Book #43 - Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood #3)

Lover awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood #3), J. R. Ward
434 pages
paranormal romance, urban fantasy
Started 4/11/12
Finished 4/12/12
5 STARS

I tell you, this series gets better and better. I had heard from other BDB fans that book #3 was one of the best, and they weren't just whistling Dixie. Now, I only have the first three under my belt, and to date, there are 10 total, so I don't have many to compare. But, I really can't see how they can get much better than this.

Lover Awakened tells Zsadist's story. Z is the scary, mean, scarred brother that everyone is warned to stay away from. He's volatile, dangerous and has a really bad reputation. Yet, vampire Bella manages to see through all that and sees someone she wants to know more of. That, and a really hot body. Her interest in Z both exhilarates and scares him, and when she goes and gets herself kidnapped, he makes it his life's mission to find her. Find her, he does, and they both set themselves on a journey together into their past and current nightmares.

This book, more so than any of the others so far, is tragic and sad. So many horrible things happen to several of our main characters. And, with each thing that happens, the Brotherhood pulls together to take care of their own. Perhaps that is what draws me to these stories so much. It's not the hot, sexy guys and the great love stories, although, don't get me wrong - without those, there's no way these would be 5-star books. I think what I love the most is the relationship between the brothers. They're more than best friends. They're brothers in arms. They would die for one another. They rejoice in each others' happiness and mourn in each others' tragedy. One brother's pain is shared by all of them. Any of them would die for the others. Relationships like that are incredible.

As far as I'm concerned, J. R. Ward is a genius. She sucks me in from the first word, and not many books do that these days. I don't know what it is about her, but she's written about these men such that I care about them and what happens to them. I'd love to have dinner with her and pick her brain. One could learn a lot from an author like J. R. Ward.