Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #1)

by J. R. Ward

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there's a deadly turf war going on between vampires and their slayers. There also exists a secret band of brothers like no other - six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Among them, none relishes killing their enemies more than Wrath, the leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood...The only pure-bred vampire left on the planet, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who murdered his parents centuries ago. But when one of his most trusted fighters is killed - orphaning a half-breed daughter unaware of her heritage or her fate - Wrath must usher the beautiful female into the world of the undead...Racked by a restlessness in her body that wasn't there before, Beth Randall is helpless against the dangerously sexy man who comes to her at night with shadows in his eyes. His tales of brotherhood and blood frighten her. But his touch ignites a dawning hunger that threatens to consume them both...

• ISBN10: 0451216954
• ISBN13: 9780451216953
• Publish Date: 6 September 2005 (first published 1 September 2005)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 11 October 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
• Imprint: Signet
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

This has happened so rarely that I'm hesitant to post a review. I only made it 20% through this book and I'm officially giving up. I just can't do it...

As others have stated, the first problem I have with this book are the characters' names: Wrath, Tohrment, Vishous, Rhage, Phury, Zsadist, and Mr. X. Seriously? I thought I could just look past it, and I could have if the rest of the story had been good. But... it wasn't. It was terrible.

Within ten minutes of beginning this book I was looking to see what year it was written in, positive it must be from the 90s. Words and statements such as "whacked," "I'm outtie," and "off the chain" litter the first few pages. I've never heard most of these except in jokes, and I'm 25 years old. This author is clearly out of touch with the 21st century.

**Possible mild spoilers**

My other obvious problem with this book is that, for a romance, it's just embarrassing. The first description we get of the main character is "Wrath was six feet, six inches of pure terror dressed in leather. His hair was long and black, falling straight from a widow's peak." Anyone else turned on? Yeah, me either. And we're to believe that he magically grew muscles when he "changed?" I don't buy it. I don't even know what to say about Beth. One night after being traumatized by near-rape, she throws herself on a man she's never met who breaks into her house and begs him for sex? And the sex in the first scene, 20 seconds after they "meet" and before any words are exchanged, is the worst I've read and completely unbelievable. Woman sees giant man break into house, woman is instantly turned on, woman begs him to touch her. Man touches her and she instantly has 50,000,0000,000 orgasms. Seems about right.

I'm sorry, fellow goodreaders. I'm not sure how exactly this book got such a good rating, but I'm in the middle of my first semester at a new university and I just can't waste my nights reading this drivel. Good luck to the rest of you!

[EBookObsessed]

I know my opinion on this series is not going to be popular but I barely found this story to be meh.

I have my own Black Dagger expert and I had to go to her to explain some things to me about the lessers that the Brotherhood fight which were not explained or not explained well.

I already downloaded an audiobook copy of Book #3 and I was told I will get lost without Book #2 so I will give them a try to see if they grow on me a bit. I know from listening to my friend talk about some of the other books that I am not so excited about some of the books that will be coming up. That's one of the reasons that I didn't jump on this series right away.

I will actually say I didn't find the characters all the interesting and the world building left some holes that weren't completely discussed.

[Mercy]

Una historia que me ha enganchado terriblemente. Con escenas de acción, romance puro, sexo, diversión y con unos personajes muy bien perfilados. Muero por el siguiente :D

[nitzan_schwarz]

Originally posted on Drugs Called Books and re-reviewed on The Book Babe's Reads

I'm going to be completely honest and start by saying that originally, I gave this book three stars. But reading through my review, I kept thinking to myself... whhhy? So, there goes half a star. Bye!

If we're already being honest with each other, I will also admit that while this review is mostly a rant - I have continued with this series, and I even loved some of the books in it. So... don't judge the series based on the first book!  

The first of this (currently) thirteen long series is, unfortunately, completely underwhelming. I had this nagging sense of deja vu the entire read, like... been there, read this, and considering this was way back when I'd just started with adult books and these type of romance-centered fantasies, I cannot imagine how I'd feel about this now.

The characters were alright. I loved being inside Wrath's head, seeing the duality of his thoughts vs. words first hand, even though the guy got on my nerves sometimes. I loved seeing this really outwardly strong, big, tough guy turn out to be a sad, self doubting and loathing person who can't show his warmth to anyone. Call me sadistic.

What I didn't like was how the realization he loved Beth did a 180 degrees turn on his personality, suddenly making him show his emotions easily and whatnot. It doesn't work like this. Love is not an immediate cure-all medicine, it just serves to be the catalyst and the support system you need to help you bring the change.  

As for Beth herself.. she was just a kind, strong, sweet girl, who is (for once, and thank god) aware of the fact she is beautiful but never uses it. 

But it wasn't really Beth or Wrath who shone in this book and made me read the next one. Nope, that honor lies within the side-characters, all of whom I adored (Butch, V, Z...)

Then there were the villains, plural, because we have two types: The Lessers; soulless humans who kill without second thought and The "Righteous"; the vampires who think they're better than the brothers.

The ones that really pissed me off and brought emotions out of me is the second one (mainly, Marissa's brother). they are basically stuck up a-holes snobs who jump to their own (wrong) conclusions at the drop of the hat. As for the first group,the traditionally evil... I felt like they weren't well done, because ultimately, I didn't care a whit about them. They didn't generate any emotion out of me. 

NOW FOR THE REAL RANT.

The romance in this book is pretty much goddamn awful. 

Case in point: a humongous guy armed to the teeth breaks into your apartment in the middle of the night. You:

a) Call the police.
B) Run the hell away.
C) Try to knock him out with something.
D) Have wild, unprotected sex with him.  

Do I really have to tell you which option Beth chooses? 

There is absolutely no process of falling in love, no feeling of love. It's just... lust. They're declaring being madly in love when they know nothing of one another, their only base for a relationship their physical attraction.

Once they settled into the relationship, they're adorably sweet, I won't deny that. But as much as I tried, I couldn't shut up the nagging voice that kept reminding me of all the above points. That asked where does this relationship even come from. That kept doubting it.

And the writing... it's good, don't get me wrong, but there were so many povs my head was spinning. I wish Ward would have just focused on a few and discarded of the rest. 

Originally posted on Drugs Called Books and re-reviewed on The Book Babe's Reads

[Kelly]

There were too many view points and sadly I couldn't get through even half before having to give up. I'm sure it appeals to a wider audience, just not for me.

[leelu92]

Started this one due to my BFF Sara. She loves this series so I had to see what it was all about. Enjoyed this one, Wrath and Beth. I'm looking forward to more!

[ellieroth]

Éste libro es uno de esos que he postergado muchas, muchas veces. Primero porque era una saga un tanto larga, y no me gusta comenzar una saga para dejarla luego a medias, también porque es una saga de la que, casi, todo el mundo habla bien, se generan pasiones alrededor de él y el temor de llevarme un chasco está siempre presenta cuando tiene tan buena crítica.
Por suerte no fue así, es un libro bastante bueno, fácil de leer y sin complicaciones grandes, debo confesar que al principio me asuste con la introducción, con el glosario... uff mi memoria es bastante pobre, pero es bastante sencillo acostumbrarse a los términos.
¿Me leeré el segundo o no me leeré el segundo? jajajjaja

Creo qué si

[Angie]

Sexy vampire warriors? Yes, please!

In Dark Lover we meet the men that make up the Black Dagger Brotherhood, but the story follows Wrath, their leader. Wrath is attempting to carry out the last wish of a dead brother, which is to help his half-human daughter, Beth, survive her transition. Wrath is a damaged hero and keeps others at arms length. I was rooting for him to find some peace in his life. He meets Beth and it's lust (and maybe love) at first site for both of them. Naturally, Beth is hesitant about getting close to Wrath until she learns about her father and her unknown heritage. From there it's a sexy, exciting ride as their relationship grows and Wrath fights to protect her.

I was also interested by the murder mystery side plot, involving the mysterious Mr. X (cheesy bad guy name alert!) and the "lessers," soulless humans who kill vampires. But I wish those parts had been their own chapters from the beginning, rather than smaller chunks mixed in with the Beth/Wrath storyline. It sometimes felt out of place, when it took me out of the romance scenes.

Havers' storyline felt like filler to me, but I really enjoyed Marissa and Butch. They were great characters on their own, and I liked what they added to the story as a hole. I hope to see them again in the following books.

Was the most well-written book ever? No, especially with random phrases such as "off the chain" and "I'm outtie," as well as the references to musicians of the 90s. But was it entertaining? Yes. Intriguing? Definitely. Fun and sexy? Heck yeah! There was the right mix of romance, mystery and suspense, and the story moved at the perfect pace. I'm definitely excited to read more about the vampires who make up the BDB (especially Zsadist) and their journey towards love.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[RoXXie]

The first of the series. And great. I really gotta say, I've been reading the books (up to book #8) already in German. And even in German, I loved them. But in English, the original written language of this series, it's even better.
You just gotta love Wrath and Beth, and the other warriors. And you just gotta hate their enemies, those stinky undead bastards. ;)

[Amanda]

Original review: http://onabookbender.com/2011/08/01/review-dark-lover-by-j-r-ward/

A few months ago, I read the first chapter of Dark Lover for free on my computer and was totally lost. When I began reading on my Kindle, I noticed that the “first page” was at 3%. I am curious by nature, so I had to investigate. It is fortunate that I did, because there was a glossary of terms that were ever so useful for keeping up with the story. It made my early confusion disappear, and increased my enjoyment.

One aspect of the Dark Lover that I liked — even as it frustrated me at times — was that this was not just a story about Wrath and Beth, although their story is central to the book, but that some side characters played a role that served to enrich the plot. Being that Dark Lover is the beginning of the series, there was the necessary world building, but I was never once lost, and always completely enthralled with the story. If date night with the boyfriend hadn’t intruded on my reading time, I would have easily finished Dark Lover in a day. Beth’s entry into the vampire world and its subsequent effect on Wrath has set the stage for what I can only assume based on its popularity and the strength the first book is a strong series. I am already interested in the stories of the brothers introduced in Dark Lover.

If I had any complaint about Dark Lover – and I’m not sure that I do — would be that the romance moved particularly fast. Even then, it seemed to fit; Beth’s transformation and sexual awakening coincided in a way that felt natural and instinctive. Wrath, of course, is helpless against the draw of his leading lady, as all good tough alpha males are. I could do without the repeated lovey words, but I have a feeling that’s me. For me, actions speak louder than words, and there is certainly no shortage of that in Dark Lover.