"An extremely powerful novel with a provocative plot..."
Returning to Caldwell New York and the Black Dagger
Brotherhood in the novel Lover Eternal, J. R. Ward reveals
to us more about Rhage aka Hollywood. In her first book
Dark Lover the reader is given a glimpse into the curse he
carries in his body. Not only is he a vampire but he holds
inside a beast so fierce it takes over by transforming his
body into a raging dragon. The beast can only be tamed if
Rhage can keep his reckless behavior and energy levels
down so he can stay focused and in control. And for him
those outlets have been either sex, drinking or working
out. Fighting sometimes helps but if the beast feels the
odds are out of balance or a brother is threatened it
takes over and Rhage must surrender to the will of his
beast. Mary Luce is a woman who has tried to keep herself busy
and distracted from the realities of her life as clerk at
a law firm and volunteering at a suicide hotline. Not only
has she watched her mother die from a disease but one year
later Mary finds out she has leukemia which is treated and
goes into remission for two years. The experience has
ravaged Mary's body and feminine confidence. And now she
has received a message, the doctors want to see her again. Mary continues to lose herself in her excessive
volunteering at the hotline. It is through this she
connects with a young man who has been on the run all his
life. Unable to speak he would call and sit silently. It
is not until he follows her home and finds her outside by
the pool that she discovers he is unable to speak but
knows sign language, which Mary is fluent in. Bella, a
vampire and Mary's neighbor, recognizes something unique
about this young man and bring them to the brotherhood
under the guise of it being a martial arts training
school. It is at this school Mary inadvertently runs into
Rhage in the hallway. Outside the brotherhood Rhage has not shared knowledge of
the beast with anyone. It is by chance meeting in the
halls of their facility that he stumbles across a human
woman whose voice soothes the savage beast inside him.
Blurred vision aching body, a result of changing back,
Mary's voice reaches him on a level that both soothes and
stimulates him and the beast inside. J.R. Ward writes an extremely powerful novel with a
provocative plot that involves complexities of real life
in a paranormal world. In some books you can see where the
author is taking the book and figure on the ending. With
this book I had NO IDEA what-so-ever! Ms. Ward creates a
wonderful twisting plot in this novel and to amp it up
even further she manages to tell an even greater story as
we follow each book in the series with the conflicts the
Brotherhood of the Dagger go through to protect their own
kind against the pale lessers. These books are so well
balanced and intriguing I can help but enthusiastically
recommend this series!!
Reviewed by Mindy Lobaugh
Posted February 27, 2007
|
