Hidden Currents

Hidden Currents
By Christine Feehan

This is the final book in Drake series about seven sisters who are psychic. The lead up to the relationship between Elle and local deputy Jackson has been building for several books now. Despite being slightly disappointed with the previous book, I thought this would be one of the best in a good set and I was really looking forward to it.

Elle comes from a long line of "seven sisters" with psychic gifts. As the seventh in her own family, she is destined to carry on the Drake line. Because of this, she is the most powerful of the sisters and has each of their abilities to some extent.

Jackson is also psychic but is emotionally damaged from the trauma of having been tortured as a prisoner of war. Elle linked with him during this time and was his salvation. I'm really not sure why I didn't see this as a foreshadowing of the tables turning, because all the signs were there.

Now, I've read plenty of "bodice ripper" type romances where the big, burly "hero" forces the woman to have sex and she eventually comes to love him. This was not one of those. The first part of the book read more like a horror story than romantic suspense. Elle is kidnapped, tortured and made to do some really brutal things before Jackson comes to the rescue. But, however much I was disturbed by the graphic imagery, I think that I could have put that aside if the rest of the story had been redeeming.

Now, I'm sorry, but the woman (a virgin) had been brutally raped over a series of weeks. He had witnessed it - actually experienced it with her through their telepathic link - and the author didn't even let her recover for a complete day before there were sex scenes between the two of them. Instigated by HER, no less. This required such an unbelievable leap on the part of the reader that I just could not accept it - even within the "reality" of romantic paranormal fiction.

Beyond that, the rest of the story had so much packed into it that it was hard to keep up. There were some series story-lines which were tied up, but some of the other minor plots were just extraneous and detracted from the main story. The rescue scene, for example, introduced several new male characters. Possibly the author's intent was to leave the door open to continue the series (Drake cousins perhaps?), but I found it confusing to try to keep all these new personalities straight during a high action scene.

I've actually been waiting for this book to write a review of the entire series, but I'm not sure it was a wise choice on the whole. I've enjoyed getting to know each of the sisters. They are strong characters and they all chose great men. I really like Elle and Jackson and I really wanted to like this book. I just didn't.

Submitted by Michele