Reading Assignment Challenge: Dark Ghost by Christine Feehan

Reading Assignment Challenge: Dark Ghost by Christine Feehan

He wasn't civilized or tame.  He had his own code and he lived by it.

Monk.  Bounty hunter.  Vampire slayer.  Andre Boroi has spent centuries battling the undead, holding out against the dark with honor.  But now, gravely wounded by master vampire Costin Popescu, Andre will be easy to track--his spilled blood marking the killing trail for Popescu and his hungry band of underlings.  Andre's only chance is to disappear into the gray mist of the Carpathians.  To wait.  To hope.  

She had a healing touch and a scent that was his lifeblood.

In the mountains in search of a precious crystal, geologist Teagan Joanes suddenly finds herself hunted by those she once trusted.  Then she comes across the warrior--wounded, wanting and irresistible.  Andre has been craving her for an eternity: his lifemate.  Her warmth envelops him.  Her scent pulsates.  And with every beat of her heart, Teagan surrenders to a passion she can't possibly comprehend.  

Now they are bound by destiny, but is it enough to keep them safe from a stalking, relentless darkness that threatens to swallow them alive?

This book was a disappointment (and yes, that was painful to write considering how much I usually enjoy Feehan's Dark series).  After the non-stop action of Dark Lycan, Dark Wolf, and Dark Blood, PLUS the inclusion of the Lycan's to broaden the overall Dark series world, Dark Ghost seemed very quiet and very small.  The vast majority of the book takes place in a single cave and the only action is against a human serial killer (who goes down pretty easily), three vampire pawns and one master vampire.  The battle scenes were minimal and at the very beginning or very end of the book.  This left a VAST middle section that contained a very-rehashed-feeling human conversion (seriously, it felt so reminiscent of several of the earliest Dark books) and a lot of sex.  

I was so looking forward to Andre, the ghost's, book and it felt like such a let down.  He has been built up as having all of these amazing skills, at being a ghost who can hide from even the most skilled Carpathian's and this book never (NOT ONE SINGLE TIME) showed us any of these skills! Maddening.  Plus, his lifemate Teagan, who is in the Carpathian mountains to find a healing crystal for her grandmother starts out as a fairly kick-ass gal and then just morphs into someone I could have cared less about.  She left me thinking she was fairly immature and that Andre kind of got the shaft in the lifemate department.  Not only that but we are told all about this intriguing Grandma Trixie character and just as she is on her way to the Carpathian Mountains to confront Teagan, the book ends.  Seriously?  We don't get to see the fallout? Is she going to stake Andre?  Is she not?  Don't build up one of the VERY FEW threads of conflict and then just leave it unaddressed.  NOT COOL!!!

But worse than that?  At the very end (like five pages from the end) this cool character named Fane is introduced and Teagan is convinced she can help him and his brethren and that too IS LEFT UNDEVELOPED.  Aargh.  So frustrating.  I can only hope that the next entry in this series is not so small as this one...it really felt like this book was phoned in;  like a deadline was approaching so the author simply reworked one of her earlier entries and called it good.  After all of the developments in previous entries, this title really suffered in comparison.  And considering how intriguing Andre was built up to be it was a true disservice to his character.  Thank goodness I borrowed this title from my local public library--if I had spent my money on a hardcover copy I would have been SO upset.  I won't even by buying a paperback to keep my Dark series complete.  I don't see myself wanting to read this entry again.  Please, PLEASE let the next book be better, I really want my faith in the overall series to be restored!