BOOK REVIEW: DARK LOVER, Book 1 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series

Random Thoughts ltd. BOOK REVIEW

Book: Dark Lover
Black Dagger Brotherhood Book Series
by J.R. Ward
Genre: Paranormal/ Fantasy/ Romance
Release: September '05

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....

BOOK DISCRIPTION:

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 the most trusted fightersis kille- 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....

WORLD DISCRIPTION:

The Black Dagger Brotherhood series takes place in modern day New York in the city of Caldwell (which actually does not exist). Underneath the regular everyday human world there is a secret ancient society of Vampires and Lessers (hunters) whom have been battling each other for centuries, after taking in serious losses in the race the Vampire society decided to go underground, hiding themselves from all outer beings and civilizations. With the decreases in Vampires there has also been a decrease in Lessers (since they have nothing to hunt). But the fighting continues as the lessers determination to rid the world of Vampires completely increases.

Where as folk lore allows us to believe that vampires are mystical creatures that were humans turned into evil soulless beings, the world of BDB introduces a new way to look at this popular culture. In this universe Vampires are merely a seperate species created by a mystical being called the Scribe Virgin (thier Diety). They are born, they age (slowly) and they die (they are also able to mate with humans, although half breeds are rare). These Vampires do have some physical and mystical qualities to them. They are allergic to the sun (they turn to ash if exposed) so they roam through the night, they can dematerialize (they can vanish into thin air and appear elsewhere) as long as they are not trying to dematirialize in or out of an area incased with steel and they are not carrying something heavy. They do need to transfer blood for nourishment every couple of weeks (proper blood transfers are done through biting a member of the opposite sex of their species, they can get blood from humans as well, however human blood is much too weak to properly feed and neurish a Vampire, also they try very hard to limit contact with all humans for fear of exposure and further hunting). This race of Vampires are very peaceful and have a lot of complexities involving their biology mainly when it comes to multiplying (vampires cannot turn humans into other vampires) so due to this they are very few in numbers.


In many Vampire stories there are the evil vampire creatures and the human hunters. In this universe the creatures are the hunters known as the lessers. Lessers are humans turned and are primarly males. The Lessers were created by a mystical being called The Omega (their Diety) for the sole purpose of extinguising Vampires from the world once and for all (FYI: the Omega hates vamps and the Scribe Virgin for some reason we don't know yet). The Lessers have inhuman characteristics to them that makes them stand out. They are cold blooded because they have no heart (this is because on their initiation they give up their mortality and their souls to the Omega, their hearts are kept in a jar for safe keeping, this also causes their blood to run black). After being in the society for a while their skin, eyes and hair start to pale (older Lessers have white eyes, white skin and white hair) their skin also develops a distinguish smell of baby powder. Lessers cannot be killed easily, the only way to kill them is by sticking a knife or a dagger in their chest where their hearts are suppose to be until they POOF. Lessers are also impotent, angry and very muderist.

Summary and My take:

This is book one of the continuing series. Dark Lover introduces us to a new world where blood and death is a part of everyday life in a city that has fallen from grace. In this world there are such things as Vampires. The world of the vampires is secret and non- existant to human eyes. They keep to themselves and have very little to no contact with the humans of this world. There is a small band of warriors known as The Brotherhood (non- biological brothers, mostly) that live in secret from both the human and the vampire world. One of which is Darius, whom unknowest to the rest of the brotherhood, has a half breed daughter. Afraid that his daughter may soon be taking in her fathers heritage he fears that her transition to becoming a vampire may end up killing her. Darius ask for the help of his friend and fellow brother, Wrath leader of the group, only pure bred vampire left in the world and relunctant king of the vampires, to help his daughter Beth in her transition. He asked him of this because Wrath owed him a favor for saving his life twice and because Wrath's blood is strong enough to help save Beth. Wrath declines Darius's request, mainly because he dispises humans, especially half breeds who are neither humans or vampires.

Feeling let down and scared for his daughter, Darius starts to think of other ways to help the daughter he has never known. On his way home he is taken by surprise and killed.

Enter Mr. X, a Lesser daring enough to attempt and succeed at killing a member of the Brotherhood. Due to his achievement Mr. X gets promoted by his God The Omega and is made Fore- Lesser (leader of the Lessers) thus starting the chain of events that follow throughout the series.

Shocked and angered by Darius's death Wrath seeks to take revenge. He remembers Darius's request to him and goes to seek the half breed daughter he was asked to help.

Elisabeth Randall is a reporter for a small newspaper in Caldwell, she is an orphan who lost her mother when she was born and has never known her father. She has never fit in anywhere and lately has been experiancing restlessness in her body as well as other discomforts. She also undergoes a horrific experiance one night on her way home. The next day she is surprised to be called in by her friends at the local police station about a sudden high profile death in the city. While investigating the story for work we meet a friend of hers, Brian (Butch) O' Neil, head homicide detective.

Butch has been a cop for a long time and has come to develop dangerous habits. Drinking and taking too many risk on the job. He has also started to fall from grace as he realizes that his line of work is going to garantee him an early grave. However, Butch is a good cop, a hard fighter and a loyal friend who has a crush on Beth. He has recently been following up on recent murder cases involving local prostitutes being cut on the throat and drained of blood. He is also in leads to finding out who and why the high profile murder was. He quickly realizes that something is not right with Beth and goes to comfront her.

Meanwhile Wrath goes to find Beth and is immidiately taken back by her scent. He is attracted to her but does not know why, seeing that he hates humans. Wrath returns to meet with the entirety of the brotherhood and we get to meet each member.

Wrath: Last Pure Bred vampire left, rightful king (although never taking the throne), Leader of the Brotherhood, is cursed by the memory of losing his parents at a very young age, hates humans and Lessers, is nearly blind.

Tohr (Tohrment): Darius's best friend, only mated brother (Shellan is Wellsie), second in command next to Wrath, Level headed.

Rhage: The best fighter of all the brothers, is incredibly beautiful, has a very extravagant sex life, is cursed with an inner beast that comes out whenever he loses control of himself, hot head.

Vishous: The smart one, has an uncompadable intelligence, is cursed with seeing the future and can read minds (he cannot control this), has a tattooed hand he keeps covered at all times, wears a Red Sox cap, listens to heavy rap music (bass drowns out the voices).

Phury: The celibate one, has a missing lower leg, smokes a lot of reds (a relaxant ciggie), has long multicolored hair, lives to take care of his brother, is cursed by living with the guilt of what happened to him and his brother, is twins with Zsadist.

Zsadist: The scary one, has a scarred face, was a blood slave, hates everything and everybody, has lived through horrific experiances, is 'broken', is cursed with memories of his past, is twins with Phury although they barely look alike, is a masochist.

Zsadist and Vishous are my absolute favorite. Through meeting the brothers we also realize that the vampire race is very few and because of thier numbers and the Lessers they are at the brink of extinction. Wrath calls on everyone to band together and take revenge for Darius, at the meantime Wrath vows to look after Beth and help her through her transition.

SPOILER ALERT: FOLOWING BLUE TEXT GIVES AWAY MUCH.

Wrath goes to see Beth one night and ends up scaring the shit out of her and he has to erase her memory of him, hoping next time he could be a little more subtle and less spooky.

We also get to meet Marissa, Wrath’s Shellan. Yup he is mated. However, they were a mismatch. Marissa is considered the beauty of the species and is very devoted to Wrath. But Wrath doesn’t feel anything about her, he never touches her, has never slept with her or kissed her, and they don’t live together either. It turns out that they were set up to be mated as children centuries ago, but they just didn’t click. So basically Marissa is only there to help him feed whenever he needs to and he helps her feed whenever she needs to. Poor Marissa, I always feel so bad for her, I mean she is like a 200 + year old virgin who is mated to a guy who never wanted her.

Through her situation we meet Havers, Marissa’s brother. Havers is a doctor and he operates the vampire clinic, apparently Havers has been working on a new way to store blood for feedings, he had lost his Shellan during childbirth a while ago, and later lost his kid as well. So Havers is determined to find a new way for him to feed without having to touch anyone else. He also dispises Wrath for the way he treats Marissa. Also, Havers is a pompous Aristocrat who dislikes everything below him, so this guy has some issues that will become significant later on.

Now that all of our characters have been introduced we could continue.

The next day Wrath is there thinking about Beth and how good she smelled to him. He decides to go back to her apartment and try to talk to her again, this time without scareing her. When he confronts her she believes he is there to kill her, but her inner instincts take over and she ends up giving herself to him. WHOA! He is dumbfounded when this happens but he cannot help himself, they end up spending the night together, thus starting their relationship together.

Afterwards Wrath realizes what he has done and is feeling so much like a bastard for being with Darius’s daughter. She also starts weirding out because she couldn’t understand why she did what she did. Wrath tells her that he was sent to protect her and was never going to allow anything to happen to her. Thinking he was sent by Butch she trust him. Wrath leaves her then, but not without giving her his contact information.

The next day Beth pays Butch a visit and mentions her meeting the friend he sent over. Butch mentions he didn’t send anybody and Beth starts to get worried. Who was this guy then? Butch becomes concerned and ends up trying to investigate who the guy was. Meanwhile Wrath is wondering why the hell he couldn’t get Beth out of his head. He was starting to feel stuff for her, a half- breed, which was unnatural to him. Later that night Butch takes Beth out to dinner and he puts the moves on her they end up kissing in his car but she feels absolutely nothing, this sets the record straight for Butch and he apologizes. Witnessing all this is Wrath who was paying Beth a visit and noticed she was with someone else. He nearly jumps in to tear Butch apart when he realizes that perhaps its for the best. He waits for Beth as she goes to her apartment. Butch notices Wrath on his way home and catches him off guard and arrest him. Beth witnesses the interaction between the two men and is curious as to who Wrath is and why he was looking for her. Butch takes Wrath to the precient only to get strung up by him and nearly killed, if Beth had not followed them and interviened. Wrath tells Beth he was sent by her father and that she was soon gonna go through a change and he was the only one who could help her. Wrath takes Beth away and they end up running away, leaving poor Butch gasping for air after being held up by his next for a couple of minutes. Of course this doesn’t sit right with Butch, he was unable to get free from the big guy AND he wasn’t able to keep Beth from being taken away. Now he is dead set on finding her and taking Wrath down.

Meanwhile, Wrath is trying to convince Beth that he is not going to hurt her and tries to tell her about her father, her heritage and what she will become. A bunch of stuff happens to them, which I will not give away right now.

Beth finds out about her father and gets to meet all the brothers, she finds out that vampires exist and that she will soon become one, she also discovers that she is falling in love with Wrath, but he keeps pushing her away. Wrath is definantly into Beth, but he doesn’t want to appear weak by falling in love. But everyone sees it. Even Marissa, who after being pushed aside for centuries finally realizes that Wrath will never ever have her, heartbroken and humiliated, she relieves Wrath of his and her mating and she goes on her way. This doesn’t set well with Havers who is now furious with Wrath for humiliating his sister for so long and then eventually dropping her for a human, who is way below any of them. He sets off to perform his revenge.

Havers goes to find someone who would be able to get close enough to Wrath and kill him. He first confronts Zsadist, thinking he would be willing to do the deed, but Zsadist declines and threatens his life for even asking him to do so. Havers then runs into someone else. Mr. X and he informs him of Wrath’s whereabouts. So what will happen to everybody? Will Havers succeed in getting rid of Wrath? Will Beth survive her transition? Will Wrath open up and let Beth in? Will Butch find Beth before its too late and how will this all turn out?

You have to read the book.

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT: HIGHLIGHT IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, OTHERWISE READ THE BOOK FIRST. SERIOUSLY.

Continuation…

Butch gets suspended from the force after they discovered what he did to Billy Riddle (red to find out who he is and what he did). We also get to know a little bit more about his past. Apparently Butch had a sister who was abducted, beaten and raped when he was young, so his connection to making sure Beth was safe had become something he was particularly going to make sure he happened. Beth goes into her transition and Butch finds her, thinking she is going through withdrawl because of what he thinks is her drug dealer boyfriend he has no choice but to take her to the house Wrath and the brothers were at. When arriving Butch gives Beth to Wrath and is left alone with 5 other angry males who do not like humans in their turf. This is one of the best moments in the book. Butch is left alone in a room full of aggressive males and he has absolutely no idea what is going on, but he holds his ground and meets everyone of the intimidating males in the eye. When he is challenged by Rhage he takes him on and ends up wresting with him, still holding his own ground. Rhage and the brothers admire his balls and warm up to him, agreeing not to kill the cop.

At the same time Beth is fading away, and in a tearful declaration Wrath admits he loves her and wants to marry her. After much drama Beth makes it through her transition and agrees to marry Wrath, declaring that she loves him too. The two finally accept each other and they end up wanting to be together. Hurray!

While Butch waits to find out if Beth was alright he runs into Marissa, who decides to confront Wrath and tell him off for making her feel so bad. Butch immediately gets taken in by Marissa and falls for her fast. She also gets a spark from meeting Butch that she had never had before. The two sit down and chat and he asked if he may see her again. Right then Wrath appears thinking him dangerous Butch tries to protect Marissa but it turns the other way around, Marissa ends up confronting Wrath and tells him off, this saves Butch from a serious beat down.

Beth appears soon after and goes to Butch to assure him she was okay and tells him about her being a vampire and who Wrath was and why they were all there. Shocked and confused Butch hesitantly accepts the truth and is shocked to find out that Marissa, the girl he has the hots for, is also a vampire. Wrath also decides to finally take in his responsibilities and take the throne. This is thanks to Beth’s incouragement, he puts out the word that the race must start joining together and they must all start developing strategies in getting the numbers up again.

Beth and Wrath get married, they become king and queen of the vampires and a bunch of other serious shit happens.

The best thing about these books is that it introduces readers to these FANTASTIC colorful characters I have never seen before in books. AND I READ A LOT OF BOOKS.

Dark Lover is a little slow to get into, but once you get in the flow you wont be able to put it down. I read it in one night. It also sets you up for the next book couple of books because of something that happens. You'll know what I mean... Just read. Lover Eternal is next, which was my favorite book, until I read book 3 Lover Awakened.

RATING GUIDE:
Originality: 6, fantastic storylines.
Language: 5, very graphic and well paced.
Writing: 6, The WARDen is a terrific lady.
Romance: 5, has it's moments of corn but barely. Still very good. STEAMY.
Characters: 6+, best set of characters I have read in a very long time.
Action: 5, just enough action to get you going without it overdoing it.
Tear Jeker?: Not really, well not compared to the books that follow.
Favorite Line: "Nice. Fucking. Suit".
Favorite Moment: Butch in the alleyway. Cough. Cough.
Most memorable moment: Butch faces off with the big boys.
Biggest Shocker: Darius and the Scribe Virgin.

Overall Rating: I give this book 6 stars out of 6 stars.

Stay Tuned. I will be reviewing Book 2. Lover Eternal shorty.