AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Lover Eternal

TITLE: Lover Eternal
SERIES: Book #2 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series
AUTHOR: J.R. Ward

NARRATOR: Jim Frangione
PUBLISHER: Recorded Books
DATE OF PUBLICATION: March 7, 2006
FORMAT: Unabridged CDs - 14 hours, 11 minutes
GENRE: Paranormal Romance, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
ISBN: 978-1440729447

SYNOPSIS FROM GOODREADS:

Listeners looking for a fresh twist on vampire tales need look no further than the erotically charged Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Mary Luce is dissatisfied with her life and her job. But when she is unwittingly thrust into the vampire dominion, everything changes. Falling under the protection of the Brotherhood's strongest member, Rhage, she soon finds herself drawn to his animalistic urges.

MY REVIEW:

Oh, my, this book is STEAMY!!

I thought this book was so much better than the first in the series, Dark Lover.

It appears that Ward is featuring a different member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood with each of her novels. In Dark Lover, it was all about Wrath. This book is all about Rhage aka Hollywood, the most attractive of the Brotherhood who needs to take women and fight Lessers in order to keep his beast (literally) at bay.

I could not help visualizing that Rhage looked like Eric Northman of True Blood:


Or maybe this one:


What do you think? Whew! See what I mean about steamy? Okay, back to the book!

Rhage falls for a woman, Mary Luce, a plain-Jane type who feels that she is completely undeserving of a man as beautiful as Rhage. She finds it very hard to accept that his feelings and desires are genuine, and even his Brothers find it hard to believe that he has found someone he wishes to be with for always.

The transformation of Rhage from a womanizer to someone so tender-hearted was utterly beautiful. The sacrifices that he made over and over for Mary had me weeping.

Ward has such a beautiful way with words. One of my favourite quotes from the book was from Rhage to Mary: “I'm a vampire. I'm a warrior. I'm a dangerous beast. At the end of this evening, you aren't going to remember you ever met me. And the idea of not even being a memory of yours makes me feel like I've been stabbed in the chest.”

Did I mention that this book was STEAMY? I think it deserves to be mentioned again! I am not the type of woman who enjoys romances, but there is something about the paranormal romances that leaves me breathless, and Ward sure knows how to turn up the intensity! This book was HOT!

Jim Frangione did a superb job with the narration. His voice is rich with emotion, and I just love his "Fritz" voice! So endearing!

MY RATING: 5 stars!! I know that I am going to pick this one up and read it again!

This book qualifies as:
#38 for my 2011 100+ Reading Challenge
#24 for my 2011 Audio Book Challenge
#24 for my 2011 "Whisper Stories in My Ear" Challenge
#14 for my What an Animal Reading Challenge IV 
#8 for my 2nds Challenge 2011
#7 for my Vampire Challenge 2011
#6 for my 101 Fantasy Reading Challenge (Item #80)
#2 for my Black Dagger Brotherhood Reading Challenge
#2 for my Paranormal Romance Challenge 2011