Gwen’s review of Hidden Currents (The Drake Sisters, Book 7) by Christine Feehan
Contemporary paranormal romance released by Jove 30 Jun 09

I always look at the Drake Sisters series as Feehan’s “Dark Series Done Lite.” It’s my least fav of her many series, but Feehan even on a bad day is still imminently readable paranormal romance. Her heroes are darkly hot, hot, hot and alpha; her heroines are more variable, but still normally interesting. 

The Dark/Carpathians series are part paranormal, part romance, and part horror.  Some very scary scenes from the earlier books are still vividly frightening in my mind.  Her other series also have similarly wrenching scenes peppered throughout.  All, that is, except for the Drake Sisters.  I always looked at the Drake Sisters as the “nice” series – a Samantha Stephens to the Dark series’ Marilyn Manson.  In fact, the die-hard Drake Sisters fans preferred it that way – light and romantic.

So imagine the outcry when Feehan mixed some of her horror elements into this entry in the Drake Sisters.  GASP! SHOCK!  The outcry has been, shall we say, vocal.  And it has made me giggle a bit.  I love the fact that this entry is more “raw” than the others. I love that some of the walls came down between Feehan’s nice little worlds.

Well, I liked it until the end of the book.  More on that in a minute.

The pacing of this seventh, and presumably last, book in the series was a bit off to me.  It felt like it stagnated about mid way through – slowing down to such a point that I started to lose interest.  It seemed like the same thing just kept happening over and over again to the hero and heroine.  That’s a bit dull by anyone’s measure.  This also made the book feel too long, which I’d judge it to be by almost 100 pages (440 pages!).  There were several scenes that could have been cut short, or nixed altogether, and made the book much more interesting to me.  But, again, even on a bad day, Feehan can write like nobody’s business.

The characterizations in this book are good.  The hero, Jackson, and heroine, Elle, are both suitably developed, though I did get a bit tired of the hammering on the “seventh sister” business and her legacy.  What happens to Elle in Hidden is horrific by anyone’s measure, but I didn’t see it as a detraction from the story – worse things happen to her heroes and heroines in her other series.  Plus this put Elle on a more even keel with Jackson and what he experienced in his life.  They can help each other limp through the moments in their emotional lives where they will need the support and it’s easier to visualize now that what happened has happened.

What I didn’t like, and what really turned me off, was how bloody awful the climax of the book was.  I mean, c’mon! BUBBLES??  Geez louise!  Gimme a break!  But, this falls back on the Mayberry-ness of the Drake Sisters series.  But, oh my word – the only thing keeping me from throwing the book across the room was the fact that it’s so big, I was afraid it would leave a dent in the wall.

I can recommend this to fans of the author.  If you’re a fan of the series, be warned there are some more extreme elements to this story.  If you’ve never picked up a Drake Sisters novel, I wouldn’t start with this one – several of the others are actually quite a bit better.

Grade: C

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Summary:
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From afar, Sheriff Jackson Deveau has always loved Elle Drake, the youngest telepath of seven sisters. After a long time away she’s finally returning home to the small coastal village of Sea Haven. But someone has been following Elle, someone who doesn’t want her to make it back. And when Elle fails to arrive, her disappearance strikes fear in the hearts of everyone who loves her. Now it’s left to Jackson to uncover the mystery of Elle’s vanishing, and rescue her from an unseen danger. But Sea Haven is no longer safe for anyone, and it’ll take the powers of all the Drake sisters and their men to survive the coming storm.
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Read an excerpt here.

Other books in the series: