SPOILERS!!!!! I loved this book! It was so much fun to read and to check up on the couples I read about in the series so far. The story takes place not long after the major battle with Maxim and his accomplices. Raven wanted to throw a party to keep her mind busy from the oppressive worry of having her lifemate almost assassinated and the ever growing danger. She also believes that Carpathians need a reminder of what they are fighting for and I agree with her on that. Mikhail cannot deny her anything and has agreed resulting in a large gathering of Carpathians, an event that has not happened in hundreds of years.I deeply enjoyed how Raven tried to convince Mikhail to be Santa Claus in the Christmas celebration. I loved to see the fear of loss of dignity in Mikhail as he insisted that Carpathian males simply did not do Christmas much less Santa Claus. I could not help but laugh as he told Raven that he finally found some use for his son in law after all. Raven's reaction is priceless as she tells Mikhail that the boogey man of the Carpathians will scare the children. Skyler makes an appearance and talks about her fears about turning Carpathian...mainly her fear that she was not adequate or strong enough to take on a Carpathian male if she turned out to be a lifemate to one. To her, they are too strong, dominant and probably wont take the time to get to know or understand what she went through. She also revealed that she heard a male voice calling to her as she suffered at the hands of her father. Her fear that she was crazy prevented her from answering. I feel for young Skyler, she suffered greatly and that kind of trauma never goes away.Raven tells Mikhail to be a bit more understanding and takes Skyler under her wing. Mikhail goes to check on how his fellow Carpathians are doing. He finds Shea going to bed to rest while Jacques is in the kitchen trying to bake. The kitchen looks like a baker's worst nightmare and Mikhail almost chokes with laughter at seeing his brother wearing an apron, covered in flour and sweating bullets. I laughed too! It is always funny to me when dominant, arrogant males try to cook in a kitchen....especially when they do not know what they are doing. However, Christine Feehan does not let her readers forget the ever present danger Carpathians are in. Jacques reveals that Shea has been corresponding with a likely relative of her through her mother which displeases Mikhail. A paper trail can lead to discovery and vampire hunts. Jacques' is apologetic. The news brings feelings of foreboding, especially when Jacques reveals that the woman who claims a relationship with Shea is in the Carpathian mountains hoping to see Shea. Also, Mikhail tells Jacques that he wants Julian to contact Dimitri to see how he is doing. He worries that the darkness is very close to overtaking him. Mikhail then announces to Shea and Jacques that he intends to ask Gregori to be Santa Clause at the Christmas celebration and is rewarded with shock (He will scare the children! Shea is dismayed!). Jacques insists that he must be there when the news is shared with Gregori. Mikhail then flies to see Aidan and Alexandria who was trying to make mashed potatoes which end up splattering all over Mikhail as he goes to greet her. She is mortified and I laughed at the mental picture. Christine Feehan is at her best here. She conjures up great feelings of laughter, friendship and love. Some of his people have found happiness and family at last. However, danger still persists in the very air and land that the Carpathians are residing in. While Alexandria is escorting Skyler to her home, they are attacked by a vampire/shadow creature. Alex is hurt and so is Skyler. They are rescued by Dimitri who is angry that Skyler is not being guarded to his tastes. While he heals her, Skyler realizes who Dimitri is to her....her lifemate. She is horrified. Gabriel arrives and is angry that Dimitri dare touch his daughter and threaten his family. The two males almost come to killing blows but are brought to their senses when Skyler shouts to everyone that there is a surge of power working against them. I can certainly understand Gabriel's protectiveness towards Skyler whom he considers his daughter. Finally we see a father truly afraid to lose a dearly loved daughter. Mikhail next goes to see Desari and Julian. He finds Julian being chased by Desari shouting to have the roast be given back to her. Julian tosses the roast to Barack like a football. Like Mikhail, I am amused. He greets them, asks Julian to contact and reestablish his friendship with Dimitri. He also announces that Gregori is to be Santa Claus and not surprised by Julian's gleeful expression. He insists on being present when Mikhail bestows the honor of Santa on Gregori. Julian and Desari are going to try for a baby.Mikhail's next stop is with Darius and Tempest. He tells them of the danger surrounding them before he shares the news of Gregori's upcoming performance. Tempest is hilariously shocked and Darius also insists on being present when the honor is bestowed on Gregori. We find out that Tempest and Darius are expecting a child.Mikhail next goes to see Joie's parents. Marissa Sanders is jaguar and mother to Joie, Jubal, and Gabrielle. Her husband is mage. Marissa is shocked that her two daughters are Carpathian and that Gabrielle's love interest Gary Jansen is jaguar. In her shock and anger, she hurts her husband, Traian and almost kills Gary and Mikhail. Gregori warns the group that he will not hesitate to kill Marissa if she attacks Mikhail again, he reprimands Traian and Joie for almost getting the Prince killed. The attacks continue. Juliette and Riordan almost die from a vampire attack. They barely make it and Corrine is also greatly injured through an illusion attack to her heart. Skyler realizes that there is mage power around. Natalya counter attacks and there is no longer any doubt that Razvan is still alive. We learn that those with jaguar or cat traits feel edgy and are being influenced to attack Shea who is very near to giving birth to her and Jacques son. This puts the Carpathians on edge. Manolito is also very close to turning vampire. He is barely saved by the sound of MaryAnn Delaney's laughter. She is his lifemate and is closely guarded by Nicolae and Destiny. Despite being guarded, Manolito manages to mark her and share his blood with her. He subtly influences his brother Rafael to lure MaryAnn to South American where he could easily claim her. Manolito was watching the battle with the vampire and the dark mage, keeping an eye on MaryAnn while Dimitri was watching Skyler. Juliette and Riordan are laid to rest and heal. Mikhail was looking after them by checking the network of caves feeling that something was wrong and Manolito meets him there. He felt the same sense of foreboding. They set some extra guards around the resting Carpathians and turn to leave the caves. The two warriors are attacked when they near the exit by the shadow/vampire/mage creature. Mikhail is marked much the same as Natalya was and barely escapes with his life, he risked himself to help Manolito escape the enemy. Mikhail makes his way to see Savanahh when Gregori tells him that she wants to see him. I love how Savannah calls Mikhail Papa. I forget that she is his little girl. It is at Gregori's home that Christine Feehan reveals that Savannah is pregnant with twin girls just as Julian had predicted in Dark Melody. Mikhail is pleased and congratulates them. It is as he is leaving that he tells Gregori that he needs him to perform a great honor. As he is about to reveal this honor, Gregori notices that his home is surrounded by a sudden bug infestation. He grows suspicious and to his dismay, Mikhail reveals that Gregori is to be Santa Claus. I laughed with everyone as they congratulate the Dark One on the honor. My favorite part of the book was when Falcon and Sara Marten are preparing to take the children to the inn. They are dressed and ready to perform in the Christmas pageant. They go on sleigh rides driven by horses. Sara in the front sleigh while Falcon brings up the rear. Sara is also pregnant. They are being escorted by Dimitri in wolf form surround by a pack by land and also being escorted by a flock of owls in the air. I loved the picture of magic, hope and tranquility that Christine Feehan wove as she described the sound of the children's laughter and the tinkling sound of sleigh bells as they raced towards the inn.The Christmas celebration went off without a problem. The children performed their play, Skyler sang, Josef sang a Christmas rap song and breakdanced, and Paul and Ginny danced. I loved the sense of hope as Mikhail saw his people relax, have fun and most of all laugh....even for just a moment. Gregori finally makes his grand entrance with the help of Savannah when Shea insists on staying despite being in active labor. He manages to maintain his dignity despite a slight hiccup (baby Jennifer spits up on his Santa beard and Gregori briefly gives Mikhail his famous glittering death glare). Santa leaves and just as Shea is being taken to the birth chamber, she is attacked by Razvan who has possessed Eileen Fitzpatrick, the woman who is a distant relative to Shea. Manolito is fatally injured, being struck by a poisoned cane. Razvan is chased off by Natalya, Vikirnoff, Nicolae and Destiny. Darius sets on healing the elderly Eileen.Shea safely gives birth to her son and Manolito is healed and laid to rest in the ground. This book is special to me. The title was appropriate. There was cause for celebration and hope despite the constant danger of relentless attacks by the dark mage and his allies. For the first time, Mikhail dares to hope. Several Carpathian women are pregnant and Shea has given birth. The Carpathians are reminded on what they have to fight for as Gregori raises Shea and Jacques' son for all to see.
This is the reunion book of the series, it's the first time in the series that all the major characters are together, it also includes the start of Skyler's story with Dimitri that everyone ahs been talking about. It's a pretty amazing to read the follow up to everyone's story and fo course see the beginning of MaryAnn's story (FINALLY a Black character in this series). Mikhail is trying to bring the ravaged pieces of his people back together by having them embrace the celebrations of their human counterparts. It's a chance for the Carpathian men to gather and meet all that they are risking their lives for: their Prince, their people & to see the hope of those who have found their mates. The awakening Ancients also get a chance to swear alligiance to Mikhail. Personally I thought it was stupid of them to be 'cooking' when they can't really eat it anyway, just a waste of resources. Most of the story if seen through the eyes of Mikhail as he travels to each of the couples, then they pick up the story and go from there sharing and following up on things that have happened since their stories. The weaving of the different stories together was pretty amazing.I did however a few things that grated the nerves:1) Mikhail and Gregori's discussion where they stated that the Carpathian Earth Healer walked with her head unbowed, as if women shouldn't be proud as well.2) Page 192 " If I had my way, would choose a time in history when I could simply lock you up, keep you safe and to myself, never share you" ~ Rafael ~~~Let me just say right now, that's not sexy at all, nope not at all.3)The deleted scenes, especially the one of Skyler and Dimitri, let me just say, it's one thing if the female characters are of age and are taking on these millennia old men, it's a whole other thing for it to be Sjyler, who we know is underage and is a survivor of sexual abuse. Give her time to grow the heck up, I mean she does discuss this in the book, they even talk about the fact that she shouldn't have been able to call to his soul until she was of age, and Dimitri talks about how he felt her when she was a child and whenever he tried to find her to help her she hid herself from him, cool I get it, but she's still a child and writing that into the story is just kinda scivvy. If you deleted it because it didn't fit; why put it in. It really just screamed pedophile to me, especially because she states she's too young to be his lifemate, then she is too young to be a sexual being.Since I have already read Razvan's story before this, I kept feeling bad for him every time they talked down about him because I just wouldn't understand why no one ever thought if Xavier would go to war by killing a mated pair why they didn't didn't think maybe just maybe Razvan was a victim as well?? It was just easier to blame him and have someone they would hate than to really examine their own actions, and what they had done and didn't do that allowed Xavier such free reign for years.All in all, the book was actually was pretty good. Short compared to the others, but still good. It was awesome to have a few loose ends tied up in this book, and have new threats pulled that will show us some of the upcoming stories. So far I have loved many of the books and been intrigued by the story of the people of the Carpathian world. I can't wait to read the ones I have missed.
What do You think about Dark Celebration (2006)?
This one is more of a let's visit old couples to see how they're doing novel, which is always fun to read as we are all happy to revisit favored couples. This definitely is not suitable for reader that's not been reading faithfully in this series or they'd be pretty bored and lost I think.Feehan mentioned the difficulty in linking all the couples together within a story context and I find her way of doing it very cute. She even somewhat followed the order of the series. Though this one doesn't s
—Cherise
This is one of the my favourite books of all time. While I was reading the dark series and after I finished a particular book I was always left thinking what were the their lives like know. So I was enthralled when I picked up Dark celebration because I got to see pieces of each pair and what their lives were like and also to view the lives of the Carpathians that yet didn't find lifemates.I truly enjoyed the coming together of the Carpathian people. I especially liked the communication between raven and her lifemates the whole time while he visited the other couples. It gave a diffent perspective. The addition of the dark desserts at the end of the books was an added bonus that I did not expect. Throughout the book I was completely humoured at the attempts of the baking and preparing the food for the celebration. I liked how it formally brought the Carpathian people.My favourite pair of the book had to be Lucian and Jaxon. I thought that their twist was neat and ironic due to Jaxon insisting on protecting Lucian while the readers know its the other way around. Seeing as Lucian is a strong ancient, I thought the pairing the nature of this two was clever and outstanding. Reading this book brought me great joy and I hope the Christine Feehan writes another reunion with more of the pairs. Amazing page turning book!
—Wafaa
Oh good glory. I did this book as a playaway (digital audio book). I don't know who's brilliant idea it was, but they had a man narrate it. Not just a man, but a geezer sounding man. I have never laughed so hard in my life. Do you know how hard it was to listen to a geezer guy saying "he pulled her against the hard evidence of his bodies desires..."? rofl. Then his female voices were pitiful. omg. Never, never have a man narrate a romance book. Who's brainstorm was that, I want to know. The guy sounded like the guy who talks at the end of 60 minutes. I may never be the same. lolNow, the book. It was a 5 even listening to geezer guy. I can't imagine how good it would have been reading it myself. It was a lot of fun, revisiting all the couples and characters introduced so far. Time was spent with each of them yet it all pulled together for one story. I really enjoyed it. All their individual stories pulled together to finally create a unified Carpathian world. Mikhail realizes that there is much that needs to happen in regards to his people other than survival, that they need to recover as a culture.My only gripes with the book:First the minor one, Shea at the end in labor. The whole thing was weak and the things she had were retarded. I would have preferred she go into it strong and come out of it strong. But that was just a very small portion of the book.Second. I am so sick of all the abused suffering females. Seems like most of the female lifemates were abused and all of them turned then into either Sheera the vampire slaying machine gun weilding macho guys, or they are weak fetal position whimps. Can none of them be abused and come out psuedo regular people? Apparently that doesn't make good fiction. But seriously, I don't know if I can read about Dimitri's lifemate. I hope to heaven she doesn't get her own book. Well, onward and upward people! I'm off to the next! And this time, I will be reading it myself.
—Gardavson
