J.R. Ward

Contemporary/Paranormal/Black Dagger Brotherhood series

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Don't hate me, but I get to read new romances months before they hit the shelves.

Publishers send me free pre-releases called Advance Reading Copies (ARCs), and things went ape a couple months ago when I got an advance of J.R. Ward's insanely great new novel, "Lover Awakened."

Seems lots of folks are jonesin' to read it, having gotten caught up in the saga of the Black Dagger Brotherhood in Ward's first two novels.

So caught up, in fact, that many contacted me hoping I'd sell them my "Lover Awakened" advance, despite the fact that publishers mark ARC covers clearly with the words "Not for Sale."

Even though I don't really, as I wrote one petitioner, "face the pain of excruciating death" should I sell an advance, it's universally understood among romance reviewers that hawking ARCs is in patently bad form.

Not that my heart doesn't bleed for those unfortunates who plead that they couldn't afford the prices "Lover Awakened" advances were going for on eBay, but the simple truth is authors lose money when ARCs are pirated.

And plots they painstakingly create are subsequently spoiled.

There's no way in America I'm gonna be the one to let the cat out of the "Lover Awakened" bag of often shocking tricks. But this much I can tell you:

The hero of "Lover Awakened," a fierce Vampire warrior Zsadist, has barely a soul left after years spent as a blood slave. Now free in body but captive to his hatred for what he endured, he lives a spartan, violent life riding on the cusp of insanity.

Which is just fine with Z, because he likes killing, especially when it comes to decimating the soul-less lessers who prey upon the civilian vampires he and his Black Dagger Brothers have sworn to protect.

When the lessers kidnap the lovely aristocrat vampire, Bella, Z becomes obsessed with finding her, even though everyone supposes her dead.

But when he rescues her, the real suffering begins for Z; he can't accept that Bella's attracted to him despite his horribly-scarred face, and ugly demeanor.

Even worse, the exquisitely lovely Bella is intent upon making Zsadist her lover, and in the process intends to force him to accept not only her feelings for him, but also the humanity she's convinced he possesses.

"Lover Awakened" is raw in emotion and imagery, a tour de-flippin-force of writing and plot design as aggressive as the righteous battles the Brothers wage against the malevolent lessers.

Ward accomplishes the unimaginable: she makes women love a story that's as decidedly violent as it is unfailingly erotic. And she wields both sex and brutality with evenhandedness -- and within context -- which makes each as vital to the story as they are to the characters.

I'll be giving away my ARC of "Lover Awakened" when J.R. Ward GuestBlogs Monday, Sept. 4 on Romance: By the Blog. But I suggest as your backup plan you race, not run to --

Buy the book.

www.JRWard.com

Next Week's Review and AuthorView: "Just One of Those Flings," by Candice Hern