Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward
Nov. 26th, 2007 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmoore Ok, I shall be 100% honest: it is extremely difficult to discuss this book without just repetively going "ZSADIST! BELLA! OTP! REHVENGE! JOHN!" but I shall try.
Lover Awakened is the 3rd book in Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and the onemagicnoirewas dangling in front of me like a carrot. With good reason (she can predict my shipping/character preferrences with concerning accuracy, that one...)
It's the rare(only?) vampire romance(book, even) where I feel absolutely no desire whatsoever to mock it for cliches, emo or badness. Or even crack. It's an extreme "beauty and the beast" story with an aristocrat recovering from almost the worst thing that could happen to a woman, and a scarred slave who's turned self-hatred into an art form over the decades. Clearly, it's fairly dark, a bit messed up, and not chirpy happy fun.
I love it to bits.
Lover Awakened is the 3rd book in Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and the one
magicnoirewas dangling in front of me like a carrot. With good reason (she can predict my shipping/character preferrences with concerning accuracy, that one...)It's the rare(only?) vampire romance(book, even) where I feel absolutely no desire whatsoever to mock it for cliches, emo or badness. Or even crack. It's an extreme "beauty and the beast" story with an aristocrat recovering from almost the worst thing that could happen to a woman, and a scarred slave who's turned self-hatred into an art form over the decades. Clearly, it's fairly dark, a bit messed up, and not chirpy happy fun.
I love it to bits.
Xsadist is the darkest(in terms of past and personality) of the Brothers, a man who won't let even his twin, Phury, in. Born into the warrior class, Zsadist was stolen from his family as an infant and turned into a blood slave. At the time of his transition(read: when Ward's vampires change from scrawny runts into built hotties) his Mistress decided he'd make a good bedslave. For decades, Zsadist's world was limited to when he was literally chained to a bed in and otherwise empty, windowless room, his only human contact the repeated rapes of his Mistress, and the others she brought to watch-and occassionally use-him. After decades of this, he came to view his body, and sex, as evil, dirty things. His first "freedom" from this was when his Mistress's Mate learned of his existance, drug him from the room and whipped him within an inch of his life. He survived only because Phury had finally found him after a century of searching. In the decades since, he has tattooed and deliberately scarred his body, trying to make it as ugly on the outside as he sees it on the inside, and doing everything possible to make everyone see him as nothing but a heartless monster, to the point where he has acquired a reputation for rape and reckless murder.
Bella is an aristocrat who met and was drawn to Zsadist when she brought a young man she recognized as a pretransitioned Warrior to the Brotherhood's attention, seeing the hurt under Zsadist's hate, only to be pushed away. Even as she is held to the standards of an aristocrat, Bella is ostracized for having *gasp* had a pre-marital affair years ago, and has only recently convinced her extremely over-protective and controlling brother, Rehvenge, to let her live apart from the family. An indepenndence she pays the price for, asDavid, a Lesser(vampire hunter) abducts her from her home, having learned what she is.
Except David is quite right in the head. Once upon a time, he had a girlfriend named Jennifer, who he regularly beat to show his "love." Since her death, he's sought out brunettes who bear even the vaguest resemblance to Jennifer, killing them. And Bella? Brown haired women don't come any prettier. Instead of killing Bella, David makes her his "wife." He chains her and locks her in a cage, torturing her people in front of her, all the while telling her that he loves her, that she's special and not like the other "trash," forcing her to tell him she returns his love. But one day, David's secret-that he has kept her alive-is discovered, and while David is killing the other lesser, Bella is able to free the vampire David had captured for her to feed from(Ward's vampire's mostly feed off of other vampires, as human blood doesn't last long) but can't escape herself because of her chains. This earns her, for the first time, David's physical abuse, and he leaves her body essentially a freakshow(Ward doesn't detail it all out, of course, but what she does tell us is more than enough.) Fortunately, vampires heal well as long as salt isn't poured in the wounds, so she's able to go back to being beautiful again-on the outside-in a few days.
The one to find and rescue her, of course, is Zsadist, who has been literally tearing the world apart looking for her the six weeks she was held prisoner. Because of this, and the draw to him that she felt before, Bella clings to Zsadist, insisting that he be the one to stay by her side and care for her, even as he both tends to Bella and tries to push her away. Because to Zsadist, Bella is the purest, most beautiful thing in existance, and even being near him defiles her.
It's not pretty. There's pain and anger on both sides, and they hurt each other out of that pain, and out of fear. It is, ultimately, a case of two extremely damaged people-though one far more damaged than the other-healing each other. It almost makes the pain and darkness of Mars all cute and fluffy. I love it more than I have words for. And I never read vampire books for the romance. But this one hits to with a garage truck of OTP in Lover Eternal and doesn't stop until the end. I do think the end was a little too sappy for Zsadist, but I don't care.
And a few bits beyond that:
*I probably love Rehvenge a lot more than I should love such a character, esp. given the revelations near the end. Incidentally, I'm appalled at myself for not catching on to that quicker than I did...in retrospect, there's were enough hints dropped. I shall just blame it on my obsession with the OTP.
*I am seriously loving the John Matthew stuff. The boy seriously rips into all the tortured silent hero and reincarnated king cliches like thwere's no tomorrow.
*Ok, yes, Phury was a whiny emo loser as the 3rd wheel here, but things like hunting for the twin he's never met for over a century, infiltrating the aristocracy, slaughtering a bunch of vampires and shooting off his own leg to save his brother, not to mention shaving and scarring himself to take his twin's place to face a sadistic bastard so his twin can be with the woman they both love? I AM HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO THINGS LIKE THIS!
*Is Tohrment dead? As I have been a comic book fan for over half my life, I have a very strict "no body=no death" rule, and I do not count getting swallowed up by a whirlwind/black hole you created yourself as a body...
Butch and Marissa's book is next, I gather. I'm rather looking forward to it(what? I can go for beautiful, sheltered aristocrat and near-bum bitter and angsty fighter out of his league, too...and I liked their scenes in Dark Lover.)
Of course, I probably won't read more BDB until early next year...
Bella is an aristocrat who met and was drawn to Zsadist when she brought a young man she recognized as a pretransitioned Warrior to the Brotherhood's attention, seeing the hurt under Zsadist's hate, only to be pushed away. Even as she is held to the standards of an aristocrat, Bella is ostracized for having *gasp* had a pre-marital affair years ago, and has only recently convinced her extremely over-protective and controlling brother, Rehvenge, to let her live apart from the family. An indepenndence she pays the price for, asDavid, a Lesser(vampire hunter) abducts her from her home, having learned what she is.
Except David is quite right in the head. Once upon a time, he had a girlfriend named Jennifer, who he regularly beat to show his "love." Since her death, he's sought out brunettes who bear even the vaguest resemblance to Jennifer, killing them. And Bella? Brown haired women don't come any prettier. Instead of killing Bella, David makes her his "wife." He chains her and locks her in a cage, torturing her people in front of her, all the while telling her that he loves her, that she's special and not like the other "trash," forcing her to tell him she returns his love. But one day, David's secret-that he has kept her alive-is discovered, and while David is killing the other lesser, Bella is able to free the vampire David had captured for her to feed from(Ward's vampire's mostly feed off of other vampires, as human blood doesn't last long) but can't escape herself because of her chains. This earns her, for the first time, David's physical abuse, and he leaves her body essentially a freakshow(Ward doesn't detail it all out, of course, but what she does tell us is more than enough.) Fortunately, vampires heal well as long as salt isn't poured in the wounds, so she's able to go back to being beautiful again-on the outside-in a few days.
The one to find and rescue her, of course, is Zsadist, who has been literally tearing the world apart looking for her the six weeks she was held prisoner. Because of this, and the draw to him that she felt before, Bella clings to Zsadist, insisting that he be the one to stay by her side and care for her, even as he both tends to Bella and tries to push her away. Because to Zsadist, Bella is the purest, most beautiful thing in existance, and even being near him defiles her.
It's not pretty. There's pain and anger on both sides, and they hurt each other out of that pain, and out of fear. It is, ultimately, a case of two extremely damaged people-though one far more damaged than the other-healing each other. It almost makes the pain and darkness of Mars all cute and fluffy. I love it more than I have words for. And I never read vampire books for the romance. But this one hits to with a garage truck of OTP in Lover Eternal and doesn't stop until the end. I do think the end was a little too sappy for Zsadist, but I don't care.
And a few bits beyond that:
*I probably love Rehvenge a lot more than I should love such a character, esp. given the revelations near the end. Incidentally, I'm appalled at myself for not catching on to that quicker than I did...in retrospect, there's were enough hints dropped. I shall just blame it on my obsession with the OTP.
*I am seriously loving the John Matthew stuff. The boy seriously rips into all the tortured silent hero and reincarnated king cliches like thwere's no tomorrow.
*Ok, yes, Phury was a whiny emo loser as the 3rd wheel here, but things like hunting for the twin he's never met for over a century, infiltrating the aristocracy, slaughtering a bunch of vampires and shooting off his own leg to save his brother, not to mention shaving and scarring himself to take his twin's place to face a sadistic bastard so his twin can be with the woman they both love? I AM HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO THINGS LIKE THIS!
*Is Tohrment dead? As I have been a comic book fan for over half my life, I have a very strict "no body=no death" rule, and I do not count getting swallowed up by a whirlwind/black hole you created yourself as a body...
Butch and Marissa's book is next, I gather. I'm rather looking forward to it(what? I can go for beautiful, sheltered aristocrat and near-bum bitter and angsty fighter out of his league, too...and I liked their scenes in Dark Lover.)
Of course, I probably won't read more BDB until early next year...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 03:09 am (UTC)Honestly, Phury doesn't become a whiny emo psycho until book 5. He was emo in LA but as you pointed out, his shooting off his own leg to find his twin kind of negates that.
I liked Butch and Marissa's book. I didn't think I would because I was lukewarm towards their interactions in previous books but it turned out good. Also, there's lots of Rehv because he has the hots for Marissa and tries to hook up with her. (This... doesn't annoy me like it normally would because for all that he's a psychic vampire who stylizes himself as a badass, evil gangsta, he has a good heart. Anyone who loves their sister and mom as much as him can't all be that bad.)
And no, I don't think Tohr is dead.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 03:20 am (UTC)Yes(which is why one day, I shall try to shove Basara down your throat despite it being shojo-in a post-apocalyptic wuxia way-just to create another Shuri/Sarasa shipper)
Yes. Ward knows how to make us forgive certain behaviors. Kinda like Akimine Kamijyo's being able to convince us that sexual harassment=true love.
Exactly. I like that he seems to be nicer than he acts...but actually probably worse in a way. And he can TOLERATE his mother...really, I couldn't even be mad when he wanted to lock Bella up and throw away the key(easy to understand why he'd be so freaked out.)
No body=No death.
Plus:
No Tohr=Less Angst.
I refuse to believe that Ward will pass up on such a golden opportunity for angst.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 12:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 04:16 pm (UTC)This is actually the 3rd book in the series. You can probably get away with reading it but not reading the first Dark Lover, but the story in Lover Awakened starts in Lover Eternal, so you definately need to read that first. The first book isn't great, but it's better than a lot of this type of stuff.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 04:20 pm (UTC)I'll look for the first one.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 04:29 pm (UTC)Also, when they get married, they have their wive's names carved in their backs. The heroine in the first wishes her name had been "Mary" or "Sue" instead of "Elizabeth" during this, and the heroine in the second IS named Mary.
I admire her ability to openly tear into the genre even while feeding it.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 06:41 pm (UTC)This series is supposed to go on for a while. She's got several more characters to marry off. i kind of wish that she would just do the continuing saga of the bdb (who occasionally get it on with someone) and leave it at that, but i don't get a vote.
btw, have you actually been to the message boards? that's some scary stuff.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 07:00 pm (UTC)JR Ward acts like she is just transcribing the books from things the brothers have told her. Someone asked her a question once about something in the book, and she said she didn't know why it was like that, that's just what Wrath told her. You are encouraged to think of the characters as real people--so much so that they all have their own profiles on the board, and she will actually get on as them and have them going back and forth with each other (you can find these by going to "Brother Interactions on the Boards") about stupid stuff--once Vishous shaved Rhage's eyebrow off, stuff like that. And all the women on the board get so uber-excited, they start talking to them like they are real men and taking sides and all sorts of cringe-inducing behavior.
And people ask questions like, "would so-and-so ever go for a bigger girl with red hair?" and you KNOW that the person asking the question is a bigger girl with red hair. And JR Ward encourages it all, every bit of it. She's on the boards a lot herself, answering questions and doing dumb stuff. I can't stay on there for more than a few minutes because all this kind of stuff drives me INSANE-->
< Phury comes on line >
VishousGRRRL278: *fans herself with piece of paper*
PhurysShellan_01: *hands V'sGrrl box of chocolates and red wine*
Vampyress_Lu: *feels faint at the prospect of talking to Phury*
Changeling_37819: *puts pillow on the floor for Vampyress_Lu to fall on*
ETC.
INSANE I TELL YOU. INSANE.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 01:55 am (UTC)yet, i have a bizarre need to look...
no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 01:56 am (UTC)