The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series: J.R. Ward

I read the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series very recently. This was my first jaunt into actual paranormal romance. I have to admit I was very hesitant. You see, I was one of those horror snobs that needed a little more than a hot vamp running around town saving some supercharged damsel in distress. After all, I am a Anne Rice fan.

At this point I’d been reading Kelly Armstrong and Kim Harrison. I found Kim first and loved her. Then I found Ms. Armstrong and liked her more. I was in love with the paranormal once again and for some reason this new wave was more fun than Anne and not as bubblegum as Laurel K. Hamilton.

I was elated to find books of worth in my beloved genre.

But I couldn’t find them, find them. I had no idea that there was even a paranormal romance genre until I picked up a copy of Writer’s Digest.

Then a friend suggested J.R. Ward. I respect my friend a lot and put it on my reading list. I looked for the book and couldn’t find it. I’m was at Borders searching through the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section. It made sense, that’s where I found Harrison and Armstrong.

I ended up having to ask for help and to my surprise, no it was shock and it was an embarrassing shock that I was led to the romance section.

The romance section?

I don’t get it. I’m looking for vampires and werewolves, not swash buckling pirates and billionaires on an emotional mend.

Well, I picked up book one, Dark Lover. Yeah, not my style. The red cover was cool though and I liked the dagger thingy. And my friend said it was good.

Dilemma.

Buy a romance book where others can see me. Pass on a book that an intelligent, respected friend told me was good.

Yikes, I felt like a 20 something man sent out to buy tampons for his chick. I swallowed, picked it up and bought the book with my head held high. I’m Lilia for god sake, I have no shame.

Ah, but I did and bought the book anyway. I can tell you right now I have no regrets and if there is any one out there who feels shame in buying it, give me the cash and I’ll do the buying.

So, here is my take on the Black Dagger Series. I’ve read all that’s out and am waiting on Ms. Ward to crank out the next few. There has to be a next few. There has to be.

The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series:

In Dark Lover we meet head vamp dude, Wrath. Yeah, it’s actually Wrath. It takes a bit to get used to the name, but you got to or else you won’t make it through this well written series. But hey his chick’s name is Beth so all is good.

I’ll admit, I came across the name and I wanted to dump the book, but I read on and ended up being hooked on the series. There’s passion in these pages, a nice love story and a masterful set up for the rest of the series that I didn’t really appreciate until book three. After a while my brain was trained to pick up on the cues.

I think I was assuming that the book was going to be pure trash. It wasn’t. Ward creates a sexy world that can easily integrate into ours. And the best part is that she sticks to her guns. None of her characters break the rules.

Whatever you want to say about the premise or the genre, you can’t say that it doesn’t follow its own law and really, that’s all a writer has to do to create a viable, believable alternate world and Ward does this with simple genius and won my cynical heart over. Simply put, I’m a fan. So I was revving for book two big time.

Book two, Lover Eternal, stars Rhage our super handsome vamp nick named Hollywood for his well, super good looks. He’s got some issues though, but what romance hero doesn’t have some issues? It’s all good though because the sweet, but apparently bland looking Mary Luce is coming to the rescue. Or is she? Can she save our cursed warrior?

I won’t tell you, but I can tell you this book is for the girl who doesn’t feel as beautiful, whose been through a lot of physical trauma and who doesn’t think she can stand next to a beautiful man and be loved. She can here. She can be a princess standing next to her true love.

And then we can have beauty and the beast.

Lover Awakened focuses on our dark, seemingly untrustworthy Zsadist. Zsadist has been through a lot. He is tormented to the point of true self hate and tries to push that out around him.

Bella though, the beautiful aristocratic vampire is drawn to him, wants him and to tell you the truth I didn’t get why.

Why bother with Zsadist? I don’t want to read about an ex-slave. I don’t want to deal with someone who does the D/s backwards. I want a strong man, not a man filled with bitter angst.

But you know, by the end of the book I cared. I wanted him to make it. I needed him and Bella to be something to each other even though…even though it would break someone’s heart. Speaking of hearts…


Hearts come together in book four. Lover Revealed cements Butch in the vamp clan. But who is Butch? Butch is the human cop from Beth’s past life. He’s found his way into the groove of the vamp war and has a special place in battling the Lessening Society.

Lessening Society?

They are the big bad and you get to know them from book one and you will get to know them, very well.

And we can’t forget love, humans are allowed to fall in love too aren’t they? You’ll have to read on to see if Butch can truly have a future with the vampire Marissa. Should she be with a human? Hasn’t she suffered enough shame?

Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe there is no shame.

But you gotta buy and you gotta read. If I buy the book for you though, there’ll be a cover charge.

This brings us to Vishous and Doc Jane. We’ve already met the domly Vishous. Yeah, I am talking about the kinky stuff. Yum. Yum. God damned Yum. But we meet Jane for the first time, a human doctor.

And of course there be trouble. Is there ever not any trouble?

Lover Unbound has to find a way to get the human Dr. together with Vishous who has this thing with his hand. Oh, but we learn why he has this thing with his hand and, and…I can’t tell you what happens, but it’s good. The story is fun and well, there’s sex.

I think getting laid is a very good thing.

And there are many, many good things about this series. The best parts are the characters. I like them. I care for them. I want to see them happy. And though Phury wasn’t my fav character in the bunch, by the end of book six, Lover Enshrined, he found a very special place in my heart.

Ward does a nice job with exploring addiction in this book. I wasn’t too keen on it at first, but watching Phury go through hell, understanding his life, his past, his problems with his twin, Zsadist, I couldn’t help but be captivated by his story.

I actually cried. I wept for this character and up until now I hadn’t been moved too far by anything in the series. I might have teared up. My heart might have gone out to the other characters, but none of them made me weep like Phury did. Everything else was relatively a fun ride. This book made me think.

This book made me sad. This book made me happy. This book satisfied in a way I hadn’t expected. I can’t wait for Ward to spin her magic again. The series has so far been a hard, fast romp, through a world I’m in love with. By no means have I shown you the true intricacy of the stories.

There are more characters to be had an more than a handful of connections to, that will keep you reading and reading. We still have John and his merry band of friends and what of our sympath? What is a sympath you ask? Sexy, is all you need to know and well I have to thank J. R. Ward for bringing me my first, true paranormal romance and for rocking my world.

You broke my cherry Ms. Ward and I loved every grinding minute of it. And I wanna do it some more.




Here’s the site. http://www.jrward.com/