HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Dark Lover

by J. R. Ward

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Black Dagger Brotherhood (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
5,3182181,976 (4)102
Fantasy. Fiction. Romance. HTML:See where it all began in the first phenomenal novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series... 
The only purebred vampire left on the planet and the leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who killed his parents centuries ago. But when his most trusted fighter is killedâ??orphaning a half-breed daughter unaware of her heritage or her fateâ??Wrath must put down his dagger and usher the beautiful female into another world.
Racked by a restlessness in her body that wasnâ??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 the Brotherhood and blood frighten her. Yet his touch ignites a dawning new hungerâ??one that threatens to consume them both...
INCLUDES A NEW LETTER FROM J.
… (more)
  1. 50
    Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian (AngelLocke)
    AngelLocke: These are almost as good as The Black Dagger Brotherhood. I loved them.
  2. 30
    The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter (Mumugrrl, SunnySD)
    Mumugrrl: Similar in tone, plot and characterization.
  3. 30
    Jacob by Jacquelyn Frank (shanesuzanne)
    shanesuzanne: Hot & Steamy with the same "mate"/obsessive type of relationships & hot male characters
  4. 10
    If Angels Burn by Lynn Viehl (The_Holy_Terror)
  5. 00
    My Wicked Enemy by Carolyn Jewel (TheBooknerd)
  6. 00
    Darkness Dawns by Dianne Duvall (BookLizard)
    BookLizard: Steamy romances between "damaged" alpha males and strong females, with an overarching plot connecting each book.
  7. 00
    Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione (Vonini)
    Vonini: Both books feature paranormal romance and an urban setting.
  8. 00
    Night Pleasures by Sherrilyn Kenyon (al.vick)
  9. 01
    When Twilight Burns by Colleen Gleason (The_Holy_Terror)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 102 mentions

English (209)  Spanish (3)  Italian (2)  French (1)  Czech (1)  All languages (216)
Showing 1-5 of 209 (next | show all)
I have been reading books in this style of writing for a very long time this has to be one of My Favorites. ( )
  b00kdarling87 | Jan 7, 2024 |
In the first Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Beth Randall is a reporter for a small newspaper outside New York City. Her life starts to unravel after she’s attacked and nearly raped one night. She soon learns she’s not fully human. In fact, she’s part vampire and is in the middle of her transitioning—the state of becoming an adult vampire with various powers.
Wrath is the king of the vampire species, but he refuses to rule. Instead, he leads the brotherhood of warriors to protect the vampire civilians from the Lessening Society, an organization of soulless humans who want to kill all vampires. The vampires are nearly extinct due to the high probability of their women and babies dying in childbirth, as well as from the lesser attacks. He helps Beth through the transitioning—at her dead father’s last request—but he never expected to fall for her.
I really liked Beth. She’s levelheaded and determined to survive whatever life throws at her. I couldn’t relate to Wrath. He’s too arrogant and callous. Their relationship starts fast (they have sex within ten minutes of meeting each other, and she’s halfway drugged), and they’re committed to each other within a handful of days.
Wrath’s brothers-in-arms all have dark, mysterious paths. They’ve adapted well to the twenty-first century in their smack-talk, rap music, material items, and attitude. They’re badasses and vicious when needed, which is pretty often, but they protect their own. Unfortunately, if you’re not part of their clique, they don’t care if you live or die. They don’t care about human casualties in their fight against the lessers, but since Beth is part human, Wrath is changing his ways and will make sure the others do as well.
Butch, Beth’s human cop friend, is awesome. He’s the only male character in the book that I fully liked and understood as a person. He fits in well with the Brotherhood—his past and life is just as seedy as theirs—but he’s a more decent person. His connection to Marissa is beautiful. Even though I’m not a big fan of Marissa, I’m looking forward to reading their story.
There are some unanswered questions. Will Wrath tell Beth about his past with Marissa? Will he continue to feed from Marissa or another vampire female when in need, or will Beth’s half human/vampire blood be strong enough, as long as he’s not mortally injured? Did the brothers find out Zsadist wasn’t responsible for killing the prostitutes?
The story is well-written in alternating POVs with proper scene breaks. There was no head-hopping or typos from what I noticed, which is always wonderful. I have several books in this series, so I’m looking forward to reading more. Hopefully, the brothers will grow on me once I get to know them better.
3 Stars
( )
  AmberDaulton | Nov 20, 2023 |
Not something I would read....in a million years. Was done for my book club as a challenge and honestly wasn't overall a bad book. I think I'm going to at least try one more. There is a little more spice than I'd like but I do like the overall story ( )
  jdesjardins | Oct 9, 2023 |
There is nothing good about this book.

The story is a badly written, smut filled “romance” with an asshole hero and a heroine who makes women look like idiots who can’t control themselves around men.

My biggest issue is with the Brotherhood itself. The vampires in this book are big, listen to rap, and dress tough, but their names are really dumb. Why are they adding letters to their names to give them vampire street credibility? Vampires have their own traditions, customs, and language. Their names, however, read like those of pre-teen goth girls picking names for their future children. There is even one human, but it has an uninteresting name: Butch.

Despite the amount of explicit sex in these books, they do not feel very erotic. There was an extremely unlikely love-at-first-sight experience in the book followed by smut. Unlikable characters lead to no emotional investment in their fate. My honest opinion of this book is that I have read far better fan fiction online.

Still baffled by everyone else’s glowing reviews. Dark Lover features terrible writing, clichéd romance, and male characters with teenage-girl speaking styles. For fans of trashy romance books, this is perfect, but for those who enjoy horror and fantasy, skip this nauseating, sophomoric read. ( )
  onlyfiction | Aug 31, 2023 |
COuldn't handle the hilarious audiobook reading. ( )
  aeryn0 | Jul 23, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 209 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Ward, J. R.primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Ahonen, Markesecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Esener, Turhansecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Frangione, JimNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lukács, Lászlónésecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Richard, LaurenceTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
Dedicated to: / You, with awe and love. / Thank you for coming and finding me. / And for showing me the way. / It was the ride of a lifetime, / the best I've ever had.
First words
Darius looked around the club, taking in the teeming, half-naked bodies on the dance floor. Screamer's was packed tonight, full of women wearing leather and men who looked like they had advanced degrees in violent crime.
Quotations
"No one has ever spoken to me as you just did."

Shit.

"I'm really sorry. I just can't understand why --"

Wrath dragged her into his arms and hugged her hard, talking in that other language again. When he pulled back, he ended the monologue with something that sounded like leelan.

"Is that vampire talk for bitch?" she asked.

(p.248, chapter 31)
"Now tell me something. What's your word for husband?"

"Hellren, I suppose. The short version is just Hell."

She laughed softly. "Go figure."

(p.347, chapter 47)
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (3)

Fantasy. Fiction. Romance. HTML:See where it all began in the first phenomenal novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series... 
The only purebred vampire left on the planet and the leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who killed his parents centuries ago. But when his most trusted fighter is killedâ??orphaning a half-breed daughter unaware of her heritage or her fateâ??Wrath must put down his dagger and usher the beautiful female into another world.
Racked by a restlessness in her body that wasnâ??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 the Brotherhood and blood frighten her. Yet his touch ignites a dawning new hungerâ??one that threatens to consume them both...
INCLUDES A NEW LETTER FROM J.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Wrath, the leader of a Brotherhood of warrior vampires is entrusted with assisting the half-human daughter of one of his comrades with her "transition" -- the physical and sexual maturation of vampires, in which they need the blood of a fellow vampire of the opposite sex. He is prepared to do his duty and then send her away, but finds himself inexplicably drawn to her. The only problem is that he and his warrior brethren are fighting an army of undead slayers, who are aiming to turn up the heat on the brethren, and Beth isn't the only destiny he's been dodging.
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4)
0.5 5
1 51
1.5 7
2 101
2.5 18
3 259
3.5 42
4 532
4.5 49
5 667

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

Recorded Books

An edition of this book was published by Recorded Books.

» Publisher information page

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,657,788 books! | Top bar: Always visible