2 Book Lovers Reviews

Dark Lover: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood 

By J.R.Ward

This book selection was an unusual one for me. I generally don’t read books about species that don’t exist in real life. I had heard a lot of great things about this series and I will admit that I was curious. I decided to give it a try…and I was pleasantly surprised.

This is the first book in the series. This story is about Wrath, the only remaining purebred vampire on Earth. He is a huge, muscled, leather clad warrior, and he is almost completely blind. He has sworn to protect the daughter of one of his fellow brothers who was killed by their enemies (The Lessers). Beth (the daughter), has no idea that she is half vampire. She lives amongst the humans and works as a journalist for the local newspaper. Wrath must help Beth when she “transitions” into a vampire. It is a strange and painful process that vampires go through when they are in their early twenties. She has many male admirers, however, she has little interest in any of them. Beth works closely with the local police department for her job and has the interest of a particular detective, named Butch. Butch and Wrath end up meeting in an alley and they get into a near death fight. This ends up drawing Butch into the vampire world as well.

Wrath comes to Beth one evening and she thinks that she is dreaming the whole thing. She has no idea that vampires exist. She is incredibly attracted to Wrath, despite his size and appearance. Oh, he is gorgeous, but just in a scary kind of way. Wrath is also drawn to Beth despite his promise to protect her.

Throughout the novel you learn about these vampires/brothers. They appear strong, vicious, and dangerous….and they are, but they also have a good side. Their job as warriors is to fight against The Lessening Society (a group of deranged soulless beings) in order to help the vampire species survive.

I would definitely consider this book to be a romance, although there is a lot of action and suspense in it as well. The one thing that really made me enjoy this book was that the vampires were normal (if that makes any sense). They ate regular food, they drove cars, they had cell phones, etc. They still drank blood in order to give them energy, but they did not drink from humans.

I tried something new and I liked it. I even recommended it to my husband, who has read all of the Sookie Stackhouse books. I will definitely continue reading this series!

4.5 Stars