Vampires - Fantastic Fictions

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
Amazon Barnes & Noble ThriftBooks

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).

Dark Lover by J.R. Ward
Series Name: Black Dagger Brotherhood
Volume Number: 1
Genres: Contemporary, Erotica, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Urban, Vampires
Intended Age Group: Adult
Publisher: Signet Eclipse/Penguin Group (USA)
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 0-451-21695-4
Rating: 3.5/5
Amazon Barnes & Noble ThriftBooks

Description from the Book

In the Shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there’s a deadly turf war going on between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers like no other – six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Yet none of them relishes killing their enemies more than Wrath, the leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood…

The only purebred vampire left on the planet, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who murdered his parents centuries ago. But when one of his most trusted fighters is killed – orphaning a half-breed daughter unaware of her heritage or her fate – Wrath must usher the beautiful female into the world of the undead…

Racked by a restlessness in her body that wasn’t there before, Beth Randall is helpless against the dangerously sexy man who comes to her at night with shadows in his eyes. His tales of brotherhood and blood frighten her. But his touch ignites a dawning hunger that threatens to consume them both…

Personal & Info

The blog does not line up well with my reading of this series. I was a ways into it before I even started thinking about making a blog. At the time I’m typing this, I’m ten books in, and actively reading the series. However, I feel like I should include the series in my reviews, so I’m going to try to go back and look at my pitiful notes and muddle my way through to get caught up.

I’d heard this series was good, but I never went out of my way to buy it. That is, until I found a deal on getting the first several volumes cheap. I jumped on the opportunity, and I don’t regret it. With this in mind, you can be sure the editions I have, for at least the first few, are likely outdated. I don’t think you can even find this edition in stores anymore. If you go looking for this book, you’ll find an updated cover that looks nothing like this one.

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, but I’ll do my best for this. Remember, I haven’t read this in about a year, so I might forget or miss some. Anyway, here they are: attempted rape, sexual themes, violence, and kidnapping.

Characters

Beth and Wrath are the main characters here, obviously. I remember I like Beth. Wrath did a few things that could be considered creepy. I think Tohr was also significant. He was the only one Wrath trusted to keep an eye on Beth, because Tohr is already married. If you like dominant and possessive men, this is definitely for you.

Some of the other brothers, if not all (I can’t remember), were introduced. I’m almost positive it was all of them. Their names couldn’t possibly be any “edgier.” They’re so edgy it’s comical. Here are their names: Wrath, Tohrment, Rhage, Vishous, Zsadist, and Phury. I got used to it after a while. Most of them use abbreviations, so that helps.

There’s a loose cannon cop named Butch, always a good trope.

Mr. X is the villain of the story, and by villain I mean the right hand man of the guy who is the real villain, but we don’t exactly see the real villain much. His perspective gives us insight into how the slayers, or Lessers, as they are called, operate.

Story & Thoughts

Story-wise, I think the book started a bit slow. There were, maybe, 4-8 different perspectives for converging events, so there was a lot of ground for plot and lore to cover before things got good. To try to name some of the perspectives, I think they were Beth, Wrath, Marissa, Mr. X, Butch, Havers, and José de la Cruz. If there were more, I can’t remember, and I don’t care enough to check the book more thoroughly. If you get confused by books that have multiple perspectives being swapped all the time, this might not be for you. I personally like books that tell stories that way. I don’t know why, I just do, so it didn’t bother me. However, in regards to the pacing and plot prep and everything, I wasn’t expecting two thirds of the book to go by before Beth’s transition.

There are plenty of sexy bits in the story. Most of the time they contribute to the story or character development in some way. That’s why it’s considered erotica. To be an erotica, the sexual parts of a story have to be important to the plot. They definitely are for this, even if some of them weren’t exactly the most natural or reasonable implementations (refer to what I said about Wrath doing a few things that can be considered creepy).

I have to say, this book was also memorable because of the writing. There were typos, but there are bound to be typos in any book, especially early editions, like I think this one was. Some of the word choices though, were odd. I don’t have any examples off hand, but some of the slang is very dated. Maybe it wasn’t at the time this was published, I’m not sure. The slang was definitely dated enough to be cringe-worthy. I couldn’t help giggling while I read.

Something else to know, there’s a glossary in the front of the book. Ward created words for the Vampire language that will be frequently used. They’re easy enough to remember, but if you forget, it’s there to refresh your memory. Some words are similar to the English language, that’s intentional. I can’t remember if it’s in this book or another, but they clarify why that is.