Book Review
Title: Dark Lover (The Black Dagger Brotherhood #1)
Author: J. R. Ward
Genre: Paranormal/Romance
Rating: *****
Review: I have never read a single book in this series despite hearing lots of good things about it and I decided 2021 was the year I was going to start the BDB series. The opening chapter to Dark Lover was really interesting as we meet Darius and Tohrment who are both vampires, Darius explains to Tohrment that he has a half-human daughter and that he fears she might go through the transition to be a vampire and he wants her to be under Wrath’s protection which Tohrment seems to think is a bad idea. We soon learn that Wrath is possibly the last pure blood vampire and he is one of the best fighters which is why he seems to be the logically choice but Wrath seems to have a very bad attitude. We are then introduced to Beth who has been working a dead end job and seems to be coming down with something as she feels tired constantly but this might be the beginning of the transition Darius was talking about but we don’t dwell on that as Beth is almost raped in an alley, although she manages to escape, we see someone saw what happened as a body is phoned into the police from the same alley and we assume one of the vampires killed them. We then switch back to the conversation between Darius and Wrath as Darius working up the courage to ask Wrath the take care of his daughter. We also learn that both vampires are part of The Black Dagger Brotherhood which fight and destroy soulless human monsters called Lessers. The Lessers are part of the Lessening Society run by the Omega but we don’t know yet what this really means. Wrath refuses to help Darius because he seems to have something against humans and half-humans although we don’t know what but I have a feeling that is going to change when Darius is killed by a bomb strapped under his car.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we do get a lot of almost info-dumping as we get some backstory on the Brotherhood and are introduced to its various members. We are also introduced to Mr. X who has just become the Leader of the Lessening Society after successfully killing Darius and through him we get the backstory on the history and war between the Lessening Society and the Brotherhood and we are beginning to understand what either sides goal and values are. We also learn that Wrath has a shellan named Marissa, shellans aren’t true mates but they are close to it but Wrath doesn’t have a normal relationship with Marissa which is strange considering she is the one who helped him through his transition and I have a feeling that there might be more to that story that we will learn as the story progresses. In the aftermath of her almost rape Beth is obviously shaken and Wrath doesn’t help that when he enters her apartment one night but he has to put Beth in a trance in order to calm her down which means she thinks it was all a dream. As it was Darius’ last wish that Wrath protect Beth, he has been keeping an eye on her and is finally going to explain what is she and that she is heading for her own transition very soon. However, throughout this whole section the main thing we are learning is who Wrath and Beth are and how their individual stories are going to overlap very soon. I was enjoying Beth as a character because she is quite ordinary, she isn’t a BAMF or a wet blanket she is somewhere in the middle right now. Wrath is also interested as he was born in the seventeenth century and has had to live through a lot including the death of his parents, transitioning into a vampire and the death of the closest thing he has to a friend and yet he doesn’t take any comfort in Marissa’s presence which other vampires would do and he also doesn’t have any servants. After inheriting Fritz, a butler, from Darius, Wrath reflects on how strange it is to have someone waiting on him and seeing to his needs which he has always done himself in the past. The night Wrath goes to meet Beth properly for the first time something strange happens because as soon as the pair are within touching distance of each other its like someone flipped the sex switch and they can’t keep their hands off each other which might have something to do with Beth’s transition being very close. We also get a side perspective from Havers the brother of Marissa and we see how Wrath’s cold behaviour towards Marissa is affecting her and not for the better which makes me feel a little conflicted about the inevitable romance between Beth and Wrath.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Wrath spends the night with Beth which freaks her out a little as she hasn’t had a sexual relationship in a long time because she wasn’t interested in anyone until Wrath. However, we see the pair aren’t awkward at all but fall into a comfortable conversation but Wrath is quickly called away by the Brotherhood, during this time Beth notices that some of her clothing from last night appears to be cut rather than torn probably due to Wrath’s fangs and she assumes that he has been sent by either Jose or Butch from the police station as she is really close with all of the police officer. We actually see this when she tells Butch what happened with her almost being raped and he happens to have the very boy in custody and proceeds to rebreak his nose from what he did to Beth. Butch also seems to have quite the crush on Beth although he hasn’t made any moves on her yet and I don’t think I would be opposed to it despite Wrath being the main love interest. We then jump back to Mr. X who we see is planning to do some major recruiting for the Lessening Society which is going to cause a lot of problems for the Brotherhood especially since we know Mr. X wants to target the civilian vampire population in order to draw the Brotherhood out and learn about their weaknesses in order to destroy them once and for all. Wrath does give Beth both his phone number and the address of Darius’ house before he leaves so, she knows where to find him, however, when she learns of a murder in the area and heads to the police station for an inside scoop, she learns that neither Butch or Jose sent Wrath which puts her on edge again as she doesn’t know who he is. She spends some time researching both the address and the phone number but comes up with no useful information and she begins debating on whether she should go. While she ends up going for dinner with Butch so she doesn’t feel so alone, I was pondering Wrath’s behaviour and his disability as it seems at times that Wrath is blind despite the vampires’ enhanced abilities so I wanted to see more of that and learn why his sight is different from everyone else’s.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Wrath witnesses Beth and Butch kissing in his car and he is nearly overwhelmed by the jealousy and anger he feels despite knowing that in that moment he doesn’t have any right to Beth and that she is free to sleep with and date whoever she wants. However, when Butch sees Wrath sneaking around the side of the building, he goes into cop mode and arrests Wrath after finding his weapons at which point he confesses to Beth that he was sent by her father which prompts so many questions since we know Beth grew up in foster care and didn’t know her real parents. As he is being taken back to the police station, Wrath attacks Butch almost killing him but lucky for him Beth arrives in time to stop him. The pair get into an argument here where he is forced to list off the symptoms Beth has been experiencing and tells her to come with him if she wants him to explain what the hell is going on and Beth doesn’t really have a choice since she wants to know. Upon arriving back at Darius’ home, Fritz is pleased to finally meet his former master’s daughter and Wrath takes her to his room to explain since one of his Brothers is currently there and more will be arriving later. He tries to explain to Beth who her father was without telling her that he was a vampire but Beth doesn’t believe him and everything he says only makes her angrier. When he finally comes clean about being a vampire, she slaps him because she thinks he is pulling her leg but when he finally manages to convince her he is telling the truth and reveals what she is Beth loses it. It takes Wrath a long time to calm her down enough to talk but when they do, they can’t deny the attraction between them and give into it once more. However, this time is different as Wrath wants to mark Beth and feed from her and he is only just able to control himself enough to get her to leave so that he doesn’t hurt her in that moment. Despite being halfway through the novel we haven’t really learnt much about the Brotherhood or its members and Beth hasn’t gone through the transition yet. The only really concrete stuff we have been given is watching Mr. X try to destroy the Brotherhood but I have a feeling the second half is going to be more interesting now Beth knows about the vampires and that she will ultimately become one very soon.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Wrath has marked Beth as his with his scent but the need to feed is stronger than ever which means he has to call on Marissa. During this time when he is feeding on her Marissa learns of Beth and knows that Wrath will never want her the same, he wants Beth and decides to break the oath binding them together so they can go their separate ways. Wrath is equal parts relieved and disgusted with himself as he knows he has hurt Marissa which is something he never intended to do. During this time, Beth learns from Fritz that what Wrath said about her father knowing her and being proud of her was true as Fritz knows just about everything about her proving they were always watching over her even if they couldn’t be together as a family. Beth decides that she is going to try and adjust to this new life as well as she can but still finds herself scared over what is going to happen to her and we the readers know that a lot of half-humans die during the transition which is why Darius needed Wrath in the first place. I did like the setting up of the friendship, almost uncle/niece relationship between Fritz and Beth as he was one of the closest people to her father and he offers to tell her more about him whenever she wants. He also gives her the heads up that Wrath is inviting her to a private dinner for just the two of them and offers to take her shopping for the occasion which she takes him up on. We see Beth getting caught between the two halves of herself as Butch almost begs her not to go return to Wrath, although Beth knows that she has to even if she doesn’t entirely want to. On the other hand, she is so drawn to Wrath and wants to learn more about vampires in general before she herself becomes one and Wrath is the source of that knowledge. I loved the dinner scene where we can see Wrath’s explosive temper at work and then see him instantly calm when Beth arrives although it takes some bantering from her to achieve it but she does. In the aftermath we see how powerful the pull between them is as we instantly shift gears from arguing to entering the bedroom. Here Wrath lets Beth see his eye and we learn that he is almost blind and at some point, in the future he will probably lose his sight altogether but Beth finds them beautiful and the beginning of this bedroom scene has to be the hottest so far. I also liked that there seems to be setup for a disagreement between Havers and Wrath since Havers feels that Wrath has dishonoured Marissa in the way he has treated her and then seemingly cast her aside for a human.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, I was really loving the dynamic between Beth and Wrath and I can’t wait to see how this book ends and to see whether it kicked the series as a whole off with a bang. I was also hoping for Beth to be introduced to the other brother soon beside Tohrment as she has already met him. After Beth and Wrath put their argument behind them, he needs to go with the other Brothers to hunt Lessers despite Beth’s pleas for him to stay. While he is gone, she looks around her father’s room and realises he hasn’t been dead long and she ultimately finds a picture of her mother which was really emotional. Wrath and the Brothers are taking on a small group of Lessers and just when they think they have dealt with them a gunshot goes off before the scene cuts. This was almost heart stopping for me as we know the vampires can be killed, while the Brotherhood are stronger and heal faster, they aren’t immortal. Things slowly begin to come together as we see more of Mr. X’s experiments and the police are connecting the deaths of the prostitutes to Wrath and because of this they want to take Beth in for questioning as she is obviously protecting him. Beth meanwhile is preparing to go to the station rather than being taken in in handcuffs when the transition begins. Butch finds her passed out on the floor and despite all his better judgment he takes Beth to Wrath because she begged him to and Wrath goes into protective overdrive as he knows there is a chance that Beth might not survive the transition. While Wrath is dealing with Beth, Butch is being watched over by the rest of the brothers and he evens fights with Rhage after insulting the man quite badly but it is quickly brushed off and once again Butch has survived an encounter with a vampire and not known about it.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, things really start to get interesting as Beth goes through her change and she agrees to marry Wrath afterwards as he realises in the moments, he thinks she isn’t going to make it that he is madly in love with her. Meanwhile, Butch meets Marissa who had come to confront Wrath and they instantly realises the attraction between them but while Butch thinks it is just lust as Marissa is a beautiful woman, she doesn’t understand the sensations as she is still a virgin. The pair quickly start spending more time together at Darius’ home but Havers believes that she is still seeing Wrath which is promised was over despite her protests and trying to explain her new situation to him. During this time, they obviously have to tell Butch that they are all vampires and while he is freaked out, he does get on well with V as they share a love of baseball. While the preparations are being made for the mating ceremony, Wrath tries to track down Billie as he knows now that Billie is involved with the Lessers and this leads to Mr. X finding out that the Blind King is still alive which is going to cause some conflict down the road. This is no ordinary mating either as the spiritual deity of the vampires will be present and their match seems to be a great one. However, we do see Zsadist acting strangely during the ceremony and it isn’t long before he is sought out by Havers presumably to confront Wrath about Marissa and I have a feeling that isn’t going to end well. The final 50 or so pages of the novel were great as we see the first major showdown between the Brotherhood and the Lessers as Beth is taken by then. However, Wrath is also under the impression that Havers hired Zsadist to kill him so he is also having to deal with that when he is dealt to potentially fatal blows but the combined efforts of the Brotherhood, Marissa and Havers manage to save his life. As he recovers, Wrath learns that he truly loves Beth and she loves him as they make arrangements for him to step down from fighting and become the King he was always supposed to be. He also asks Z’s forgiveness as he doubted his brother and pardons Havers as he only did what he did to protect his sister and revenge is something Wrath understands completely. However, right at the end we get a scene between the Scribe Virgin and Darius in the Fade where he asks to see his daughter even if it is only in her dreams and he is given a second chance at life as the Scribe Virgin sends him back after informing him that his daughter has mated and married Wrath. Overall, I loved the first instalment in this series and I will definitely be continuing in the near future.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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