The King

JR Ward is absolutely the master. No questions asked. This was hands down one of my favorites. She has always done a magnificent job of including characters with disabilities in her books. And she doesn't do it in the regular way that most do... these guys are not side characters or "the guy with the disability." JR Ward makes them badasses and every one of the brothers has something going on.

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But I just nearly cried in the moment the man tried to hand Wrath the piece of cloth and he asked what it was, and then told him, "I am blind." After three or four books where the Brotherhood had taken great pains to keep this fact from the world, it was just such a great, impromptu moment that was incredibly powerful, and that I never saw show more coming. Loved it.

Reread 2020: This is one of my favorite books in the series for the great storyline with Beth and Wrath. Beth is one of my favorite characters and I love seeing her back in the spotlight again, and her determination to have a child, and also help Wrath past his struggles with the glymera, fears for what his genetics and his family history could mean for his family’s future, and his blindness. The Beth/Layla scenes were also great. All the ice cream made me hungry, LOL.

This book is probably my favorite one for Sola/Assail. The kidnapping plot where Assail goes after her is Assail in protective mate mode—a way I’d much prefer to read him over murdering, drug dealing Assail (no thank you.)

I loved the medical stuff in this book. JR Ward always does a great job writing those scenes. Enjoyed the continued story line with John Matthew and his seizure episodes the Brothers do not link back to his past as Darius. Xhex trying to explain how JM looks to her through her sympath side. All the pregnancy stuff. Just a great book! show less

When the announcement came out last year (2013) that the next Black Dagger Brotherhood book was going to be about Wrath and Beth again, I saw many fans complaining, wondering why J. R. Ward would give them another book. Their argument was that this couple had already had their story told and didn't need another one, but I thoroughly disagreed with them. Dark Lover had been good and was, of course, the book that started me on this crazy journey with the Brotherhood and made me a fan of paranormal vampire romance. For that reason, it holds a special place in my heart, but I always felt like Wrath and Beth's story was a tad rushed. Theirs was the shortest book in the series, and with all the typical secondary POVs on the canvas, there show more wasn't quite enough time to really dig into their issues. From the moment I finished reading Dark Lover, I began hoping that there would be more story for this couple, but believed it was probably just wishful thinking on my part, or that I would simply have to settle for them being supporting players in other characters' stories. So for me personally, the announcement for The King was a very welcome one indeed, and this book definitely did not disappoint in any way, shape, or form. I loved every minute I spent reading it, even better than Dark Lover, and hated to see it come to an end.

Wrath is as sexy as ever, and it was so much fun to have him at the forefront as the main hero again. He's always had a hard time with being the king. It took him a couple of centuries to ascend to the throne, which he did at the end of Dark Lover with Beth's help and encouragement. Since then, he has been plagued with struggles: the desire to be back out in the field fighting with his Brothers, going completely blind, the seemingly endless piles of paperwork, and doubts about being able to live up to his father's legacy. There are days when Wrath really doesn't want to be King, and throughout these parts, I couldn't help thinking, “What better person to be in charge than someone who doesn't want to be?” I know this might sound strange, but it all goes to the idea that if someone isn't seeking power, wealth, or prestige, then they're likely less corruptible. I couldn't have been more right as this concept played out over the course of the story. Wrath finally comes into his own and begins building his own lasting legacy for future generations, and I couldn't have been more proud of that. While he's in the midst of coming to terms with all of this, the glymera and the Band of Bastards continue with their efforts to dethrone him, during which he has to muster all the mettle he can find to overcome their machinations. On top of all that, Beth desperately wants a young, but Wrath flatly refuses to do the baby thing. He's scared to death of possibly losing Beth if her pregnancy doesn't go well, which leads to a major argument for the couple. And whoo-wee! All I can say is that Wrath does not take Beth leaving him, even for one night, well at all. Not surprisingly though, he eventually comes to his senses, leading to a wonderful reconciliation.

For her part, Beth wants a baby so badly, she's been spending all her free time with Layla in an attempt to jump start her needing. She also still fears for her hellren's life after the attempted assassination in Lover Reborn. They begin to experience some typical marital issues that often come about when a couple has been in a long-term, committed relationship. Beth feels distant from Wrath because his overwhelming responsibilities as King keep him incredibly busy, not to mention they have a major disagreement about whether to have kids when Wrath finds out what Beth has been doing. Wrath is adamantly against it, so much so that he won't even talk about it, and Beth understandably has a hard time dealing with that. Once they both cool off, I loved how they came back together and had a great heart-to-heart conversation about everything. It just went to show that their relationship meant more to them than the things standing in their way. As she's always been, Beth was Wrath's rock and a freakin' genius to boot. She's the one who found a loophole in the glymera's evil plan, and she also helped Wrath come to terms with his monarchy, showing that she is indeed worthy of being queen.

As with all the BDB books, there are secondary plots and characters aplenty with lots of forward progression on all fronts. For starters, we have the Shadow brothers, Trez and iAm. Trez is a combination of Rhage, with his sexual addiction, and Rehvenge because he took over the other male's shady business enterprises. Of course, both of these things make Trez a very bad boy.;-) His sexual addiction has gotten to the point that he simply does it by rote. It's more of a compulsion that he doesn't really even enjoy anymore. In some ways, I think he's also doing it to thumb his nose at the s'Hisbe and the Shadow queen, who expect him to mate the queen's daughter and be the prize stud of his race. In the last book, Trez met Selena and realized she was the woman of his dreams. He didn't dare to hope that the Chosen returned his feelings, so he's extremely surprised when she makes it abundantly clear that she does. Selena has been attracted to Trez since the moment she first saw him. She now believes that she's contracted a mysterious disease that has killed some of her Chosen sisters in the past, making her want to live life to the fullest in the present. This makes her throw caution to the wind where Trez is concerned. He shrewdly comes up with a temporary fix to his problem with the Shadow queen, but essentially has to make a deal with the devil to do it. However, he still doesn't feel the least bit worthy of Selena. These two are going to have a lot of obstacles to overcome in their path to happiness, but I'll be rooting for them all the way. iAm is backing Trez up too. He constantly worries about his brother, which always sends him into a cooking frenzy. The scenes with him and Beth's cat, Boo, were hilarious, and I loved how he stepped up to the plate to look out for Beth when Wrath couldn't. iAm has always been the quiet one of the two brothers, but we learn a few very interesting tidbits about him in this book. His devotion to Trez is very touching and reminiscent of Phury with Zsadist. I can't wait to read more about these two brothers when they become co-heroes of the next book, The Shadows, which if the BDB books stay on their current release schedule, will be out next Spring (2015).

Next up is Assail and Sola. I hadn't fully warmed up to this couple in the last book of the series, but that all changed here. Their story had ended on something of a cliffhanger with Sola being kidnapped near the end of Lover at Last. From the moment they first appeared in this book, I was fully engaged. Sola kind of reminds me of Xhex. She's a tough cookie who isn't about to wait around hoping a man, namely Assail, will save her. She takes matters into her own hands the best she knows how and probably would have gotten away from her kidnappers even if Assail hadn't showed up in time. The way Assail sees it, drug wholesaler, Benloise, took his woman and he's not messing around when it comes to getting her back. He goes all Rambo on Benloise's men, which oddly enough is when I finally started warming up to him. What really cinched it, though, was Assail's intense focus on finding Sola, and most of all, his loving care of her grandmother until he does. This little old lady had me cracking up with the way she left Assail and his cousins speechless with her assertive, take-charge attitude. Assail's tenderness toward Sola when he finally finds her, especially after being so utterly ruthless with her kidnappers, was astounding and the thing that really made me start liking the guy. Sola is obviously his Achilles heel. I was glad to see that Sola trusted him in that situation too. After the rescue, things heat up for these two pretty quickly, but it's far from a happy ending for them. They're still pining for each other, though, so the potential for a long-term relationship is very much alive and well. I'm so looking forward to more character building for these two, especially Assail, but he's definitely going to have to clean up his act to be worthy of Sola.

The theme of this book's secondary romances seemed to be good (or mostly good) girls falling for very bad boys. The last of these couples is Xcor and Layla. Xcor still intrigues me a great deal. I know that he's done some terrible things, particularly toward Wrath, so he'll certainly have to pay in some way for that. IMHO though, Xcor is an empty shell of a male who needs something in his life to feel whole again. All along, he's believed that gaining the throne is the thing that will give him what he desires. However, he couldn't be more mistaken, and I think he's slowly coming to realize that. Poor Layla is going through the difficult throes of pregnancy, but she's still very happy about it and maintaining a cheerful attitude. She was very brave to approach Xcor about ending his mission to take Wrath out as King. His response in some ways surprised me, but in other ways, it didn't. I very much want Xcor to be redeemed and have a life with Layla, but I have a feeling it's going to be a long, hard road for them to get there. That road may be complicated by his relationship with Throe, which has hit a rocky patch, creating a lot of friction within their friendship as Xcor's priorities shift.

Poor Saxton isn't unlike Qhuinn in that his father (who happens to be one of the gymera members actively seeking to depose Wrath), hates him because he's gay. I'm so proud of Saxton being First Council to the King and wish he could wave that in his father's face, but to do so would have tipped off the baddies. I think Saxton is going to find–or perhaps has already has found–a new family with the Brotherhood in service to the King, and I hope he finds true love along the way too. Some new gymera members come to the forefront in this book. I can't recall if any of them were introduced in past books, but if they were, their parts were small. The most important of them is Abalone who is the only one of the gymera, other than those within the Brotherhood's fold, who supports Wrath, which definitely works in his favor. Last but not least, John Matthew's seizure episodes return, which cause him to begin experiencing unfamiliar feelings toward Beth, as well as some visions of Darius's life.

Throughout all the flashbacks to the Old Country, I enjoyed reading about Wrath's parents. Their romance was every bit as lovely as any of the main couples in the series, and it was wonderful to know that they were so much in love. All their scenes together added depth to their relationship, as well as the overall plot. Once again, the past was seamlessly woven into what was happening in the present, which made it all the more intriguing.

Overall, The King was yet another fabulous book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I loved the double twist ending, and every single one of the storylines, from Wrath and Beth's, all the way through each of the secondary characters' was engaging and intriguing. I greatly enjoyed reading each and every one, and can't wait for some of these characters to get their own books. The hardest part of reading a great book like this is that, with all good things, it must eventually come to an end. This is one case where I'm glad these books are long, so that I can derive more hours of enjoyment from them before that happens. Of course, the other difficult thing is waiting another full year for the next one to be released, so I'll be on the edge of my seat, eagerly counting down the days until I get to read The Shadows and learn what's in store for Trez, Selena, and iAm. show less

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

Before I start my (rant) review I’d like to put things into perspective; last year when LOVER AT LAST came out I called in sick, and finished it the same day. Now, I didn’t LOVE it, but it was still a 4 star read. For THE KING, I woke-up at 2:30 AM—patiently waited until it was actually available for download at 3 AM—and dove in. I’d anticipated a long day of uninterrupted reading, but after a couple of hours I could barely keep my eyes open, and gave-up. Ok, so if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a BDB fangirl. I’m also no virgin to all-nighters, so the fact that Ward put me to sleep after two hours was a very bad sign. THE KING felt like a short stories anthology with a Beth & Wrath novella show more at the end. I enjoyed the latter, but unfortunately I had to push through 400 pages of meh first.

The BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD series is renowned for its gangsta slang and shameless product placements, and never have the two been as apparent as in THE KING. The author went a little overboard with these two elements in my opinion, and I found this book a more difficult read because of it. But, those weren’t the only reasons why I struggled to finish this twelfth installment; there were also too many side stories, not enough brother moments, and too much “filler”. It took me FIVE DAYS to finish this novel! Need I remind you that I devoured LOVER AT LAST in one, and it too was pushing 600 pages. Reading the first 3/4 of this novel was a chore, I was dangerously close to do-not-finishing it on several occasions. And, what exactly is Ward’s problem with Miley Cyrus!?

I found the multiple story lines very confusing because not only does the POV change from chapter-to-chapter, but there were subsections within each one with even more character perspectives, and none of them really went anywhere. I enjoyed the flashbacks to Wrath’s parents, and the way that the author connected them to the present king’s circumstances. iAm and Lassiter were a-m-a-z-i-n-g in this installment, and I liked Beth and Wrath’s story once I finally got to it. As for the rest—Trez and Selena, Xcor and Layla, Assail and Sola, and… s’Ex(!?!)—I couldn’t have cared less. There’s very little actual brother action in this book, in both the fighting and the cameo appearance departments, which I found hugely disappointing. I was so psyched when Blay and Quinn made their first post LOVER AT LAST debut—only to not see them again for the duration.

I haven’t DNF’d a book in years, I’m too type-A to be able to leave anything unfinished, but THE KING came dangerously close which pretty much says it all in my opinion. I still plan on reading the next installment, however it will not merit a sick day this time around. In fact, I might just wait until it’s available in paperback because this one definitely wasn’t worth the inflated price tag. show less

All is not well in the court of the Vampires, there is declension on the minds of the elite and forlornness in the ranks of the commoners. Not everyone is happy with the current reigning monarchs and the sh-t is about to hit the fan.
Wrath son of Wrath has had tons on his plate to deal with since taking the throne left empty since the brutal death of his parents 300 years ago when as a young pre-tran orphan he was adopted by the Black Dagger Brotherhood and raised to be one of them. But the last place he thought he’d ever have discord was from his beloved shellan, wife Beth. She wants a baby and he’s got to put his foot down with an unequivocal NO!

J.R. Ward’s BDB novels not only keep getting better, but they also more in-depth into show more the structure and foundation of her Vampire society adding more sub-races and more twists with each volume. In The King she’s outdone herself, her recognizable street-talk may be the same, the fighting’s just as brutal, the brothers just as big but it’s her attention for detail that will reign. And just like when she outted the Chosen and pretty much closed down the Scribe Virgin’s realm this novel is another game changer. So take a nitro tablet before you sit down to take in this nail-biting, edge of your seat page-turner, turn up the volume of the best Rap station and go! And when you finish you’ll just want to go back to page one and start all over again.
Long live the queen of paranormal romance! show less

*No spoilers.

The undulation beneath him took a moment to register. And then he realized it was her. She was … moving against him, and not as in she wanted to get free.

She didn't want to get free, huh? Well. That's a good sign. Proceed, I guess.



That's so me during every BDB sex scene.

Disclaimer: This is going to be long as fuck. I had to suffer, so now you have to suffer.


I have this uncle in his early 50's. He's loud and boisterous. He insists that all the ladies want him, for he is unimaginably virile (he mentions it often). His wardrobe can be compared to that of his 19 year old son. Though, that's a stretch, because his son has started dressing more like a classy young man instead of a lazy teenager of late.

My uncle wears show more graphic t-shirts, long, baggy shorts, and huge sneakers with elaborate designs. He wears a flashy big-ass silver chain and a baseball cap - always worn to the side. He’s constantly cracking inappropriate and cringe worthy jokes and he insists on using all the slang the youngins do nowadays.

The older he gets, the cooler and more hip he tries to be. The cooler and more hip he tries to be, the cornier he appears. It’s like he’s clawing desperately at his youth. It’s sad and embarrassing, and I assure you that most of his family has tried to tactfully breach the subject, but he's stubborn. Oh, and he knows it all. He has a heart of gold, my uncle. I will attest to this. He’s a lovable person and he’s full of life, but, man, there's no way around it - he just tries way too hard.

This book is my uncle.

The book means well and it has heart, but it's drowning in bad jokes, corny slang, and cheesy sex scenes. There's a good story deep down inside this series with interesting characters that have rich personalities and compelling backgrounds, but the further we go, the less those characters shine through. Every time we get a glimpse of them and start to feel nostalgia for the fantastic chemistry of all these characters together, somebody makes a goddamn Miley Cyrus reference and I want to pluck my eyes out.


*Plucks eyes right out.



There are references to brands, products, celebrities, movies, etc. It never ends.

• ... styles at Pottery Barn.

• ... his Gucci loafers no doubt ruined.

• ... two Chanel perfume bottles knocking over.

• ... like she'd gone to Sephora

• ... when it came to her and her sex, he was fully capable of going wrecking-ball ...

• ... went total wrecking ball on the billiards room.

• ... her smile was about as genuine as Courtney Stodden's.

• ... enough attitude to make Kanye West look like ...

• ... now he was channeling Howard Stern's father.

• Yup, that was defo Ben Stern.

• He would probably cut Taylor Swift off ...

• Hell, even her hair belonged in a Pantene ad.

• It made her think of Beetlejuice ...

• Geena Davis and a lower-BMI, less angry Alec Baldwin …

• He looked at his Gucci and Prada and Chanel bottles ...

• God, if only V didn’t hate everything about the Apple company, she could have had an iPhone in her hand and asked Siri what to do.
(Plus 8 more mentions of iPhone and 3 of Apple.)

• And when he was finished, she went numb and nearly fell out of her Nikes.
(Plus 5 more mentions of Nike and even one mention of Nike's Just Do It slogan.)

Lastly, 2 mentions of the infamous Lanz nightgown AKA The Fucking Boner Killa.

• … was all about the Lanz nightgown she’d put on: flannel, and big as a circus tent, the white-and-pale-blue pattern was like a cloud around her, billowing everywhere.

Yes. This is a real thing.


And there's the slang:


• Abso.

• Obvi.

• Defo.

• Hater.

• Duh.

• WTF.

• Annnnnnd. (9 times.)

• Drama burger. (Once, but "drama" is said by multiple characters 9 times total.)

• Brain-fry.

• And a bag of chips.

• More than one character thinks. Like. This.

And these are only the things I remember.

We all already know that she loves her H's and that she's always naming her characters something stupid. In this one, we have a new character named s'Ex. I shit you not.


Ms. Ward, please:



Dafuq are you doing?! No, seriously. WTF are you doing? Is there no one editing/proofreading these books? Have they nothing to say about this? Is no one close to Ward noticing this shit? This is ridiculous. I would be embarrassed to put out a book like this.

Here's the thing. I might-could, maybe, possibly, mayhap overlook the celebrity references, the brand and label references, the awful, cringe-inducing, eye-rolling and lazy slang, and the ridiculous wording of inner thoughts, IF all these things didn't come interchangeably from ALL THE CHARACTERS. It's not like only Beth makes Miley references, only Wrath has the bad slang, and only Butch refers to brands and labels. All the characters do all these things. You know what that is? LAZY FUCKING WRITING.

It's like Ward isn't even trying anymore. It could be argued that maybe her writing was never good and it's just obvious to longtime fans now. I will agree that her writing was never great, but I reread [b:Dark Lover|42899|Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #1)|J.R. Ward|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1389986026s/42899.jpg|2158128] the week before reading The King and, while it was cheesy as hell, the writing and attention to detail were superior. Dark Lover was Ward just coming out with the BDB world, fresh-faced and eager to please. The King reads like something Ward just tossed together at the last minute with nary a thought. It's the product of an already subpar writer who found a LOT of fame over the years and has chosen to ride that fame wave instead of hone her skill to ensure she puts out a top-notch product.

I tell you now, friends - Ward gives no fucks about her craft. I promise you. No fucks. She long ago stopped bringing flowers and whispering sweet nothings in our ears. She's no longer trying to impress us. This Ward, complacent and well-settled into our relationship, is sitting on the couch all day with her hand in her pants, asking you to bring her a beer. She gives no fucks that the magic is gone and you can either take it or GTFO.

And yet, we stay. We take our "no fucks," we bring her a beer, we pay all her bills and we hang on her every word every year, because we felt her love once. It was glorious and we know it's in there and maybe, if we hang on long enough, we'll bask in that glory again one day.

Right?

K. Gtg. Defo c u next year, because, obvi, I abso hate myself. Duh.





*There are so many more things to say, but you should just take a look at my 40 status updates. Yes, I said 40. Never in my life have I updated a book 40 times. Let me tell you, that I actually made hard decisions to pick and choose what I updated about, because the choices were that plentiful.







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Ok, listen, I've been with this a dozen books now, some sorta fun, some horrifically stupid. It's too late for me to go back.

On the whole I kind of liked this book, although not at all for the reasons I may have expected. As the book begins, despite his Forever True Love, Wrath is still a petulant, childish motherfucker for being 400 or whatever. But--this is key--he actually grew up in this book.

I think we could go on about gender politics a lot--if you can distinguish, say, Selina from Cormia please let me know, let alone the number of disposable human prostitutes all these guys use and detest--but it's worth nothing that Beth does right by herself here. Also, the rarely-seen Marissa, who has descended to whatever storage closet show more Previous Heroines get put in, gets a pretty good "Those sons of bitches."

So we remembered that Beth and John are siblings? Maybe when John was melting down in book 8 they could have remembered that too. I don't remember Beth doing anything.

Anyway, Wrath is a dumbass, but he sort of gets it together, and this is a nice full-circle for the Wrath story in the last 11 books. People have complained a lot about too many side stories:
--Assail and Sola: Somehow I feel genuinely sympathetic toward a murderous, coke-addled millioniare drug dealer. I looked forward to their scenes.
--Trez/Selena, iAm, etc.: Why on earth do we have a character named s'Ex in the same series we have a Xhex? Anyway, Trez's issues are stupid and misogynistic and S really stands up for herself when the time comes. If the next book is about the shadows, better be a lot of iAm--he's the more interesting of the pair for sure. Oh, side note, so we SORT OF have two warriors who are POCs. Any chance of female POCs? I guess Sola sort of counts, but say, Trez is getting with the whitest of the white chosen, etc.
-Layla/Xcor: People hating on Layla, shut up. Layla is great. Xcor is terrible but I think I accidentally started loving him when he went shopping for an outfit to meet Layla. The ultimate Woobie. Hey, dude? You don't have a lot to do all day. Go to the public library and learn to read.
-The glymera are the most mustache-twirlingly stupid/evil Generic Aristocrats ever but on the other hand Wrath just sits in his palace of gold and never talks to anyone or does anything. (This changes. Slowly.)
--It is still pretty cool that the main hero of the book is blind. And there's no chance of him getting his sight back. That said, some of his MY FEMALE, RAAAAAGE actions are stupid to downright fucking psychotic. Seriously, dude.

So many dumb things. Couldn't put it down. Secret shame: I was really hoping Layla/Xcor would come next. Xcor is just a terrible illiterate disfigured murderer who needs love :( show less

This novel-length (LONG novel-length) work operates mostly as filler for the series, and did not hang together as a novel. In terms of what this book did to the series: The King advanced several characters' stories, filled in some history, and did a little bit of worldbuilding for the s'hisbee ("Shadows"). But it feels more like a companion book, than a stand-alone novel.

Ward isn't breaking any new ground here, either. Along with revisiting established couples (basically, Wrath & Beth), Ward is also rehashing themes & plot points from earlier novels. Girl gets kidnapped & rescued (Bella #3, Sola #10); girl is dying (Mary #2; Selena #10); hard-core drug dealer with a drug problem of his own is rehabilitated by the love of a good woman show more (Rhage #7, Assail #10); the son who is despised by his parents for some failure (Qhuinn, various; Saxton #10 -- and since Qhuinn & Saxton were cousins, whose other cousin turned out to be a Big Bad that slaughtered Qhuinn's family, you'd think Saxton would be looking good by comparison ... ).

There were a few things I liked thrown in the mix: I'm a fan, generally, of post-HEA examinations of future trials and problems. If I liked the characters, I'm happy to revisit them and see how they confront other problems. I liked the idea that they solved a LOT of problems by summarily eliminating the monarchy. But then Ward completely undercuts the value of and interest in that move by having the peasants elect Wrath as king-for-life. Shades of Elected Queen Amidala.

The affected writing style -- intermingled hip-hop slang; weird spellings of death metal words; and very poorly constructed "old Vampire English" -- remains consistent. References to current popular products proliferate, and if the consumer fetishism wasn't enough to despise, Ward throws in a lot of trash talk about current popular culture, too.

And what's with the hate for Miley Cyrus? It seems like pointless slut-shaming, and actually Ward's writing has an ugly amount of misogyny, generally: Trez reflecting on the ugly flab on the human he's fucking; Beth thinking how she hates women who get drunk ... Women are generally idolized because they stand by their men. And, FWIW, the woman trained in the erotic arts who remains a virgin is a stupid idea that should just die.

Anyway, if you're having trouble digesting a variety of different points thrown at you in this review, please note that this review is actually less disjointed than the book.

I finished it, and will keep an eye out for future ones, but because I'm a completist. Future books in this series will be on my "skim" list. show less