I actually liked the first few installments in Christine Feehan’s Ghostwalker series, but unfortunately, the latest one fell flat (or flatter, depending on your perspective).

Jack Norton is part of the GhostWalkers, a group of military-trained men with enhanced psychic powers. His twin brother, Ken, also a GhostWalker, was captured and tortured by a group of rebels while on a rescue mission in the jungles of Congo. Jack went in to rescue him, was captured and tortured as well, and the book opens with his action-filled escape.

Not-so-coincidentally, acrobat Briony Jenkins happens to be in the area for a performance. Like previous heroines in this series, she was born with psychic powers. The evil mad scientist Dr. Whitney found her as a baby, but had her adopted by an outside family, and she grew up to be a part of their circus act. Jack immediately recognizes that Briony has psychic powers that only GhostWalkers have, and he feels an intense and immediate attraction that she also returns.

This book is divided into two sections. The first section consists of Briony helping Jack escape, and the very brief affair they have before he leaves. (I have to note that it’s almost gruesome when Jack insists on making love in spite of his many open wounds and stitches.) The second section is where Briony discovers that she’s pregnant and that Dr. Whitney’s evil henchmen want to take her into their custody for nefarious purposes. Briony turns to Jack for protection, though she remembers all too clearly that Jack walked away from her in the Congo without any promises or tender words.

Jack, of course, didn’t really want to leave her; he offers the cliched excuse of her being too good for him. But in any case, with a baby on the way, Jack and Briony now try to resolve their relationship as they stay a step ahead of the evil henchmen.

This story is really a one-night stand/accidental pregnancy plotline dressed up with paranormal powers and action-packed scenes. The question is, does Feehan pull it off? And my answer is no, not really.

It’s hard to feel anything for characters who are defined in the most general and extreme ways. Jack is dark, tortured, and uber possessive – in fact, he spends most of the book fighting or brooding. Briony is light, innocent, and willing to be possessed. Sure, she’s feisty on occasion, but she doesn’t have much of a conflict with Jack because overall, she’s a fairly accommodating woman.

The biggest problem is that I felt the couple lacked a true emotional conflict. Once they reunite, it’s pretty much a given that they’ll stay together, and there is little significant relationship development from there. What we learn about the characters’ backgrounds (Jack’s father was abusive, Briony’s psychic sensitivity caused pain when she had to perform with her adopted family) isn’t enough to make them compelling on their own. Also, Feehan can write a hot love scene, but it seemed the total amount in this book was lower than usual, replaced by scenes where characters are running from nameless enemies with weapons. There is plenty of conflict of the physical kind, but that wasn’t what I was looking for.

Feehan does reveal a few more twists behind Whitney’s evil plans that I thought were interesting, though it wasn’t enough to make the book more satisfying. With two thin characters and a barely there romance, this book struggles to strike any emotional chords. This was more like an action novel punctuated by a few scenes of romance, and overall it was a clunky disappointment.