Comments on: Thursday Afternoon Haiku Moment: Lover Avenged by JR Ward

By: REVIEW: Covet by J.R. Ward | Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:07:43 +0000

[...] I was most disappointed by Marie-Terese. I liked the brief glimpse we’d had of her in Lover Avenged but in that book, my impression of her was that of a no-nonsense, tough woman who has to do what [...]

By: Breaking Up With a Series | READNOVEL

Breaking Up With a Series | READNOVEL — Tue, 12 May 2009 07:29:07 +0000

[...] Since so many new series books have come out of late, that was a very lively topic, particularly as Jaiku pointed out at DearAuthor when you are flush with the feeling of wanting to quit, and and you just can’t do [...]

By: Suze

Suze — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:10:29 +0000

I don't think the BDB series is going downhill. The readers she loses on the romantic side may be made up by those who enjoy urban fantasy.

I really, really don’t think so. The BDB world-building is not nearly strong enough to appeal to Urban Fantasy readers.

Romance readers are more willing than most genre-readers to suspend disbelief and forgive inconsistencies, weak world-building, anachronisms, etc. because we’re in it for the romantic relationship. We want the courtship and the HEA. All the rest is just dressing.

Urban Fantasy is ABOUT the world-building. The kernel of the story can be mystery, romance, thriller, quest, or anything. The story is essentially the tool to present the world, and the details of the world make us think about how our own world works, and where our society could go if only we had zigged instead of zagged. If magic worked and technology didn’t, would we have magical lives, or would we still be wage-slaves? If god walked around and actively interfered with our lives, how would we treat religious wars?

If there is weak world-building, inconsistent rules about how magic works, or about how the gods interact with humans in a UF story, then the genre aficionados will NOT forgive it, and will NOT buy it.

By: Jennifer Hall

Jennifer Hall — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:00:31 +0000

I read it and enjoyed everything but John Matthew’s shift in character…

Alcoholism/ Meaningless sex/ Total lack of emotion! And the scenes with him and Xhex in the bedroom were the most disappointing/depressing things I’ve ever read. >:’ (

FYI J.R. he was my favourite for a REASON! Doing a 180 like that was just awful!! >> And I know she’s gonna change him back (or evolve his character) in his book (LOVER MINE) but I have to wait a whole year!

………. I also find it funny that on the forum they’re (the cellies) are complaining about John’s 180 as if it’s HIS fault. Um, no. J.R. wrote him that way, no matter that she says she only writes “what she sees in her head”!

[/rant]

OK, I really loved everything else… Except the incest…. Not that.

By: Lynn M

Lynn M — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:35:20 +0000

I refused to pay the hardback price, so thankfully Sony’s e-reader store had it for half the cover price. Otherwise I would have waited.

I have a love/hate relationship with these books. I love them in the way that I can’t stop reading them and want to know what happens. I find multiple plot lines intriguing so I don’t mind the POV changes.

I hate them because all of the heroes are starting to act the same and we’re now at the point of recycling plots (Xhex/John and Z/Bella, anyone?). And I really don’t know that a drug lord is redeemable, even if he had supposedly good reasons for what he did. Without spoiling this for others, the central motivation driving all of Rehv’s supposedly dastardly deeds is a huge plot hole, IMO. His entire problem could have been solved by Xhex in mere minutes.

Too, the way Ward handles her slang makes me simply cringe. Stillies? Benes? Outtie? And the next time a 6′ 7″ 350 lb. warrior vampire says ‘kay instead of okay, he should be summarily staked through the heart. It’s gone beyond character building into authorial tics and it’s stupid.

By: Anna Y.

Anna Y. — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:10:24 +0000

This review really summed up how I feel…left wanting. Too many plots and not enough romance. I was dying to read Revs book but I found his storyline a bit dull. He was Zadist lite. I also skipped parts like all the Lash stuff which I never do.

I did like Jonh and Xhex, they end up together in the next book…although I found their scenes together did not have the same depth as the couples in the first 3 books. The sex between them was over in a sentence…

JR Ward is a big fan of Suz Brockmann (me too) another author who seems to have pushed romance aside for too many plotlines. It’s like watching commericals these books jump around so much, I want to settle into a movie!

It’s just a bummer when your favorite authors stops writing the kind of books you got hooked on, but its their choice and readers just have to suck it up or stop buying the books. *sigh*

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:11:38 +0000

Did anyone else get thrown off by the multiple-male orgasms?

IIRC, Rhage had them in LE.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:31:36 +0000

Yawn, yawn, yawn — I don’t know if I’ll bother to finish it. I don’ t care about Rehvenge or Ehlena anymore. Another disappointing book from JR Ward. I loved the first four books in the series and recommended them to strangers at the bookstore, but no longer. “Lover Enshrined” and “Lover Avenged” are both soooooooo boring. Don’t waste your money on this hardcover — don’t waste it when it comes out in paperback. Go to the library or the used bookstore because this is definitely not a keeper. I know people will say it is a great urban fantasy book and the sex scenes written so well in the earlier books are a dime a dozen in other books. Well this series started out as romance and hooked readers on that aspect of it. Urban fantasy books are a dime a dozen also. All the information in this book just seems like a rolling dustball getting bigger and bigger going down the alley and then it hits the way and disperses into a pile of dirt. I’ll just step over JR Ward’s next pile of dirt in the series.

By: Margie

Margie — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:10:41 +0000

I just finished this book today. It was better than Phury’s, but that’s not saying much. Did anyone else get thrown off by the multiple-male orgasms? Is this something vampires have always been able to do? I swear the guys had a faster recovery rate than the women.

By: Mireya

Mireya — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:31:15 +0000

I gave in and bought it … *sigh* … and yes, I am completely skipping the subplot having to do with the lessers and pretty much speed reading on the subplot involving Wrath. I needed to read Rhev’s love story … I am flakier than a corn flake.

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:47:03 +0000

@ASable I love that the comments are in Haiku form. That is some kind of awesomeness.

By: ASable

ASable — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:46:56 +0000

Didn’t have to pace
Or pay full price for hardback
Kindle save the day!

Read it. Devoured it.
Better than Phury and V
Yet still left me . . . blah

What happened to Rhev?
Where is big strong mohawk guy?
Seemed a bit too . . . blah

He’s bad guy with heart
But too ‘woe is me’ for me
And Ehlena . . . blah

Good John Matthew stuff
Pretty good Wrath and Beth stuff
No Phury, thank God

But Xhex at end . . . huh?
Been there, done same with Bella
Not believable

As romance, a C
As UF, maybe a B
As crack, must get more

By: sallahdog

sallahdog — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 04:09:28 +0000

it took me 2 weeks to finish the last book, because I read it 5 times through, just reading one plot line at a time (hated the shifting point of view, HATED IT)… by the time I finished it , I realized I just didn’t give a damn anymore… I have borrowed the books since the Caspar incident, now I can’t even be bothered with that…

Her world building irked me a bit, even from the beginning, but now its a joke… she is entering LKH territory for me…

By: ShellBell

ShellBell — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:34:47 +0000

This is the one book I have been hanging out for since Rehvenge was first introduced. Zsadist and Rehv have been my favourite characters of the BDB, and I absolutely loved Lover Awakened. I freely admit that because Rehv is a favourite that I have high hopes and expectations! I absolutely hate it when my favourites don’t get the HEA that they deserve and I can’t wait for Lover Avenged to be released.

After the disappointments of Lover Revealed and Lover Unbound I’d pretty much decided that I would try to wait for Rehv’s book and then that would possibly be it for me – no more wasting my money on the BDB. The debacle that was Lover Enshrined merely reinforced my decision that if Lover Avenged is also disappointing then it would be the last BDB book I would read. Even though I would love to read more of the Xhex/JM story line, I don’t find any of the other characters (Tohr, Blaylock, Quinn, Lassiter etc) intriguing enough to follow.

By: Heike

Heike — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:48:00 +0000

I'm convinced-it's definitely an addiction.

Me too. I have a lot of problems with the books, but I still enjoy them.

Me too, and because of the problems I won’t buy the hardcover compulsively (that’s what I’m saying now)…
What I’m aksing myself since V’s book everytime I’m tempted to buy a new JR Ward book: Why did I become addicted to the BDB (I’m a regency/historical romance reader)? Addicted in spite of the ridiculous names, and the slang, and…

Great haiku review!

By: lightlyfell

lightlyfell — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:19:57 +0000

Not only am I not buying this book, but I cancelled my hold at the library – and I was third! The more I read about it, the less it interested me. To me Ward is more interested in pandering to her fans and “shocking” them than writing a story that makes sense. Incest? No thank you. And why does every “strong” male she write turn into such a pansy when they meet their mate? Other authors know how to make a man whipped, but in a sexy way. She just defangs them, completely.

I’m so glad I’m off the crack. So sick of John and his boys. They pale in comparison to the original gang.

By: Janine

Janine — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:44:52 +0000

I'm convinced-it's definitely an addiction.

Me too. I have a lot of problems with the books, but I still enjoy them.

By: Book Bizzo #15 Books and biscuits - Book Thingo

Book Bizzo #15 Books and biscuits - Book Thingo — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:05:14 +0000

[...] get a-hold of is JR Ward’s upcoming release, Lover Avenged. To whet your appetite, check out Dear Author’s haiku review. The haikus never fail to disappoint. The book comes out on April 28. Watch out for our BDB [...]

By: Book Bizzo #15 Books and biscuits - Book Thingo

Book Bizzo #15 Books and biscuits - Book Thingo — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:05:14 +0000

By: Azure

Azure — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:10:11 +0000

The slang occasionally grates on me. The first time I read one of these bad-ass warrior vampires saying, “I’m outtie,” my first thought was, “didn’t that word go out of style about ten years ago???” But I kept reading. Jane became a ghost at the end of Lover Unbound, and still I bought the next book the day it came out and spent most of the day incommunicado reading it. The series has become urban fantasy, a genre I’ve never cared for, but I’ll still be in line to buy the next book. I’m convinced–it’s definitely an addiction. But I don’t think I’ll be looking for a cure anytime soon.