Book Review: Dark Lover

Title: Dark Lover

Author: J.R. Ward

Publisher: Penguin Group

Year: 2005

Pages: 393

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Rating: 3 stars

One sentence summary: The leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, a group of vampire warriors, starts to care for the half-breed daughter of his fallen comrade.

A full synopsis of this book can be found on Goodreads.

Spoiler Level: None

I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it either. It's the kind of book where you know it's trash but you keep reading anyways because a) it's a fast and easy read, b) it's kind of fun in its own ridiculous way, and c) there's lots of sex scenes, which we all know is half the reason we gravitate towards adult paranormal romance anyway. I've definitely read better (i. e. the Fever series), but this was still mildly enjoyable. Here's what I didn't like: 1) I can't ignore the character names. Wrath, Rhage, Tohrment, etc. are the stupidest names I've ever heard. 2) The relationship between Wrath and Beth moved way too quickly. It didn't seem organic to me. One second he's a dangerous stranger invading her house, and the next second (literally the next second) they are having sex. They fall deeply in lust/love for each other way too fast with no basis for their relationship other than sex. 3) Am I the only one who isn't attracted to men with leather pants, long black hair, and sunglasses that never come off? I just didn't feel any heat for these characters. 4) The dialogue was so silly in my opinion. The vampires did not sound like they were hundreds of years old, which was maybe the point, but the whole gangster/slang language they used was painfully ridiculous. 5) Wrath was too mushy for my tastes. Aside from being bland and having a basic tragic back story, his main characteristic was how much in love with Beth he was. Their love for eachother was nauseatingly sweet, filled with cuddling and terms of endearment, and because it had no real basis, it was irritating rather than cute. 6) The pacing of the plot felt off to me. The whole plot itself was sacrificed for the sake of the romance, making the small POV sections from the villain seem pointless and uninteresting. The bad guy never posed a real threat so I never cared about this aspect of the story. Overall, I would recommend this if you're looking for a silly, sexy, fast and easy read, and if you can tolerate some of the problems I mentioned above.