A friend of mine recommended this series to me about a year ago when I had read the Twilight series and was saying how poorly written the books were. Based on her recommendation, I started to collect the books in the series. It took a while to get a copy of book three, but I now have eight of the nine books, so I decided to get started.
Some background on the brotherhood first. There are seven member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, sworn to protect the vampire civilians from the Lessening Society (members of which are called lessers and can be recognized by their baby powder smell.) The members are Wrath, Darius, Tohrment, Vishous, Rhage, Phury and Zsadist.
This first book is about Wrath the Vampire king, how he came to be king and fell in love with Beth Randall.
The story opens with Darius and Tohrment (Tohr) at a bar waiting for Wrath to join them. Darius has told Tohr that he wants to ask Wrath to meet his daughter who is half-human and has never met him. She is about to turn 25 and he is sure she will go through a transition (as all vampires do at approximately age 25) and become a vampire. Unfortunately, she has been raised as an orphan by humans and knows nothing of her vampire background.
Wrath takes the information from Darius, but does not accept the responsibility immediately. He is not interested in his role as king and this is a responsibility hed rather put on someone else. They leave the bar Wrath to dematerialize back home and Darius to his sports car to drive home. As Wrath is leaving the bar, he is attacked by a lesser who he takes out with a throwing star. Then as he is about to dematerialize and go home, there is an explosion and he discovers that the lessers have blown up Darius and his car.
This action makes him change his mind about meeting Darius daughter, Beth. He decides he will help her through the transition and then be done with her.
Beth Randall has grown up in orphanages. Her mother died from hemorrhaging during her birth and she doesnt know anything about her father. She is now a reporter for the local newspaper. She mostly does editing on other reporters writing but occasionally covers the local crime scene, which has given her an in with two men on the local police force Jose de la Cruz, a police detective, and Brian Butch ONeal, a hard-asses homicide detective (who has a bit of a thing for Beth.)
On the evening that her father is murdered, Beth is sexually assaulted by a local, rich college kid. She manages to get away after throwing some punches of her own but doesnt report the crime until the next morning. In fact, she is somewhat reluctant to report it even though both Jose and Butch know something is up.
Shortly thereafter, Wrath shows up at Beths apartment and Beth thinks that he is one of the men Butch has sent to watch over her. And, instead of just getting to know Beth and helping her through the transition, Wrath falls in love with Beth.
Butch starts to watch Beths apartment and sees Wrath there. He thinks Wrath wants to harm Beth and tries to stop him by having him arrested. Beth is unable to stop him and before Butch can get Wrath into the station and booked, he beats up Butch and escapes with Beth. (And he fails to erase Butchs memory of events, so Butch is still trying to follow him.)
Butch is put on probation from the police force for excessive use of force on a suspect. The suspect in question, the rich kid who had assaulted Beth. Hed reported that hed been assaulted to the police and Butch figures out his story is a lie when Beth reports her assault.
Eventually, Butch follows Beth and ends up at the home where Wrath is living and the other brothers are staying. While there, he meets Marissa the Wraths current partner, although the two have never fully consummated their relationship. He falls in love with her and earns the respect of the rest of the Brothers.
In order for Wrath to get permission from the Scribe Virgin (a spiritual leader, of shorts) to break his relationship with Marissa and marry Beth, he must make a sacrifice that he has been thus far unwilling to take stop fighting and ascend to the throne as the king of the vampires.
Okay, now that Ive practically written the entire story for you, heres what I didnt like about the book. First, the spelling of the names and the need to slap hs in every name. Although, I dont understand why Darius isnt Dahrius or Darhius and Wrath is Rhath or Whrath for that matter. Also, Wrath is blind he can read without a monster magnifying glass but has no problem fighting blind.
The part I liked the least though were the segments about the lessers, who are led by a man named Mr X. Its not a very interesting part of the story other than you know what the enemy is planning and a bit about how the Lessening Society functions. Probably the most annoying thing is the authors apparent refusal to use pronouns for Mr X. So Mr X does this and then Mr X does that and then Mr X get this and Mr X gets that.
What I did like about the book definitely has outweighed the dislikes. The story line is very compelling and characters are called upon to make sacrifices to get the love they want. Wrath must become king if he wants to be able to marry Beth. Beth must leave the life shes known if she wants to live. In fact, in a twist at the end of the story, Darius is going to be allowed to come back so he can see his daughter, but he too will have to make a sacrifice for that to happen.
These sacrifices redeem them and open them up to love.
(Oh, yeah, and theres lots of sex.)
Some background on the brotherhood first. There are seven member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, sworn to protect the vampire civilians from the Lessening Society (members of which are called lessers and can be recognized by their baby powder smell.) The members are Wrath, Darius, Tohrment, Vishous, Rhage, Phury and Zsadist.
This first book is about Wrath the Vampire king, how he came to be king and fell in love with Beth Randall.
The story opens with Darius and Tohrment (Tohr) at a bar waiting for Wrath to join them. Darius has told Tohr that he wants to ask Wrath to meet his daughter who is half-human and has never met him. She is about to turn 25 and he is sure she will go through a transition (as all vampires do at approximately age 25) and become a vampire. Unfortunately, she has been raised as an orphan by humans and knows nothing of her vampire background.
Wrath takes the information from Darius, but does not accept the responsibility immediately. He is not interested in his role as king and this is a responsibility hed rather put on someone else. They leave the bar Wrath to dematerialize back home and Darius to his sports car to drive home. As Wrath is leaving the bar, he is attacked by a lesser who he takes out with a throwing star. Then as he is about to dematerialize and go home, there is an explosion and he discovers that the lessers have blown up Darius and his car.
This action makes him change his mind about meeting Darius daughter, Beth. He decides he will help her through the transition and then be done with her.
Beth Randall has grown up in orphanages. Her mother died from hemorrhaging during her birth and she doesnt know anything about her father. She is now a reporter for the local newspaper. She mostly does editing on other reporters writing but occasionally covers the local crime scene, which has given her an in with two men on the local police force Jose de la Cruz, a police detective, and Brian Butch ONeal, a hard-asses homicide detective (who has a bit of a thing for Beth.)
On the evening that her father is murdered, Beth is sexually assaulted by a local, rich college kid. She manages to get away after throwing some punches of her own but doesnt report the crime until the next morning. In fact, she is somewhat reluctant to report it even though both Jose and Butch know something is up.
Shortly thereafter, Wrath shows up at Beths apartment and Beth thinks that he is one of the men Butch has sent to watch over her. And, instead of just getting to know Beth and helping her through the transition, Wrath falls in love with Beth.
Butch starts to watch Beths apartment and sees Wrath there. He thinks Wrath wants to harm Beth and tries to stop him by having him arrested. Beth is unable to stop him and before Butch can get Wrath into the station and booked, he beats up Butch and escapes with Beth. (And he fails to erase Butchs memory of events, so Butch is still trying to follow him.)
Butch is put on probation from the police force for excessive use of force on a suspect. The suspect in question, the rich kid who had assaulted Beth. Hed reported that hed been assaulted to the police and Butch figures out his story is a lie when Beth reports her assault.
Eventually, Butch follows Beth and ends up at the home where Wrath is living and the other brothers are staying. While there, he meets Marissa the Wraths current partner, although the two have never fully consummated their relationship. He falls in love with her and earns the respect of the rest of the Brothers.
In order for Wrath to get permission from the Scribe Virgin (a spiritual leader, of shorts) to break his relationship with Marissa and marry Beth, he must make a sacrifice that he has been thus far unwilling to take stop fighting and ascend to the throne as the king of the vampires.
Okay, now that Ive practically written the entire story for you, heres what I didnt like about the book. First, the spelling of the names and the need to slap hs in every name. Although, I dont understand why Darius isnt Dahrius or Darhius and Wrath is Rhath or Whrath for that matter. Also, Wrath is blind he can read without a monster magnifying glass but has no problem fighting blind.
The part I liked the least though were the segments about the lessers, who are led by a man named Mr X. Its not a very interesting part of the story other than you know what the enemy is planning and a bit about how the Lessening Society functions. Probably the most annoying thing is the authors apparent refusal to use pronouns for Mr X. So Mr X does this and then Mr X does that and then Mr X get this and Mr X gets that.
What I did like about the book definitely has outweighed the dislikes. The story line is very compelling and characters are called upon to make sacrifices to get the love they want. Wrath must become king if he wants to be able to marry Beth. Beth must leave the life shes known if she wants to live. In fact, in a twist at the end of the story, Darius is going to be allowed to come back so he can see his daughter, but he too will have to make a sacrifice for that to happen.
These sacrifices redeem them and open them up to love.
(Oh, yeah, and theres lots of sex.)
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