Jessica Bird
Author of Dark Lover
About the Author
Jessica Bird was born in 1969 in Massachusetts. She attended Smith College where she double majored in history and art history, concentrating on medieval period. She then received a law degree from Albany Law School. Her first book, Leaping Hearts, was published in 2002. She writes contemporary show more romance novels under her given name. The Romance Writers of America awarded her the RITA Award for Best Short Contemporary Romance in 2007 for her novel From the First. She also writes erotic paranormal romance under the pseudonym of J. R. Ward. Under this name, she has written the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
As Jessica Bird, she writes contemporary romance novels; as J.R. Ward, she writes paranormal romance; and as Jessica Ward, she writes contemporary thrillers.
Series
Works by Jessica Bird
The Black Dagger Brotherhood Books 1-5 10 copies
The Black Dagger Brotherhood 2 copies
Blood Lust: Dark Possession / Dark Lover / Undead and Unwed /High Stakes / Angels Blood / Demon Moon (2010) 1 copy
The Brethren 1 copy
Fallen Angels, Books 1-3 1 copy
Fallen Angels, Books 1-6 1 copy
Associated Works
Dead After Dark (Shadow of the Moon / The Story of Son / Beyond the Night / Midnight Kiss Goodbye) (2008) — Contributor — 1,021 copies, 25 reviews
The Tycoon's Secret Affair aka The Affair (M. Banks) | A Man in a Million (J. Bird) | Island Time (S. Wiggs) (2013) — Contributor, some editions — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Blakemore Bird, Jessica Rowley Pell
- Other names
- Bird, Jessica
Ward, J. R.
Ward, Jessica - Birthdate
- 1969
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Smith College (History and Art History Double Major)
Albany Law School - Occupations
- attorney
author - Organizations
- Romance Writers of America
- Agent
- Meg Ruley
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Massachusetts, USA
- Places of residence
- Massachusetts, USA
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Kentucky, USA - Disambiguation notice
- As Jessica Bird, she writes contemporary romance novels; as J.R. Ward, she writes paranormal romance; and as Jessica Ward, she writes contemporary thrillers.
- Associated Place (for map)
- Massachusetts, USA
Members
Reviews
The Beloved is the twenty-second book in J. R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series and it’s also the beginning of the next-gen part of the series, which features the children of our beloved original Brothers and their mates all grown up. In the epilogue of the previous book, Lassiter, readers were catapulted thirty-three years into the future. In this installment, things pick up pretty much where that epilogue left us. Wrath has returned and reconnects with everyone, while catching up show more on all the things he’s missed over the past three decades. However, the main focus couple is Nate, adopted son of Murhder and Sarah, and Nalla, blooded daughter of Zsadist and Bella. Zsadist has been way over-protective of Nalla to the point that they’ve basically had a falling out over her never being allowed to do anything. She goes against his dictates to have a night out at a club with the others of her generation, where she sees Nate, a male that she’s peripherally known all her life, but always thought was a bit of a jerk. Ever since the events in Lassiter, Nate has had a hard time adjusting. He’s only been going through the motions of life and is a bit of a loose cannon. He admires Nalla from afar, but sensing that she’s the kind of female who could really rip his heart if he got too close, he maintains his distance. However, when lessers attack the pair outside the club and Nalla thinks they’ve killed Nate, it’s the beginning of something wild and beautiful between them. Nate has resisted revisiting his past in any way, but he knows he’ll have to rip that old wound open if he and Nalla are to have a future together. However, despite things going well between them, Nalla knows that her father has a beef with Nate that could mean her having to make a heartbreaking choice between the male she’s fallen in love with and her sire. Not to mention, Nate’s involvement with a human organized crime ring may inadvertently bring the war right to their doorstep, which could spell disaster in more ways than one.
Nate has been through hell in his relatively short (in vampire years) life. He first appeared in The Savior as a pre-trans who’d spent most of his young life in a human lab, having cruel, torturous experiments conducted on him, and he watched his mother die there. I thought he might get a new lease on life when Murhder and Sarah took him in, but not long after his transition, Nate fell for the lovely Rahvyn, who broke his heart when she chose Lassiter instead. When he was fatally wounded, Rahvyn used her powers to bring him back, but now he’s immortal, a state he’s had trouble adjusting to. For the last three decades, he’s been fighting with the Brotherhood in the war, while basically giving life the middle finger and alienating nearly everyone around him. He’s also taken up a job as an enforcer with a human organized crime ring in order to financially maintain his lone wolf routine. Early in the story, he does something that becomes the last straw for the Brotherhood who kick him out of their ranks. Nate didn’t really want to go to the club that night, but he spends his time there admiring Nalla from the shadows while telling himself all the reasons he shouldn’t want her. When she leaves, he follows to ensure her safety and finds her fending off a pair of lessers. Her fierceness in battle makes Nate fall for her almost instantly and his feelings are all but solidified when she cries over him, thinking he’s been mortally wounded. It’s the beginning of a fast-moving relationship between them that becomes everything he’s been missing in life. But if he can’t get back into the Brotherhood’s good graces, Zsadist may never accept him as a mate for his daughter, and when the lessers come looking for him, it could put many lives in danger, not the least of which is the female he’s come to love.
I’ve adored Nate since he first appeared in the series. He was such a sweet kid in spite of all he’d been through. I honestly thought he and Rahvyn would become an item, but she was meant for Lassiter. Between that heartbreak and his newfound immortality, he was not in a good place at the end of the last book, which kind of broke my heart, but all that made where he is at the beginning of this book make sense. He’s just depressed and mad at the world and doesn’t really care about anything, least of all himself, until Nalla bursts into his life, giving him something to live for. I love how he slowly comes back to life under her tender care and wants to be a better male for her. He may be a hardened fighter now, but we get to see that sweet, gentle guy he used to be in his interactions with her. The way the story wrap ups with him fighting with every beat of his heart for what’s his, making amends to everyone he’d hurt with his actions, and acknowledging that the things that happened to him won’t go away overnight but he’s ready to put in the work to get better was a superb character arc for him. It left me with no doubt that he has a bright future ahead of him and is the perfect mate for Nalla.
Nalla grew up with loving parents and she’s become a social worker at Luchas House. However, Zsadist’s emotional problems from his own trauma often interfered with her life growing up, leaving her with some resentment toward her mother for spending more time dealing with her hellren’s issues than her daughter. It doesn’t help that Zsadist has basically threatened every male who’s ever come close to Nalla, because he doesn’t trust anyone with his baby girl. So she and her dad are not on good terms either when the story opens. Nalla only went to the club because her best friend, Bitty, guilted her into it, and she’s not having a good time. Having Nate glaring at her from the corner just irritates her more. Then they end up fighting the lessers together in the alley behind the club, during which Nate appears to have been mortally wounded because of a wrong move Nalla made. She thinks he’s just died in her arms and can’t stop crying over him, so him waking up, stuns her. Then her father shows up, and he’s less than pleased, thinking that they’re dating. When Nalla and Nate randomly meet up again the next night, I think that she’s attracted to Nate in part because his personality isn’t all that different from her father’s, which feels familiar to her, and also because she kind of wants to rebel against her father’s dictates. But it quickly becomes so much more than that for her. It turns into a whirlwind affair that rapidly becomes a love to rival that of her parents. But if her father can’t accept Nate, Nalla will be heartbroken.
Nalla is the perfect mix of Zsadist and Bella. She has her mother’s kindness and compassion intertwined with her father’s warrior heart. The way she handled the aristocratic f-boys at the club made me want to stand up and cheer, as did the way she dealt death to the lessers, which I immediately knew was Zsadist’s training. It was hard watching her arguing with not only her parents but also sweet Bitty. Much like with Nate, though, she gains insights throughout the story that help her to see the error of her thinking and she makes amends, which was a great arc for her as well. I especially loved her for her easy acceptance of Nate, warts and all, and for giving him all the love he’s so richly deserved but thought he would never find. Nalla was simply a well-rounded heroine who has definitely become a fan favorite for me.
As is typical for this series, we get many other character POVs throughout. Wrath gets a number of scenes as he reconnects with his shellan, Beth, his loyal butler, Fritz, and all of the Brothers in turn. He also struggles with coming to terms with basically losing over three decades of his life and with wanting to go back out in the field and fight with his warriors instead of simply sitting on his throne. Zsadist has been mostly seen and not heard from since his own book, so it was nice to get his POV for a change. He wants to see his daughter live her life, but he also can’t help but be protective of her. He’s intently focused on fighting Lash and his new crop of lessers, as well. Nate’s old friend, Shuli, gets a number of his own scenes. He’s been fighting alongside the Brothers, too, but finds himself sidelined after his misadventures with Nate. However, his surprisingly heroic actions later on earn him a high honor. On the enemy’s side, we get the POV of Evan, a low-level mobster in the crime family Nate works for who can’t seem to do anything right and ends up a lesser. It was kind of interesting getting the perspective of someone who was basically turned against his will, which is something I don’t believe we’ve seen before. The very last scene of the book was from Fritz’s POV—something I’m pretty sure we’ve not had before either—as he pines for the mansion, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was foreshadowing a return to the mountain for our heroes. Last but not least, we get several scenes for Bitty who is sweet on L.W., a sentiment that’s definitely returned, and let me say that I’m totally here for this pairing. She also gains an interesting new power, which gives her insights into what the future might hold for L.W. and it’s very concerning.
Ever since I heard that this first next-gen book was going to be Nate and Nalla’s, I’ve been excited, and overall, The Beloved didn’t disappoint. I admit I had a few doubts early on, because they didn’t seem to be getting enough scenes together. While more scenes with Nate and Nalla certainly wouldn’t have gone amiss, every one they shared was on fire with the perfect alchemy of heart and heat. Ms. Ward didn’t waste a single one, with each of them propelling this couple’s story forward and revealing something new. Insta-love isn’t usually a favorite trope of mine either, but all the feels were there in every interaction between these two characters. By the end, I was absolutely convinced of their rightness for one another. Nate and Nalla both grew a great deal during the story, which made their characterizations very well-written. I got teary-eyed over Wrath’s reunions with all the important people in his life and I loved seeing more of Zsadist and Bella. I enjoyed all the sightings of the grown young that we already know about and can’t wait for them to get their own stories. There was also a healthy dose of humor as only the BDB can do it. I cracked up over Zsadist and Vishous’s talk about parenting. Who knew Vishous would get attached to a kid even though he won’t quite admit it? I’m looking forward to seeing where that goes. And L.W. and Shuli arguing like an old married couple was pretty funny, too. After the developments in their part of the story, it looks like they’re going to be getting on each other’s nerves for the foreseeable future. Then there’s L.W. and Bitty’s rapidly developing romance that’s equally as infused with emotion and desire as Nate and Nalla’s, and it’s left me super eager for their story, which I hope is going to be the next book. But first it looks like we’ll be getting a Christmas/winter novel for Callum and Apex, whose story was left hanging at the end of the BDB: Prison Camp series, so I’m looking forward to them crossing into the main BDB series and finally getting some resolution to that. Everything, once again, has me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next releases. show less
Nate has been through hell in his relatively short (in vampire years) life. He first appeared in The Savior as a pre-trans who’d spent most of his young life in a human lab, having cruel, torturous experiments conducted on him, and he watched his mother die there. I thought he might get a new lease on life when Murhder and Sarah took him in, but not long after his transition, Nate fell for the lovely Rahvyn, who broke his heart when she chose Lassiter instead. When he was fatally wounded, Rahvyn used her powers to bring him back, but now he’s immortal, a state he’s had trouble adjusting to. For the last three decades, he’s been fighting with the Brotherhood in the war, while basically giving life the middle finger and alienating nearly everyone around him. He’s also taken up a job as an enforcer with a human organized crime ring in order to financially maintain his lone wolf routine. Early in the story, he does something that becomes the last straw for the Brotherhood who kick him out of their ranks. Nate didn’t really want to go to the club that night, but he spends his time there admiring Nalla from the shadows while telling himself all the reasons he shouldn’t want her. When she leaves, he follows to ensure her safety and finds her fending off a pair of lessers. Her fierceness in battle makes Nate fall for her almost instantly and his feelings are all but solidified when she cries over him, thinking he’s been mortally wounded. It’s the beginning of a fast-moving relationship between them that becomes everything he’s been missing in life. But if he can’t get back into the Brotherhood’s good graces, Zsadist may never accept him as a mate for his daughter, and when the lessers come looking for him, it could put many lives in danger, not the least of which is the female he’s come to love.
I’ve adored Nate since he first appeared in the series. He was such a sweet kid in spite of all he’d been through. I honestly thought he and Rahvyn would become an item, but she was meant for Lassiter. Between that heartbreak and his newfound immortality, he was not in a good place at the end of the last book, which kind of broke my heart, but all that made where he is at the beginning of this book make sense. He’s just depressed and mad at the world and doesn’t really care about anything, least of all himself, until Nalla bursts into his life, giving him something to live for. I love how he slowly comes back to life under her tender care and wants to be a better male for her. He may be a hardened fighter now, but we get to see that sweet, gentle guy he used to be in his interactions with her. The way the story wrap ups with him fighting with every beat of his heart for what’s his, making amends to everyone he’d hurt with his actions, and acknowledging that the things that happened to him won’t go away overnight but he’s ready to put in the work to get better was a superb character arc for him. It left me with no doubt that he has a bright future ahead of him and is the perfect mate for Nalla.
Nalla grew up with loving parents and she’s become a social worker at Luchas House. However, Zsadist’s emotional problems from his own trauma often interfered with her life growing up, leaving her with some resentment toward her mother for spending more time dealing with her hellren’s issues than her daughter. It doesn’t help that Zsadist has basically threatened every male who’s ever come close to Nalla, because he doesn’t trust anyone with his baby girl. So she and her dad are not on good terms either when the story opens. Nalla only went to the club because her best friend, Bitty, guilted her into it, and she’s not having a good time. Having Nate glaring at her from the corner just irritates her more. Then they end up fighting the lessers together in the alley behind the club, during which Nate appears to have been mortally wounded because of a wrong move Nalla made. She thinks he’s just died in her arms and can’t stop crying over him, so him waking up, stuns her. Then her father shows up, and he’s less than pleased, thinking that they’re dating. When Nalla and Nate randomly meet up again the next night, I think that she’s attracted to Nate in part because his personality isn’t all that different from her father’s, which feels familiar to her, and also because she kind of wants to rebel against her father’s dictates. But it quickly becomes so much more than that for her. It turns into a whirlwind affair that rapidly becomes a love to rival that of her parents. But if her father can’t accept Nate, Nalla will be heartbroken.
Nalla is the perfect mix of Zsadist and Bella. She has her mother’s kindness and compassion intertwined with her father’s warrior heart. The way she handled the aristocratic f-boys at the club made me want to stand up and cheer, as did the way she dealt death to the lessers, which I immediately knew was Zsadist’s training. It was hard watching her arguing with not only her parents but also sweet Bitty. Much like with Nate, though, she gains insights throughout the story that help her to see the error of her thinking and she makes amends, which was a great arc for her as well. I especially loved her for her easy acceptance of Nate, warts and all, and for giving him all the love he’s so richly deserved but thought he would never find. Nalla was simply a well-rounded heroine who has definitely become a fan favorite for me.
As is typical for this series, we get many other character POVs throughout. Wrath gets a number of scenes as he reconnects with his shellan, Beth, his loyal butler, Fritz, and all of the Brothers in turn. He also struggles with coming to terms with basically losing over three decades of his life and with wanting to go back out in the field and fight with his warriors instead of simply sitting on his throne. Zsadist has been mostly seen and not heard from since his own book, so it was nice to get his POV for a change. He wants to see his daughter live her life, but he also can’t help but be protective of her. He’s intently focused on fighting Lash and his new crop of lessers, as well. Nate’s old friend, Shuli, gets a number of his own scenes. He’s been fighting alongside the Brothers, too, but finds himself sidelined after his misadventures with Nate. However, his surprisingly heroic actions later on earn him a high honor. On the enemy’s side, we get the POV of Evan, a low-level mobster in the crime family Nate works for who can’t seem to do anything right and ends up a lesser. It was kind of interesting getting the perspective of someone who was basically turned against his will, which is something I don’t believe we’ve seen before. The very last scene of the book was from Fritz’s POV—something I’m pretty sure we’ve not had before either—as he pines for the mansion, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was foreshadowing a return to the mountain for our heroes. Last but not least, we get several scenes for Bitty who is sweet on L.W., a sentiment that’s definitely returned, and let me say that I’m totally here for this pairing. She also gains an interesting new power, which gives her insights into what the future might hold for L.W. and it’s very concerning.
Ever since I heard that this first next-gen book was going to be Nate and Nalla’s, I’ve been excited, and overall, The Beloved didn’t disappoint. I admit I had a few doubts early on, because they didn’t seem to be getting enough scenes together. While more scenes with Nate and Nalla certainly wouldn’t have gone amiss, every one they shared was on fire with the perfect alchemy of heart and heat. Ms. Ward didn’t waste a single one, with each of them propelling this couple’s story forward and revealing something new. Insta-love isn’t usually a favorite trope of mine either, but all the feels were there in every interaction between these two characters. By the end, I was absolutely convinced of their rightness for one another. Nate and Nalla both grew a great deal during the story, which made their characterizations very well-written. I got teary-eyed over Wrath’s reunions with all the important people in his life and I loved seeing more of Zsadist and Bella. I enjoyed all the sightings of the grown young that we already know about and can’t wait for them to get their own stories. There was also a healthy dose of humor as only the BDB can do it. I cracked up over Zsadist and Vishous’s talk about parenting. Who knew Vishous would get attached to a kid even though he won’t quite admit it? I’m looking forward to seeing where that goes. And L.W. and Shuli arguing like an old married couple was pretty funny, too. After the developments in their part of the story, it looks like they’re going to be getting on each other’s nerves for the foreseeable future. Then there’s L.W. and Bitty’s rapidly developing romance that’s equally as infused with emotion and desire as Nate and Nalla’s, and it’s left me super eager for their story, which I hope is going to be the next book. But first it looks like we’ll be getting a Christmas/winter novel for Callum and Apex, whose story was left hanging at the end of the BDB: Prison Camp series, so I’m looking forward to them crossing into the main BDB series and finally getting some resolution to that. Everything, once again, has me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next releases. show less
Devil’s Cut is the final book in J. R. Ward’s Bourbon Kings series. Even though they’re highly dysfunctional, I’ve loved reading about the Baldwine family and all of their trials and travails from the beginning. Where some readers saw nothing but a spoiled rich family, I saw four siblings who were emotionally wounded on a deep level and torn apart by their father’s terrible abuse. I also saw a family in shreds from everything he’d done and their fortunes in question as his death show more revealed the true extent of his greed and misdeeds. As this story opens, we see that none of the Baldwine siblings – neither Edward, Lane, Max, nor Gin – really care one whit that their father, William, is dead. Quite to the contrary, they’re glad that he’s gone, and I can’t blame them. But with his death, they’ve discovered just how bad of a businessman he was. He embezzled money from both private family trusts and the family owned Bradford Bourbon Company to invest in a string of fake or failed businesses, leaving the family legacy on the verge of bankruptcy, with creditors practically knocking down their doors to get repaid, when they don’t have the liquidity to do so. This leaves them in a very precarious financial position. On top of that, the four siblings have basically scattered to the four winds, each nursing their own wounds from William's mistreatment. By the end of the previous book, it was also revealed that William's death was indeed murder, one which Edward confessed to. Devil’s Cut didn’t end up being quite the mystery I was expecting, though. Instead, it’s about the family pulling together in the wake of their father’s destruction. And perhaps more importantly it’s also about them finding reconciliation in a number of different ways that left me with a warm, content feeling in the end.
As the youngest of the three brothers, Lane never thought he would ever find himself in charge of BBC if and when his father passed away. As the oldest, it was always expected that Edward would take up that mantle, but circumstances changed it all in a heartbeat. Lane is not the businessman that Edward is, so from the start, he’s been having a hard time of it, not only because his skills aren’t as good, but also because of the mess William left him to clean up. With the help of his best friend, Jeff, an investment banker, he’s been slowly making sense of the company books and trying to keep the BBC solvent. On top of that, he’s been doing his best to try to hold the family together, and that’s a big job indeed. Luckily he has the love of his life, Lizzie, to help him out. They reunited in the first book of the series, and she’s been his rock throughout all the problems that have come their way. Even though there have been a few bumps along the road, each book has taken them to the next step of their relationship, which I’ve very much enjoyed. Lane and Lizzie have been the core couple around which the rest of the characters and the plot revolve, and they’re very well-suited to that role.
Edward is the oldest and he has always looked out for his younger siblings. Even when they were just children, he often took the severe punishments meted out by his father to save one of the others. That’s why I never truly believed that he was guilty when he confessed to his father’s murder at the end of the previous book. I couldn’t have blamed him if he had been the perpetrator, though, because William treated Edward abominably, even trying to have him killed at one point. As a result, Edward spent weeks in a South American jungle being tortured, and he’s never been the same since. Broken in both body and spirit, he retreated to his horse breeding farm, The Red & Black, avoiding everyone and drowning his sorrows at the bottom of a bottle. However, he’s always been in love with Sutton, who is the daughter of BBC’s chief competitor and now that her father is disabled, she has become the CEO of their company. Luckily for Edward, his feelings are reciprocated, but before turning himself in to the police, he broke off the relationship of a sort that they’d begun. I’ve always loved Edward for his selflessness, and I also love Sutton for loving him in spite of everything. If anyone in the series deserved an HEA, it was these two.
Gin is the youngest Baldwine, who started the series more worried about where she was going to get the money to continue living in the manner in which she was accustomed, than about anything that was going on with the family or the company. She also has a teenage daughter, Amelia, to whom she gave birth when she was just a teenager herself and whom she’s largely ignored for most of the girl’s life. Gin has basically had a habit of making one bad decision after another, perhaps the worst of which was marrying a man for money who ended up abusing her. It was also pretty crappy of her to not tell the man who fathered her child that he had a daughter. However, William’s death and the subsequent problems that arose from that event have slowly been making an impact on Gin, causing her to turn her life around. The love of her life has always been Samuel T., who is also Amelia’s father. Samuel T. is a brilliant attorney and a playboy who tries to self-medicate with tons of booze and women even though Gin is the one who he’s never been able to get out of his system. Throughout the years, these two have shared a highly dysfunctional, tit-for-tat relationship, where they sometimes sleep together but always end up hurting each other. Underneath all the anger and bad feelings, though, it’s obvious that there’s no one else in the world who completes these two except each other. Out of anyone in the series, I think Gin and Samuel T. showed the most growth. In this book, they really impressed me by finally maturing into the responsible adults they always should have been.
Last but not least, middle brother, Max, was absent throughout the first book with no one really knowing where he was for the past few years. He returned to the family estate of Easterly but was still barely seen in the second book. Now in this final book, he gets a few of his own POV scenes, and what we find is a man who’s hurting just as much as his siblings, but who has tried to run away from his problems instead of facing them. Right before he left Easterly, Max overheard his parents arguing and discovered a dirty little family secret, and that’s why he left. He finally returned, feeling that now that his father is gone, he has a responsibility to tell the truth, but he doesn’t plan on staying. The one person who might change his mind, however, is Tanesha, the woman who got away. Tanesha is the daughter of Miss Aurora's (the woman who essentially raised all the Baldwine siblings) minister and is a resident doctor at the local hospital. She and Max shared some sexy times before Max left town, and both of them are obviously still very attracted to one another. Although I didn’t really get to truly meet Max until this book, I got just enough insights into his character to like what I saw and believe that he deserved an HEA too. Anyone who loves bad boys on Harleys should love Max. That coupled with his extraordinary singing ability and the fact that he dared to engage in an interracial relationship made him all the more appealing. I almost wish we could have gotten an even closer look at this couple, but I’m happy knowing that they’re in a good place by the end of the story.
All of the secondary players who were seen in the previous books return. Jeff is still the acting CEO of the BBC and continues to do his best to help Lane out of a very sticky situation. Mack, Lane’s friend and the company’s master distiller, finally reveals that he’s found a new strain of yeast that could be worth millions, but he might have to give it all up to save the company. Shelby, Edward’s friend and employee, never loses faith in his innocence and is instrumental in bringing the truth to light. Greta, Lizzie’s friend who used to help with the landscaping but is now working as the estate’s new controller, helps sort out the books. Gary, the head grounds keeper at the estate has a big secret. Little V. E., the Baldwine siblings mother, actually seems to be doing a little better now that her abusive husband is gone. Although she’s still suffering from dementia, she’s seen wandering around the estate a few times, which leads to a surprising reveal. The villains, Gin’s abusive husband, Richard, and Lane’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Chantal, also get their comeuppances, which made me quite happy. Finally was Miss Aurora, the family’s cook and the woman Lane calls his real momma. She’s been suffering from terminal cancer throughout the series and in this one is on her death bed, not even conscious most of the time. She’s always been a driving force in the Baldwine’s lives, loving them and being their conscience. I think she can now look down from heaven and say that the sacrifices she made paved the way for the family’s reconciliation.
While Devil’s Cut perhaps wasn’t quite what I was expecting it to be, I very much enjoyed it nonetheless. There are a couple of shocking revelations that very much took me by surprise. In fact, once William's killer is finally revealed for certain, I initially thought it wasn’t real and that the person had other motives for confessing. On the one hand it seemed a little out of character, but on the other, it made perfect sense. I know I’m not being very clear here, but I can’t say much more without giving away spoilers. In any case, it leads to a very satisfying ending. The main reason I read romance is for the HEAs. Nothing makes me happier than getting that wonderful happy ending for the main couple. Well, I got that and more here. After everything William put them through, no one deserved their HEAs more than this family, and nothing could have been sweeter than seeing each and every one of them, even a couple of supporting players, happy and on the road to a brighter future, not only in their personal lives but also as a family unit and in their business dealings. That made Devil’s Cut a lovely and very welcome wrap-up to this family saga that left me with warm fuzzies all over. show less
As the youngest of the three brothers, Lane never thought he would ever find himself in charge of BBC if and when his father passed away. As the oldest, it was always expected that Edward would take up that mantle, but circumstances changed it all in a heartbeat. Lane is not the businessman that Edward is, so from the start, he’s been having a hard time of it, not only because his skills aren’t as good, but also because of the mess William left him to clean up. With the help of his best friend, Jeff, an investment banker, he’s been slowly making sense of the company books and trying to keep the BBC solvent. On top of that, he’s been doing his best to try to hold the family together, and that’s a big job indeed. Luckily he has the love of his life, Lizzie, to help him out. They reunited in the first book of the series, and she’s been his rock throughout all the problems that have come their way. Even though there have been a few bumps along the road, each book has taken them to the next step of their relationship, which I’ve very much enjoyed. Lane and Lizzie have been the core couple around which the rest of the characters and the plot revolve, and they’re very well-suited to that role.
Edward is the oldest and he has always looked out for his younger siblings. Even when they were just children, he often took the severe punishments meted out by his father to save one of the others. That’s why I never truly believed that he was guilty when he confessed to his father’s murder at the end of the previous book. I couldn’t have blamed him if he had been the perpetrator, though, because William treated Edward abominably, even trying to have him killed at one point. As a result, Edward spent weeks in a South American jungle being tortured, and he’s never been the same since. Broken in both body and spirit, he retreated to his horse breeding farm, The Red & Black, avoiding everyone and drowning his sorrows at the bottom of a bottle. However, he’s always been in love with Sutton, who is the daughter of BBC’s chief competitor and now that her father is disabled, she has become the CEO of their company. Luckily for Edward, his feelings are reciprocated, but before turning himself in to the police, he broke off the relationship of a sort that they’d begun. I’ve always loved Edward for his selflessness, and I also love Sutton for loving him in spite of everything. If anyone in the series deserved an HEA, it was these two.
Gin is the youngest Baldwine, who started the series more worried about where she was going to get the money to continue living in the manner in which she was accustomed, than about anything that was going on with the family or the company. She also has a teenage daughter, Amelia, to whom she gave birth when she was just a teenager herself and whom she’s largely ignored for most of the girl’s life. Gin has basically had a habit of making one bad decision after another, perhaps the worst of which was marrying a man for money who ended up abusing her. It was also pretty crappy of her to not tell the man who fathered her child that he had a daughter. However, William’s death and the subsequent problems that arose from that event have slowly been making an impact on Gin, causing her to turn her life around. The love of her life has always been Samuel T., who is also Amelia’s father. Samuel T. is a brilliant attorney and a playboy who tries to self-medicate with tons of booze and women even though Gin is the one who he’s never been able to get out of his system. Throughout the years, these two have shared a highly dysfunctional, tit-for-tat relationship, where they sometimes sleep together but always end up hurting each other. Underneath all the anger and bad feelings, though, it’s obvious that there’s no one else in the world who completes these two except each other. Out of anyone in the series, I think Gin and Samuel T. showed the most growth. In this book, they really impressed me by finally maturing into the responsible adults they always should have been.
Last but not least, middle brother, Max, was absent throughout the first book with no one really knowing where he was for the past few years. He returned to the family estate of Easterly but was still barely seen in the second book. Now in this final book, he gets a few of his own POV scenes, and what we find is a man who’s hurting just as much as his siblings, but who has tried to run away from his problems instead of facing them. Right before he left Easterly, Max overheard his parents arguing and discovered a dirty little family secret, and that’s why he left. He finally returned, feeling that now that his father is gone, he has a responsibility to tell the truth, but he doesn’t plan on staying. The one person who might change his mind, however, is Tanesha, the woman who got away. Tanesha is the daughter of Miss Aurora's (the woman who essentially raised all the Baldwine siblings) minister and is a resident doctor at the local hospital. She and Max shared some sexy times before Max left town, and both of them are obviously still very attracted to one another. Although I didn’t really get to truly meet Max until this book, I got just enough insights into his character to like what I saw and believe that he deserved an HEA too. Anyone who loves bad boys on Harleys should love Max. That coupled with his extraordinary singing ability and the fact that he dared to engage in an interracial relationship made him all the more appealing. I almost wish we could have gotten an even closer look at this couple, but I’m happy knowing that they’re in a good place by the end of the story.
All of the secondary players who were seen in the previous books return. Jeff is still the acting CEO of the BBC and continues to do his best to help Lane out of a very sticky situation. Mack, Lane’s friend and the company’s master distiller, finally reveals that he’s found a new strain of yeast that could be worth millions, but he might have to give it all up to save the company. Shelby, Edward’s friend and employee, never loses faith in his innocence and is instrumental in bringing the truth to light. Greta, Lizzie’s friend who used to help with the landscaping but is now working as the estate’s new controller, helps sort out the books. Gary, the head grounds keeper at the estate has a big secret. Little V. E., the Baldwine siblings mother, actually seems to be doing a little better now that her abusive husband is gone. Although she’s still suffering from dementia, she’s seen wandering around the estate a few times, which leads to a surprising reveal. The villains, Gin’s abusive husband, Richard, and Lane’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Chantal, also get their comeuppances, which made me quite happy. Finally was Miss Aurora, the family’s cook and the woman Lane calls his real momma. She’s been suffering from terminal cancer throughout the series and in this one is on her death bed, not even conscious most of the time. She’s always been a driving force in the Baldwine’s lives, loving them and being their conscience. I think she can now look down from heaven and say that the sacrifices she made paved the way for the family’s reconciliation.
While Devil’s Cut perhaps wasn’t quite what I was expecting it to be, I very much enjoyed it nonetheless. There are a couple of shocking revelations that very much took me by surprise. In fact, once William's killer is finally revealed for certain, I initially thought it wasn’t real and that the person had other motives for confessing. On the one hand it seemed a little out of character, but on the other, it made perfect sense. I know I’m not being very clear here, but I can’t say much more without giving away spoilers. In any case, it leads to a very satisfying ending. The main reason I read romance is for the HEAs. Nothing makes me happier than getting that wonderful happy ending for the main couple. Well, I got that and more here. After everything William put them through, no one deserved their HEAs more than this family, and nothing could have been sweeter than seeing each and every one of them, even a couple of supporting players, happy and on the road to a brighter future, not only in their personal lives but also as a family unit and in their business dealings. That made Devil’s Cut a lovely and very welcome wrap-up to this family saga that left me with warm fuzzies all over. show less
Okay, I'm giving this book four stars, not because of its literary prowess, but because of its enjoyability.However, after eight books in this series, I have a serious problem. Well, frankly I had a problem from the first book but I've already reviewed that one.My big problem is in the characters and the gender roles they embody. Now, there's been a great deal of criticism over J.R. Ward's treatment of female characters in these books. Xhex and Payne are like a bandaid she uses to patch this show more up. Now, honestly I am one of the few who actually always liked Xhex as a character. It didn't change in this book. John Matthews was always one of my most liked characters. Their show, in this book, was kind of stolen by Blay and Quinn who I found myself desperately hoping would have some kind of resolution for their relationship. As usual, J.R.Ward does what most romantic novelists do. She creates characters whose every problem can be fixed by love and great sex. I'm sorry but I was literally bashing my head on something very hard when Xhex, after being held prisoner for almost four weeks and brutally raped several times, had great sex with John Matthews. No. No. No. I'm not even going to go into that one except to say: No. To all future writers out there: Don't do it. That is just... I have no words for that one.However, the big problem with the characters wasn't that they weren't likable or interesting, or that the woman wasn't "equal" enough. It was the character roles they play. J.R. Ward doesn't seem to get this.In fact, I wonder if she'll ever get this. The complaints about poor female characters in her book don't necessitate the creation of female protagonists who are practically men with vaginas. Creating a female character who walks, talks, acts and thinks like a man doesn't create a positive female protagonist (especially when she spends so much time complaining about how weak women are)! Our issues weren't that your women were weak characters (okay, maybe a little bit) but the roles that define them for goodness sake!In this series the men are men and the women are there to be protected, cherished and ultimately invisible. The only, Only woman who appears repeatedly is Doc Jane and occasionally Ehlena because they need to stitch someone up. Why? As soon as they are married and happy with their partners do they suddenly become non-existent? Oh, sorry, they show up for the inevitable wedding at the end of each book and cry like babies. However, I get that you, J.R. Ward have been actively trying to give them varied professions and passions and hobbies to make up for the fact that Beth dropped her entire life to go play Queen with Wrath and for several books didn't appear to have anything to fucking do. I get that that's why there's now a doctor and a nurse and a counselor and and the director of a female's home etc. Now there is Xhex who will be fighting with the big boys. *Facepalms* I don't even know how to touch on this anymore without breaking out into cussing so inevitably varied and violent that my review will be removed by Goodreads...My biggest problem isn't actually the female gender roles that are fucked up in these books, believe it or not. It's the men's! The portrayal of masculinity in these books makes me want to cry. Studies have shown that whilst an appalling number of women will suffer from violence at the hands of men (25%), men are actually moreso the victims of violence at their own hands! 70% of men will, at one point or another, be the victim of violence against them. These books say that to be a man you have to be muscled to within an inch of your life and you must be violent. THIS DOESN'T HELP THE SITUTATION. Every male protagonist in this book is violent, animalistic, uncontrolled and hyper-masculine to the point of ridiculousness. Now, I'm not saying that I prefer the pansy-ass sparklepires over something that does more than brood in your general direction if you're evil. I'm just saying that there needs to be a more divergent representation of what it is to be male. Because frankly, masculinity is no more tied to the size of your muscles than femininity is to one's beauty. My challenge to J.R. Ward is not to create a female protagonist who embodies positive gender roles but to create a male protagonist that is still masculine and sexy despite the fact that he is not a muscleman who walked out of the caveman era. For goodness sake, in the reader's guide not a SINGLE male could list a book that they'd read that WASN'T a book that they'd read to Nalla. That's right. Every single male in the guide doesn't read except to a baby. And women must be gentle and protected and kept away. That is, unless they're a spitfire dead doctor who can't be harmed anyway or a woman with a mangina that can be seen from space. show less
2.5 stars
What to say? What not to say?
I started this series backward with a book a lot of folks who've read the series since its inception think of as not being a not very good book (Lover Reborn), then read Lover at Last just because ... So, when I came across this book on the library shelf, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to actually read the first book in the series and see what I was missing, when the series was good. Turns out ... I wasn't missing anything.
Dark Lover is the epitome of cliched romance. It was like the author had all these little boxes to tick in her head when she started writing it and by golly, she hit just about everyone of them:
• A female lead who has never spent time with a man who did it for her, thereby confirming her status as a heterosexual woman? (It's there in the text!) | Check
• A dark, brooding male who never thought to have the love of a good woman? | Check
• A group of manly men who need the female touch to heal their wounded souls and thereby setting up the rest of the series? | Check
• And etc.
I was actually enjoying the book despite the above list, really. It's mindless fun, you know? However.
There's a difference between romance and lust. Several romps in the sheets and no discussion between the leads does not a relationship make. The biggest discussion between Wrath and Beth? When she tries to convince him he was not a coward for something that was not even his fault. (Wrath's father locked him in a cupboard to protect him from the Lessers who killed Wrath's parents.) Is there a relationship between Wrath and Beth that does not include a bed? Not that I could see. Never once do I see them just sit and talk about life or cuddle with each other. Yes, they're compatible in bed, but are they compatible in the ways that actually count? Yet, by the end of the book we're supposed to see the love between these two people as something great and good. Huh-uh.
In reality, as often happens in these types of books, everyone is more interesting character-wise than the lead pair and I found I wanted to know more about Vishous and the butler, Fritz (who deserves his own series of short stories). Other characters, on the other hand, not so much.
Mr. X is a very thin character at best. He's supposed to be this vicious, psychotic killer who will do anything to kill vampires, but this side of him never really materialized. We never got to see him at work, other than his use of tranquilizers to catch young vampires by attracting them with the blood of dead prostitutes. And both times he bungles the catch! His handling of Billy Riddle made him almost fatherly and gentle, which really did not seem to fit in with the exterior he's supposed to exude. And though Mr. X succeeds in kidnapping Beth, he never gets around to doing anything to her except tie her to a table in preparation for violence. Billy Riddle was worse than useless in the event. The complete lack of tension at this point was disappointing.
I found the whole thing about the Lessers rather laughable. They never materialized in the story except as background noise. As I wrote in my review of Lover Reborn, they just seem to exist to give the guys a way to show off their massive torsos and incredible muscles.
Butch, the cop, is a piece of work. His thinking processes the first time he meets Marissa, Wrath's former shellan, are extremely distasteful and, to be honest, disgusting. I was floored by the way reacts to her, thinking she's a high class prostitute, while at the same time lusting after her. He accuses her of being a prostitute aloud, then, when he apologizes when she reacts with shock, she accepts his apology? Really? I don't know about anyone else, but I would be very offended by such thinking and not want to be in the same room with such a person. Yet, since this is romance and fantasy at that, Marissa not only forgives him right away afterward, but wants to go on a date with him and will eventually fall in lu-er-love. Ew. Just ... ew.
It's frustrating to have listened to this book in anticipation of something enjoyable. Instead, I discovered that, if I'd started reading the Black Dagger Brotherhood with this book, I would never have gone beyond it. Sigh.
Best quote:
show less
What to say? What not to say?
I started this series backward with a book a lot of folks who've read the series since its inception think of as not being a not very good book (Lover Reborn), then read Lover at Last just because ... So, when I came across this book on the library shelf, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to actually read the first book in the series and see what I was missing, when the series was good. Turns out ... I wasn't missing anything.
Dark Lover is the
• A female lead who has never spent time with a man who did it for her, thereby confirming her status as a heterosexual woman? (It's there in the text!) | Check
• A dark, brooding male who never thought to have the love of a good woman? | Check
• A group of manly men who need the female touch to heal their wounded souls and thereby setting up the rest of the series? | Check
• And etc.
I was actually enjoying the book despite the above list, really. It's mindless fun, you know? However.
There's a difference between romance and lust. Several romps in the sheets and no discussion between the leads does not a relationship make. The biggest discussion between Wrath and Beth? When she tries to convince him he was not a coward for something that was not even his fault. (Wrath's father locked him in a cupboard to protect him from the Lessers who killed Wrath's parents.) Is there a relationship between Wrath and Beth that does not include a bed? Not that I could see. Never once do I see them just sit and talk about life or cuddle with each other. Yes, they're compatible in bed, but are they compatible in the ways that actually count? Yet, by the end of the book we're supposed to see the love between these two people as something great and good. Huh-uh.
In reality, as often happens in these types of books, everyone is more interesting character-wise than the lead pair and I found I wanted to know more about Vishous and the butler, Fritz (who deserves his own series of short stories). Other characters, on the other hand, not so much.
Mr. X is a very thin character at best. He's supposed to be this vicious, psychotic killer who will do anything to kill vampires, but this side of him never really materialized. We never got to see him at work, other than his use of tranquilizers to catch young vampires by attracting them with the blood of dead prostitutes. And both times he bungles the catch! His handling of Billy Riddle made him almost fatherly and gentle, which really did not seem to fit in with the exterior he's supposed to exude. And though Mr. X succeeds in kidnapping Beth, he never gets around to doing anything to her except tie her to a table in preparation for violence. Billy Riddle was worse than useless in the event. The complete lack of tension at this point was disappointing.
I found the whole thing about the Lessers rather laughable. They never materialized in the story except as background noise. As I wrote in my review of Lover Reborn, they just seem to exist to give the guys a way to show off their massive torsos and incredible muscles.
Butch, the cop, is a piece of work. His thinking processes the first time he meets Marissa, Wrath's former shellan, are extremely distasteful and, to be honest, disgusting. I was floored by the way reacts to her, thinking she's a high class prostitute, while at the same time lusting after her. He accuses her of being a prostitute aloud, then, when he apologizes when she reacts with shock, she accepts his apology? Really? I don't know about anyone else, but I would be very offended by such thinking and not want to be in the same room with such a person. Yet, since this is romance and fantasy at that, Marissa not only forgives him right away afterward, but wants to go on a date with him and will eventually fall in lu-er-love. Ew. Just ... ew.
It's frustrating to have listened to this book in anticipation of something enjoyable. Instead, I discovered that, if I'd started reading the Black Dagger Brotherhood with this book, I would never have gone beyond it. Sigh.
Best quote:
Wrath: look at how their (human) folklore portrays our species. There's Dracula [who Wrath resembles!] for C*****'s sake, an evil bloodsucker who preys on the defenseless. There's piss-poor B movies and porn. And don't get me started on the whole Halloween thing. Plastic fangs. Black capes. The only thing the idiots got right are that we drink blood and that we can't go out in daylight. The rest is bulls***, fabricated to alienate us and stimulate fear in the masses. Or just as offensive, the fiction used to create some kind of mystique for bored humans who think the dark side is a fun place to visit. [emphasis mine] (pg. 195, Signet 2005 edition)
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