Reviews with content warning for Blood - Dark Lover

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Dark Lover by J.R. Ward

28 reviews

kaadee's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Ok so I was basically forced to read this book and I have a lot of thoughts.
First of all, I would like to start of saying I am a feminist. The last thing I enjoy is a man being annoying and very misogynistic. That was my main problem with the book, the lack of boundaries the men had. I mean, in one chapter they all grabbed the main character like 10 times. Have they never heard of keeping their hands to themselves?? It isn’t hard. I get that the book is smut and it’s woman’s fantasies (yadayada i don’t care) I’m not a huge smut reader whatsoever so the constant sex scenes was annoying but whatever, if it’s your cup of tea sure go ahead. I could work around the sex part and enjoy the actual story of the lessening society, sure.
Well, the world building is trash. So, if I wasn’t going to pay attention to the sex part I was paying attention to the plot and the world. It had no substance. I mean, I feel like the author just made up words to describe things and the Encyclopedia in the beginning made me feel like I was about to read a good world building story. Nah. The lessening society is a terrible enemy but I lowkey agree with their actions (just a bit hah sorry) I don’t understand the whole beef with the Scribe Virgin and the Omega like can’t you just fight or something? Why carry on a needless battle for hundreds of years.
Second of all, we are literally introduced to the main character when she is being sexually assaulted. I mean, come on!! Why do women need to be sexually assaulted to further a plot? They don’t! It’s stupid and it makes me hate the author just a little bit more. Also -1 star for all the pop culture references. Jesus, if there’s one thing I hate in a book it’s a pop culture reference just thrown in there for the fun of it. It ruins the fantasy for me especially when they talk about Wrath banging it out to Jay-Z. Who needs to know that? Because I honestly don’t care.
Now that I hated on the book let me go over some things I enjoyed. The dialogue between the side characters. An author who can make side characters loveable is doing a good job. I want more of the side characters and I feel like they all had individual personalities. I enjoyed their banter with each other, like, a lot. It was funny at times, so funny I even laughed out loud. I also enjoy the Scribe Virgin. It’s nice to know there is someone (a woman) that puts these Alpha males in their place.
Anyway, I will be reading the next book but only because I’m interested in seeing if the series gets ANY better (hoping)

2023 return: changing my rating because this is one of my favorite series. You can make fun of me for this review, it’s ok. I was innocent back then lol

Content Warnings

kalira's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

lunahale's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

reread number 5 and I still love this a lot. I skipped the Mr. X chapters this time around tho lol
———
i was pleasantly surprised by how interesting this book was. not only did i enjoy the characters, but i also enjoyed the world building. i've never read a "vampire" book quite like this and i'm not mad about it. a lot of the world building aspects are completely original to me, and i appreciated that. kudos to my momma for telling me to read this.

Content Warnings