Customer Reviews
Blew me away and introduced me to the ever expanding world of the Paranormal Romance genre - By: Jessica Simpson, 20 Jun 2008 
When I was given Dark Lover by a friend I was exceptionallly dubious as I had never read a paranormal-romance novel before. I did not think I would enjoy it, & boy was I wrong. I prejudged it by the snippet of information on the back cover & did not expect to be introduced to such a wide variety of characters & a completely new twist on what a vampire book could be. I genuinely enjoyed the concept, the plot & the writing style. It has just the right mix of Action, Love, & Good vs Evil.
Now I'm not going to pretend that this is the best novel in the world, however the Black Dagger Brotherhood is without a doubt the best series I have ever read, Vampire or otherwise.
We start the series with the introduction of the Blind King, at a time when the vamp aristocracy are unaware or simply ignoring a growing threat to their way of life - The Lessers. The vampire warriors that can help them are considered beneath civilised society & nothing more that thugs - The Black Dagger Brotherhood. Wrath a Black Dagger Brother is the sole heir to the throne, but relucted to give himself freely to a society that shuns alll that he stands for. With the Vampires' enemies massing the BDB are the last line of defence, but will the reluctant King step forward to help unite the race...
... Beth is unknowingly a half vamp, half human woman who's vampire father knows she is heading for a very difficult transition, but without the help of a powerful warrior she will not survive long.
Despite there being ample opportunity for this to feel trite or unoriginal J R Ward makes the Black Dagger Brotherhood series something to aspire to for other writers in this genre. She has taken the common vampire mythology rule book, & quite frankly done a better job of re-writing it. I do not want to ruin the discovery of this written world by outlining alll the nuances she has added to her vampire civilisation, but I would whole-heartedly recommend this book, & the rest of the books in the series. (Zadist's story is the best one so far by the way!)
Great start to a promising new series - By: S. Lockett, 07 May 2008 Well I brought this book along with the next 2 in the series after reading some great reviews on here, & wanting something to fill the gap between the Anita Blake series. I was not disappointed I loved the action & fight scenes & getting to know the King of this great brotherhood. You also get the passion & emotional side of the vampires that we alll love to read about, but its not the main direction of the story. The names of the vamps are a great play on words, for example Rhage, Tohrment & Wrath.
I love how Ms Ward writes & reading it from different points of view was great instead of being just from the main character. I have already read the next book & that was just as good. I hope this great series continues & I look forward to getting to know the other brothers.
Welcome to this fantastic world!! - By: C. E. Batt, 26 Apr 2008 I have read alll five current J R Ward books over the past two weeks & they are simply fabulous. I read the reviews on Amazon & I must admit I was a little cautious about reading the last book "Lover Unbound" after reading the less than complimentary reviews. However, they are alll simply fab. Make sure you read them in order to get the best effect, & be prepared to falll totallly in love with alll of them, in particular Z! The love between Wrath & Beth in this book is written so well & the sex scenes are hard core & sexy as hell! Read it & weap.
A disappointing read of mediocre quality - By: Stella Balogh, 25 Mar 2008 
I'm quite new to the paranormal, urban fantasy universe, Dark Lover was one of the first vampire novels I have read. I picked it up because there were great reviews about it, well didn't like it too much.
All through the 400 or so pages I couldn't get used to the names (Wrath, Phury, Rhage, Zsadist..) they made me giggle (at the most inappropriate times, when they were described as so fearless & scary warriors, but the names just ruined it..) & roll my eyes, & though I like my books to be funny & witty, these speaking names just seemed so forced & ridiculous. And the vilain is callled Mr. X .. *rolls eye*
Though it is a page turner: it is fast paced, packed with action & steamy sex scenes, I don't think either the story or the writing style is that good. I seriously doubt I'll read more of this series, there are other much better paranormal novels, you'd better try Bitten by Kelley Armstrong, that is a brilliant book. The writing style & quality are amazing, not only the writing style is fantastic, but it is funny, bitingly sarcastic at times, & the heroine is a great one. Try Bitten, I'm sure it'll entrance you as much as it captivated me!
Superbly written and totally unmissable! - By: Louise Herbert, 17 Feb 2008 I have falllen in Love with the Black Dagger Brotherhood.
After coming across the 5th book by mistake (utterly fantastic) I decided to start at the begining & purchased Dark Lover. I am amazed at the imagination & story telling abilities of the author, & the twists on traditional vampire novels are fantastic. I have been addicted to every page & could not put the thing down. The characters are well described & clearly seperate, distinguishable & most importantly, believable.
The idea of a blind king, Wrath, was fantasticallly portrayed. The character of Beth, the half breed vampire that fallls for the king was so well described that I feel like she lives next door. And the collection of Brothers is superb - alll very different images.
The erotic scenes were very sensitively written, not uncomfortable or dramatic. Perfect.
I am so hooked to these books that I have had to describe alll the plot to my partner, he knows the characters so well he might as well have read the book too! I have just ordered the next three installlments & I can not wait until they arrive so I can get stuck into more fantastic plots.
I would highly recommend these books to others, with much credit to the author. They are fast paced without losing the plot, descriptive without becoming a bore, & totallly believeable. They are definately worth every penny & I would not hesitate in ranking them in my top 10 alll time reads. I loved them. Addictive.
