J. R. Ward (1) (1969–)

In the second Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Mary Luce is dealing with a lot of issues. Aside from her leukemia returning, she volunteers for a suicide help hotline and meets John, an abused young man who can only communicate through sign language. Even though she and her friend Bella want to help him, Bella knows what John truly is and she contacts the Brotherhood for help.
When Rhage first meets Mary, he knows she’s different from any female he’s ever met. She calms his inner beast—the dragon tattoo on his back literally comes to life, takes over his body, and kills everything in its path—and he’s desperate for the bliss she gives him. Fighting and having sex releases the beast, but he’d rather fight than sleep around. After a century of meaningless flings, he wants something permanent. Unfortunately, he can’t control the beast when in bed with Mary, so he can’t sleep with her.
Mary is stubborn, willful, and wants to protect those she cares about. Her pain over the cancer, her low self-esteem issues, and her lack of trust in Rhage is all understandable and very sad. Rhage’s self-hatred eats away at him, and he’s determined to do whatever he must to keep Mary safe, even betray her. They have a big communication problem. She doesn’t share her pain about her past and the cancer, and he doesn’t tell her about his curse and the problems going on in the vampire world. Though Rhage gets upset with her, as he should, Mary often just accepts his half-truths and refusal to talk. I liked both characters—don’t get me wrong—but I had a hard time respecting them.
Even though I understood Rhage’s reasons and sympathized with him, I don’t like cheating. I thought what he and Mary needed to do in order to solve their intimacy problem was obvious, but they didn’t figure it out until the end of the book, after he cheats on her.
As with the last book, I found it hard to relate to the brothers. Yeah, they’re gorgeous, arrogant badasses, but they take the thug mentality too far. Also, I don’t understand their obsession with name-brand clothes. In fact, the brand name of every single outfit, including jewelry and luggage, that every character wore was always mentioned.
There are some unanswered questions, but they seem to tie directly into the next story. Yay, Z!
I noticed a few typos but nothing major. The writing is good, but there are some awkward word choices. For example, I interpreted the sentence “What’s doing?” as “What’s going on?”
Overall, I enjoyed the book and look forward to the next one.
4.5 Stars
… (mer)

In this Black Dagger Brotherhood novella, Bella isn’t happy with her marriage. Zsadist still suffers from horrendous nightmares and thinks about his time as a blood and sex slave far too often. She gives him the space he needs, but he’s withdrawing from her and their infant daughter, Nalla. Though he’s protective of them, he no longer kisses Bella, and he refuses to hold or even touch his daughter. The rest of the Brotherhood and the shellans in the household adore Nalla, but Bella is prepared to leave Zsadist for good if he doesn’t shape up and be the hellren and papa Bella needs him to be.
This is such an emotionally charged story. Zsadist has grown a lot from his introduction in the first book, Dark Lover, and even more from his main story, Lover Awakened. He’s still on the road to recovery, but his fear is dragging him back to the darkness in his mind.
For first time readers, I really think you should read the prior books to understand this one. However, for readers of the series, you won’t be missing anything if you skip this novella. Still, I recommend it because it’s a sweet story. I love this couple!
5 Stars
… (mer)

In the third Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Bella has survived mental and physical torture for the past six weeks at the hands of a lesser. When the brotherhood finally rescues her, she’s lost and confused, and only feels safe around Zsadist, the vampire warrior whom she’s dreamed about for so long.
Zsadist is the most tormented of the brothers. After a century of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse as a blood slave, he believes himself to be unworthy and dirty. He doesn’t trust easily. He’s loyal to the brotherhood, but he’s not friends with any of the brothers. He’s cruel, rude, and able to kill without blinking an eye. Until Bella.
Z’s twin, Phury, is racked with guilt. He’s constantly worrying about his brother, and he’s so stressed he’s turned to drugs to help him level out. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to help Z, even give up Bella, the woman he cares about.
This is an amazing story, and I can see why it’s a fan favorite. I cried a few times. Bella and Zsadist are wonderful, broken characters. Z keeps his pain bottled up inside. He only feels anger and hatred, no other emotions. Bella breaks through his walls and forces him to grow as a person and find his humanity. It was beautiful and heart wrenching.
In the previous two books, I couldn’t relate to the brothers as a whole. In this book, I finally saw them as a family unit and realized how deep their emotions are for one another.
Several different plot lines run alongside the main romance, which feature: Butch, John, Phury, Rehvenge, and Mr. O (the villain). Butch and Marissa’s story is up next. I’m a big Butch fan, but I’m not so crazy about Marissa.
I knew it was coming (I’ve researched this series before reading it), but I was shocked with how Tohr lost Wellsie. The aftermath and Tohr’s breakdown will surely be hard to read in later books.
I didn’t like Bella’s brother, Rehvenge. He’s a drug-dealing pimp who traffics women and drugs through his nightclub, and he wants to keep Bella under house arrest to protect her. I don’t mind overprotective brothers, but I don’t like double standards, especially those that are so extreme. After all, those “whores,” as Rehv calls them, are somebody else’s daughter and possible sister. Hopefully, he’ll find a way to redeem himself.
There are some unusual word choices and phrases. For example: the word “boot,” as in shoe, is never used. Instead, it’s “shitkicker.” I can see the warriors using that because they sometimes talk like gangstas, but vampire civilians and humans use it, too, so it feels awkward to me.
Anyway, I absolutely loved this story. It’s my favorite so far in the series.
5 Stars
… (mer)

In the fourth Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Marissa hasn’t seen or spoken to Butch in months. Since she’s used to rejection, she thinks he wants nothing to do with her.
Butch O’Neal is the only human who knows about the Brotherhood, but he feels like an outsider looking in. He wants to fight and protect the vampire race against the lesser (super-strong soulless humans), but the Brotherhood refuses to let him. After he saves a vampire civilian, he’s captured, tortured, poisoned, and left for dead. Thanks to his best warrior buddy Vishous, he’s taken to a vampire-run hospital, but he’s different. The lessers’ god, the Omega, has put some of his evil darkness into Butch’s body. Luckily, Butch’s new abilities work in the Brotherhood’s favor.
I absolutely loved Butch! Despite his abusive childhood, he was strong, easygoing, and determined to help others. He was an honorable person and loved Marissa very much. His and V’s friendship deepened to a whole new level. Neither of them understood the strange connection between them, but it was definitely sexual in nature. Though he wants Marissa, he knows his friendship with V is just as important.
I couldn’t relate to Marissa. I felt sorry for her—she suffered so much pain and humiliation—but most of it was her own fault. She was just too polite to stand up for herself. Though she does grow and become stronger as the book progresses, I couldn’t forgive the way she shamed Butch after they made love for the first time and how she demanded things of him, which destroyed his self-worth.
I really liked most of the side characters. Zsadist has stepped up to teach the warrior trainees, and I loved the scenes with him and John. Poor, sweet John. (I adore him!) After Wellsie’s death and Tohr’s disappearance in the last book, John has become so angry and determined to avenge them. His argument with Wrath, the vampire king, was heart wrenching.
Xhex is an awesome new character. She’s Rehvenge’s symphath friend and lead security guard at his nightclub.
I’m still not fond of Rehv. How will he keep his job as a pimp a secret after the incident with a glymera (aristocratic) patron? This looks like a glaring issue to me, but I doubt it will be mentioned in the later books.
Even though I found some various word choices/phrases distracting, I enjoyed this story and I’m excited to read about V in the next book.
4 Stars
… (mer)