Rating: (♥ ♥)

Okay, I know I'm not sticking strictly to my reading list by venturing off and reading Crave . But I've stopped and started this book over and over again and suddenly felt compelled to finally finish it.

I hate, hate, hate, though, writing a bad review on a book by an author I absolutely adore. It makes me cringe and want to hide. It's a completely rotten feeling and really difficult to do. But I have to be honest with my feelings and my reviews. And I'm sure many of you will think I'm traitorous.

I really don't even know where to start with this one. I'm a huge BDB fan and I love J.R. Ward's writing. She on my list of favorite author's and she's delivered such jewels up to this point. Admittedly some shinier than others, and... maybe some not so shiney. But they've all been fairly sparkly to some degree. Okay, maybe sparkly isn't the right word to use because it doesn't really do justice to the BDB at all. But I'm referring to her talent and not the savage, masculine, teddy bears that is the BDB.

I actually started Crave several times only to put it down and forget about it for weeks at a time. I finally pushed myself (and I do mean push in the strongest sense of the word) to read it all the way through. Which was really tough. I felt so disconnected from this story. No connection with the characters or anything. The romantic relationship was unconvincing, as was some of the situations in the book. In fact, I found myself rolling my eyes repeatedly from the moment I opened the book to it's conclusion.

This was a painful read for me. So much so, I had to resist the urge to keep checking the front cover to make sure I was reading the right book by the right author. I kept thinking... surely this is an impostor or I've made some kind of mistake. But no... it's no mistake. Maybe it's the series itself? It definitely isn't BDB, and I swear I thought I got more out of Covet, than I did from Crave . But I really can't remember. Simply put, though, Crave was not for me.

This won't affect my desire to give the next one in the series a try. I know J.R. Ward is full of awesomeness and can deliver the sparkles. And if the next one in this series isn't for me either... well... I'm still and always will be a die-hard BDB fan.