AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Dark Lover

TITLE: Dark Lover
SERIES: Book #1 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series
AUTHOR: J.R. Ward

NARRATOR: Jim Frangione
PUBLISHER: Recorded Books
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2009 (first published September 6, 2005)
FORMAT: Unabridged CDs - 13 hours, 35 minutes
GENRE: Paranormal Romance, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
ISBN: 978-1440704215

SYNOPSIS FROM GOODREADS:

The first novel of J. R. Ward’s New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series features a unique take on vampire lore and heavy doses of sensuality. The vampire Darius fears for the life of his half-breed daughter, who is unaware of her unusual destiny. To oversee her transformation, Darius seeks help from Wrath, a dangerous loner and the world’s only purebred vampire.

MY REVIEW:

This book was hard for me to get into. I loved Twilight, and I expected that I would love this book as well. When it still wasn't doing it for me after a quarter of the way through the book, I wondered whether my expectations were too high after seeing all of the amazing reviews for this series!

It was hard for me to keep all of the characters straight in the beginning of the book. I think that was one of the issues that made it difficult for me to become engrossed in the story. It wasn't until halfway through the book when the main characters, Wrath and Beth, started to show some vulnerability that I began to connect with them. Once this happened, then I was hooked and I really began to enjoy the story. As we learned more about each member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, we began to see their weaknesses which made them seem more "human" and discovered that there really is much more to each one than just what we see on the surface.

One thing that I do like about this book more than I did about Twilight is the strength of the leading female role. Beth Randall is not Bella Swan, and I mean that in a good way. I did not care for Bella's utter dependence on Edward. Beth is a strong, tell-it-like-it-is, I'm-not-going-to-take-any-of-your-bull kind of woman. She is great!

It would have been handy to have a glossary with this book that laid out all of the odd terminology used such as "doggen" (servant), "Hellren" (a male vampire that has been mated to a female), "Lesser" (a de-souled human who hunts vampires), and "Shellen" (a female vampire that has been mated to a male).

My favourite quote from the book was from Fritz to the Brotherhood with reference to Butch: "If you're going to bloody the human, would you be good enough to do it in the backyard?" A little bit of the dark humor!

This definitely is a book that is adult-rated due to the explicit sex scenes. I have often heard it described as "Twilight for adults", which is certainly true although I do not hold it to the same calibre.

Now that the groundwork has been laid, I hope that I will enjoy the second book in the series more than the first.

This is my first narration by Jim Frangione, and I quite like him! He does a nice job conveying emotion, and the subtle adjustments to his voice with each character makes for a nice distinction.

MY RATING: 3.5 stars! Were it not for the slow start, I would have given it 4 stars.

This book qualifies as:
#36 for my 2011 100+ Reading Challenge
#23 for my 2011 Audio Book Challenge
#23 for my 2011 "Whisper Stories in My Ear" Challenge
#13 for my What an Animal Reading Challenge IV 
#8 for my 1st In a Series Challenge 2011
#6 for my Vampire Challenge 2011
#5 for my 101 Fantasy Reading Challenge (Item #51)
#5 for my What's in a Name 4 Challenge
#1 for my Black Dagger Brotherhood Reading Challenge
#1 for my Paranormal Romance Challenge 2011