Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward

This is the third book in the Brotherhood of the Dagger series by J.R. Ward. Its urban fantasy (with romance); vampire warriors, banded together as "brothers", solely purposed to save the vampire race from the otherworldly creatures (known to the Brotherhood as "lessers") that have been created to kill them.

In this alternate universe vampires hide, in plain sight, in the world of humans. They are a completely different animal from the homo sapien, and propagate the species through pregnancy and childbirth. Its a different take on the vampirism-is-a-disease-that-humans-can-catch de rigeur, and while they do feed from humans, they need to take blood from other vampires to thrive.

Lessers are the ancient enemies of vampires and are created from humans who have agreed to trade their souls for (near) immortality, strength and the thrill of the hunt. Lessers recruit from psychopaths, for the most part, and the leader is a demon-like entity that controls the group from an alternate dimension (like hell). Clear? Yes/no?

Earth isn't overrun by the nearly immortal vampires because its difficult to make a vampire baby, and because of the wars between vampires and lessers.

The series is a romance about the warriors finding love and becoming "bonded" pairs while saving vampires and humans alike.

Now then, the Brotherhood uses outrageous amounts of urban slang and listens to rap music. At first that came across as so fake that I literally laughed my butt off in the waiting room at the hospital where I started reading the first in the series. Its more unbelievable than the idea that vampires are among us. They also have stupid-ass, misspelled, names of destruction and mayhem. However, if you can get used to that, and I did, then you have a shot as some enjoyable mind-candy reading.


Lover Awakened is about the "brother" Zsadist.

We learn about Zsadist's history through flashbacks and a few personal disclosures. He'd been stolen as a baby by a nanny, and when that nanny died unexpectedly a few years later - he was sold into slavery. After his transformation into a fully mature male (pretransition vampires are small, weak, and asexual for the most part) his "mistress" turned him into a blood slave. He'd been tortured and sexually abused by his mistress for centuries, until his twin brother saved him from imprisonment.

Zsadist is one jacked-up dude. He hates everyone, including himself. He's so messed up in the sex department that he won't even touch himself to take a piss. :-/ The Brotherhood doesn't really trust him, rumors about his proclivities run rampant, and the only person who is on his side is his guilt-ridden twin brother. These guys put the "fun" back into dysfunctional.

Zsadist runs into an aristocratic female vampire in book two, who gets under his skin. When she's kidnapped (vampire-napped?) by lessers, he becomes determined to save her. She ends up missing for six weeks, and hope is lost for everyone but Zsadist. Bella's been kept alive though, because the lesser who captured her is a brand of psychopath who believes himself to be in love with Bella.

Once Zsadist and Bella get back together its the blind-leading-the-blind. Neither of them is emotionally healthy, and the way they trip over their own issues trying to help each other is very touching. The sex is sexy (but pretty vanilla, considering their pasts), and if you don't feel some pity for these two messed-up individuals... you need to pant a face on your heart and keep it as a paperweight.

This is not literature. It's not even great fiction. However, if you're a fan of the genre you'll likely appreciate the action, sex and romance. I like the Brotherhood of the Dagger. It's not as compelling as early Laurell K Hamilton, the humor isn't as funny as The Southern Vampire Series, and the romance isn't as heart-fluttering as Twilight, but its amusing and diverting. I enjoyed the book.

Grade: C+

The Temple Dancer by John Speed

The Temple Dancer is billed as a book about a journey. I was really excited to read a book about a culture so different from my own, and the idea of learning about temple dancers and Indian slave girls was very appealing to me. And who doesn't like a story about people coming of age during a journey? Classic, right?

One of the problems that I had with The Temple Dancer is that the author didn't give nearly enough detail about Indian culture (or even the culture of Portuguese, which was the other ethnicity represented in the book), temple dancers or slave girls. I was left to fill in the blanks by doing research myself.

The author also liberally peppers his text with Hindu, often without giving suitable explanations or definitions of the words used. I found it to be very frustrating, especially when there were easy ways he could have slipped definitions into the story without ever making it seem too contrived. I mean, there were multiple people traveling together, and not everyone spoke the same language. How easy would it have been to have words translated for foreign ears, or to have the speaker repeat things as a polite way to include everyone in the travel party?

I felt like the author was lazy.

Another big issue I took with the book was that the author was too obvious with clues and wrote his characters in such a way that they were too naive or dull to catch the clues themselves. That is the surest way to turn me off when reading a book. I need to have at least one character who is relatable. I hate simpering females who can't think for themselves and heroes who are supposed to be "the best", but can't manage to connect incredibly obvious dots.

I understand that Speed was trying to show how a journey through India could change people forever. I get that. However, some of the changes that he conceived were so out-of-character for the people he created that it was completely unbelievable. The gruff, manly-man in charge of the caravan, who pines for the slave girl through-out the entire book, does a complete about face at the very end of the book - with ZERO foreshadowing, that is so unbelievable as to be laughable. It was a huge what-the-fuck moment and all by its lonesome would have ruined the book for me. Unfortunately, there were a lot of problems that ruined this book for me.

I didn't find what I was looking for in this book at all. That, in itself, doesn't automatically make this a bad book. Sometimes a book just isn't to a person's taste. You put the book down, and move on. I thought this book was poorly written. The dialog and some of the mannerisms seemed to have been directly dictated from am Indiana Jones movie - overblown and unbelievable. The growth arc of the characters was completely overshot, and again, unbelievable. The ending of the book was a hot mess, and suggested to me that he didn't start this book with any clue as to how it would end. Speed didn't give enough information to really appreciate the different cultures and history of the atmosphere he was trying to create. I just feel like John Speed really blew it on all counts.

The only thing that held my interest at all was the two main female characters. He would have been on to something if he'd delved into their history and motivations better, if he'd explained the influence their separate cultures had on their choices, and if he'd better explained what life would have really been like for women in their circumstances. He missed the mark, put them in an implausible situation together and then failed to illustrate the differences and similarities in how these woman dealt with their respective fates.

It took me forever to get through this book.

Grade: D-

I'm going to preface this review by saying this book is one in an ongoing series about two police detectives and the local medical examiner. If I'd known that when I saw it in the digital bargain bin at Doubleday, I probably wouldn't have purchased it. It was advertised as a stand-alone book, and I'm going to review it as a stand-alone book (since I haven't read any of the other books in the series).

The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen

Corpses, preserved by way of ancient and obscure methods, are turning up in and around the Crispin Museum in Boston. Detectives have to solve the mystery before a beautiful, young archeologist (the next target) becomes the latest victim.

The premise is one that I can normally really get behind. Grisly serial murders? Women being stalked and hunted by perverted deviants? That's right up my fictional alley.

For some reason, this book couldn't hold my attention. My guess is it was too plot driven, with very little in the way of meaty, character development. The Keepsake jumped around from perspective to perspective (among as many as five or six characters), and with each "jump" the reader was given a too brief glimpse into that character's foibles, methods and motivations. I would have preferred to have gotten to know the characters a bit better than the author allowed.

The plot was interesting enough with plenty of twists and false starts. There was a scene which bore a remarkable resemblance to a scene from Kathy Reichs' first book, which was a bit of a disappointment to me. Otherwise, it was a mysterious enough mystery. There were twists that I didn't see coming and the surprises, did indeed, surprise me. That's not always easy to do, so I give respect to the author for that aspect of the book (if not much else).

I couldn't get past the fact that the suspense would have been more suspenseful if I'd been led to care about the players. I get my sense of suspense through what the characters are feeling, and with a couple of notable exceptions, these characters were rather dry and clueless.

Unfortunately, I made it to the end of the book without ever having made an emotional connection. It was a struggle, and I don't have enough time for reading to spend it on books that make me sigh before I pick them up.

Grade? I'd give The Keepsake a solid "C".

• The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen Completed in January
  
• Duma Key by Stephen King
  
• The Temple Dancer by John Speed Completed January; reviewed February
  
• Smoke Screen by Sandra Brown
  
• Storm Front by Jim Butcher
  
• Full Moon by Jim Butcher
  
• Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh
  
• The Touch of Twilight by Vicki Pettersson
  
• Swallowed by Darkness by Laurell K Hamilton Needs review
  
• Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey
  
• Absolutely Organized: A Mom's Guide to a No-Stress Schedule and Clutter-Free Home by Debbie Lillard
  
• Slave of Gor by John Norman
  
• The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson
  
• Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward Completed February
  
• Darkest Kiss by Keri Author

This will be my ongoing list, updated as needed. i currently own all of these books (i can't find the Slave to Sensation book), and will strike them out as i've read them. i'll add more as i aquire them.

This is the place I intend to track and review all the books I read in 2009.

Go me. :-)