In the Dark series, Ms. Feehan takes us into an interesting world of 
the Carpathian men. It seems we have good vampires who are called 
Carpathians versus bad vampires who are the true "Nosferatu".  You 
remember that old Wizard of Oz adage, "Only bad witches are ugly"? 
Well, it appears that according to this series, that holds true for 
vamps too. The Carpathians, originating in the southern Carpathian 
mountains of Romania, are a species set apart from us meager humans. 
They are creatures of the earth. Yes they do feed only on blood, but 
they do not kill their "donors".  That would be bad.  That would make 
you Nosferatu. No, they don't sleep in coffins, but they DO burrow 
into the earth during the course of the daylight hours even though 
some of the older ones can tolerate early morning and late evening 
sunlight. The earth heals and replenishes them. They also wield 
tremendous psychic ability including the ability to read minds at 
will, and control weather...all sorts of neat tricks.

The problem is, their race is quickly dying out because their women 
are being depleted. No female children are born to them, and only a 
few males. Most of those that ARE born do not live through their 
first year. To top that off, the males of the species lose their 
ability to see color and feel any emotion after the first hundred 
years or so.  They live bleak existences until they are united with 
their one true lifemate. As they go through the centuries searching 
for their lifemate, they are forced to hunt down and kill those of 
their kind that lose hope and turn Nosferatu instead of meeting the 
dawn and ending their existence in the honorable fashion because they 
didn't find a lifemate in time. The more they hunt, the more stained 
their souls become and the more suseptible to turning they are 
themselves.  Basically in a nutshell, what keeps a good vampire from 
going bad is ..."drum roll" Love. The ultimate power in the 
universe.  Nice to know some things never change, eh?

So those are the basic premises on which these stories are built; 
struggling against surmounting odds to keep the evil ones of their 
kind down, find love either amongst the few remaining Carpathian 
woman or a few select human women with special "gifts", re-populate 
their dying race, and do it all under the noses of human prejudice, 
brutal wars, so on and so forth.

I personally had trouble making my way through the first one, being 
that I'm a person who doesn't mind a little sex with the story, but 
the first book was mostly a little story with the sex. Steamy, 
graphic sex that makes you glad cold water is cheaper than hot for 
all the showers you'll be taking just to get through it. It makes me 
think that this author is not only a married woman, but a 
very "happily" married woman at that. And the "mating ritual" is VERY 
aggressive bordering on S&M.  The closest I get to S&M is scratching 
my mosquito bites until they bleed.  However, by the second book she 
seems to even out some and with each new book manages to weave an 
intricate plotline between "clears throat" THOSE parts.

If you can work your way PAST the myriad of sex scenes, she manages 
to touch on many fascinating topics such as male chauvanism, 
femanism, prejudice, honor, right and wrong, and just the basic every 
day struggles of making a relationship work.  Apparently its not all 
sunshine and roses for the immortals either. Go figure. Hardly any 
sunshine to be more precise, only one set of roses...from a human 
rival for affection at that...and the prince charmings?...well, 
they're not so charming. That was actually the aspect that I 
particularly enjoyed.  Sure they're drop dead gorgeous. Sure they 
have great "powers"...but they're not perfect. And most of them come 
to realize it pretty quickly in dealing with their new lifemates. 
What's most fun is to note that these guys, after centuries of 
agonizing emptyness and loniliness, really do have a significant 
insight to appreciating their mates.  Human men could learn and thing 
or two from that..but that's just my opinion.

This is not to say that there aren't plenty of the typical romance 
genre stereotypes present. All the men ARE drop dead 
gorgeous...rippling muscles, flowing hair, that sort of thing.  All 
the women have flawless, creamy skin, silky hair down to their ass, 
smell good, taste good, and heck..even walked out of someone's best 
wet dream in such a way they should be outlawed in several states. 
All the men fall instantly in love, but DO notice that their sirens 
are more than just a sexy body (yeah, right) but have minds too, and 
they say all those wonderful lines you WISHED would come out of your 
boyfriend/husband on occasion. God forbid there should ever be a 
romance story written with the average every day Joe Schmo meets 
plain Jane scenario. I think the whole industry would bust a gut!

Anyway, this series will show you a fascinating angle on vampire lore 
as well as increase your heart rate. "grins" I personally have read 
five of the nine currently in the collection in less than one week.  
That should tell you something right there despite all my grips. 
Cheers folks...and good reading.