Mikila Velios 2008-11-11
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After reading the reviews here, I, like others, expected a great read. Overall, it was a decent read, but though I tried to really like it, I couldn't. J. R. Ward is unquestionably very talented as a writer, and perhaps her greatest strength in creating this series was her imaginative take on vampires. It was unique, refreshing.
There were some things I enjoyed about this book. I liked the flawed hero, I liked the romance between the hero and heroine (though it was brief-just a few days- and looking back the only thing they did together until the end was have sex). I did enjoy the banter between the secondary characters, the easy friendship. Often, however, as has been pointed out by others, the language was outdated-thug-juvinile. Not exactly my image of my hero and future heroes. But the dark,dangerous and leather-wearing hero was cool. I never thought he was psycho. I liked his protectiveness.
That said, the names of the Black Dagger Brotherhood are a real turnoff. They just flat sound juvinile. I kept waiting to find out what the hero's and brotherhood's real names were, hoping these were some sort of assumed names they took on when they joined the brotherhood. If a man introduced himself to you as "Rhage," wouldn't you have raised eyebrows at the very least? Especially since Rhage is hundreds of years old, and was born to be king, not a warrior, Rhage CANNOT be his real name. AND since the other aristocratic vampires portrayed have semi-normal names. How these silly names are supposed to further the plot or make the characters more endearing, I'll never know.
I also thought there was too much focus on this "lesser" war. It didn't seem to further the story overmuch, and I patiently suffered through this subplot waiting to get back to the hero and heroine. I agree the classification of this serious maybe ought to be rethought, since the romance seemed to take a backseat to the action.
So, if you can overlook these flaws, try to just accept them as a different reality, you have a thrilling, oh-so-sexy hero biting the bra off the heroine in their first real encounter (after the one where she passed out in fright). What a nice fantasy. I just wish it were a more believable fantasy.