Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Aug 25, 2012 Camilla rated it really liked it

Shelves: ebook

Such a lovely story!

I had kept off from reading this for quite some time... My forays into PNR have not been very favourable, as I need a good/believable story in order to enjoy the romance stuff - in the end, I am a fantasy/supernatural reader first and romance/erotica second!
But this story really positively surprised me! I thought the world and especially mythology was really well-done and I liked the main characters... and then I really liked the naughty bits too ;)

There were a few times when ...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Shan ~A~ rated it liked it

Shelves: romance, paranormal, audio, crime, series-trilogies-i-started, 1st-in-series, vampires, age-gap, millionaire-billionaire, law-enforcement

Re-Read: 3 stars (08/31/2020)
This is the 2nd book I've reread this week, and it's another example of how mood or life changes affect how you interpret what your reading (or maybe it's age).

I didn't particularly like anyone in this book. For some reason most characters, especially Beth, Butch, and Wrath, all came off as judgmental to me. Or maybe they were just jumping to too many conclusions.
I kept trying to tell myself that maybe I would have assumed Wrath was in the Mob or a drug dealer if I ...more

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Jun 19, 2014 ☘KathyD☘ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-romance, zz-2014, genre-romance-series, genre-paranormal, au-ward-j-r, book-kindle, audio-audible, genre-contemporary, character-vamps, pages-400-499

(Reread February 2018)
This is the one that started it all! I LOVE the Black Dagger Brotherhood and this book was the starting point! I plan on rereading the series this year and am so glad I get to revisit my favorite brothers!

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Jan 18, 2016 Tallyho rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star

Immediate thought upon finishing the book at 1 am: Well, now I know what all the fuss is about!

My review:

A few things of note...I read this book on paper. I haven't done that in ages, but I borrowed it from a friend. I had quite forgotten how much I love the feel of pages in your hand, and how you pre-turn a page a bit when you're excited (I often do this on my kindle and have to go back a page, because this habit doesn't really work on an ebook). This might have contributed to my overall love Immediate thought upon finishing the book at 1 am: Well, now I know what all the fuss is about!

My review:

A few things of note...I read this book on paper. I haven't done that in ages, but I borrowed it from a friend. I had quite forgotten how much I love the feel of pages in your hand, and how you pre-turn a page a bit when you're excited (I often do this on my kindle and have to go back a page, because this habit doesn't really work on an ebook). This might have contributed to my overall love of this book, or my in general comfort with it from the start, who knows? Like many others, the H's were a bit distracting at first, and I get the feeling that the overall spelling of the Vampire names are going to set my teeth on edge the entire series, but the book still won me over, H's and all. Instead of the Glossary at the front, however, I vote for a pronunciation guide! Zsadist is still throwing me, is the Z or the S silent, or is it a combo of the two? I saw a post (accidentally) talking about someone named Xcor. Yeah...no idea how to say that in my head...or out loud for that matter!

On to the book! This is a series I've been meaning to read for a long time, and then it just got to the point where there are a million books and it seemed like such a daunting task and I felt defeated just thinking about it. HA!

The other day my friend said, "Hey, wanna go to Cincinnati and meet JR Ward in April?"

"Um...I haven't read any of the books," I replied to her sheepishly.

And so it began. Think I can read them all by April 9?

Overall story summary: Handful of vampire warriors (Black Dagger Brotherhood) fighting to protect their race from the "Lessers" that are determined to destroy them. Specific to this book: Black Dagger Brotherhood member must help Half Vampire child survive her transition to honor his friend/her father's memory. Massive oversimplification, but that's the gist. :)

Writing style? Excellent. I can picture the rooms, the characters and the events nicely. The story moves right along, even with switching back and forth between POV. There aren't any overused phrases that make you want to punch someone, which is always a plus. I am having trouble picturing Rhage/Hollywood, because they are constantly talking about his hair and how it's all over the place, but then in one scene describe it as cut short in back and longer in the front. I should have marked the pages. (On discussing this with my friend, she says I'm totally confused, because Phury is the one with the long multi-colored hair. Rhage's hair is the long/short do.)

This book was published in 2005, which was the same year as Twilight. Interesting. I bring that up because last night when I told the story blurb to my boyfriend he raised an eyebrow at me and laughed. I said, "Hey, this was 2005, pre-Twilight." Isn't it crazy that Twilight has ruined the "vampire storyline" for the mainstream folks? Anyhow, I'm a sucker for interesting quirks when it comes to the Vamp/Werewolf/Demon type stories, so this was right up my alley. I should mention that the fact that there are vampires is pretty much the only thing this book has in common with Twilight.

I found myself WAY less interested in the bits about the Lessening Society and much more interested in the parts with the Brotherhood. Go figure.

Great first book, I'm really looking forward to continuing the series!

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Feb 21, 2017 Kari rated it really liked it

I don't actually know why I liked this book. I found the beginning to be slow, and the a lot of the talk about women is the type I avoid. I also didn't particularly care for Wrath. But overall I stayed interested and I will probably start the second book soon. ...more

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