J.R. Ward’s Books Are Crack

It all started with the Black Dagger Brotherhood, which I discovered a couple of years ago, right around the time that the 6th book came out.  I picked up the first one, recommended to me by a friend, did a lot of snorting at the ridiculous name spellings and gansta speak.  And 80 pages in I couldn’t put it down.  I literally locked the door to my office and READ my entire work day.  And then I proceeded to sleep very little and tear through the first 6 in about three weeks.  And to salivate for each of the next book, waiting for them to either come available at the library or in paperback (I just don’t BUY hardbacks).

And as soon as her Fallen Angel series started with Covet, I snagged and tore through that.  Though different from the BDB, these books still have the same flavor.  Now Crave is out.  And I am struck again by how, despite the fact that Ward does a myriad of things that REALLY annoy me as a reader (WHY, for example, has an ancient and noble race of vampires evolved to talk like a bunch of ganstas?  Why are they all fashion conscious metrosexuals?  Why are their boots called shitkickers?  Why to even the women use the same terminology, even when they haven’t been around long enough to pick it up?  Why must she insert random extra letters into names?  And how does Xcor get pronounced Core?), I keep coming back because I gotta have my fix.

This is proof that despite her quirks, Ward is a master storyteller.  I LOVE HER CHARACTERS.  I love these unapologetically dominant males who are so CAREFUL with their females, who careTAKE their females.  Issac Rothe, the hero in Crave, is from Mississippi, is unwaveringly polite, religiously says “Ma’am,” is neat, clean, and takes off his muddy boots before coming into the heroine’s house.  Dude, I didn’t have a prayer of not falling hard for this hero.  And okay the fact that he’s cage fighting at the beginning was a turn on too.  C’mon.  You know I like the MMA thing if you’ve read Forsaken By Shadow.

So yeah, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta carve out some more time for my crack.

14 thoughts on “J.R. Ward’s Books Are Crack

  1. It took me a while to get into the Ward lingo, though I absolutely love, Love, LOVED the first few BDB books. The latter, not so much. I’ll grant her one thing, the gal’s got style, even if all her characters have the same voice. 🙂 I’ve not gotten into her new series. I’ve heard the BDB have cameos in it though.

  2. So many good points. I snorted at the names of the brothers, and yet I tend to read them quickly when I allow myself the rare het read. Those ‘shitkickers’ were really ticking me off when I read my last one (Butch’s story). I actually yelled at the book to call them boots just once. Still, I didn’t have to force myself to finish reading.

    1. Oh I did not care for Butch’s story. Liked V’s right after, and Phury just ticked me off. Rhevenge intrigued me in book 7 but I fell back in love with the series with John Matthew’s book in book 8.

      1. From Phury’s book on, I’ve been dissatisfied. Phury was such a putz, and Rhevenge was okay, and John Matthew’s story encompassed about 10% of the novel. 16 billion and 7 arcs in one novel is a bit excessive. 🙂

        1. Phury’s was the final straw for me, too. I have not read any since then, and even gave away everything after book #2, I was so dissatisfied. However, I can re-read books 1 & 2 over and over and over again…

          1. I’m finding a lot of authors crap out after the first few great books. It’s really starting to piss me off. It’s like they’re riding the old glory days and forget readers are still looking for a great story. I’ve had a few [favorite] authors go from my instant buy list to my do-not-bother list.

            I’ll be honest. I’m harder on established authors than I am debut authors. Established authors no better, and I feel like they’re trying to get one over on readers because a new book is an easy sell to fans. They don’t care enough to present their best. Well, I don’t care enough to read their crap.

            Authors just starting their career are on the up and rising. They’re work can only get better [so I hope]. They’re not riding on their name, they’re still trying to establish a fan base so need to give their all.

            /rantoff

  3. I love series like that, where you just can’t get enough of them and you’re looking for more. I don’t thing I’ve read any of J.R. Ward’s books but I did love Alexandra Ivy’s books the same way.

      1. Alexandra Ivy’s series is a paranormal romance about werewolves called the Guardians of Eternity. Although I was thinking of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s League Novels when I mentioned it. The two authors have books with nearly the same title. 🙂

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