“DAWNANDLO:The fast paced language, the slang etc is what got me hooked. The animalistic sex, and blood lust is what brings me back. I so dig the secondary characters being fleshed for us in Rhev's book and getting our juices flowing for what's to come. I cant wait for John's, Quinn's and Blay's stories to play out.
This doesnt have to be a guilty pleasure. It can just be a pleasure.”

My favourites are Rhage,Zsdaist and Vishous & Butch’s relationship. Qhuinn and Blays story also suprised me in the earlier book which i thoroughly enjoyed…a little more happening here would be even better. Now i’ve grown to love John Matthew. His character has evolved and we’ve seen him grow into a man. I loved John M. and Xhex in Lover Avenged, and their relationship wasn’t the same old same old. I loved how he was treated by Xhex the first night and how he become so cold. Their relationship to this point is just about the sex – love your work JR! But there’s a lot of emotion i’m looking forward to reading about in any of Ward’s future books. Ward please bring out your next book soon!!

I’m a big Sci-Fi/Fantasy fan, so I read many different types of series.

Read my first BDB book about a month ago. I started with Dark Lover, which for me is still one of the better books in the series. I just finished the Phury book last week.

Like most of you on this board I felt the last Phury book was kind of a bore. I actually tried to concentrate on the John parts of the book more. Haven’t read this latest one yet, and it would have been nice if people would put a Spoiler alert before they post.

Anyway, currently my main issue with the BDB is that I was drown to the series because of the interaction between the brothers and how their lives are mixed with one another. That connection became more remote with each book.
I hope that this last book and the one after with get back to that.

Sami, I would recommend trying Kelly Armstrong Women of the Otherworld series. Bitten is a good start for the series. The world she created is much more diverse and even though the story is about supernatural, it is still some what connected to the “real world”.

It seems like the vampire craze will not be ending soon. Between Twilight, Sookie series, BDB and Women of the otherworld I think I read every possible point of view on vampires and the kind. With the 2nd Twilight movie coming out and the TrueBlood series, it seems like it will keep going for a while.

The Sookie Stackhouse books are so different from the BDB series it’s hard for me to compare them, but I do like Sookie a lot better. She’s just so relatable, whereas I can never feel that much of a connection to any of the BDB characters, because the characters and situations feel so unreal to me.

Jennie,

Taz & Iam are called “Shadows”. They are not “sin-eaters” like Xhex and Rhev, but they are discriminated against because they are different: they can make themselves unseen and drift like air/vapor under doorways, even if the door or room is lined with steel. I haven’t figured out if they “feed” or not. I get the impression they do. They are bestfriends and devoted to Rhev. As you know, consealing the identity of sympaths is punishable.

For those who haven’t or couldn’t stick with L. Avenged; try to, it gets good. I read it in three sittings. My eyes were bloodshot afterwards, but I can’t get enough. I’ve read the other books a second time.

I am PRAYING that the next book is Xhex (which I’ve been pronouncing as “Zex”) and John!!!!!! Xhex is such a bad ass! I love her. And I am totally IN-love with John Mathew! He’s so sweet. It’s been nice to see him grow up through-out the books and I think he’ll completely mature in this next one.

I read all the Sookie Stackhouse books, but the dialoge and intereaction between the characters is nothing compared to the Brotherhood. I’ve also read most of Kresley Cole’s Immortrals After Dark series which is a lot fun (demons, witches, weres, vamps, female warriors). Very fantasy and witty. My only criticism, is that the descriptions during the “romance” scenes are really anatomical, which is quite distracting.

Is there another series anyone can recommend?

I'm on page 180 of LA. I am really enjoying it more than Phury's. I wanted to like Phury's book but it fell short. I love LU though. I loved it more than I ever expected cuz I hated V in the beginning.

I really didn’t like the resolution of Vishous’ story, though. I was one of the readers going, “A ghost? You have got to be freaking kidding me!”

I don’t actually differentiate between the books in the series all that much. I liked Zsadist’s book best, but I don’t really remember why at this point. Even the change from being more romance-centered to more UF-centered – I believe that it’s happened based on what other readers have said but I don’t really see it. But I’ve gotten terrible about remembering books and their details as I’ve gotten older. Even series that I loooooove – like the Sookie Stackhouse series – I forget huge plot points between books – remembering what book something happened in would be way beyond my capabilities.

Is anyone else interestde in knowing how Trez and Iam are different from the sympaths?

I don’t really get what they are. I just wish Ward would cease referring to them as “Moors”. Their whole portrayal is a little on the edge, IMO. I know the books are very broad in their characterization in general, but when two of the few minority characters fit so well into the “inscrutable yet devoted servant” category, I get a bit uncomfortable. Plus, in a series rife with stupid names, iAm has got to take the prize. I’m assuming it’s some sort of riff on whats-his-name from the Black Eyed Peas, but still.

JR Ward’s storytelling and character development is phenomenal. It just keeps getting better. I completely devoured this book.

Oh, and the editing was clearly taken in hand this time around. They heard us. :)

I always skip over the lessers parts. I never did like Lash. But I’m forcing myself to read it because I want to know if something critical is going to come down.

Currently LA had more memorable parts than LEn, which I don’t remember anything from.

I think I would always like JR’s writing. I find it different from other writers. I do still consider this paranormal romance. There are basic elements of love and desire and wants and needs. I found it really great that JR is building this world and inviting us to see it and experience the hardcore aspects of this world. I keep thinking “What’s going to happen next?” I just wish she would write faster.

My problem is that they all talk in the same way. Seriously, if you abstract away from the plot, and just look at the dialogue and descriptions of the Brothers … they are all one guy.

I agree. There’s a definite template that Ward is working from. It would probably bother me more if I was reading the books close together. I would love better characterization in the series.

I always pronounced it Zex myself.

Me too. Hmm. I’ll have to try to remember to think of her as Hex.

Personally, skimming/skipping Lash's parts just means I'm of the opposite opinion. In Phury's book, Lash was actually interesting. I loved the potential begun there with his character. Well-done villains are essential, else they're just wasted space.

Villains are tricky for me because the better they are at being villains the more I hate them and the more upset it makes me to read about them. But I can usually at least appreciate a well-done one given some time and distance (Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series comes to mind. Oh, so much hate!). Lash just makes me feel like I need a bath. He’s not interesting, he’s just ugly. The time spent with the lessers has always been unpleasant because there is no refinement or cleverness there; they are just soulless and ugly. Lash brings a sadistic sexual dimension to the story that makes him extra icky to me. I know the story needs villains, but I’d rather not spend time on their POV.

The Rehvenge and Ehlena parts on the phone, sorry didn't get a cute warm fuzzy moment, more like an eye roll and a serious WTF? You hang up first, Noooo you.

That I actually didn’t mind, because at least I was getting some sense of connection there.

I think this is the crack. In each book, there's so much POTENTIAL! And then the next book just fizzles out, but has another character that shows such POTENTIAL. In another comment thread about JR Ward, someone mentioned that the books have become extended ads for their sequels, and I thought they had something there.

Yeah, I’m already wondering if there is going to be a book for Tohr? I’m a little unclear because of the undying-love-for-Wellsie thing. And I know it would probably be disappointing. And yet I find Tohr one of the more interesting characters at this point.

They're such oddly-alluring books. Not well-written, not well-developed, a big ole mess of a plot, caricatures rather than characters, loose threads, inconsistencies, and oh so much WTFery. They no longer have enough romance to qualify as romances, they're not nearly well-designed enough to qualify as urban fantasy.

I know! It’s like, I find myself wondering, why don’t I hate this? It’s so strange!

To be fair, I think at least some of the things that for me make the books technically “bad” are pretty deliberate choices on the author’s part. I mean, it’s not like she’s some hack putting out crap that she doesn’t know it’s crap. I would assume Ward knows that her books are pretty over the top, for instance. And she’s certainly made a very deliberate decision to have the characters speak in a stylized way. I’ve heard it referred to as ghetto or gangsta speak, but about 9/10ths of it does not seem remotely “urban” to me (the one that always throws me is when one of the brothers uses the emphatic “so not” construction, because that’s one I associate very much with Chandler from “Friends” – not exactly a Lil’ Wayne clone.)

But what I found most disturbing is the graphic violence in it, and the creepy sex. Incest? Really? I know exactly what scene with Xhex you were talking about and I thought it was totally unnecessary. Actually there were two scenes now that I think about it. The assasination and then the graveyard. Totally gratuitous IMHO. Allusion would have been just as successful. *shivers*

Yeah, I had to try not to even think about the incest part of it too much. I agree, so unnecessary. The assassination was disturbing but the graveyard scene was awful. I was bothered by the torture and grossed out by the coup de grace. What I found ridiculous was that Ward sort of alluded to it and that was plenty but then she had to make like three or four other references to it – the detective noticing it, one of the other characters (Lash, maybe?) commenting on it. I was like, OKAY, I get it. Yuck.

And addition of Payne? Like, why? I've known for years (member of the msg board) that she was gonna be in the series, but it seemed tacked on at the end. Heh, strange. Is it just another plot point that will take up space in J.M.'s book? Uh…….. YEAH!

I kind of even forget who she is, but I’m very slightly intrigued by her at this point. Some new blood (ha ha) wouldn’t be the worst thing for this series.

There were several people who wrote they didn’t enjoy John Matthew’s storyline. I actually really liked it. Not because it was pleasant, but because I thought it was realistic (yes, I know how laughable it is to use that term in BDB book!) It was believable to me that he would react how he did to that series of events. I really didn’t need to be there in the bathroom stall with him, though.

I liked Xhex, too. I’m curious to see where she goes from here. I was disappointed about the kidnapping aspect of things though. It feels like a repeat of Bella. And add in Lash’s lack of impotency… yuck.

Also, as many of you have mentioned, the sympath thing seemed waaaay underdeveloped. I didn’t get why the princess needed to be his sister. That was an added bonus ick for me. I didn’t appreciate the flash back details of their encounters either.

Still, and this is why I think it’s such wonderful crack… I LOVED it while I was reading it. Everything about it is ridiculous and over the top, but when I’m in the book, I’m totally involved. Crahck.

But what I found most disturbing is the graphic violence in it, and the creepy sex. Incest? Really? I know exactly what scene with Xhex you were talking about and I thought it was totally unnecessary. Actually there were two scenes now that I think about it. The assasination and then the graveyard. Totally gratuitous IMHO. Allusion would have been just as successful. *shivers*

And addition of Payne? Like, why? I’ve known for years (member of the msg board) that she was gonna be in the series, but it seemed tacked on at the end. Heh, strange. Is it just another plot point that will take up space in J.M.’s book? Uh…….. YEAH!