Book Review: Lover Awakened by J.R Ward

Review: Lover Awakened
Series: Black Dagger Brotherhood – Book 3
Author: J. R. Ward
No of Pages: 434
Release Date: 5 September 2006

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there’s a deadly turf war going on between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers like no other – six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Of these, Zsadist is the most terrifying member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

A former blood slave, the vampire Zsadist still bears the scars from a past filled with suffering and humiliation. Renowned for his unquenchable fury and sinister deeds, he is a savage feared by humans and vampires alike. Anger is his only companion, and terror his only passion – until he rescues a beautiful aristocrat from the evil Lessening Society.

Bella is instantly entranced by the seething power Zsadist possesses. But even as their desire for one another begins to overtake them both, Zsadist’s thirst for vengeance against Bella’s tormentors drives him to the brink of madness. Now, Bella must help her lover overcome the wounds of his tortured past, and find a future with her...

My Thoughts:

This series just keeps getting better.

Lover Awakened opens with the frantic search for Bella, the high class citizen who was abducted by the Lessers at the end of Lover Eternal. Zsadist is acting way out of character in the fact that he actually seems to care about something for once.

He is lethal in his quest to find her not leaving any stone unturned. His brothers don’t know what has gotten into him, and neither does her. But his relentless search finally comes to fruition when another civilian that Bella manages to free tips of the brotherhood as to her whereabouts.

When Bella gets to the compound, it becomes a game of cat and mouse. She wants Zsadist, but it seems that he doesn’t want her, even though he is fiercely protecting her from anyone and everyone. Zsadist doesn’t think he is worthy of such a female, and he has reason to back up that claim. He was a blood slave, forced into service for a hundred years by his Mistress after he was stolen from his home as an infant. Zsadist carries the scars and the memories of his time, and he sees himself as too dirty, too broken to love.

But Bella won’t have it. Zsadist’s transformation throughout Lover Awakened is absolutely amazing, in tiny little steps he starts believing in himself again, and the way Ward writes his healing as such is tear jerkingly powerful.

Bella doesn’t fully understand what she asks of Zsadist at times, and in a way that is what helped him the most, not having someone treading on eggshells around him for once helped him come back to himself. But it’s not all easy going from there, Zsadist still doesn’t see himself as worthy and every chance he gets tries to push Bella away, until he succeeds.

When I realised Lover Awakened was about Zsadist, I was wary of reading it purely because he had been so unpleasant in the previous books, but seeing how such a broken and lost soul could come back was absolutely amazing. Zsadist is not only physically strong, but mentally as well, he learnt to deal with his pain and although it may not have made him the nicest person around, it becomes completely understandable why he is the way he is.

Bella has become one of my favourite females as well, although she grew up living a high life, she is very grounded after living by herself. She takes in her stride the trauma of what happened to her at the Lessers holding cell, being obsessed over by O the new fore-lesser. Although it takes a little bit of time and quite a bit of TLC from Zsadist in the beginning, she became stronger.

I also love the fact that she didn’t just cower behind the males, but was smart enough to know when to back down. When she felt that she could do something at a crucial moment, she did it and didn’t rely on someone to do it for her, no matter how grisly the task.

Zsadist and Bella’s story has become one of my favourites in the Black Dagger Brotherhood, and considering the pattern we are currently following, these books are only going to get better.

Others in this series:
Dark Lover
Lover Eternal
Lover Revealed
Lover Unbound
Lover Enshrined
Lover Avenged
Lover Mine
Lover Unleashed

Book Review: Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood by Eileen Cook

Review: Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood
Author: Eileen Cook
No of Pages: 261
Release Date: 5 January 2010

In the final weeks of eighth grade, Lauren Wood made a choice. She betrayed her best friend, Helen, in a manner so publicly humiliating that Helen had to move to a new town just to save face. Ditching Helen was worth it, though, because Lauren started high school as one of the It Girls--and now, at the start of her senior year, she's the cheerleading captain, the quarterback's girlfriend, and the undisputed queen bee. Lauren has everything she's ever wanted, and she has forgotten all about her ex-best friend.

But Helen could never forget Lauren. After three years of obsessing, she's moving back to her old town. She has a new name and a new look, but she hasn't dropped her old grudges. She has a detailed plan to bring down her former BFF by taking away everything that's ever been important to Lauren—starting with her boyfriend.

Watch out, Lauren Wood. Things are about to get bitchy.


My Thoughts:

Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood is like Mean Girls, in book form.

Lauren Wood was Helen’s best friend, until she betrayed and humiliated her in front of the entire school forcing Helen to leave the state and start life fresh. Helen was a quiet girl when she left content with her old black and white movies and not really realising that she was being used by her best friend. But when she returns to her small home town and the high school that hated her before she left, she is a completely different person.

Now Helen is back under the name of Claire, and she’s out to destroy Lauren’s life just like hers was destroyed. She needs to steal her boyfriend, make her friends hate her, get her kicked off the cheerleading team and somehow make the whole school laugh at her.

Easy Peasy.

Helen is a funny character, albeit a little obsessed and a touch crazy, she is really likeable. She is completely focused on getting Lauren though, which makes her a bit annoying, but that is the whole point of the story.

I loved the fact that the love interest wasn’t your typical love interest for this general kind of book; he was the mysterious film-maker that no one really took notice of but everyone seemed to be talking about. Instead of the star quarter back that seemed to be the cliché interest at the start of the book.

Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood was a very feel good tale, and it was written in a way that doesn’t make you hate Helen for her revenge plan but understand her and also feel a little sorry for her in the process. It teaches us that not all friends are worth it and although sometimes revenge can go too far, a bit of cheese in a vent and a couple of missing buttons off a shirt isn’t all that dangerous.

I devoured Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood and anyone who did like Mean Girls like I did, will find this book laugh out loud funny.