Lynn Viehl's Darkyn series

For me, this series has been an automobile accident: I don't want to look at it but I can't look away. I don't really like the characters; well, not all of them. These books also make me very relieved that I'm not Catholic. Here I'm going to write a few words about each book now that I've read through book six. I don't have a copy of book seven yet.

If Angels Burn is the first book. I will say this: Lynn Viehl does a good job of weaving a continuous (and major) subplot through each book even though each one focuses on someone new. Anyway, the Darkyn are vampires. The original group came from the Knights Templar, the fellas that fought for the Church during the Crusades. They turned after all the fighting was done - they all thought they were being cursed by God. There is quite a bit of background to set up in this book since the main players are that continuous subplot I mentioned earlier: Alexandra Keller, the reconstructive surgeon that Time magazine considers to be the fastest scalpel in the world, is kidnapped by Michael Cyprien, head Darkyn of America, so that she can repair his face. He was seriously disfigured by the Brethren, a nasty offshoot of the Church that charges itself with cleansing the earth of the evil maledicti, aka Darkyn. Cyprien had tried to play nice with Alex - he repeatedly asked her via the phone and fax to come to him of her own volition. He also offered up $4,000,000.00. She said no so he had her snatched and made her fix his face. He then accidentally turns her into a vampire, the first new one in hundreds of years. They fall in love, yada, yada, yada.

Here's my problem: the way I'm wired is this - ask me to do something nicely, fine. Force me/tell me, hell no. So, kidnapping a surgeon, forcing her to operate, killing her and turning her vampire (even by accident), lying about everything, snatching her again later & a bunch of other things does not equal true love to me. Cyprien has the ability to tamper with memories and he can make you forget whatever he wants and he does this to Alex over and over and she still falls for him!?! No freaking way. Even into book six I'm still perplexed by it. And I like Alex so much too - she's strong, very intelligent, so funny and such a smartass. But I just don't get it. How can you love someone that much if you can't trust them? There's no way I'd trust Michael with the tv remote control, much less my heart.

Up next: Private Demon