Leisure, $6.99, ISBN 0-8439-5049-8
Fantasy Romance, 2003
Let me play that broken record just one time: if Christine Feehan puts more efforts in her book instead of creating trailers and posters for her books, we may be talking about the new Death Star that will conquer the universe instead of McDonald’s destroying the landscape. Okay, end of broken record.
Dark Melody is a very disappointing book because it’s a complete retread of her early The Carpathian books – minus the strong heroine of her recent books. Fans lamenting the demise of the ultra-alpha Carpathian hero will rejoice upon meeting Dayan, He of the Relentless Italicized Mindspeak, but I think that this book is the like the author taking ten steps backwards in a single bound.
Corrine Wentworth is a walking melodrama. She has a heart disease that can do her in any time. She is carrying a kid. She is a widow with telekinetic powers and this only makes her more depressive a person as a result. Her sole mission right now is to give birth to a special baby. Meanwhile, the now familiar human organization out to kill vampires, well, they are after Corrine too. But in between acting like a fragile creature that needs protection 24/7, she takes time to attend a concert. Dayan is a musical legend that plays only in small venues – something like the Grateful Dead minus the pot, I guess – and when Dayan sees her, oh my god: lifemate, lifemate, ding-a-ling-ling-ling! There’s a subplot about Lisa and an ex-member of the We Don’t Like Carpathians cult, but they are as bland as Dayan and Corrine.
And bland is what Dayan and Corrine are. Dayan is a retread of the same old Carpathian alpha male – he knows what’s best and watch him steamroller Corrine into submission even as he calls her “honey” again and again until I want that word erased from the English language now. The same old Carpathian lifemate spiel that has been repeated over and over in the last Carpathian books are rehashed here again in the same monotonous way.
Repetitious, unimaginative, and a complete rehash of her formula, Dark Melody is more akin to a broken record that keeps playing long after I’ve taken a hammer and smashed that stupid player to pieces. Sure, the plot is about a baby and the characters’ names are different, and if that’s all it takes for a book to be “new” to you, by all means go get this book. The author has created a trailer and a DVD promoting her favorite small time band to go along with it, so you ought to check out her website while you’re at it. The trailer, by the way, is much better than the book and will be more worth your time, even though the guy that played Dayan is a little too Evan Dando-ish for my taste.
