Author: JR Ward
Series: Black Dagger Brotherhood #7
Publication Date: April 28th, 2009
Publisher: NAL (Penguin Group)
Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Synopsis:
Caldwell, New York, has long been the battleground for the vampires and their enemies, the Lessening Society. It's also where Rehvenge has staked out his turf as a drug lord and owner of a notorious night club that caters to the rich and heavily armed. His shadowy reputation is exactly why he's approached to kill Wrath, the Blind King and leader of the Brotherhood.
Rehvenge has always kept his distance from the Brotherhood-even though his sister is married to a member, for he harbors a deadly secret that could make him a huge liability in their war against the lessers. As plots within and outside of the Brotherhood threaten to reveal the truth about Rehvenge, he turns to the only source of light in his darkening world, Ehlena, a vampire untouched by the corruption that has its hold on him-and the only thing standing between him and eternal destruction.
Review:
After Phury’s book, I expected this book to rock my socks off. I’ve been lusting after Rehvenge ever since he was first introduced. I seriously have a weakness for guys in suits, and Rehvenge is the perfect combination of dangerous and sexy. However, I’m sad to say I was pretty disappointed with this book. As this book has so many storylines, I’ll break my review into separate parts as well.
Rehvenge and Ehlena
Like I said, I love Rehvenge. I’m so jealous of Ehlena! I want to be the one peeling off his suit piece by piece. Just look at the guy in the cover and imagining him wearing a suit and you get to undress him! *fans herself* Anywayyyy, I swear the love story took up less than 50% of the book probably. Every time I got sucked into their part of the story, the plotline changes to someone else so that I’m feeling frustrated and disappointed. I want more Rehvenge, damn it!
I definitely feel that Rehvenge was cheated out of his HEA. I couldn’t really feel the connection between him and Ehlena. I just wanted to see the two of them together more before they’re suddenly in love after two “dates”. I also really didn’t like Ehlena. She’s had a hard life and I really respect her for everything she’s done. Not everyone will stay and take care of their parents like that. However, I knew how she was going to react to the truth, and she really disappointed me. The fact that she knew going into this relationship that Rehvenge couldn’t tell her the truth and accepted it and then completely shut out Rehvenge when she learns the truth, I just couldn’t forgive her. I mean, I didn’t like her much in the beginning, so my opinion of her only got worse. The only redeeming quality is that she wouldn’t abandon Rehvenge in the end, but I couldn’t see why she suddenly changed her mind.
John Mathew/Xhex/Tohr
OK, since I’m on a rant already, I’m just going to come out and say it: I don’t like John Mathew. *go and hide in a corner* When he was first introduced, I really did feel bad for him and want everything for him to turn out well, but things kept getting worse and worse, and he kept getting worse and worse, and I’m just sick of it! I’m sick of the way he’s ruining his own life. Yeah, so Xhex isn’t returning your feelings, and your solution to that is to drink yourself to death and go sleep with every other girl? He hasn’t even tried! Yeah, he’s been staring and fantasizing about Xhex, but has he tried very hard to “court” her? So she doesn’t automatically fall in love with you after you stare after her like a puppy and turn out to be hot after your transition. Well, not everything falls from the sky. Go after her and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Treating her like trash is not the way to her heart.
Xhex isn’t proving to be any better in her dealings with John. She’s this kick-ass symphath assassin, but she’s getting all sappy and sad for John. I don’t want her to be emotionless. In fact, I think she has plenty of emotions and I really like her characterization for that, but that scene when John came into her room and she just accepted his heartless advances, I wanted to smack her. She should’ve kicked him out and break several bones for his treatment of her and hopefully smack him out of his self-pity! I was so disappointed with how Xhex handled John.
The only silver lining in this book is Tohr. I’m so happy he’s mostly back to normal!
Wrath/Beth
Just thinking about this makes me sad and mad at the same time. I loved Dark Lover! It’s the reason I started reading this series! I also love to read about other characters in romance series like these, so I was really surprised by how much this bothered me, probably because not everything is good. I went through heartbreak and tears in Dark Lover for Wrath and Beth, I don’t want to do it again here, but this is what JR Ward has done. These people are supposed to have their HEA, but it’s not a HEA. I feel they’ve been cheated and I’ve been cheated in their stories. This is more realistic, of course, because relationships always have problems, but I’m happy in my cloud nine thinking Wrath and Beth are living HEA. Stop ruining my happiness with their problems!
Lash/war with lesser
I don’t understand why Lash’s POV was left in the book. One: do we really care? He’s probably going to play a huge role in this war considering he’s now the leader of the lesser, but I don’t care about him at all! He’s eventually going to die just like all the other Fore-lessers, so why waste the space?
Synopsis:
Caldwell, New York, has long been the battleground for the vampires and their enemies, the Lessening Society. It's also where Rehvenge has staked out his turf as a drug lord and owner of a notorious night club that caters to the rich and heavily armed. His shadowy reputation is exactly why he's approached to kill Wrath, the Blind King and leader of the Brotherhood.
Rehvenge has always kept his distance from the Brotherhood-even though his sister is married to a member, for he harbors a deadly secret that could make him a huge liability in their war against the lessers. As plots within and outside of the Brotherhood threaten to reveal the truth about Rehvenge, he turns to the only source of light in his darkening world, Ehlena, a vampire untouched by the corruption that has its hold on him-and the only thing standing between him and eternal destruction.
Review:
After Phury’s book, I expected this book to rock my socks off. I’ve been lusting after Rehvenge ever since he was first introduced. I seriously have a weakness for guys in suits, and Rehvenge is the perfect combination of dangerous and sexy. However, I’m sad to say I was pretty disappointed with this book. As this book has so many storylines, I’ll break my review into separate parts as well.
Rehvenge and Ehlena
Like I said, I love Rehvenge. I’m so jealous of Ehlena! I want to be the one peeling off his suit piece by piece. Just look at the guy in the cover and imagining him wearing a suit and you get to undress him! *fans herself* Anywayyyy, I swear the love story took up less than 50% of the book probably. Every time I got sucked into their part of the story, the plotline changes to someone else so that I’m feeling frustrated and disappointed. I want more Rehvenge, damn it!
I definitely feel that Rehvenge was cheated out of his HEA. I couldn’t really feel the connection between him and Ehlena. I just wanted to see the two of them together more before they’re suddenly in love after two “dates”. I also really didn’t like Ehlena. She’s had a hard life and I really respect her for everything she’s done. Not everyone will stay and take care of their parents like that. However, I knew how she was going to react to the truth, and she really disappointed me. The fact that she knew going into this relationship that Rehvenge couldn’t tell her the truth and accepted it and then completely shut out Rehvenge when she learns the truth, I just couldn’t forgive her. I mean, I didn’t like her much in the beginning, so my opinion of her only got worse. The only redeeming quality is that she wouldn’t abandon Rehvenge in the end, but I couldn’t see why she suddenly changed her mind.
John Mathew/Xhex/Tohr
OK, since I’m on a rant already, I’m just going to come out and say it: I don’t like John Mathew. *go and hide in a corner* When he was first introduced, I really did feel bad for him and want everything for him to turn out well, but things kept getting worse and worse, and he kept getting worse and worse, and I’m just sick of it! I’m sick of the way he’s ruining his own life. Yeah, so Xhex isn’t returning your feelings, and your solution to that is to drink yourself to death and go sleep with every other girl? He hasn’t even tried! Yeah, he’s been staring and fantasizing about Xhex, but has he tried very hard to “court” her? So she doesn’t automatically fall in love with you after you stare after her like a puppy and turn out to be hot after your transition. Well, not everything falls from the sky. Go after her and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Treating her like trash is not the way to her heart.
Xhex isn’t proving to be any better in her dealings with John. She’s this kick-ass symphath assassin, but she’s getting all sappy and sad for John. I don’t want her to be emotionless. In fact, I think she has plenty of emotions and I really like her characterization for that, but that scene when John came into her room and she just accepted his heartless advances, I wanted to smack her. She should’ve kicked him out and break several bones for his treatment of her and hopefully smack him out of his self-pity! I was so disappointed with how Xhex handled John.
The only silver lining in this book is Tohr. I’m so happy he’s mostly back to normal!
Wrath/Beth
Just thinking about this makes me sad and mad at the same time. I loved Dark Lover! It’s the reason I started reading this series! I also love to read about other characters in romance series like these, so I was really surprised by how much this bothered me, probably because not everything is good. I went through heartbreak and tears in Dark Lover for Wrath and Beth, I don’t want to do it again here, but this is what JR Ward has done. These people are supposed to have their HEA, but it’s not a HEA. I feel they’ve been cheated and I’ve been cheated in their stories. This is more realistic, of course, because relationships always have problems, but I’m happy in my cloud nine thinking Wrath and Beth are living HEA. Stop ruining my happiness with their problems!
Lash/war with lesser
I don’t understand why Lash’s POV was left in the book. One: do we really care? He’s probably going to play a huge role in this war considering he’s now the leader of the lesser, but I don’t care about him at all! He’s eventually going to die just like all the other Fore-lessers, so why waste the space?
Two: seeing his POV left no suspense in the story!!! This is my biggest annoyance. As a reader, I knew everything that was going on behind the scenes! If I knew things from both the protagonist’s and antagonist’s POV, then that leaves me with no wondering as to what’s going on. The only suspense is when a chapter ends and the author switches to another character’s plotline, more like a very contrived cliffhanger. This story could’ve been so much better if I didn’t know every plan Lash had along the way, but had the plan revealed at the end, but sadly, it wasn’t to be.
Final Thoughts:
Though I have a lot of problems with this book, I feel pretty neutral about it. There're parts I liked and parts I really didn't, which is why I can’t give it a 3, since that means I at least liked the book. It’s a pretty long book and took me a while to read because I couldn’t get into it due to the varying plotlines, which is also why I had a lot to say. I’m taking a break from this series. It just wasn’t as amazing as the beginning. Now it feels more like a drama/soap opera than romance. I wish it would go back to more romance based rather than storylines everywhere, but I’m not the author so it’s not my call.
Rating: 2.5/5
2 comments:
I'm reading this one now and I am having such a pain trying to get through it. It is turning out to be worse than my least favorite BDB books. It's weird b/c everyone says this is suppose to be one of the best books. *sigh*
I didn't like it either! I love Rhevenge, but this book just goes on and on and on about things that I don't really care about! All I wanted to read about was Rhevenge damn it! I just didn't like how there're so many plotlines going on at once, I don't even know why it's called Lover Avenged. *sigh* I haven't read anything after this because I don't think I can take all the angst-ridden warriors anymore
Post a Comment