I haven’t read a book in this series since Book 5.  My interest waned as I felt the series moved farther away from the core romance base where the series was birthed.  I read the flyleaf of the hardcover when I received my complimentary copy and discovered that this was the love story of Tohrment.  Tohrment lost his bonded mate in book one when she was shot, a casualty in the vampire/lesser war.  Because suicide would prevent Tohr from reaching the Fade, the vampire heaven, where he would be able to live out eternity with his Wellsie and their unborn son, Tohr spends each night fighting the vampire enemies with the hope of death.

He hasn’t fed from another woman in quite some time and his frame is becoming gaunt and weak.  With each swipe of the blade, he seeks oblivion.  Even in his blinding grief, however, he is a man who loves his adopted son, John Matthew, and the king, Wrath, that Tohr serves.  Tohr is caring man, crippled by his loss.  I’ve been trying out new paranormal romances but the power in this book makes those other authors’ stories seem anemic.  Tohr’s grief is a palpable, living thing.  It is as animated and full blooded as some characters in other books.  One scene early on in the book features Tohr taking Wellsie’s dress that she wore during their bonding ceremony and placing it on “her” side of the bed, stroking it:

With a shaking hand, he touched the satin of the filled-out bodice. There were whalebones set within the fabric, the structure of the dress built to enhance a female’s gentle, curving body.

It was not as good as her rib cage, though. Just as the satin was not as good as her body. And the sleeves weren’t as good as her arms.

“I miss you. . . .” He stroked the indentation of the dress where her waist would have been—should have been. “I miss you so much.”

To think she had once filled this dress out. Had lived inside of it for a brief time, nothing but a camera shot of one evening in both their lives.

Why couldn’t his memories bring her back? They felt strong enough, powerful enough, a summoning spell that should have had her magically reinflating the gown.

Except she was real and alive only in his mind. Ever with him, always out of reach.

That’s what death was, he realized. The great fictionalizer.

The struggle I had throughout the story, however, was that Tohr’s entire emotional arc was getting over his grief or perhaps, coming to terms with it.  Tohr is confronted by an angel, Lassiter, who is stuck in the In Between and charged with a task of winning his freedom from the In Between by convincing Tohr to let go of Wellsie.  Because Tohr’s grief and his refusal to move on from Wellsie’s death is keeping her from entering the Fade, vampire heaven.  She is becoming nothing, a spirit to haunt the In Between, a purgatory.  In order for Wellsie to escape the In Between, Tohr must overcome his grief, start to live again.  Tohr is tormented by this – that his actions are causing Wellsie pain and preventing her from an eternal peace and happiness.

No’One is a former member of the vampire aristocracy, a Chosen.  She was stolen from her home and raped repeatedly by a Sympath.  As part of the backstory that was revealed in previous books, No’One was impregnated and subsequently rescued by the Brotherhood.  During her pregnancy, No’One is cared for by Darius and Tohr in their early days.  No’One gives birth to a half Sympath/half vampire named Xhex (her story is in Lover Mine).  No’One kills herself and Tohr buries her but she comes back to life ordered by the Scribe Virgin.  No’One refuses to take a name, hides her remarkable beauty in dark robes, and seeks to undertake the most menial tasks available.  She no longer feels as if she is a woman of worth ever since her abduction and rape.  She is taken into the home of the BDB to reconnect with her daughter, Xhex.

No’One and Tohr begin to use each other. Tohr to try to get over Wellsie and No’One because she believes her service to Tohr as a blood donor and then later as a sexual mate is part of a greater atonement.

There were several things I appreciated in this story. First, the unexpected happened, particularly at the end.  Second, you addressed what I thought was one of the biggest weaknesses in the series, and this is the role of women within the patriarchal vampire society.  Finally, the multitude of story lines were deftly woven together and while the subplots didn’t captivate me like the main romance, they all played off each other.

The powerful emotional connection I felt to Tohr’s grief overshadowed the romance.  I did not believe that Tohr fell in love with No’One.  His grief wasn’t packed away until about 90% of the story was through.  I was unconvinced that No’One’s love was returned. I believed that Tohr could come to love her but not that he actually did.  Further, I felt that his dark moment which led to cruelty wasn’t assuaged by a sufficiently meaningful grovel.

The ploys for future stories were obvious and unlike a couple of twists to the Tohr and No’One storyline, were predictable which lessened their emotional impact.  I was fully engaged in the story when Tohr and No’One were on page but was impatient at times to move through parts such as Xhex and John’s struggle to maintain their HEA or Quinn and Blay’s apparent continued misunderstanding.  Likely because I haven’t been following these stories, they held little interest for me.  When I was finished, I was vaguely dissatisfied but the grief storyline will stay with me and I’ll reassure myself that Tohr’s good heart will eventually come to love No’One in the manner in which she deserves.  B-

Best regards,

Jane

AmazonBNSonyKobo

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward
2. REVIEW: Lover Mine by JR Ward
3. REVIEW: Lover Avenged by J.R. Ward

It may surprise you to know that I didn’t hop on the Black Dagger Brotherhood bandwagon until  Lover  Revealed was released. Before anyone has an aneurysm, know that I did pick up all the books in the series and read them in order. Like many other fans out there, I was inexplicably sucked into the name-dropping, slang-using, fated-mate, deus ex machina loving world of the BDB. Someone (*cough* Jane *cough*) noted that Ward is a freaking genius in that fans can look past all that and actually like the BDB books. And I did like them. Even loved them…until  Lover  Enshrined; but that didn’t stop me from reading  Lover  Avenged, and perhaps it should have. However, for some reason, I cannot bear to admit defeat with this series, which is quite unusual; I’ve given up on other author’s series for lesser transgressions. The BDB is like crack, and with  Lover  Mine, I’ve come damn close to rediscovering that initial high.

Lover  Mine is the story of John Matthew and Xhex’s, along with the continuation of Lash, the homoerotic Blay/Qhuinn storyline, an update on Payne, the Scribe Virgin, the Omega, Tohr and pretty much everyone who has been in every single prior book. Even Mary made an appearance, which is like a Bigfoot sighting. But let me get back to the synopsis. In the prior book,  Lover  Avenged, John Matthew and Xhex finally got it on, but Xhex, being the cold assassin (and  symphath) that she is, didn’t allow any intimacy between them. Angry at her attitude, JM walked out of their last boot-knockin’ session without a backward glance, in an attempt at role-reversal. After an attack on the  symphath colony Xhex goes missing, and JM admits she is, without a doubt, his mate. Xhex was abducted by Lash during the battle and is being held by him in Caldwell. He’s using his badass Omega-gifted powers to hold Xhex, beat her, rape her and generally fulfill his disgusting desires. While this is happening, the Brotherhood and the Shadow brothers (Trez and iAm) are searching for Xhex and JM is slowly going crazy with fear that he’s lost his one and only.

Xhex wouldn’t allow JM to get close to her because she was sure her  symphathnature would drive him insane, as it did her previous  lover, the brother Murhder. Everything JM does for her makes Xhex, ironically, feel less worthy, but the beauty of  Lover  Mine is that both Xhex and JM have problems, but rather than gloss over them, Ward has them face them (in JM’s case, a walk through his past) together. When this happened I was practically squealing with glee. I don’t want to give away all the easter eggs here, so I’m going to move on.

Almost lockstep with the H/H storyline (to which, thankfully, all the secondary storylines are tied) is the background of Darius’ story told from his POV in 1644. I freely admit that I didn’t love this part of the book, as it felt a bit  flat compared to the action that was taking place in present day.  There’s also a crazy-ass "Paranormal Investigators" story happening in South Carolina at the same time as JM/Xhex. This was even more distracting than the Darius historical that was going on. While I initially thought these two things to be extraneous page-filler, I realized I was dearly wrong, and  Lover  Mine is the tightest BDB book in terms of primary, secondary and even tertiary stories that I’ve read from Ward in a long time. No, I didn’t love the secondary/tertiary storylines, but by the time I finished the book, I definitely appreciated them. And it was certainly more enjoyable than an info-dump.

Initially I thought this was going to be a Rhev/Elhena rehash: 92% of the book would focus on other storylines and the H/H would be together for the other 8% of the book. I am doing a happy dance that this is not the case. In addition, Xhex keeps her badass assassin title, her weapons, and her status as an alpha female. She doesn’t become a ghost, a queen, a shadow. Which is an absolute joy for me, as I’ve felt that so many of the females in these books are simply there to keep a romantic storyline going. Yes, the book has problems, holes, and goes off on tangents that could fill an additional 300 pages, and most likely will at some point, but this book fulfilled quite a bit on the wishlist for me:

1. The overarching story should focus on the H/H                                   CHECK
2. The H/H interaction will be more than ships passing                            CHECK
3. John Matthew won’t be instantly "fixed" by a fated mate       CHECK
4. The heroine will continue to be strong after mating          CHECK
5. The Scribe Virgin won’t make it all better                                                      CHECK
6. The Scribe Virgin’s daughter is a kickass bitch                   CHECK (so far…)

Should I start another wishlist?  I’m going to.  Can we enter Blay’s bedroom already? Even if he isn’t with Qhuinn, I want to know exactly what’s going on in there.  Can one of the books just focus on the two of them? There’s such a rich history there and I would love to see them together.  There’s clearly still something between Vishous and Butch, and damn, I wish it would get explored, but I know that’s not going to happen. Can Payne keep being the tough bitch we’ve come to know and love? Can Lassiter’s story work within the storyline we’ve got going? Please, make a road trip for Murdher. For me,  Lover  Mine brought the magic back to this series, which seemed to be hurting after the last two entries. I am super excited to read the next in the series, and this one is now on the shelf.  B+

~Shuzluva

| Book Link | Kindle | Amazon | Nook | BN | Borders |
Sony | Kobo

This is a hardcover published by Signet, a part of the Agency 5. It is currently selling at Amazon for $9.99 in print.   The lay down date is April 27, 2010.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Lover Mine by JR Ward
2. REVIEW: Lover Avenged by J.R. Ward
3. REVIEW: Lover Enshrined by J.R. Ward

Since discovering the Black Dagger Brotherhood at the second book in the series, Lover Eternal, I have been addicted. The BDB guys are hot, sexy, powerful and all flawed in some horrific way that has provided plenty of angst and strife that each guy has worked to overcome with the help of the love of his life. I could eat up Rhage, Rehv, and Z (nom nom nom), who I think are some of the sexiest heros in romance. I have been eagerly anticipating Lover Mine, which is the story of John Matthew (Tehrror) and the sympath, Xhex, because their relationship has been developing for several books and I want each of them to have a happy ending. Unfortunately, Lover Mine had way too much going on for me to call it a great book.
For readers new to the series: don't start with Lover Mine. You won't appreciate everyone's pain, angst, and redemption-’especially much of what draws John Matthew and Xhex together-’unless you've read the earlier books in the series.

Lover Mine has five story-lines that weave in and out of one-another through the book: Qhuinn/Blay; the ghost hunters; John Matthen & Xhex; Lash and the Lessers; and as I started calling it, "The Flashback'. The BDB series is very complex with at least two dozen significant characters throughout the books, multiple communities (the Glymera, the Brotherhood, the Sympath compound, the Lessers, the Scribe Virgin and her Chosen, and the places we revisit from the past). The books are a balance of urban fantasy and romance, and for me, those two elements don't fully integrate successfully, and especially with the Lover Mine, I found the reading experience disjointed and I struggled to stay interested.

While reading Lover Mine I became impatient and frustrated with the story arc of Lash and the Lessers. At lot has happened to Lash since we first met him, but I don't feel he is developing with each book-’with each book we learn more about him, but Lash as an individual isn't changing. He continues to be evil, more cruel, and more destructive with each subsequent book. I don't have any sympathy for him, and a villain without some humanizing element doesn't work for me.

The Scribe Virgin continues to be a shadow of her former self. Everything she's said and done throughout the books has required karmic balance. As her children (Vishous, and his sister, Payne) come into their own and find happiness must the Scribe Virgin slowly fade? Is the balance for their happiness the despondency that has become the Scribe Virgin's existence? I'll look forward to learning more about her plight in future books. But man, is she a sad creature right now, and not at all phearsome (as the Chosen, Layla, describes the Brothers).

By far, the best story thread in the book is the relationship between Qhuinn and Blay. Best friends, along with John Matthew, Qhuinn and Blay are dealing with their attraction to one another even as Qhuinn continues to hook up with women and Blay struggles with accepting that he's gay and what that means for him in a vampire high society that doesn't tolerate openly gay relationships.

So what about John Matthew and Xhex? Can we finally get to John Matthew and Xhex? It was almost 150 pages before they had a conversation with each other.

John Matthew has been through put the ringer in this series. He was a starving, abused, terrified kid when the BDB found him and gave him a home. He was raped before he was rescued, he lost his foster mom, Wellsie, when she was murdered by the Lessers, then he was abandoned by his foster dad when Tohr ran away in grief. And that was several books ago. Since then, he's gone from scrawny to uber-sexy, he's in love with a Xhex, who continually rejects him, and he hasn't really found his place-’a place he feels comfortable-’in the Brotherhood.

Xhex has also had a tough life. As a sympath she has always needed to hide a part of herself in order to stay safe and free. She's tough, made a place for herself in Rehv's empire, and has some very loyal friends. Despite having a few, select loyal friends, Xhex has a very lonely life. And at the start of Lover Mine, she's a Lash's prisoner.

John Matthew and Xhex are perfect for each other. Two wounded, abused, lonely, sad people who will ultimately find in each other total acceptance, love, redemption and a place to call home once and for all. But getting there isn't easy-’and it takes forever at 500+ pages-’but they do figure it out and find happiness. And when that finally happened, I was happy because it meant Lover Mine was finally coming to a close.

What ultimately frustrated me the most with Lover Mine was the sheer complexity of tracking so many story threads and characters, and the constant cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter. I'm hooked on Qhuinn and Blay's evolving relationship, and frankly, that's the element that has me wanting the next volume in this series. Overall, Lover Mine was a C-, which bums me out, because John Matthew and Xhex deserve better.

~Jaclyn

| Book Link | Kindle | Amazon | Nook | BN | Borders |
Sony | Kobo

This is a hardcover published by Signet, a part of the Agency 5. It is currently selling at Amazon for $9.99 in print. The lay down date is April 27, 2010.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Lover Avenged by J.R. Ward
2. Thursday Afternoon Haiku Moment: Lover Avenged by JR Ward
3. REVIEW: Lover Enshrined by J.R. Ward

I was a relative latecomer to your Black Dagger Brotherhood Series, joining it in progress at, I believe, book three (or was it four?). Anyway, I remember reading online discussions about the series well before starting the first book, mostly related to the unusual names of the heroes (debate, IIRC, raged about whether the names were so silly as to be distracting, or not).

A friend finally convinced me that the books were addictive enough to overcome both my paranormal prejudice and the conviction that the heroes’ names were in fact just too silly to bear. I did become a devoted follower after reading the first book in the series, Wrath’s story, Dark Lover. A devoted follower, but an ambivalent one. There is a lot that I don’t like about the BDB books. Chiefly the slang, which seems increasingly ubiquitous – almost every character thinks and talks in a highly stylized and artificial way. But also the nature of the hero/heroine attachments, which are very animalistic and seem almost biologically-driven. I think the latter is probably a positive for some romance readers, those who prefer their heroes ultra-alpha. Now, it’s not like I’m looking for an Alan Alda-type “sensitive” hero (uh oh, I think I just dated myself with the Alda reference), but I do prefer my romances a little more nuanced and realistic – two words that I doubt could ever be applied to the BDB books. But they are strangely addictive books, and if I think of them like old-fashioned comic books or some other medium where the emotions and characterizations are broadly drawn, I manage to keep my irritation at the elements I don’t like to a minimum.

Lover Avenged is, of course, Rehvenge’s story. Rehvenge is the secret sympath, drug-dealing, Mohawk-sporting, club-owning brother of Bella, the heroine of Lover Awakened, who is of course the mate of Brother Zsadist, who…wait, why am I explaining this? Anyone who has read the first six books in the series already knows it; anyone who hasn’t – why are you reading this review? You’d do better to go watch a Season 5 episode of Lost; it’d be less confusing.

Anyway, Rehvenge is paired with Ehlena (is this the first sighting of a heroine with extraneous consonants in her name? I think it might be! Equality at last!), who is a nurse at Havers’ clinic. Ehlena doesn’t have much of a life; her family was shunned by the glymera, the vampire aristocracy, after her father was swindled in a business deal. Now Ehlena spends her time working or taking care of her father, whose schizophrenia manifests itself in an obsession with order and regularity. At the beginning of Lover Avenged, Ehlena is already familiar with Rehvenge as a patient of the clinic, one whom the other nurses avoid because of his menacing air. Rehvenge is attracted to Ehlena but has a serious case of I’mnotgoodenoughforheritis, plus his life is already pretty complicated, what with being a secret sympath and the fact that he’s been blackmailed over it for the past 25 years.

Ehlena is at first somewhat immune to Rehv’s dubious charms, which I appreciated (and which contradicts my earlier point about all of the pairings in the series having a biology-as-destiny view of mating). She gets closer to him, though, when she tries to help him with an infection in his arm that he seems strangely reluctant to have Havers treat. From then on, it’s pretty much true love, which runs about as smoothly as you’d expect given the obstacles I’ve already mentioned and the fact that Rehv lies to Ehlena rather a lot.

Lover Avenged is not just Rehv and Ehlena’s story though; as with previous books in the series, there are multiple storylines. We follow Wrath as he faces new challenges as the Vampire King, Tohrment as he slowly returns to the land of the living (little vampire pun there), John Matthew and Xhex as their relationship progresses and regresses, and, by far my least favorite, Lash as he combines the worst of both worlds: being a seriously obnoxious vampire and being a lesser, creatures I’ve only barely tolerated reading about in previous books. At least the previous lessers were impotent, meaning that while they were gross, creepy and unpleasant to read about, there at least was not a sexual element to their gross creepiness. No such luck with Lash, who is a truly loathsome villain. I could have done with many fewer pages spent on his thoughts and actions.

I’ve seen some readers express dismay at the numerous plots each of the BDB books holds. It doesn’t bother me so much, but it can be aggravating to keep switching scenes if one of the storylines is a lot more interesting than the others. That wasn’t really the case in Lover Avenged; I was about equally interested in the main story, John Matthew and Xhex, and Tohr. I didn’t care quite as much about Wrath, and again could have done without Lash entirely, but the book did not feel unbalanced and I wasn’t having to plow through large sections of stuff I didn’t care about to get to the good stuff.

I normally evaluate a book by looking at the plot, the characterization and the prose. That doesn’t really work with the BDB books in general or Lover Avenged in particular, because the plot is a mess, the characterization is absurd and the prose sets my teeth on edge. The fact that I still pretty much enjoy the books means that there is something else there that draws me in. I’m not sure that I can (or need to) articulate it any better other than to say that they are entertaining.

I will say that though I did not find Rehv’s and Ehlena’s relationship excessively romantic, by the climatic scene I did feel a little frisson at the thought of their HEA being in sight. (If I don’t get that feeling at some point near the end of a romance, I know it’s failed me; it means I really just don’t care about the characters at all.)

I’m looking forward to the next book in the series, though I’m not sure who the hero and heroine are slated to be. Possibly John Matthew and Xhex? There were definitely some interesting developments in their relationship in this book, and it ended on a cliffhanger note. I have always liked John; he actually became less likable in Lover Avenged, though I understood the reasons for the hardening of his personality. I’m a little cooler on Xhex; I don’t mind a tough heroine but her androgynous appearance is a bit of a turn-off for me. We got a little more insight into her personality in this book, and I liked what I saw. I didn’t like one instance of vigilante behavior, but that was less about the action itself and more about how graphically it was rendered. Really, Ms. Ward, I understand that subtlety is not a hallmark of these books, but sometimes less really is more. Alluding to a fairly gross and sadistic act of torture is one thing; the act did not need to be described multiple times.

That said, I’m giving Lover Avenged a B-.

Best regards,

Jennie

This book can be purchased in hard cover from an independent bookstore or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

Related posts:

1. Thursday Afternoon Haiku Moment: Lover Avenged by JR Ward
2. REVIEW: Lover Enshrined by J.R. Ward
3. REVIEW: Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward

I keep saying that
I am off the wagon, and
Yet I read this book

‘Read’ is not correct
More like ‘devoured it whole’ or
‘inhaled’ or ‘wolfed down’

This book’s not a fave
But I liked it far better
Than poor Phury’s book

Ehlena is the
Love interest to Rehvenge.
Nurse and nurturer

Rehvenge is emo
I mean, the hero. He feels
Not worthy of love.

Buying this for the
Romance? It felt a little
Too ‘teenage’ to me

The slang gets worse too
‘Freshies’ and ‘stillies’ and all
that drives me nutsies

We get a small taste
Of Rehv’s story in Phury’s
Book, expanded here

Symphaths and drug lords
And evil princess, oh my!
(oh, and an angel)

There were so many things
I liked about this book, yet
I am left wanting

Five main storylines
We have Rehv, and Wrath and Lash
John Matthew and Tohr

Rehv reminded me
Of Z with “I’m not worthy”
Mere coincidence?

I thought so too…but
Then Xhex’s storyline? I’d
Seen it before. Dunno.

Book felt…too crowded.
Just when I got invested,
plot shifted again

And, your heroines…
Sigh. As before, they feel weak
& barely show up.

Lash is obviously
A fave of yours. Not mine. I
skipped his parts (sorry)

I think my issue
I am too big of a fan.
Standards are way high

Is this a good read?
Absolutely. Worth hardback
Price? To me it was.

Am I satisfied?
Nope. I want love as focus
Not as a side plot

I was happy at end
But my lingering doubts are
Still here, lingering

AVENGED is thrilling
A sexy, fast-paced read, but
I miss the romance

B-/C+

This book can be purchased in mass market from an independent bookstore or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers on April 28, 2009.

Related posts:

1. Thursday Afternoon Haiku Moment: A Sonnet for Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ What I Did For Love
2. Thursday Afternoon Haiku Moment: a Deirdre Martin Two-fer
3. Thursday Afternoon Haiku Moment: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

***

I know this is supposed to be about your first sale, but I thought I’d talk about how I found out the Black Dagger Brotherhood series had sold. I will never forget when the call came- or what was happening at the time-

See, I’m a Yankee. A true blue Yank through and through. Born up there, raised up there, never expected to live anywhere else but New England.

Enter the Southern Gentleman Whom I Marry. Now where do you think I ended up? South of the Mason Dixon- and PS I really like it. But here’s the thing. The South is HOT or can be from May until even into October. So your air conditioning is mission critical.

When I sent off the BDB proposal and three sample chapters of DARK LOVER to my agent, I didn’t expect her to like what I’d done. The material was pretty far out there- and though I was in love with the Brothers, I wasn’t sure anyone else would feel the same attachment. (Hello? Mating ceremony with the name carving? No exactly middle of the road.) Anyway, I FedEx’d the padded envelope off and went into full, neurotic, hurry up and wait mode. Which is SO much fun.

My agent, however, adored the whole thing- so at least one rate limiting step had been surmounted. What this meant, though, was I got to go right into another stretch of high-octane sit on my hands. I wanted to write the books so badly, I went nuts from stress. Nuts, I tell you.

At that time, my husband and I lived in a very nice top floor condo. It was our landing pad after the move from up North and I liked it a lot- at least until our central air conditioning unit bit it during an ‘unseasonable hot spell.’ (BTW I’ve learned that’s a misnomer. Hot spells can happen in any season here so they are by definition never unseasonable. But I digress.)

I don’t know about you, but hot is not your friend when you are waiting and stressed and climbing the walls already. When the air-conditioning kicked it at 10 a.m., I thought, well, sh**, this is going to suck (bear in mind it was a Friday- and I figured I would have to go through a whole weekend of hearing nothing about the proposal. So I was not in my happy place to begin with- and that was before the linoleum started to melt in the kitchen.)

As we were on the top floor, the ambient air temperature quickly climbed to Hotter Than Hell. However, there was light at the end of the tunnel- or rather cool to end the sauna effect. Thanks to the fact that I begged on the phone to a repair company. Shamelessly.

I loved the air conditioning guys who showed up- even though they told me they’d be there at noon and didn’t make it until four in the afternoon. They had just finished checking the unit outside when my mom arrived- as a contractor, she speaks HVAC and I figured a translator was warranted. The men came up the back stairs and standing in front of us like modern day warriors, they began to BLAH BLAH BLAH bad coil BLAH BLAH need new unit BLAH BLAH five thousand dollars-

“Five thousand dollars?” I yelped. (I mean that little bomb was in English and I understood it perfectly.) “Five THOUSAND dollars-”

That was when the phone rang. Caller ID said it was my agent.

I actually stared at the phone as if I couldn’t remember how to work the thing.

“You gonna answer that?” one of the air conditioning guys asked.

No, I thought, I’m going to throw up. Because it’s hot and if this is an I’m-sorry-it-didn’t-sell call, the saltines I had for lunch are going on a rapid evac.

Although things could have been worse- at least I didn’t need a plumber. Yet.

I answered and my agent went BLAH BLAH BLAH and I forgot English entirely. Because actually it wasn’t a this-isn’t-going-to-sell call. It was a hey-a-couple-people-liked-it kind of thing.

After I hung up, I proceeded to hop around the room like a crazy person, no longer caring about the oven we were all in. The thing was, I wasn’t sure who was going to publish the Brothers at that point, but I knew I was at least going to get to write them. And that was everything to me.

The air conditioning guys and my mom watched me for a while, like they were at the zoo and one of the monkeys was having a meltdown just for the audience’s benefit. Then my mom calmly handed me some cold seltzer and hit the men with BLAB BLAH rig the BLAH BLAH run a BLAH BLAH replace a BLAH BLAH?

More phone calls came in from my agent updating me on the status of the bids as the men did what my mother told them to do. Frankly, I could have been on Mars for all I knew. When the dust settled, nearly two hours later, I had a publisher and was off to the races as they say.

It was a blur and I didn’t sleep at all that night. Although not because it was hot. By some miracle, my mother’s BLAH BLAH had worked and we had cool air.

Man, it was a day of miracles, all the way around. And that’s how the sale happened- one of the best days of my life, I’ll tell you right there!

Related posts:

1. My First Sale by Jo Barrett aka My First Stalking
2. REVIEW: Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward
3. REVIEW: Lover Revealed by J.R. Ward

It might be an understatement to say your previous novel, Lover Unbound, elicited some very passionate reactions from readers. I can’t say I disagree with those criticisms. Even though I ended up liking the book because it developed John Matthew’s storyline, the main romance drove me insane for so many reasons, some of which were covered in Jane’s review. You could say Lover Unbound confirmed a suspicion I’ve always had about regarding the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and I was waiting to see if Lover Enshrined would support it. It did.

I have two confessions to make. When I first picked up Dark Lover, I didn’t particularly like it. I was interested enough to pick up the next one in the series, but I never quite understood the reception the first book received. I still don’t. But more importantly, my second confession is this: If I read for the romance, I would never have kept reading this series. The only romance that ever worked for me was that of Zsadist and Bella, and even then their actual book disappointed me because I thought Bella’s character arc was short-changed in favor of Zsadist’s. But I think we’ve covered the series’s shallow treatment of its heroines in favor of the male characters enough here at Dear Author, so I won’t go into that.

So in the end, I think Lover Enshrined is the perfect example for what I’m talking about — should you read this series for the romance? Or should you read it for the continuing storylines? My opinion? If you’re still reading this series for the romance, I honestly don’t know what’s keeping you coming back for more. You guys are being cheated.

Frankly, I thought the romance between Phury and Cormia was boring. Not only did their scenes comprise such a small fraction of the book that touting this as Phury and Cormia’s book is laughable, I found their romance insipid and stupid. Cormia continues the BDB’s heroine tradition of having an underdeveloped character arc and Phury… Oh, where to begin?

In the previous book, I thought Phury took a slight detour into CrazyLand. Slicing and dicing people in alleyways behind garbage dumpsters? To me, that’s set up for Serial Killer, not Romance Hero. Then in this book, we learn he’s probably always been crazy. We just didn’t notice. I appreciate the fact the book tried to tackle the hard topic of addiction but I have to be honest. Instead of feeling sympathy for Phury’s drug dependence, I was revolted and wondered when he would snap and kill everyone or himself. And maybe that was the intention but in terms of a romance hero, I don’t find those traits very appealing and I think it would take a highly skilled writer to make those elements work.

On the other hand, I thought the secondary storylines were nicely developed. For the first time, I actually felt like the series has moved forward in that respect. Because of my fantasy background, I tend to prefer continuing, developing storylines that go somewhere so I enjoyed this. If you read this series more for those aspects, I think you will find some things to like here. For example, if you like John Matthew, the development of his story and those of his friends’, Qhuinn and Blaylock, continue in depth.

That said, if you dislike the Lessening Society, they get a lot of page time. It’s almost as if the book were trying to make up for their absence in the last one. What I did like about their inclusion here is that while they’re still evil, they weren’t quite as two-dimensional cardboard as I found them in previous installments. Maybe this is because for the first time, I saw they had a goal, motivations, and an actual storyline. Those things go a long way to keeping an antagonist from becoming that character who twirls his mustache and flings his cape over his shoulder. It also helps that this time around, the Lessening Society’s main players don’t bite it immediately. In previous books, I’d seriously been wondering how the Lessening Society was that much of a threat if their leaders kept getting killed off so easily.

The book also starts expanding the world, which is something I always like. While I doubt the worldbuilding will be solid or consistent — let’s face it, the worldbuilding is not the books’ strongpoint and I don’t expect that fact to change — I do appreciate the effort. In particular, I am fascinated by Rehvenge’s storyline and the symphants’ society. I really look forward to learning more about them in future books and given the events that happen in Lover Enshrined, I hope the series will explore them in more detail.

As for a grade, I’m torn. I found the romance so boring, I actually believe removing that storyline entirely would have made the book better. When I came to the scenes between Phury and Cormia, I found myself wishing for them to end so I get back to the other stuff. Not the desired reaction, I’d think, when those scenes are supposed to be the focal point of the book. If I’d have to give that part a grade, I’d probably say a C. It didn’t annoy me enough to give it a lower grade but I thought it was very bland. But for the rest of the book and the events it covers, I’d say an overall B- for me but I will warn that at this point, I don’t think you can read the books out of order anymore.

My regards,
Jia

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells. No ebook format yet, but I suspect there will be.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward
2. REVIEW: Lover Unbound by JR Ward
3. REVIEW: Lover Revealed by J.R. Ward

I’ve referred to you as romance crack before. Your books are addictive, like a pharmaceutical grade narcotic, that makes a reader hot for the next book before the current book is even concluded. Unfortunately, I think I got a bad batch and wonder what I should do about it. On the one hand, this book cured me of my JR Ward addiction. On the other, its sad to see such a promising series totally crater.

I can’t really give much of a summary without spoiling the book but I can say that Vishous, a man cursed with prognostication, is floundering, as his best friend has left him for a woman. He goes off to nurse his wounds and lo and behold, finds a woman of his own. He also finds out that he and Jane, his new love interest, have something in common – bad, bad mothers. This commonality and Jane’s willingness to follow him into his kinky world, bring the two of them closer together until the lessers threaten their fledgling love.

Jane and Vishous’ story is such a small part of the overall landscape in this book. It’s mostly a story about the denouement of Butch and Vishous, the groundwork for Phury’s book, and the development of John’s story. Oh, and apparently any decent male that appears in the BDB series is bound to be a brother.

So what didn’t I like? Well, let’s copy Janine’s format:

1. The Hero.

Vishous is heartbroken because his love interest aka Butch has gone off and found a woman.

Butch assumed a bored expression. “You can bite me.”
I wish, V thought.
…
As he took out some rolling paper, laid down a line, and twisted himself a cig, he did what he spent a lot of time doing: He reminded himself that Butch was happily mated to the love of his life, and that even if he weren’t, the guy didn’t play like that.

Vishous watched Butch and Marisa one night and he was jealous, not of Marisa but of the new relationship that Butch had developed with Marisa. A relationship that had no room for Vishous. “Lover Revealed” had strong overtones of a relationship developing between Vishous and Butch that was more than friends. This is brought into sharp relief in “Lover Unbound.” At one point, Butch treats Vishous tenderly and Vishous responds, physically.

The black tip of the dagger slid under V’s chin and angled his head up. As he was forced to meet Butch’s stare, V’s body tensed. Then trembled.
With the weapon linking them, Butch said, “They’re beautiful.”

…

Butch removed the blade, and as the male’s arm dropped, V felt a trickle of blood ease down his neck. It was warm– and soft as a kiss.

Yet despite the strong emotional and physical connection that Vishous has with Butch, it is easily abandoned once Vishous meets Jane. These feelings were merely placeholders for what Vishous was supposed to have with Jane. On the one hand, the acknowledgment of the unspoken feelings that Butch and Vishous shared seemed to be inserted to placate those that insisted that there were homoerotic overtones. On the other, the quick move to Jane seemed to placate those fans who insisted that there were no homoerotic overtones. I guess my feeling was “who cares” but at least make it believable that Vishous could fall out of love with Butch and in love with Jane at the drop of a hat.

2. The Heroine

I know that you’ve taken alot of flack for the flaccidity of your female characters. I was excited when I read the teaser for this book thinking that Jane might be the answer to those critics. Unfortunately, Jane was presented as a loner whose entire existence was that of her work. Despite her apparent devotion to her work, that character trait was easily disposed when it became necessary for you to insert her into the world of the Brotherhood. After meeting Vishous, her entire world narrowed to the extent that whatever mattered before no longer had meaning.

3. The Villians.

While I never cared for the lesser scenes, the absence of those scenes marked the greatest concession to a portion of your fans than almost every other part of the book. To be clear, there are no point of views from the lessers, the perpetrators of evil in this mythology. The previous four books have been heavy with them and to eliminate the POV entirely and to minimize their importance makes the later actions seem even more disjointed. Again, the lessers, like the homoerotic overtones, like Jane’s independence, are easily discarded. If the lesser POV was important enough to take up almost half of the previously written series, why isn’t it included in this book? Or conversely, why was it written in the first place?

4. The Scribe Virgin.

The core of your mythology is the Scribe Virgin. Through her, the Brotherhood owes its existence. She is the sun around which the world revolves. In every other book except the last, she has provided the solution to every hairy problem that arose. Her picture belongs in Wikipedia next to deux ex machina. entry In this book, the Scribe Virgin’s actions cause a reader to question the fundamental basis on your world. The questions, unfortunately, cause an unraveling of the mythology until the series is stripped bare and all the leathers and “yo, bro” can’t save this one.

It’s clear from this book that there is no reliability in your world building. The world can be reshaped in each book, from moment to moment to fit the story that you wish to tell. If it is convenient to shrug off a previously entrenched part of the mythology, then its gone. If you need to contradict the existing canon to establish a convenient outcome, then it is done. If a character trait that is developed and maintained for previous books doesn’t fit with the story, that’s shrugged off. Not only are the narrators then unreliable, but the entire basis of the world is made to be unreliable. The result is a total lack of tension or conflict. Any conflict that is manufactured can be easily resolved by simply removing the conflicting element, even if it contradicts the previously established world rules.

It’s no wonder that the homoerotic overtones of the book get so much play. The relationship between the brothers is the most authentic connections in the book. Without the worldbuilding, you still have a core of men who’ve relied upon each other to be the port in the the storm, emotionally if not physically. Butch and Vishous’ relationship rang true unlike most every other element of the book. The building of the bond between the men, Butch and Vishous, Phury and Zhadist, John and his young compadres, are really what make the book. I think that these relationships would be as interesting without the superlatives that are added by the paranormal aspect. In fact, I found the physical description of the Brotherhood in this book to be almost grotesque.

Inside were a pair of brand-new distressed jeans, a fleece the size of a sleeping bag, an XXXL T-shirt, and a pair of size-fourteen Nike Air Shox in a shiny new box.

Did I care for the ending? I guess not but mostly because I felt like to get from Point A to Point C, you trampled over Point A, erased Point B and said “ta da” at the end. The magic act just didn’t work for me this time. I guess in some ways I should thank you. I’ve broken my habit. Phury who? C-.

Best regards

Jane

I’ve heard this book is everywhere. BAMM, Wal-Mart, etc. Go forth, buy, disagree with me.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Lover Revealed by J.R. Ward
2. REVIEW: Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward
3. REVIEW: Lover Awakened by JR Ward

According to the readers at Romantic Times, JR Ward is moving to hardcover in 2009 with Rhevenge’s story. The print schedule looks like this:

• October 2007, Lover Unbound (Vishous)
• April 2008, Phury’s book
• January 2009, Rhevenge’s book, in hardcover

Thanks Sybil.

Related posts:

1. Where to Buy JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood Series in “E” format
2. Swoosh! It’s the Sound of Momentum and Previous Hard Work Going Down the Toilet
3. October Book Sales Were Up but Overall Numbers Are Down

Sharon Cullars, author of Again and The Object of Love, repurposed the images of the Black Dagger Brotherhood and challenges readers whether these brothers could fit into their fantasies.

I’m not much for man titty, but I know a pretty face when I see it and these men can be the stars in my romance book any day.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Lover Eternal by JR Ward
2. REVIEW: Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward

• Ebooks.com, $6.99 (Adobe, Mobi and MS Lit)
• Mobipocket, $6.99 (Mobi only)

• Diesel Ebooks, $6.99 (MS Lit, Palm, Adobe)
• Ebooks.com, $6.99 (Adobe, Mobi and MS Lit)
• Powells, $6.20 (MS Lit, Adobe, Palm)
• Mobipocket, $6.99 (Mobi only)

• Diesel Ebooks, $6.99 (MS Lit, Palm, Adobe)
• Ebooks.com, $6.99 (Adobe, Mobi and MS Lit)
• EReader, $6.29 (ereader format only, sometimes known as Palm)
• Fictionwise, $5.94 Club Price (MS Reader, Palm)
• Mobipocket, $6.99 (Mobi only)

This book is more expensive than the previous three books.

• Diesel Ebooks, $7.99 (MS Lit, Palm, Adobe)
• EReader, $7.19 (ereader format only, sometimes known as Palm)
• Mobipocket, $7.99 (Mobi only)

Related posts:

1. Elizabeth Hoyt’s Raven Prince Released in Ebook Format
2. Innocent in Death by JD Robb, No. 28 in the Series, Released in Ebook Form
3. Random House E- Initiatives

I admit it: I am addicted. Usually I'm drawn to subtle books, books that astutely observe the complexities of human relationships, books written with an ear for beautiful language. If that kind of reading experience is a horseback ride through lush countryside, one of your Black Dagger Brotherhood books is a high octane, high speed car race around a dizzying track, complete with thrills and spills.

And yet, I can't get enough. I stay up with Lover Revealed until the small hours of the morning, turning page after page. When I wake up, I reach for the thing almost as soon as I open my eyes. At the grocery store, I forget to buy carrots because part of my mind is still in that bold, flashy world you've created. When I close the book, even as part of me feels over-stimulated, like a kid who's spent too much time in a videogame arcade, I realize that the wait for the next book will be much too long.

As most of the romance-reading world knows, the Black Dagger Brotherhood is comprised of six huge, hyper-masculine vampires with unstoppable sex drives and a powerful loyalty to one another. Together they protect the rest of the vampire race from the soulless lessers, who, as the minions of the evil entity called the Omega, do everything they can to destroy the vampire race.

As much as I enjoy reading about Wrath, Rhage, Zsadist, Phury, Vishous and Tohrment, they are as over-the-top as their names, so larger-than-life and hyper-real that I enjoy their messed up, hard-drinking human friend and ex-cop, Butch O'Neal even more.

Butch, with his human limitations and his frustrated awareness of them, has always helped keep the story of the Brotherhood just a tiny bit grounded in reality. His presence provides a yardstick against which to measure the vampire characters' supernaturalism, and the company of six huge paranormal fighters makes him seem refreshingly real, even normal in his screwed up way.

Butch fell in with the Brotherhood in Dark Lover, which was also when he fell in love with Wrath's discarded wife-in-name-only, Marissa. But he never felt good enough for her, and when he was sent away from Marissa's house by one of the servants after calling on her, Butch figured that Marissa also felt he wasn't good enough for her.

In reality, Butch was sent away thanks to interference from Marissa's brother Havers, who could not comprehend her attraction to a human. After Marissa's long, sexless marriage to Wrath ended, vampire high society decided that there was something wrong with her, and Marissa made the mistake of buying into their crap. Therefore, when she never heard from Butch, she thought he had lost interest in her.

As Lover Revealed opens, Butch and Marissa are apart, but each still loves and misses the other. Both of them have feelings of inadequacy, Butch because the members of the Brotherhood, fearing for his life, have forbidden him to fight the lessers alongside them, and Marissa because well, after three hundred years of virginity, any woman would.

Things change when Butch is captured by the lessers after coming to the aid of a vampire they were trying to kill. The lessers torture Butch horribly, and after he refuses to divulge anything about the Brotherhood, the Omega infects him with some kind of evil and wipes his memory of that, leaving him to be found by the vampires. Vishous finds Butch and with the aid of the Scribe Virgin (the deity that created the vampires) gets the worst of the evil out of him, but not all of it, and then takes him to Havers' clinic.

Meanwhile, Marissa has been having nightmares about something bad happening to Butch. Her search for Butch is fruitless until Vishous realizes that Butch is dying, and that Marissa is the one person who can give him the will to live. In her rush to Butch's side, Marissa forgets to put on a Hazmat suit, and she and Butch are left in quarantine together. Butch begins to heal, and he and Marissa clear up their misunderstanding and start making up for lost time.

But Butch and Marissa's time together is cut short when Butch is released from the clinic even though he knows he is still infected with the Omega's evil. He pushes Marissa away in order to protect her, and she realizes that after having wasted so much of her life waiting for Wrath, she doesn't want to waste more of it waiting for a man. She's tired of men controlling her life, too, and that includes her brother, with whom she has a falling out over her involvement with Butch.

Of the four books released in this series thus far, Lover Revealed is my favorite. I've already explained my affection for Butch. His drinking, his past grief for his murdered sister and his broken nose all make him interesting and keep me invested in his fate.

The books in this series are so hero-centric that sometimes the heroines don't get as much development as I like, but I did not feel this was as much the case with Marissa. Although she begins the book incredibly naà¯ve (it is difficult to believe that anyone could live for three centuries and know so little about sex), the fact that she's so tired of her own ignorance makes it easy to sympathize with her, and to root for her as she begins to take control of her own life. She also, I'm grateful to say, doesn't need protecting or rescuing in the course of the story.

The love scenes between Butch and Marissa reflect the fact that it takes the two of them a while to get through some emotional hurdles, and are not only erotic but also moving and tender. It is wonderful to see them get over their insecurities in one another's arms. I would have enjoyed that even more, though, if I hadn't been afraid that Marissa could be infected with the evil that the Omega put into Butch.

There are also some borderline romantic feelings on Vishous' part toward Butch, and I liked this aspect of the book as well. V's envy of what Marissa and Butch had was touching, especially since he was a true friend to them both. I enjoyed the continuation of John and Rehvenge's stories, too, and I'm especially looking forward to John's book now.

Through the Omega's actions, Butch gains some supernatural abilities, and I have mixed feelings about this, because I know I will miss the normal, everyday guy that he was. Butch also discovers something about himself in this book that I thought was awfully convenient. Then there's the way the conflict between Marissa's longevity and Butch's mortality is resolved. I don't want to give it away, but again, it was something that I could have done without.

As usual, I enjoyed your use of the vernacular even as I was shaking my head over the fact that these centuries old, European-born creatures were far more up on urban slang than I am. There are other things in Lover Revealed that I could shake my head over, but when I reached the end of the book, I wished there was more to read, and so I give Lover Revealed a B+. Yes, addicted is what I am.

Sincerely,

Janine

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward
2. REVIEW: Lover Eternal by JR Ward
3. REVIEW: Lover Awakened by JR Ward

As everyone who has read your books knows, Zsadist is the most feared member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. A vicious fighter in the vampire Brotherhood’s battle against the evil lessers, Zsadist is also scarred, antisocial, and rumored to kill women. But in your previous book, Lover Eternal, Zsadist began to make a tentative connection with Bella, a beautiful vampire who desired him. Although Zsadist rejected her, he was devastated and furious when one of the lessers abducted Bella.

As Lover Awakened opens, it’s been six weeks since Bella’s abduction and she is still missing. The lesser who holds her captive, a Mr. O, thinks of her as his wife and is obsessed with her. But Mr. O makes a key mistake that allows the Brotherhood to find Bella, and Zsadist rescues her.

Bella wakes up in the Brotherhood’s mansion to the realization that Mr. O has carved his first name into her belly. She feels safe only when she sleeps in Zsadist’s room, but Zsadist has suffered even worse trauma when he was imprisoned for decades as a blood slave to another vampire and sexually abused by his mistress. Zsadist hates himself and most things sexual, so he keeps pushing Bella away. At first Bella believes that the thinks less of her because of her abduction, but she comes to realize just how low Zsadist’s self-esteem is relatively quickly. That still doesn’t make it easy to overcome Zsadist’s conviction that Bella would be better off with someone else.

Woven with the Zsadist and Bella’s storyline are flashbacks to Zasdist’s captivity and threads about other characters, including Phury, Zasdist’s brother, who is in love with Bella himself, Rhevenge, Bella’s brother, who wants to lock her up for the rest of her life to keep her safe, Mr. O, who wants to kill Zsadist for taking Bella from him, Butch and Marissa, whose love story began in Dark Lover and progresses a bit here, Vishous, who is experiencing new problems, and John Matthew, who was introduced in Lover Eternal and who now has a home with Tohr and Wellsie but struggles to fit in with other young vampires in his training class.

One of the things I love about your series is that the books are long enough for intertwining threads, but in this book, I began to feel that the number of storylines was perhaps too much of a good thing. The problem for me is that though at times I got involved in Zsadist and Bella’s storyline to some extent, and once in a while I even shed a tear, I never had a chance to get deeply absorbed because the sections devoted them would inevitably be relatively short, as the book quickly jumped to other characters’ stories.

Some of those stories I enjoyed very much and others not so much. I very much liked John Matthew’s story and Butch’s story, but I would have preferred less of Rhevenge and Mr. O. Mostly though, I would have liked a bit more focus on Zsadist’s relationship with Phury, and on Bella’s healing process from her own trauma. The conclusion I come to is that this book might have been better had it been longer, but that’s not to say that it’s without its strong suits.

You have a distinctive writing style whose very contemporary feel I like, and for me all three of the books in this series have been very readable. And though my favorite remains Dark Lover, I liked that Zsadist was such an atypical hero and I felt Bella was stronger than your other heroines.

I also like that you are not afraid of triangles like the one created by Phury’s feelings for Bella, and that (even if it may not have worked as well as it could have in this book) you are ambitious enough to interweave so many plot threads together at a time when many romance authors are making the hero and heroine the sole focus of their stories. I also like that beloved characters can get seriously hurt in your books and did in this one, because tragedies do happen in real life and have their place even in romances. And I loved the climactic scene in this book, in which Mr. O is confronted by the main characters.

Overall, I feel that although this book did not move me as deeply as it did Jane (who loved it) or many other readers, it was still a lot of fun and I plan to read the next book in the series. My grade for Lover Awakened is a B-.

Sincerely,

Janine

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Lover Awakened by JR Ward
2. REVIEW: Lover Eternal by JR Ward
3. REVIEW: New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

You hardly need another letter from one more fan about how much she loved your book, but what the hell.

This story is about Zsadist and Bella. Zsadist was stolen from his family as a babe and was sold as a slave. He came to be the sexual slave of a terrible woman who used him for a century in unnatural and abusive acts to the point that Zsadist was famously referred to as “ruined, not broken.” Bella is an aristocrat vampire who has been taken by a lesser who falls in love with her. Bella learns, over the course of her captivity where she is kept in a hole (it reminded me of how the guy kept the women in pits in Silence of the Lambs) that she can exert some type of control upon the
lesser by being emotionally cruel. Bella feels herself dying as she becomes a person she despises.

Zsadist was touched by Bella and seeks to find her even though most of the vampire world believe her to be dead. Even Zsadist acknowledges that she must be dead but somehow he is driven to find her. A series of events leads to Bella’s release and sets into motion Zsadist’s thirst for revhenge (as you spell it).

As Bella is recovering, she feels safe only around Zsadist but Zsadist believes himself to be ruined, emotionally and physically. He drank the blood of his tormentor and believes himself to be corrupted and dirty both inside and out. There are some tragic scenes portraying Zsadist emotional state. I would think that the power of these scenes would be difficult for someone to read if they had suffered similar torments as a child.

Complicating the situation is that Phury also feels drawn to Bella, the first woman in centuries to stir him from his vow of celibacy. Phury’s desire for Bella wars with his desire to see his brother Zsadist happy. While I wanted Bella and Zsadist to achieve their HEA, I ached for Phury. It is amazing how you have made me feel for each character in turn.

Bella was stronger than Mary and more interesting. She suffered a great deal at the hands of the lesser; yet she was able to recover and not only recover but be brave to try to love Zsadist, to try to bring healing to him. She was obviously the stronger of the two. She tooks chances to achieve happiness even knowing that to love Zsadist may be a lost cause.

Perhaps some of the most touching scenes were between Phury and Zsadist and the reclamation of their relationship. Those were the scenes that brought tears to my eyes. (I am beginning to see the appeal of the man/man love because I thought the Hoyt/Cian relationship in Nora Robert’s Morrigan’s Cross was compelling too). Lover Awakened is quite long but as I was reading it, I kept thinking “oh, how wonderful that there is more to this story” rather than “will I ever get to the end.”

There is much that goes on in this story and new characters are introduced but I was never once overwhelmed. The names are still ridiculous. There was a character construct that I thought wasn’t well explained. The story still has very homoerotic overtones. 3 naked men in a bed? Men won’t even sit next to each other in a movie theater let alone lay next to each other. IN BED. NAKED. But anyway, I am really becoming emotionally invested in this series and with all the characters. I can hardly wait for the next one to come out. In the meantime, I’ll console myself with re-reading the first three. This one is a keeper. A-.

Best regards,

Jane

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Lover Eternal by JR Ward
2. REVIEW: CB – The Argentine Lover by Samantha Winston
3. REVIEW: New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

I really like the Black Dagger Brotherhood. I bought Dark Lover based upon the name alone. Black Dagger Brotherhood sounded menacing, dark and, of course, appealing. I liked Lover Eternal quite a bit but there are alot of negatives in your book. The plot is pretty simple. Good vampires who are tormented for centuries find troo love with woman who tames beast. Literally in this book.

The names, of course, are the first problem. Phury? Wrath? Zsadist? Rhage? These are names for the Wiggles impersonating a vampire clan. Not names of truly bad ass vampires. It shows a lack of creative imagination, frankly, despite your protestations on the internet that these names are based on the olde worlde spellings.

The heroines are a bit weak, too. They are individuals who need to be saved rather than do the saving. Yeah, yeah, I get that they have tremendous power in that they can tame the vampire beast, or in Rhage’s case, a real beast. But these aren’t women who kick ass, kill serial killers, and take names such as an Elena, are they?

And the homoerotic undertones – oh my. I think your boys have closet tendecies that all the rap music and “my brother” will not overcome. The sharing of clothes by your boys in the beginning of the novel? I can just see the guys from Queer Eye having the following exchange: Carson to Kyan: Where are all my black silk socks, sugar my brother? In the left drawer, honey, man.

And what is with the scribe virgin. She is a total wack job. Your description of her: tiny, enrobed in all black and whose face cannot be seen brings to my mind a cross between Tinkerbell and Palpatine from StarWars. So again, with all the problems in your books, why do I still like them? I like that Rhage struggles with his beast. The idea that the removal of the beast may represent a loss to Rhage even though he despises that part of him added depth to the character. I liked that it was Mary’s voice-the sound, the cadence-that soothed Rhage’s beast so much so that others around him became insignificant. I liked the sexual tension that was in the book due to Rhage’s fear of his beast destroying Mary. I liked the glimpses of the secondary characters, particularly Zsadist and Bella.

And why don’t I like any of your other books? Because I’ve read a couple of your Jessica Halls books and they were terrible. [Sorry about getting you and Ms Viehl err Hall mixed up]. I guess keep up the good work. But, one caveat. I understand that Zsadist is your next book and it has already been written but I hope you haven’t emasculated him while taming him. In fact, I hope he isn’t tame. After all, Phury described him as follows

“My twin’s not broken. He’s ruined. Do you understand the difference? With broken, maybe you can fix things. Ruined? All you can do is wait to bury him.”

Best regards,

Jane

Book Link | Kindle | Amazon | nook | BN | Borders

No related posts.