A review by witcheep
Pimeyden rakastaja by J.R. Ward

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've first read this book about ten years ago (and it was written almost 20 years ago!), and on this reread the story was as captivating as I remembered. Nowadays it might be put into the spicy romantacy genre, and as such it fits multiple popular tropes (e. g. mates, touch-her-and-die) and feels delightfully multidimensional and fresh: the FMC isn't a helpless damsel in distress even though she is introduced to a whole new world of vampires and needs guidance.

The worldbuilding is interesting and the plethora of characters is well-rounded with interesting multidimensional personalities. Especially disability is written very respectfully as a normal part of the characters' lives into the plot. I think I'll reread the series further soon.

It is worth mentioning, though, that some of the wordings and mindsets especially around lgbtq+ community (
brief mentions/slurs in dialoque
) and women's standing in the society (both in human and vampire ones; women characters are either
innocent as virgins, mothers/spouses or whores
) feels very prejudiced and condemnatory at times.
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