Customer Reviews

Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood #3)

5 star:		(326)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

J.R. Ward establishes herself as one of the leading authors in vampire romances with her third entry in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, LOVER AWAKENED.

Zsadist suffered horrible abuse as a blood slave for many years and is now unable to bear the touch of anyone. He equates pain with sexual arousal and avoids all the complications involved in any type of relationship or friendship. Bearing permanent physical scars from his past, Zsadist's mere physical presence scares all who know him- except the lovely Bella who reached out to him in the previous novel, LOVER ETERNAL. The novel opens with Bella imprisoned by one of the lessers. The lessers are the enemies of the Black Dagger Brotherhood as they are de-souled humans who sole purpose is to exterminate the entire vampire race. Zsadist is determined to rescue Bella, but his own emotions regarding her are conflicted. Will Zsadist be able to overcome his sordid past? Or will Bella choose to settle for his twin brother, Phury, instead? And what other diabolical plans do the lessers have in store for the Black Dagger Brotherhood?

J.R. Ward has cleverly crafted the ideal storyline for Zsadist. LOVER AWAKENED is perhaps one of the most gut-wrenching books this reviewer has ever read. Only Zsadist's story could take the reader to such low depths only to arise to such touching, heart-warming moments. LOVER AWAKENED is a poignant tale of one man's victory over the evils of physical and sexual abuse.

Zsadist's character is the most controversial of all of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. His name alone speaks volumes about the despair and anger that has filled his soul. Bella is a complete contrast to him, as she is openly caring and affectionate. As a member of the glymera (the vampire aristocracy), Bella's social station is far different from that of Zsadist, a former blood slave. The relationship between Zsadist and Bella is so powerful it will leave the reader in tears, both of joy and of sadness, as each character learns what a relationship between them will involve. Zsadist's relationship with his brother, Phury, also evolves throughout the novel as Zsadist begins to examine the demons that have driven him for so long.

LOVER AWAKENED, like the two previous books in the series, is a multilayered novel. While the focus is on the relationship between Zsadist and Bella, the reader is given further insights into the world of the lessers and their leader, the Omega. In addition, John's story is beginning to unfold and one can only hope he will have his own book one day soon!

LOVER AWAKENED packs a powerful emotional punch! While it can be read as a stand alone novel, this reviewer strongly encourages one to read the books in order as only then will the true impact of Zsadist's growth fully emerge. The world building of J.R. Ward is to be commended as her characters and world appear very real and readers are quickly recognizing her talent as an author. The Black Dagger Brotherhood series epitomizes what a vampire romance series is all about and LOVER AWAKENED is sure to become an instant classic!

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

If you have read the other books, DARK LOVER & LOVER ETERNAL,by J R Ward you will know the story of Zsadist, if not you are in for a wonderful read. I have waited patiently for his story. He is the most intriging character I have encountered in some time.

Zsadist is the brother of Phury, they are twins, but he was kiddnapped as a baby and sold as a Blood Slave. He lived in captivity and torture for many yrs until Phury found him and saved his life. But he was so damaged by his captor that they have no hope for him to ever live a normal life. He seems to only embrace violence. With his scarred face and body he is an anomoly in the Vampire world. Since he is a born warrior he lives and fights with the Black Dagger Brotherhood. They protect the other vampires from the lessers, men who have given up their souls to the Omega, for the power to kill. The Omega wants to destroy all vampires.

Bella is a vampiress, who is a friend of the human woman who is bonded to Rhage. Rhage is one of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. There are only 6 Warriors in the Brotherhood now, but Wrath, the king, is haveing some others trained to join. When Bella meets Zsadist she is fasinated and a bit frightened by him. He is so solitary. Later she is kidnapped by the leader of the lessers. She looks like his deceased wife and he clings to her and thinks he loves her. This does not stop him from tortureing and beating her up. She is kept in a hole in the ground and must listen as other captured vampires are tortured and murdered. For some reason her mind turns to Zsadist and she prays for her rescue.

Zsadist searches for her with a vengence. Surprising his brothers, he returns to her house many times. Somehow she has reached into the Darkness that surrounds him. When he finally rescues her she is damaged, too. In her pain she turns to him and he struggles to find some humanity in his soul to help her. The brothers are stunned to find him cuddling her in his room, because since his rescue he has been unable to touch and let others touch him. He has refused to eat or feed properly. He has only fed from prostitutes. Touching only their neck. The leader of the lessers has not given up, he is still looking for his "wife".

I loved this book and it was so full of new revelations about the Brotherhood. I have enjoyed all three of the books in this series and am now looking forward to the next. Do not miss this one.

I was totally amazed by this third addition. Not only have I been looking forward to this book, but Zsadist is my favorite Brother so far. I was very wary at first, hoping that Ward would not fall into the clutches that so many other talented authors have done during a series. After the first couple of books, the series seems to have been picked up by someone new: the characters are off, the storyline is the same, the heroes and heroines are the same with different name, etc. But MOST DEFINITELY not Lover Awakened!!

I was sucked in from the first page. What I love about Ward is that she is able to tell you other stories while spinning the actual main storyline. Mini storylines, if you will. So not only do we get to know about the main hero and heroine, but we are also able to revisit and continue to love previous characters that we have already read about (Wrath and Beth, Rhage and Mary, Thor and Wellsie and John). This was definitely no exception. This way, we don't forget about our previous loved characters and are still able to grow with them. :) Furthermore, not only do we get to see previous characters such as John, but we are introduced to some new ones too that will be playing major roles down the line.

The scenes between Bella and Zsadist are very mixed. One scene is very touching and the next is definitely jaw-dropping. "I can't believe she/he just did/said that!" Their relationship is much like a roller coaster. Their emotions are all over the place but because of Ward's wonderful gift, she is able to tie it nicely at the end to make it real. It wasn't annoying like how other stories of the like I've read. Very good job!

The scenes with Zsadist and his twin brother Phury were also very roller coaster-like. Both brothers grow to untouched heights and although Phury is still floored with the events with Bella and Z, his critical being at the time learns towards a better life. But, of course, we will see more of that in his own book. :)

The character developement was amazing with every character that it touched. The shocking scene at the end proved this. I was excited over the developement, especially in Zsadist. His little actions not only helped himself, but touched everyone whether directly or indirectly. I couldn't be more proud of him. :)

This is absolutely the darkest of the three. But it's also the greatest. This book has everything in it: Love, lust, betrayal, agony, friendship, bonds, vengence, lost. It's definitely one not to be missed!

Just the other day I threw a new paranormal book in the garbage and loudly said, "I'm sick of knockoffs. Where are the original, fresh paranormal writers? All the new releases are imitations!" It just seems like yesterday that I discovered LK Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Robin D. Owens and Christine Feehan. Since that time, we also have been lucky enough to be delighted by Kresley Cole, Kim Harrison and Marjorie Liu. The rest of the paranormals romances today are simply trying to copy a formula. These are books that authors were forced to write by their agents and publishing houses simply to fill the perceived paranormal romance void. Hey, agents/publishers - just because you force an author to write outside of their genre, doesn't mean it will be good story. Wise up! So there I sat in the depths of disgust, when I happened upon another Amazon reviewer, who stated how good J. R. Ward's books are. Okay. I bought all three and figured they would be good fillers for the next couple of weeks until Robb & Cole's November releases. Wrong! J. R. Ward's series is fabulous! I'm usually not a gusher, but this series is just absolutely the best - incredible. There is no point in going into a description of the series, because 87 other reviewers have done so, but I just had to tell everyone how great this series truly is. Remarkable. This series makes me want to go back and downgrade every 5 star review I ever handed out. Buy these books!!! You won't be disappointed.

Blood Slave, Zsadist has experienced all the cruelty and deprivation most sane people could stand. He has survived but he is not alive. Or at that was the case until he met Bella. But, numb and unfeeling works for him. He is now living his worst nightmare and he can't seem to wake up. Bella represents all the good and pure things in life and he does not deserve her. He is unclean down to his soul. But, when Bella goes missing he can't get her out of his mind and he moves heaven and earth to find her. Her rescue is going to change everything he has ever thought he knew about himself and the power of love.

You know how you faithfully watch a television program and right before they end the season for the year they leave you with this cliff hanger that makes you wish you could fast forward to the future in order to see how it shakes out in the end? Well, Ms. Ward has managed to do that and more. This is a wonderful and creative read. Ms. Ward has taken the ultimate anti-hero (We met Zsadist in previous titles of this series) and made him the ultimate hero. I can't wait for the next in this series. Ms. Ward tapes the readers emotions making these characters come to life. This is a must read book!

As an avid reader of paranormal romance, I was so excited when Ward put out this awesome book series, The Black Dagger Brotherhood. Every single book, so far, has been well-written and expertly crafted. Ward does a great job bringing her characters to life, and her writing style evokes emotions within her readers. Each book has given us intimate details of many of our favorite black dagger brothers (my personal favorite to date, though, is Rhage's story).

This book delves into Zsadist's story. I really appreciated the time that Ward put into describing Z's memories of what happened to him as a blood slave. Throughout the previous two books he always seemed like the tortured enigma with a dark past, but one never really knew how deep those wounds went. Ward does an awesome job helping us understand some of Z's actions and reactions to situations. I think Bella was the perfect match for Z, as her beauty and softness helped soothe away some of his harsh perceptions of life and love. Unfortunately, their budding romance was the impetus to Phury's weakened state.

I loved reading this book -- in fact, I've already read it twice. However, as a big fan of this book series, I have to be honest and say that I felt a bit cheated that I didn't get to "experience" Bella and Zsadist's love story as fully and richly as I did Rhage's and Wrath's. It might just be my perception, but I felt Ward could have spent even more time with Bella and Z in this book. Ward did a WONDERFUL job introducing new twists and turns into the series, and I can't wait for the next book to come out, but I would have liked to read more about Bella and Zsadist. Considering Zsadist's portrayal in the previous two books, I was especially looking forward to this book because I was hoping for the same amount of time to be spent on Z's love story as Ward did with the other two. I know that Ward had to lay the groundwork for what was yet to come, so it didn't detract from the quality of this book.

This is a GREAT book, and it is highly recommended!

This is the best series I have ever picked up. And especially being the 3rd in the series, I didn't think she could get any better, but I was holding my breath and flipping those pages because the story is SO intense. It sucks you in and time flies by as you are transported into another world.
Zsadist truly was beautiful as the novel came to a close, and his true colors came out to shock and awe us and make us all fall in love with him more. I was smiling through the entire book.
And I know many readers might compare Sherrilyn Kenyon's dark hunter, Zarek, with Zsadist, but they don't even come close to being anything alike.
The stories that JR Ward continues to create and bring to life are SO REAL. I love how she can take a simple (or complex) character and show how deep their emotions and feelings run. She does an awsome job. I feel like I'm losing a friend, or neighbor, by the end of the book. I need to start over in the series to maintain the development of all the characters fresh in my mind, and keep them real. All the BROTHERS and their friends/enemies are so exciting.

I simply can't continue with this series. It's not that I don't enjoy the stories I've read, it's just that it's so painful to read through the constant use of slang, much of it nonsense and inappropriate for the tone of the book. People don't think in slang and speak in nothing but slang all the time. The author used the word "sh**kickers" SIXTEEN times in this book. Every time it was used, I physically winced.

I've continued through the first 3 books in this series because I truly hoped that the author would tone down after so many negative reviews revolving around the dialogue and even the slang used outside of dialogue. I wanted to give her a few books to ease the characters into it. However, this one was actually more slang-heavy than the others. It's obviously not going to change.

This author strikes me as an affluent middle aged white female who doesn't really know what it's like to be street tough. You feel me, my brothers? It's not authentic. I was left yearning desperately for a way to do a find/replace on my kindle to strip out the nonsense so I could enjoy the story. I found myself tossing the book aside and forcing myself to take a break from it so that the story wouldn't be ruined by whatever ridiculous thing I'd just read.

Aside from the slang, the chapters involving the lessers are pointless. We could have some mystery there and still know what's happening. There are only so many letters in the alphabet -- how do they address each other when there are clearly duplicates? And while we're on the subject of names, the names just go on and on, don't they? How is it that some vampires can be named Bella and Darius and Marissa, but the rest have to have ridiculous names that make you cringe? Oh, I know... let's just shorten them to their first letter. Then we'll not only have the lessers named "U" and "X" and "O" and "M" but we can have "Z" and "V" too!

Believe me, I really tried... but I just can't do it. The author clearly thinks she's created her own unique style and obviously a lot of people enjoy it. But the style is not for me. It's almost sad because I would like to know what happens, but I can't torture.. ahem... tohrture myself any longer. Perhaps when I've exhausted every other option and the curiosity gets me.

The tortured hero is the most popular of characters in romantic fiction. We want nothing more than to learn how the angry, bitter male finally finds a slice of happiness in his life and redeems himself. Unfortunately, all to often the `tortured' aspect is glossed over, giving us a cardboard cut-out with little depth. Not so in JR Ward's Lover Awakened, the third and best of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

Zsadist is one of the most compelling character to appear in the romance genre. He is complex, fascinating, and utterly riveting. His anger doesn't stem from a single painful episode or some silly family strife, it comes from a century of debasing abuse that has left him with few emotions but anger and a deep revulsion for anything sexual. As I learned more about his thought processes and his perceptions of the world, I couldn't help but love his character and hurt for him.

And paired with Zsadist is an equally interesting heroine, Bella. Captured by the lesser, O, she has her own share of demons to work through, and she sees in Zsadist someone who can help her, who makes her feel completely safe. Ironic, since he's noted for hating females. And yet with her, we begin to seem glimpses of a tender side that he never knew he had.

Bella is a wonderful match for Z. She understands him perhaps better than anyone in the Black Dagger Brotherhood, and quickly learns when to pursue him and when to back away. Zsadist is touchy and tempermental, but Bella deals with him expertly.

Lover Awakened, like its characters, is a complex book. If you like your vampire romance light and fluffy this is not the book for you. Here we have raw feeling, some painful, but in the end beautiful. Zsadist does find his redemption and it is truly wonderful.

Apart from his relationship with Bella, this book also delves into the equally complex relationship between Z and his twin brother, Phury, who rescued him from slavery. I think that one of the greatest strengths of this book is that it weaves together both of these relationships into an excellent and gripping story.

There are perhaps a few moments near the end where Z becomes a little overly florid in his expressions of love, but I was willing to cut him some slack considering all the misery he suffered before. Other than that, I can find nothing in the book to complain about. For those who like Sherrilyn Kenyon's story with Zarek, you will love Lover Awakened. Zsadist is ten times more interesting and more compelling than Zarek.

Book one, "Dark Lover", is released and I am intrigued. Book two, "Lover Beware", releases and I am breathless. But "Lover Awakened"...I am beyond stunned. J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood will always be a coveted group of books on my shelf. Her weaving of each brother's story is flawless. From the young vampire trainees to the astounding leading male, readers will feel every emotion, every struggle that each character faces.

Zsadist harbors, like all the brothers, a dark and tortured soul. In previous books he is touted as a vile man, accused of various crimes and potential ones. What lingers beneath the surface is a lost soul yearning for one that makes him complete--Zsadist just doesn't know it yet. Awakened begins where the previous installment left off, with the search for the missing Bella, a member of the glymera, their aristocracy. Zsadist feels a connection to the beautiful woman and his body is trying to tell him what his heart wants to deny. When he manages to extricate her from their enemies, the Lessers, he vows to destroy the one that took her. How he will manage to do this and keep the growing arousal she causes at bay, he isn't quite sure. And he will have to figure out if what he is fighting are indeed his body's needs or his heart's.

Zsadist's background--that of a blood slave--comes slamming to the forefront in "Lover Awakened". Since his release hundreds of years ago, he hasn't exactly been living life. Just as it seems he's almost become comfortable with the angst and tortured feelings, Bella enters and stirs his buried heart like no other has ever been able to--not even his real brother Phury. Their attraction is the most pulse pounding of the series to date and that's putting it mildly. Wrap that heart-wrenching plot around the evolving storylines of Butch, the human cop turned friend, Vishous, and now Bella's brother, Revhenge, and "Lover Awakened" easily becomes my favorite so far.

My few problems with the series are ones that will most likely be solved with later installments. The Lessening Society is still a very mild player, though the one called O was featured much more prominently than any of them had been before. I am still wondering though what in the world the two groups, or rather, their deities (Scribe Virgin for the vamps, The Omega for the lesser) have against one another. The lessers have great potential to be terrifying enemies, yet their role is significantly less than that of the Brothers. Thank goodness the Brothers and their females are so vivid. Despite the continued questions, it's an amazing entry into the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Stay tuned for what's in store for Butch as Vishous steps up the cop's honorary membership into the group. "Lover Revealed" hits shelves March of 2007.