Month: August 2022

Lover Eternal

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Lover Eternal by J.R. Ward
Series Name: Black Dagger Brotherhood
Volume Number: 2
Genres: Contemporary, Erotica, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Urban, Vampires
Intended Age Group: Adult
Publisher: Signet/Penguin Group (USA)
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-451-21804-9
Rating: 4/5
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Description from the Book

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there’s a deadly turf war raging between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers like no other – six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Possessed by a deadly beast, Rhage is the most dangerous of the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

Within the brotherhood, Rhage is the vampire with the strongest appetites. He’s the best fighter, the quickest to act on his impulses, and the most voracious lover – for inside him burns a ferocious curse cast by the Scribe Virgin. Owned by this dark side, Rhage fears the times when his inner dragon is unleashed, making him a danger to everyone around him.

Mary Luce, a survivor of many hardships, is unwittingly thrown into the vampire world and reliant on Rhage’s protection. With a life-threatening curse of her own, Mary is not looking for love. She lost her faith in miracles years ago. But when Rhage’s intense animal attraction turns into something more emotional, he knows that he must make Mary his alone. And while their enemies close in, Mary fights desperately to gain life eternal with the one she loves….

Personal & Info

It’s been a little over a year since I read this, but I clearly remember it’s one of my favorite volumes in the series so far. I want to catch up on these reviews before I continue reading the series at volume eleven, so I’m going to do my best to try to make some coherent sense despite the lengthy gap of time between now and when I read this.

Content Warnings

I’m not sure how important content warnings are. I know they’re important to some people, and others don’t care. There are a few things in this book that might raise some flags for certain types of people. I’m not used to covering content warnings, and I can’t remember everything that happened in the book. I’ll just keep a running list of all the possible triggers I’ve seen (that I remember) in the series as I go. Remember, I haven’t read this in about a year, so I might forget or miss some.

Triggers in the series so far: attempted rape, rape, sexual themes, violence, and kidnapping.

Characters

Rhage is the primary Brother for the romance in this book, and probably my favorite of the six. I definitely like him more than Wrath. Rhage can be a little creep-o sometimes, but I love most of his interactions with Mary, and getting to know his character better.

Zsadist a.k.a Z, gets a more in depth introduction in this book. His book is the one after this, so this one sets up events for that one.

Mary Luce is obviously the love interest. She’s a cancer survivor who works at a suicide hotline. Her house sounds super cozy.

John Matthew is a significant character, with a traumatic backstory, introduced in this volume. The most important thing to know about him that is not a spoiler is he speaks with sign language.

Bella…I don’t remember her family name. Not important, she’s Bella, that’s all that matters. Bella is a lady vampire introduced in this volume. She wants adventure, or a bad boy in her life.

Mr. O is a new guy on the villain’s side. He’s kind of creepy. I’ll leave it at that.

Story & Thoughts

I think this book is better than volume one. That’s usually the case with most series, because the first volume typically has a lot of work to do with character introductions and world building. The story starts out quicker than the first book. Characters are introduced faster, and they meet sooner. All the setting groundwork and initial character introductions are already done, so the pacing for this volume is better.

As with the first book, there are plenty of sexy bits. I’m sure you can expect that as a running theme considering the erotica genre.

I’m not entirely pleased with the ending. No spoiler, but this one is open ended. It sets up the next book, so there’s a major cliff hanger to lead into it. The love story for the volume is completely finished, though.

After reading the first book, I’m used to most of the edge and cringe speak. This one feels overall less edgy and less cringe. The way Vishous always says, “True?” at the end of most of his dialogue is hard to get past, though. At this volume, I was still adjusting to that. I think I did get used to it eventually (since I’m farther into the series at the time I’m typing this).

The Cat Proposed

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The Cat Proposed by Dento Hayane
Genres: BL, Fantasy
Intended Age Group: 16 & up
Publisher: Tokyopop
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 9781427867483
Rating: 4/5
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Description from the Book

Matoi Souta is an overworked salaryman tired of his life. On his way home from a long day of work one day, he decides to watch a traditional Japanese play. But something strange happens…He could have sworn one of the actors had cat ears!

It turns out that the man is actually a bakeneko – a shapeshifting cat from Japanese folklore. And then, the cat speaks: “Starting today, you’ll be my mate!”

Personal & Info

I heard Tokyopop has been releasing some good yaoi/BL stuff, and this is a stand alone manga, so I got it to try. This was at the top of my list when I decided to make my blog. I was too tired to read it for a while, so I mostly just flipped through it on occasion until I got around to it. I love the artwork.

The color picture in the front is the same as the cover image for the first chapter, but they have subtle differences. For example, the shape of Souta’s eyes, and Kihachi’s smile shows teeth in the color image, but has none in the black and white image. Kihachi’s fingers also look different between the two. I think one of them was a redraw. I have no issue with this, it was just something interesting I noticed.

Characters

There are four significant characters in this book. Kihachi is the cat. He’s the dark haired guy on the cover. I both loved and hated his design at first. After reading, it’s just love now. I’m pretty sure he’s my favorite character in the book, too. Kihachi loves stories, and is a professional story teller. The synopsis is a little misleading, because it’s worded to make it sound like Souta finds him at a play. It’s not a play, and there are no other actors, it’s a story telling event.

Souta is the overworked guy wearing a tie on the cover. Overworked is an understatement when describing Souta. Contemplating death to get some sleep is pretty extreme. He’s basically worked himself into the ground and didn’t realize it because adrenaline was keeping him going. I thought he was the cat character at a glance, because he’s the one doing a cat pose. He’s just a kind and shy dude. The tie should have given him away as the overworked salaryman.

Yamabuki a.k.a The Ryokan Cat, is a nosey bakeneko with two different colored ears.

Kikkyou is an eccentric old bakeneko lady.

Story & Thoughts

I hadn’t heard of a bakeneko before, but I certainly wasn’t expecting a human sized bipedal cat. The description certainly did not imply that. If you already know what a bakeneko is, it’s likely not a surprise. If you don’t, the book does explain it. However, the bakeneko have their human ears at the same time as their cat ears, that’s pretty weird. They have interesting traditions for interspecies marriages, though. I think Souta is slightly permanently altered from the experience. I can’t think of any other reason a human would be able to literally purr.

The story was cute. It’s an adorable tale of finding love unexpectedly. Each chapter is a “story” so there is no solid time table to know how long they were together between each. This also makes it feel like it progressed quicker, even though it’s paced quickly already.

There are some forward thinking ideals mentioned early on (good things), like gender/sex being insignificant for mate choice, and thinking of people for who they are instead of what they are. It also touches on encouraging a healthy balance between life and work. As someone who lives in America, the toxic work ethic hits a bit close to home.

This isn’t really a spoiler as much as it is pointing out a trope. There’s a lack of communication that causes most of the drama. For various reasons, both characters neglect to tell each other what is really important. If you don’t like stories that use that trope, this probably isn’t for you.

I came across the word bakemono in chapter 5. I wasn’t sure if it was a typo or not, so I looked it up. It was not a typo. It means a state of transformation or shapeshifting. So, in case anyone else wondered.

There’s a bonus chapter in the back called, “The Story of Their First Night Together.” It’s not long, and I think it belongs sandwiched somewhere in chapter seven. It’s an intimate scene, but it doesn’t show anything graphic. It has a lot of sexual implications and heavy breathing. The rest of the book doesn’t have anything like that. It’s the only scene you get for anything past kissing.

The image of the tuxedo cat and the sparrow on the back cover makes a lot of sense after reading the book.

Manga Haul July 2022

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About Hauls:

I can’t guarantee I’ll always have a manga haul to post every month. If I don’t, it might be every two or three months. I want to be sure I’ll have at least four before considering it a haul. Hauls for regular novels will be posted separate from manga. Light novels will be included with manga. Pictures are not my strong suit, but I will try to get better at getting clearer images.

I don’t know what people usually say about their hauls. I’ll just put a personal touch on this, and go over what I got, and say something about it.

About this Manga Haul:

I love Skip Beat!. My collection started in high school when I got the first volume at a book fair for $2.50. I’ve fallen behind a bit, and I’m excited to get caught up on volumes (I think there are 46 right now, and no, these two volumes do not represent where I’m at in the series. I grabbed what I saw, so there’s a gap between volumes 35 and 43 on my shelf.). My plan is to re-read all of it from volume one to review and get caught up. I don’t have an ETA on that.

Spy x Family has been hugely popular. I haven’t read the first volume, yet, but I’ve seen volume two has been sold out in a lot of places for a while. With that in mind, I was motivated to grab it when I saw it. I look forward to starting this series.

The Apothecary Diaries…I was hooked on this after reading the first volume. My plan is to re-read from volume one, and keep up with releases and reviews for this series. I have 1-5( up to date) and will be making reviews for them soon. I would love for the light novel to get a physical release.
Update: Reviews for this series are now available Those mentioned here, and more. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

I’ve been putting off Attack on Titan for a long time. The omnibus editions will be my go to for the series. Omnibus editions are a bit more expensive, so I won’t be buying them as often. This first one was about $5 off on sale, so it was a good time to grab it.