d need to read the entire series, or where you might be able to just jump in. Keep in mind that I write ALL of my books so they can stand alone. Today we’ll talk about the DARK series.



DARK SERIES
The Dark Series, also called the Carpathian Series, is my longest running series. It’s about immortal vampire hunters called Carpathians who, if they don’t find their lifemate (think soulmate, but truly the other half of their soul) they lose the ability to see in color, lose their emotions and eventually either meet the sun or turn vampire.

The early books have many beloved characters including the Prince of the Carpathian people (there isn’t a king) Mikhail. The early books follow the struggles of the Carpathian people as they try to figure out why females aren’t surviving, thus leading the entire race toward extinction.



WHERE TO START IF NOT AT THE BEGINNING

If you don’t want to start with Book #1, Dark Prince, and want to catch up with what’s going on now you could start with the novella Dark Crime Book #27. This novella can be found in ebook form under Dark Crime or in paperback in an anthology called Edge of Darkness. This book has us back in the United States after a prolonged time in the Carpathian Mountains. We have new characters fighting a new evil and it’s all centralized on the West Coast so far. Tariq has been chosen by Mikhail to be the leader in the United States for the Carpathians and Tariq has the assistance of a new set of heroes that hail from a mysterious monastery high up on the mountains. They are ancient Carpathians who went to the monastery as a way of keeping others safe from them.

It’s always fun to go back and read the older books, but you can always do that at your leisure. Start with Tariq and his group so you can enjoy the current book talks for this series. These books are meant to be stand alone books, but of course it’s always fun to follow an overall ARC. And though you don’t have to go back, if you enjoy the series, I hope you’ll want to know all of the heroes of this series.

Some heroes come to me easily. They speak to me in a way which may sound crazy, unless you’re an author, but is true. When I say that they speak to me, I mean that I know what their voice is. I know if they’re calm or volatile. I know if they are old fashioned or modern. I have a clear idea of who they are and how they behave.
That doesn’t always happen right away though. Some heroes are stubborn. When you see me torture them a bit, it may be that I’ve been struggling with him and he won’t fall in line with what I want. Those are often the most surprising heroes in which people either totally love them, or they don’t.



I love them all. Those who cooperate and make my storytelling easy for me. And, those who fight me along the way, forcing me to bend to their will, or causing me to force them into compliance.

Andor was a joy to write. I was in the mood for someone romantic and deep, perhaps a little vulnerable so our heroine could come along and remind him that life is worth fighting for. There’s something about a hero who struggles and suffers, but who would dig deep within himself to protect the woman he loves and is willing to compromise in order to secure his woman’s happiness. Andor was that man.

You know from the first chapter that he is weary. Like all of the other ancients from the monastery, he didn’t believe suicide was the answer. To “meet the dawn” because he hadn’t yet found his lifemate and had become dangerous to others was the reason he’d gone to the monastery, but time and violence and a perpetual lack of hope had worn him down. So, when he’s attacked and about to die, he is ready to accept it. Dying while fighting evil was an honorable way to go. He’d put in his time, fought his battles, and now he just wanted a release from his suffering.



Then, in storms a woman waving a saucepan and looking to save his life and in an instant everything in his world changes. Fate, destiny, dumb luck, call it what you will, but in that final moment Andor sees his salvation. And he sees it in full color.

Centuries of turmoil, violence, anguish and torment couldn’t hold a candle to a single second filled with hope and love. Everything that had made him the fearless, dangerous warrior he’d been for all that time sparked back to life and he was once again a deadly predator. And a dark sentinel.









(Exclusives, Sneak Peeks, Discussions and more) -

I’ve had a vague idea for a heroine for quite some time, but I only knew certain things about her in the beginning. I knew she had to be strong, both physically and mentally. I knew she was a fighter. And I knew she had experienced a great tragedy that left her alone in the world on many levels.



But, until I found the right lifemate for her she had to stay in the background.

As I began Dark Sentinel I knew the hero would be one of the monastery ancients and realized it would be Andor. Unfortunately, Andor was at the end of his long life and ready to die. That’s when I knew who my heroine was and that her time had finally come. Lorraine Peters was absolutely the only person who could save Andor. Not just because she was his lifemate, but because of her life experiences and who she was as a person. It couldn’t be anyone else.
Lorraine came from a family of fighters. They trained daily. She was disciplined and fast. She was strategic and level-headed. She was brought up that way and it became a natural part of her. And, like most of the women who become lifemates, they are born with light and love in them. Lorraine loved her family. She was loyal and dependable. And even though her brother struggled with anger issues, she showered him with love and encouraged him to be good.

So, you can see how Lorraine would be a wonderful lifemate to any Carpathian male. Strong, yet loving. Loyal and accepting. But, I needed someone who would, in a split second, decide to help a stranger who was being attacked by murderers, even though she was all alone. It had to be someone who wouldn’t run for help because the odds were so astronomically against her. Something in her had to be so infuriated at what was happening that she would give her own life to stop it.



Years ago, there was a terrible crime that happened around the area in which I live. A local family had a son who was mentally ill and had anger issues. They had asked for help from the medical community. They’d even asked for help from law enforcement. No one helped them. One day their son lost control and killed several people from another local family and then was shot and killed by police.

Of course everyone was devastated by the tragic loss. There was such an outpouring of grief and support for the family who’d lost their loved ones. The victims were good people and now their family had to deal with their loss. As the community talked about what happened it occurred to me that the family of the boy who was the murderer also lost a child. They were also victims. No one talked about them. I wondered what it was like to be the family members of the killer. These were good people who had tried everything they could think of to get help and who had told law enforcement they were afraid something terrible would happen, but they were left on their own to manage their adult son. Did they feel alone? Did they feel guilt? Weren’t they just as devastated? These were the questions I thought of as I created Lorraine Peters. This scenario happened to her and everyone she loved was involved in this single event.

The stigma of what happened left Lorraine friendless and utterly alone in the world. She was the woman whose brother was a murderer. After some time she realized she had to get away and find herself again. So, she decided she’d go camping out where no one would know her secret guilt and shame. She wanted to find a way back to who she was. And the perfect opportunity for that opened up in that moment when she saw several men torturing and about to murder an unarmed, beaten, bleeding man who had no fight left in him.
Lorraine saw her chance to stop a murder. Those men were not going to get away with murdering anyone. Not on her watch. She wasn’t there to save her family, but she would save this man no matter what.
It is always satisfying when you find a perfect match. It took a little while for Lorraine to be fully realized as a heroine. It took the perfect lifemate who needed her and only her. It had to be Lorraine for Andor. And I think she was totally worth the wait.
















(Exclusives, Sneak Peeks, Discussions and more) -

Twenty years ago the top song in the US was Christina Aguilera’s and in the UK it was Westlife’s . The Sixth Sense came out as did The Boondock Saints, both of which became cult classics. But, what I was most excited about back then was the release of my first novel – .




I admit that I’m a little shocked that 20 years has gone by already. I’d written for years, but I did it for myself. My friend Kathie encouraged me to submit my manuscript and I finally agreed, but didn’t really think much of it. Well, not until I got a phone call from making an offer on it. Being excited and surprised I promptly hung up on them. Yes. I hung up on them. I really was surprised. Luckily, they called back and I gathered the courage to say “yes” to their offer.







When Dorchester cut 100 pages of the manuscript I was sad, but I realized that this is a business and I dealt with that decision. They also wanted me to include technology, which wasn’t something I really wanted to do since it dates the book, but I added it in. I’m asked about timelines and ages all the time and I never give absolute answers and some of that stems from the way Dark Prince was edited and changed back then.

(From the way back machine: my website from 1999)




When Dorchester went out of business bought the rights to those earlier books, which included Dark Prince. They were excited to have me add in those 100 pages that had previously been cut. That was in 2011. But, when I cut those and made the changes Dorchester requested it caused some difficulty adding it back in. It wasn’t just a matter of adding pages that were previously cut. It had to be added in a way that flowed well and didn’t disrupt the continuity. But, I made it happen! Now you can get what they call a special .



I’m thrilled and humbled that Dark Prince continues to be popular even today. I love it when I get a letter or email from someone saying they just read Dark Prince for the first time and then I chuckle when they ask if I have any more in the series. I do. There are currently a total of 32 books out in the series and as of Sept. 3rd will be number 33.









You can watch the Facebook Live video I did for the 20th anniversary celebration


You can read the first chapter of Dark Illusion














(Exclusives, Sneak Peeks, Discussions and more) -

It’s important to me that my heroines reflect a wide variety of women. Julija, from , is more powerful than she knows. She thinks things about herself and about love that is filtered through some terrible life experiences. She was taught from an early age not to trust Carpathian males. So, when she meets Isai things don’t go smoothly.


I’ve had people ask me why I write heroines who sometimes fight becoming a lifemate. Let’s face it, if it all went easy there’d not be a lot to write about. There’s always conflict in new relationships and Carpathians have to deal with that like everyone else. Especially the men. Especially the ancient ones who know little of modern women.



In my real life I am a 3rd degree black belt and earned my instructor’s license to teach martial arts. I love martial arts, though I’m retired now, but I did that for 20 years. I taught special women’s classes. This was for battered, abused women. Some had had very horrible things done to them and they needed to fuel their courage. I say “fuel” and not “find” because all women have courage. Sometimes they just need to be reminded or lifted up. Learning self-defense can help with that.



So, I’ve met all kinds of women throughout my life. Some who are quiet, some who speak up and out and aren’t afraid to tell you what they think or how they feel. Some don’t want to be noticed, but prefer to stay in the background. Some want to fight anyone and everyone they feel needs it. Large women, petite women, every ethnicity, social background, walk of life, they all matter to me. I want all of them to have a happy ever after. Whatever that means to them.

When I started writing the Dark Series I wanted a woman who could accept an unusual man. Raven, from , was psychic and so she already knew there were unusual people in the world. She was one. As a couple Mikhail and Raven were a great example light and darkness. Raven is brilliant, confident and accepting. Mikhail lucked out!

Not all women are accepting. Gabrielle from certainly didn’t start out wanting her lifemate. Trixie (also from Dark Promises) tried to kill her future lifemate even as she admitted to herself that he’s hot.

Ivory Malinov from is a formidable warrior. Emeline from was timid and vulnerable in a way even though she certainly had courage.



Julija is a fighter. Unfortunately, her need to fight doesn’t always serve her well when it comes to love. She has courage. But, I love that she has a vulnerability at her core that helps us empathize with her and love her.

Of all of the Dark series heroines I’ve written, which do you feel you’re most like? Which one would you want to be most like?














(Exclusives, Sneak Peeks, Discussions and more) -