Dark Lover by J.R Ward

[meganbmoore]

Near the end of this book, the heroine watches the hero get her name carved into his back as part of the wedding ceremony, and wonders why her named couldn't by Mary or Sue, instead of Elizabeth.  i feel that  scene is the perfect example of what to expect here.

Dark Lover is the first book in J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, which 

magicnoire described to me as(I believe these were her words) "the Dark Hunters book, only on steroids and pure crack."  A  pretty accurate description.

I will be completely honest:  I have no idea if this book was good or bad.  I'm not sure if I like it.  I couldn't tell you a thing about what I think of the romance(In fact, it's possible that the relationship between Butch and Marissa was more developed than that between Wrath and Beth).  I am too busy being in awe.  Let's observe:

These are vampires.  They are  giant, hulking gothy things who own nothing but black leather.  The characters have names like Wrath, Tohrment, Zsadist, Phury, Butch, Rhage, Vishous and Mr. X.  Oh, and Beth and Marissa.  The main character of this book, Wrath, is the leader of the group 6'6", wears black leather, has long hair, and wears  wraparound glasses to hide strange eyes.  He absolutely does NOT remind me of anyone from Dark Hunters and wouldn't even if you gave him a tattoo that could turn into a mouthy demon.  The villains become castrated to become near-immortal vampire haters and take out their frustration in sadism.  The heroes sit around talking about how much they want to kill things.  One of them says you can't claim to have been wounded in battle until you can use your intestines as a belt while stitching himself up.

And just as good as Mary and Sue is Butch pondering why vampires have such names and then realizing he could never take a vampire named Harold or Charlie seriously.  I have to admire a writer so amazingly aware of the absurdity and cliches of her chosen genre.

It doesn't have as much camp and cheese as the Dark Hunters books do(or at least, not the same kind)  but Beth, though still a Mary Sue, didn't annoy me as much as most Dark Hunters heroines do.  Then again, I was never completely distracted by other things there as I am here.  It also doesn't have the cool if often contradictory mythology Dark Hunters has, but then, I tghink it took a few books for that to get going there, too, so we'll see.

As I said, I have no idea if this is good, and I don't know if "like" is the right word for my opinion of the book, but I have the next 2 books in the series and I shall read them if for no other reason than to stare in awe.

 

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

To be honest, Dark Lover is my least favorite of the series and I had much the same reaction you did. ("What the hell? Why is everyone raving about this series?") I honestly don't know if I liked that book much either. And then I read the next one (Lover Eternal) and while I wasn't quite sold on that one either, it had a huge subplot about Zsadist and his heroine and I was doomed!

Oh, and it introduced John Matthew and again, doomed!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I am amused and somewhat awed enough, as well as impressed by the writer's freely tearing into genre cliches that she's taking to the extreme rnough to continue. Plus, they were too buy talking about killing things to engage in whiny emo.

I have no idea who John Matthew is,, but I see what you meant before about Zsadist.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

John Matthew is introduced in Lover Eternal. His entire character rips into a certain paranormal genre cliche but I'll leave that be since it is a massive spoiler.

The most whiny emo of the brothers is Phury, truthfully. I mean, Vishous did engage in some crazy angsting in book 4 but that was more lovesick mooning than Phury, who not only does lovesick mooning but also does whiny emo bitching in book 5. ("I am more special than you!")

[hrimcealde.livejournal.com]

hahaha, amen. i wish he would just shut up. i like him an' all, but he's such a whiny bitch in the last book. of course, that's because he's next for the takedown of lurrve.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

rule ofromance novels: more emo whining=that much closer tp your own book.

[hrimcealde.livejournal.com]

i agree...the romance part of the books aren't very well developed, and i've read them all to date.

well, Z's and Rhage's books are okay, but after that, imho, they go downhill as romances. But the backstory and the drama, and the world she's created gets more and more complex and interesting to me.

I almost wish she'd drop the romance and just make it urban fantasy. but that's just me.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree with the romance vs. drama bit.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

"I almost wish she'd drop the romance and just make it urban fantasy. but that's just me."

I have similar reactions to more romance novels than i care to think about.

[akosikae.livejournal.com]

Hehehehe. Read on. I'll just content myself in reading your posts about it. Um, Dark Hunters, Christine Feehan Dark Hunters?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Sherilyn Kenyon Dark Hunters. I think the Feehan books are called The Carpathians(never been interested inthem, so i'm not sure)