For fans of author Christine Feehan's Dark series, whatever you expected to happen to Gabrielle and Gary ... think again. I was so surprised at the twists and turns this book took that at first I was saying to myself ... "No she can't do this," then as I read on I saw that Ms. Feehan certainly did make a few DARK PROMISES with this one.

Gabrielle wants peace; she was never cut out for violence and fighting. Her plan is to marry Gary and have them go off somewhere to enjoy peace ... as humans. But Gary is no longer Gary Jensen. He has some of the strongest Carpathian blood in him and is now a true brother of Gregori Daratrazanoff. Things do not go quite as she plans. In fact the truth is very shocking to this young woman when life hands Gary an unforeseen surprise. Needless to say, I was blown away by the unexpected maneuver in this series.

DARK PROMISES takes us back to the mountains and the monastery found in DARK GHOST, where ancient Carpathian men are hanging onto their honor...and one of them has a very important role to play in Gabrielle's life. There is also an added side story which involves Trixie Joanes who arrives in search of her granddaughter Teagan (from DARK GHOST who is now lifemate to Andre). Trixie is an intriguing older woman and a grandmother, but she also finds that life holds a number of surprises for her ... vampires are real and deadly, and there are gorgeous hunks who claim lifemates despite having been shot by them with a vampire staking gun.

DARK PROMISES is fast paced, dark, edgy and completely unexpected. I didn't have any feelings toward Gabby, who was introduced quite awhile ago in DARK DESCENT. She just seemed to be there doing research, but in DARK PROMISES we get peeks at her past giving us a long needed understanding of her personality and why she always seem sort of withdrawn. Might sound silly, but if I have one complaint it would be that with three couples involved there seemed to be an over abundance of sex. I guess I am used to a little more action with the men trying to protect the women from vampires and and/or human hunters, but there was little of that.

I do love the Dark series but DARK PROMISES does leave a number of things a bit up in the air. I can't really say what those things are without giving too much away, but I guess I can say I wondered what happened to Gary and why the Prince or Gregori didn't come back to the monastery to check up on things. That said, and perhaps hoping for some answers, DARK PROMISES is on my TRA shelf, and I can't wait to get my hands on the next offering by Ms. Feehan.