Lover Eternal by J R Ward

Lover Eternal (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #2)

by J. R. Ward

A warrior with inner demons falls for a woman who could save his soul in this seductive novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

Within the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Rhage is the warrior vampire with the strongest appetites. He’s the deadliest fighter, the most voracious lover, the quickest to act on his impulses. He’s also been cursed with two hundred years of hell. Possessed by a beast, he lives in fear of the times when his inner dragon comes out and he’s a danger to everyone around him.

Mary Luce has unwittingly found herself in the vampire world, and under Rhage’s protection. With her own life-threatening curse to bear, she’s not looking for love. Besides, she’s stopped believing in saving grace and miracles long ago. But when Rhage’s intense sexual attraction turns into emotional bonding, he knows he must have her for his mate. As their enemies close in, Mary finds herself praying for something she fears she’ll never have: life eternal with the one she loves.

Reviewed by celinenyx on

4 of 5 stars

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Although many people find Rhage very swoony, he's not the Brother for me. Lover Eternal is the story of Rhage (also called Hollywood for his looks) and Mary. Mary is a cancer survivor that has had a hard life. But Rhage has a curse of his own too - a monster inside of him that comes out when it gets pissed off. This quote from the first chapter is brilliant:

The creature stopped right next to the SUV and fell into a crouch. It was close enough so its breath fogged Butch's window on the exhale, and up close, the thing was hideous. White narrowed eyes. Snarling jowls. And the full set of fangs in its gaping mouth was right out of a fever nightmare. Black blood ran down its chest like crude oil.

The beast lifted its muscled forelegs.

Jesus, those claws were like daggers. Made Freddie Krueger's set of fun and games look like pipe cleaners.

But Rhage was in there. Somewhere.

Butch put his hand to the window, as if he could reach the brother.
The creature cocked its head, white eyes blinking. Abruptly it heaved a great breath, and then the massive body started to shake. A high, piercing cry came out of its throat, cracking through the night. There was another flash of brilliance. And then Rhage was lying naked on the ground.


I love the monster, but I don't like Rhage's personality. Sometimes he acts like a spoiled child, claiming whatever he feels like claiming. Maybe it has something to do with his beast being territorial, I don't know, but it's not a nice characteristic. He is big buds with V and Butch though, and seeing their bromance always makes my day.

Mary I did like. She's not a very happy person because of the things that happened to her, and who can blame her? I like how she is befriended with Bella, her neighbour, and I wish there was more page time of them together. There is this recurring theme in the books where the men get more "friend page time" than the females. I wonder if this changes as the series progresses, because the females are just as interesting as the males. Mary isn't always very subtle or very nice to Rhage, but I could understand where she's coming from, and I liked seeing her soften up throughout the book.

The last few chapters of Lover Eternal both serve as a resolution to this book and as an intro into Lover Awakened. The action in this book sets the wheels in motion to create the setting in which the next will play out. I love how these story lines kind of overlap, and when I finished Lover Eternal, I wanted to continue immediately. Since I love Lover Awakened so much, Lover Eternal feels a bit like a middle book for me - probably because I'm so impatient to get to Zsadist's story.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 21 June, 2011: Finished reading
  • 22 June, 2014: Reviewed
  • Started reading
  • 22 June, 2014: Finished reading
  • 22 June, 2014: Reviewed