Dark Gold is the third book in Christine Feehan's Vampire Romance series. This novel delivers where the first two failed. It has great characters, good plot, and great pacing. It is almost worth suffering the second novel to read the third.

The background for the plot is there is a race of people call Carpathians. They are like vampires in that they must drink blood, they are weak to sunlight, and can shape shift. They have unique features like telepathy, a connection with the earth, and they also reproduce. But they are not killers, Carpathian Males that turn violent and become killers are vampires and are hunted and destroyed by so-called hunter Carpathians. The Carpathian males are predators and each have a beast living inside them. After two hundred years the males lose ability to see in color and to feel emotions. Each male has a lifemate, if they do not find her in a certain length of time (which varies for each individual) then the males either destroy themselves or become vampires. When a male finds his lifemate, color returns to his sight and emotions return. The females help the male contain the beast. A problem that the Carpathians are having is that the females of the species are reproducing less and less and most of the children being born are male. Most children do not survive their first year. When you turn most human women to Carpathian they lost their minds. But it was discovered that women with physic ability could be safely turned.

This particular book is about Aidan. He is one of the older Carpathians and is unusual in that he is blonde and light colored where most Carpathians are dark. He also has a twin which I suspect is unusual in the Carpathian community. He is also a hunter. He is also one of the only Carpathians in the United States. A vampire comes to his city and tries to force a woman (Alex) to become his lifemate. Aidan kills the vampire and inadvertently turns Alex into a Carpathian. Then finds out that she is his lifemate, now all he has to do is convince her of that fact.

The characters in this novel are so much better then the first two novels. Aidan actually has some character besides that of being male. He has a sense of humor and a sense of understanding that Mikhail and Jacques didn't really portray. Alex is also a stronger character. She makes a real effort to resist Aidan. Plus, unlike Raven or Shea, she had a real life before. She took care of her little brother and was an artist. She is smart and characterized very well. She has character besides that of being a compassionate woman that will save Aidan's soul and sanity.

Feehan's style in this novel is good. The pacing is good, (I was never bored) and the plot was interesting. The promise of the first two novels is finally realized in Dark Gold. There are some steamy love scenes as well. This is a great romance novel. However, I still like Dara Joy better for a supernatural romance.

Recommended: Yes