Lover Eternal (Black Dagger Brotherhood #2) – Slowly but surely catching up

I finished the first book of this series, Dark Lover, without really understanding what the fuss was all about with this series. I was told to keep reading so I did.  J.R. Ward’s Lover Eternal is definitely an improvement, though I’m still not in love with the series yet.

Each book focuses on a specific character.  This installment centers on Rhage, the most beautiful yet cursed brother of them all as he must co-exist with an inner beast that unleashes once he reaches his limits. To sate himself and keep this demon at bay, he must fight often and have a whooole lotta sexy time with very compliant female partners.  Lucky for him, there are normally plenty of both around. Though beautiful, he hates his playboy ways, longing to find a real partner.  And he may have found one in Mary Luce, a human cancer survivor with a good heart even though life hasn’t been to kind to her.  Even now she must face that her disease may have returned, but he handles it with pride.  Becoming involved with him only puts her in more danger, making her a potential target for enemy hunters.  Rhage will do anything he can to protect her and Mary finds that she feels the same.

This series is growing on me, but it may partially be because it’s so easy to poke fun at it.  From the baby powder villians to the rappers to the dates at TGI Fridays. I mean, TGI Fridays? Really?! That’s like a glorified McDonalds! Don’t get me wrong, I love both places but that’s far from impressive for a first date, especially for The Brotherhood.  A girl’s gotta have standards! And I am a fan of rap music myself, but for me it’s just funny knowing these characters are too.

Overall I did like Mary and felt like she was a good person, so I was rooting for it to work out between her and Rhage. But now I wonder if happily ever afters are the plan for every book, so I’m not quite sure what else there is to anticipate. The brothers all sound fantastically gorgeous, but it’s kind of hard to keep up with who’s who so I guess it’s good that each character gets a book so that we can familiarize ourselves with them.

This series is definitely paranormal romance, but the sap wasn’t quite as cringe-worthy and out of character as the first book which helped me connect to the characters a bit more.  This series is in third person and it cuts away to different scenes that signal what will be the focal points of future books. It’s good to for breaking up the melodrama, but I am still not interested in the perspective of the villains, though the author tries to make them intriguing.  But as far as I’m concerned, they’re dead and it shows.  I definitely found myself skipping over it a lot.  Whatever they do we know the Brotherhood will take care of them.

The most important reason that I can imagine anyone reading this series is for the smut.  If you want your smut you’ll get your smut in spades.  I like a little more vampiric behavior involved since they are vampires.  I personally found that lacking.  Since Mary is a human she can’t sustain Rhage, but I still wanted for them to try!  He certainly fed off enough human woman in the past.

There are books I’ve loved better, but I can at least say that I liked Lover Eternal and I plan to read the next book which is widely lauded by many readers.