Review - Lover Eternal by JR Ward

Lifted from the back cover:
"In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there's a deadly turf war raging between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers like no other - six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Possessed by a deadly beast, Rhage is the most dangerous of the Black Dagger Brotherhood."

"Most dangerous" and most amazing (in my humble opinion)! Rhage is the warrior chosen for the second installment of JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Boasting movie screen good looks, an insatiable sex drive, and a smart mouth that almost puts even me to shame, Rhage, aka Hollywood, cuts down lessers with a vengence in order to protect the civilian vampires.

In Lover Eternal, we learn the origins of the horrible curse that graces Rhage. The Scribe Virgin always seems to have sand in her britches 24/7 and decides to force Rhage to share his pictaresque body with a Godzilla-esque lesser pulverizing machine for no less than 200 years. Oh it gets better, Rhage has very limited to no control over when the monster lizard will decide to morph out and make a fast lunch of his enemies and possibly his own warrior pals. All this because he accidently killed an owl...(mumble grumble *@%$ you, Scribe Virgin).

As he battles with his inner Geico gecko on steriods, Mary waltzes into his life. Rhage becomes infatuated with her voice and he pursues her, like all romance stories go. Mary is a strong cancer survivor type heroine, the type I typically love reading about. However, she is one dimensional and stuck too much on the "he can't possibly like me, I am plain looking and he is a gorgeous hunk of a blood-sucking man" kick. Now before everyone jumps out of their reading chairs and strangles me with a pink ribbon, in the last hundred pages I absolutely love her character, after most of the insecurity disappears.

In addition to the love story, we get the typical action adventure of the vamp-lesser war. The world that Ward weaves is amazing in its descriptive scenes. Action, dialogue, character personalities, all flow amazingly to create the BDB world into a seemingly tangible realm. I would literally love to move into the Caldwell mansion with these guys! On the downside, the simple smell of baby powder now sends me scrambling for a "go back to the Omega" weapon.

Focus is spent not only on Rhage, the main warrior in this novel, but we also get more details on all the brothers. Personalities develop and spar with each other; the background of each warrior starts to build and the history behind the whole vamp and lesser worlds is revealed bit by glorious bit.

If you are a fan of the paranormal romance genre, this book is a MUST read. Rhage is also my favorite brother, I mean what isn't there to love? (and their first sex scene is hotttt ;p ) Enjoy!

Rating: 5/5

~Helena