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Hello friends! When it became clear to me that I needed to write romance, I set out on a mission to read as many books of the romance canon as I could get my hands on. Safe to say that I will be working on this mission for the rest of my life because there is so. much. to. read. (Which is a good thing.) I came to romance via chick lit in the early 2000’s so there is a lot that I missed. I’m pretty up on the new releases in romance, but I’ve still got a lot to read when it comes to the classics. This is a one-time intro into my Romance Rewind posts, just so you have some background as to why I’m just getting to these novels, so let’s jump in.
Title: Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood #1)
Author: JR Ward
Publication Year: 2005
Sub-genre: Paranormal
Content Warning: Attempted sexual assault on the page
Alright. So let me just say right off the bat, paranormal is really the last sub-genre I jumped into with romance. Contemporary is always going to be my favorite, I love a lot of historicals, but paranormal just seemed like not my thing. I did enjoy Twilight when it came out, but it was never my favorite (and Twilight is nothing if not paranormal light). But at RWA last summer, I was gifted a copy of Kresley Cole’s Demon from the Dark, which is part of her Immortals After Dark series. And holy shit, guys, I fell in hard. I’m currently collecting all of the IAD books and am now working my way through several other paranormal series and I can’t get enough. After listening to JR Ward’s episode of the Wicked Wallflowers Club podcast (which if you aren’t already listening to, get on it immediately), I was like, I need these books in my life. And then I found out Dark Lover was going to be discussed on this season of Fated Mates (which you also need to listen to, immediately) and it was like fate (get it?). I managed to snag Dark Lover at my favorite local used bookstore and I was off.
(Spoilers ahead) Dark Lover is about Wrath and Beth. Wrath is basically the king of the vampire race (who in this series, are born, not made) but he refuses to take up the “throne” and lead his people. Beth works for some kind of newspaper or magazine, but little does she know, she’s about to be turning into a vampire. Beth doesn’t know her father, who is a vampire (though he is killed in the beginning of the book), so she has no idea what’s going to happen to her. Her father asks Wrath to help Beth through her transition (these vampires only feed off other vampires) and initially Wrath refuses, but when her father is killed, he changes his mind. They fall in love (duh). A bunch of other stuff happens with the vampires’ enemies, known as the lessers, who are humans who have given up their souls so they can take down the vampires. We also get to meet the rest of the core Black Dagger Brotherhood members who each get their own books (which I am already starting to read). There is also some drama with Marissa, who before Beth came along, was the female Wrath fed from. They apparently should have had some sort of relationship, but didn’t because Wrath was never into it. Marissa ends up falling for a human cop named Butch who was originally interested in Beth. The drams is real guys. Beth and Wrath end up getting married (cue the creepy religious scene and also creepy marriage ceremony) and Wrath decides he is now going to be the leader he needs to be in order to make sure the vampire race isn’t completely wiped out.
Alright. So overall, I liked this book way more than I thought I would. In the beginning, I didn’t think I was going to be on board with Wrath, but he won me over pretty quickly (though I think I am going to enjoy the other brothers’ books more). I was into the world for the most part, even though the technical names for everything can be hard to keep straight (but that’s the case for any paranormal, I think). A couple of things bothered me about this book that hopefully will change in the others that come along. The main thing is that we have chapters from the POV of like ten different characters. We see Beth’s dad, Beth, Wrath, Butch, Marissa, the lessers…it’s too much. I want a max of two dedicated POVs, with maybe one or two chapters thrown in of someone else if it’s necessary to the story. Not my fave. I also am not a huge fan of kicking off a book with attempted sexual assault. It puts me on edge because so many series (Outlander and Game of Thrones to name two of the most popular) use assault as a plot device and I’m just not into that. I’m wary to see how it goes with the rest of the series.
Dark Lover is definitely not my favorite paranormal I’ve ever read, but I enjoyed it enough to get the second one. From what I’ve heard, most lukewarm fans read through the first six or seven books (the original BDB) and that’s probably what I will do too.
Overall Rating: 4 stars
Do you have a favorite BDB couple? Let me know so I can make sure to read their story!
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