Friday, June 16, 2006

June TBR Challenge

June's TBR Challenge was to read a book from your TBR pile that was recommended by someone you "know" (another blogger, friend, family member). Since most of my TBR qualifies this was not a difficult assignment. There has been an incredible amount of buzz on blogs about this book and as usual I'm late for the party. I'm probably almost the last one to read it.

Title: Lover Eternal

Author: J. R. Ward

Year published: 2006

Why did you get this book? When CindyS gave it her thumbs up, I had to buy it.

Do you like the cover? Oh, yes. Biting necks is very sexy.

Part of a series? Yes, this is the second book in the Brotherhood of the Dagger series.

Did you enjoy the book?I really shouldn't have liked it since there were several irritations and annoyances. But I enjoyed it despite the negatives and gave it a B+.

It was lots of fun revisiting the characters from Dark Lover. This was Rhage's story, the stunningly beautiful vampire. What's not to like about a gorgeous hunk hero falling flat on his ass in love the instant he 'sees' the heroine? Mary Luce is a cancer survivor with a lot of inner strength that I admired. However, I thought she held back from Rhage a bit too long with the "oh, I'm not beautiful enough for him, what's he see in little ol' me" routine. Rhage is under a nasty curse put on him when he pisses off the Scribe Virgin (aka Scribe Bitch (SB), since I thought she was overly cruel to Rhage). He turns into a horrible beast when he gets stressed out. Lots of fighting or lots of sex keeps the beast at bay.

There were several other storylines interwined that were equally as fascinating with a glimpse of Zsadist and his story that will be coming up in the next book. Overall, this was a compelling read with a few nitpicks that others have mentions such as those silly names for the brothers. And those phrases like "you feel me?" or "my brother". For the ending, I wasn't too crazy about how the Scribe 'Bitch' was going to make Rhage miserable for eternity (because she loves him ... yeah right!) but eventually takes pity on him spoiler: because Mary is unable to have children creating a too convenient happy ending.

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Not new to me since I read the first book in the series. Yes, like the rest of the JR Ward fandom, I will definitely read the next one in the series (Lover Awakened). I'm hoping that every book in the series will be as good as these first two. But I realize that I rarely like every book in a series so I have my fingers crossed.

Are you keeping it or passing it on? I can't make up my mind. I may keep it for a while just so I can reread a couple scenes

Anything else? Is it just me or do those lessers 'names' seem wonky? O, M, or X, etc. Does this mean there are only 26 of them? Maybe they move into O2, M2, or X2, etc when they run out of letters of the alphabet. Just wondering....

7 comments:

~ames~ said...

*le sigh* I didn't even start reading my TBR book yet.

"Shit kickers" was another thing that got on my nerves. I can barely wait for Zsadist's story.

CindyS said...

Yeah, the Scribe Virgin makes my skin crawl. I'm a little worried that Ward is going to make Zsadist too touchy feely but then, they are her characters ;)

Wonky names - you are too funny. You just cracked the code to C3PO and R2D2!!

CindyS

dancechica said...

Actually JR has been warning everyone that Z's book is going to be very dark so I'm not too worried about the touchy feely thing. ;)

Shit kickers - I'd never heard anyone refer to boots as shit kickers. That was totally new to me.

Angela James said...

I didn't think Z's book was touchy feely, but that's just me :)

so far, Lover Eternal is my least favorite of the three despite still enjoying it (and loving it), because I had some issues with Mary's almost martyr-like behavior. There were times I felt uncomfortable in their relationship, as well, for whatever reason.

But it's still well-crafted and unlike you, I thought the ending was a creative solution to the problem, and since I need a HEA, I was very happy with it :)

ReneeW said...

Ames: Agree about 'shitkickers'. Some people have ARCs of Zsadist's story and I'm jealous. I want.

Cindy: No touchy feely. Getting anxious about this book. I want.

Dancechica: I love dark so this is good new to me.

AngieW: A HEA is a must and even a too convenient one works for me so that's why I still gave it a high grade. Now I'm jealous, you and sybil both had ARCs of LA. Very glad to hear you liked it. I'm looking forward to reading it but I'll probably be late to that party too.

dancechica said...

DL sets up the world that is continued in LE but I believe they can stand alone. However, this is coming from someone who read DL first so I may not be the best one to comment... :)

ReneeW said...

Zeek: I agree with dancechica that it can stand alone. All the brothers are there as well as the couple from the first book and the world is again described. But definitely read DL next.

Dancechica: You got it right IMO :)

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