I have been reading books in this style of writing for a very long time this has to be one of My Favorites. ( )

In the first Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Beth Randall is a reporter for a small newspaper outside New York City. Her life starts to unravel after she’s attacked and nearly raped one night. She soon learns she’s not fully human. In fact, she’s part vampire and is in the middle of her transitioning—the state of becoming an adult vampire with various powers.
Wrath is the king of the vampire species, but he refuses to rule. Instead, he leads the brotherhood of warriors to protect the vampire civilians from the Lessening Society, an organization of soulless humans who want to kill all vampires. The vampires are nearly extinct due to the high probability of their women and babies dying in childbirth, as well as from the lesser attacks. He helps Beth through the transitioning—at her dead father’s last request—but he never expected to fall for her.
I really liked Beth. She’s levelheaded and determined to survive whatever life throws at her. I couldn’t relate to Wrath. He’s too arrogant and callous. Their relationship starts fast (they have sex within ten minutes of meeting each other, and she’s halfway drugged), and they’re committed to each other within a handful of days.
Wrath’s brothers-in-arms all have dark, mysterious paths. They’ve adapted well to the twenty-first century in their smack-talk, rap music, material items, and attitude. They’re badasses and vicious when needed, which is pretty often, but they protect their own. Unfortunately, if you’re not part of their clique, they don’t care if you live or die. They don’t care about human casualties in their fight against the lessers, but since Beth is part human, Wrath is changing his ways and will make sure the others do as well.
Butch, Beth’s human cop friend, is awesome. He’s the only male character in the book that I fully liked and understood as a person. He fits in well with the Brotherhood—his past and life is just as seedy as theirs—but he’s a more decent person. His connection to Marissa is beautiful. Even though I’m not a big fan of Marissa, I’m looking forward to reading their story.
There are some unanswered questions. Will Wrath tell Beth about his past with Marissa? Will he continue to feed from Marissa or another vampire female when in need, or will Beth’s half human/vampire blood be strong enough, as long as he’s not mortally injured? Did the brothers find out Zsadist wasn’t responsible for killing the prostitutes?
The story is well-written in alternating POVs with proper scene breaks. There was no head-hopping or typos from what I noticed, which is always wonderful. I have several books in this series, so I’m looking forward to reading more. Hopefully, the brothers will grow on me once I get to know them better.
3 Stars
( )

Not something I would read....in a million years. Was done for my book club as a challenge and honestly wasn't overall a bad book. I think I'm going to at least try one more. There is a little more spice than I'd like but I do like the overall story ( )

There is nothing good about this book.

The story is a badly written, smut filled “romance” with an asshole hero and a heroine who makes women look like idiots who can’t control themselves around men.

My biggest issue is with the Brotherhood itself. The vampires in this book are big, listen to rap, and dress tough, but their names are really dumb. Why are they adding letters to their names to give them vampire street credibility? Vampires have their own traditions, customs, and language. Their names, however, read like those of pre-teen goth girls picking names for their future children. There is even one human, but it has an uninteresting name: Butch.

Despite the amount of explicit sex in these books, they do not feel very erotic. There was an extremely unlikely love-at-first-sight experience in the book followed by smut. Unlikable characters lead to no emotional investment in their fate. My honest opinion of this book is that I have read far better fan fiction online.

Still baffled by everyone else’s glowing reviews. Dark Lover features terrible writing, clichéd romance, and male characters with teenage-girl speaking styles. For fans of trashy romance books, this is perfect, but for those who enjoy horror and fantasy, skip this nauseating, sophomoric read. ( )

COuldn't handle the hilarious audiobook reading. ( )