J.R. Ward's Dark Lover - A Good Start to a Great Series

Today's Book:

Dark Lover

J.R. Ward

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Series: The Black Dagger Brotherhood (Book 1)

Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Signet (MM) (Sep 6 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0451216954
ISBN-13: 978-0451216953

Amazon Page: http://www.amazon.ca/Dark-Lover-J-R-Ward/dp/0451216954/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198307036&sr=1-1

Warning - If you aren't a fan of paranormal romance this book probably isn't for you, otherwise read on!

Rather than jumping into the middle of a series to review a book I just set down I've decided to dig into the old memory banks and review a book I read almost two years ago. Am I bored and out of reading material? Not quite, I just want to give you a chance to get hooked on a fresh new series by an author who is gaining popularity and momentum with every week. Dark Lover, the first book of J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series is an incredibly intense thrill ride that, like most paranormal romances, makes you forget the fact that most of the cast is made up of vampires and things that go bump in the night. The men (and there are plenty of them) are a fascinating collection of alpha-male he-man types but Ward does an excellent job of fleshing them out as individuals (and making you want to read their stories asap) and our heroine, Beth, is a nice compromise between the classic strong "Buffy" types that populate most of the genre and your average girl next door. She's tough when she needs to be but unlike the stars of some of the lesser entries in the genre, she isn't a master of martial arts, a bounty hunter or any other form of butt-kicking superwoman.

There are a few little quirks that can catch you off guard if you aren't expecting it. The men's names (Wrath, Zadist, Phury...) are a little cheesy as is the incessant descriptions of their sumptuous wardrobes (as one friend said - it kind of reads like gay porn in places - I'll take her word for it!). Thankfully these little foibles (and the incessant pop-culture references that are going to feel really dated in a few years) are easy to overlook and once the story hooks you, you'll stop noticing them entirely. Like many first entries in a series Dark Lover definitely has a few freshman hiccups and does suffer from some pacing and consistency issues in a few places but for the most part it delivers exactly what the title and evocative cover promise, a scorching romance filled with men we'd love to love and women who we can see ourselves in. Once you've read this one be sure to check out Lover Awakened and Lover Eternal, my two favourites from the series (and are just too good to write an objective review on)!

Rating: 3 1/2 stars of five (sorry folks, still no graphics until I get my laptop fixed!)