Sunday, August 20, 2006

Dangerous Tides - Christine Feehan (8/10)

I enjoy Christine Feehan's Drake Sisters series. The sisters are all lovely - if a bit perfect - and it's a nice break from the angst of the Carpathian books. Her heroes still tend to be alpha males, but they're not as totally annoying about it as the Carpathians are.

There's a lot of wish fulfillment here; seven beautiful sisters with magical powers who love each other with a depth and strength most people can only dream about. But that's okay so long as you start the book with that awareness. It's a lovely fantasy that I enjoy visiting. My only complaint is that there is such a focus on the sisters that the fiances that were found in the earlier books barely seem to figure in each new book. Of course, there were three of them at the start of Dangerous Tides and now there are four, so I guess it would be character overload. All the same, it was good to see brief cameos from the men this time around.

I like Ty. Despite his faults, he's another perfect hero - a genius scientist who is also, buffed, strong, handsome and brave. I don't care. This is a fantasy and it's a nice one. Besides, having my own share of social ineptness, it's nice to see that on the page. It was well done, especially the way Ty tended to spout out random facts when he couldn't face something emotional. And while he improved, it never disappeared completely, which I thought was good. I think he's my favourite of all the Drake sister fiances so far.

I accidently spoiled myself to the identity of the villain, which I think affected the way I saw the character before the big revelation, so I'd be interested to hear if other readers picked it up from the hints dropped.

If you're looking for a solid, realistic story, this isn't for you - but you probably didn't pick up a book about magic sisters if that's what you wanted. But as a perfect romantic fantasy, this pushed all my buttons. Sit back, go along for the ride and enjoy the Drakes. I did, and I'm looking forward to the next three books, especially as we're beginning to see just how much Hannah, Joley and Elle need to find someone to balance them and their gifts.

No comments: