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...