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Lover Unveiled by JR Ward-Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

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Lover Unveiled (Black Dagger Brotherhood 19) by JR Ward-Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

LOVER UNVEILED
Black Dagger Brotherhood 19
by JR Ward
Genre: adult, contemporary, erotic, paranormal, vampire, romance
Release Date: April 20 2021

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

Meet Sahvage: a powerful MMA fighter with a buried secret that could change the world of Caldwell forever…

Sahvage has been living under the radar for centuries-and he has every intention of staying ‘dead and buried.’ But when a civilian female sucks him into her dangerous battle with an evil as ancient as time, his protective side overrides his common sense.

Mae has lost everything, and desperation sets her on a collision course with fate. Determined to reverse a tragedy, she goes where mortals should fear to tread- and comes face to face with the Brotherhood’s new enemy. She also discovers a love she never expected to find with Sahvage, but there can be no future for them.

Knowing they will part, the two band together to fight against what Mae unknowingly unleashed- as the Brotherhood closes in to reclaim one of their damned, and the evil vows to destroy them all.

••••••••

REVIEW:LOVER UNVEILED is the nineteenth instalment in JR Ward’s contemporary, adult BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD paranormal, vampire, romance series focusing on the elite group of vampire warriors known as the Black Dagger Brotherhood. This is Sahvage, and Mae’s story line. LOVER UNVEILED can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

Told from numerous third person perspectives following several intersecting pathways LOVER UNVEILED follows Sahvage, a forsaken and ostracized member of the vampire race in the aftermath of another near fatal attempt on his life but for the female savior who reluctantly aids our story line hero. Mae is a female vampire who is desperate to locate a long lost artefact but in doing so reveals an ancient evil, who they themselves, is determined to possess that which does not belong. Having saved our story line hero, Mae is now connected by blood to the man who would one day claim her as his mate.

Sahvage has been abandoned by the vampire race, lost to the ravages of betrayal and power. Believed to have committed atrocities against his own kind, and long since dead and buried for his sins, Sahvage is neither dead nor buried, and is determined to stop the female that calls to his in her search for the secret of ever lasting life.

Meanwhile, several other story line arcs begin to take shape in the aftermath of the crash of a meteorite in Caldwell, New York:

The demon Devina, whom we met in previous story lines, has returned with a vengeance pulling in both the BDB and the Band of B*stards in her search for the ultimate book of power and magic. As the number of murder victims increase in the city of Caldwell, Devina is one-step closer to locating the book and all of its’ secrets.

Balthazar ‘Balz’, son of Hanst, and a member of the Band of B*astards finds himself in a precarious situation when his latest robbery comes with a bonus tag along. Believing himself possessed, Balz begins to pull away from the only family he has ever known, and into the direct line of fire by the local police.

Nate, adopted son of Muhrder and Sarah, finds Elyn, a young female vampire who claims to be lost and without family or support. Taking her to the BDB run Luchus House for troubled and recovering vampires, Nate struggles with issues back home but refuses to reveal the source of his pain.

LOVER UNVEILED is a story of betrayal and vengeance; power and control; desperation, secrets, grief and love. JR Ward pulls the reader into the familiarity of the BDB family, their unwavering support, and need to protect the Brothers they love. Not all of the Brothers make a cameo appearance but for one fallen angel, his future is about to unfold. The premise is haunting, complex and detailed; the characters are edgy, spirited, tragic and strong.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

LOVER MINE (Black Dagger Brotherhood 8) ebook is currently on sale for $1.99

John Matthew and Xhex

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO /

Excerpt courtesy of Simon and Schuster

Trade Street and 30th Avenue
Downtown Caldwell, New YorkForty-eight minutes before Ralphie DeMellio got murdered, he was living the life.
“You got this,” his buddy was saying as he rubbed Ralphie’s bare shoulders. “You fucking got this, you’re a monster, you’re a motherfucking monster!”
Ralphie and his crew were on the sixth level of a parking garage that was all about the oil stains and litter, rather than any Oldsmobiles and Lincolns. The abandoned facility was just a fucking concrete bureau with nothing in its drawers, and in this part of Caldie, any kind of structure on-its-lonesome didn’t last long. Hello, BKC. Bare Knuckle Conquests was the only legit underground fighting circuit in the south-ern part of New York State, and the bout held tonight was the reason why he, his bros, and five hundred clout-chasing Insta-famers were here.
Any more selfies and it’d be the driver’s license lane at the DMV.
BKC was big-ass business, and Ralphie, as the reigning champ, was making big-ass fucking bank—provided none of these dumbasses with the camera phones gave their location away. And like, what were the chances of that.
“Where’s the coke.”
He put his hand out, and when the brown vial was slapped into his palm like a surgical instrument, he went to town. As he honked two kilos of powder deep into his sinuses, his eyes went jumping bean over the crowd. Down at the other end of the level, they were antsy, drug-ging, and putting their bets in with the organizer’s bookies. Nothing but three rounds of bare-knuckle minutes between them and the killing they expected to make.
Ralphie was a very good bet.
He hadn’t lost a fight yet, even though he had Slim Jim muscles and smoked a lot of weed. But here was the fucking thing. The bouncer- types with the boulder biceps and the jelly bellies were only impressive when they were standing still. Get them moving and they had no bal-ance, no speed, and follow-throughs like they had double vision. Long as Ralphie kept buzzing around like a fly on shit, he was unhittable as his right hook went to work.
“You good, Ralphie. You fucking good!”
“Yeah, that’s right, Ralphie, you the best!”
His crew was five guys from the neighborhood. They’d grown up together and were all related, their families having come over on the boat to Ellis Island a couple generations ago and gotten out of Hell’s Kitchen soon as they could afford it. Little Italy in Caldie was little different than the one in Manhattan, and as his father always said, don’t trust someone you don’t know and don’t know someone if you can’t walk to their house.
And there was one other person on Ralphie’s team.
“Where is she.” Ralphie looked around. “Where is—”
Chelle was back by the G wagon, posed like a Pirelli girl, her elbows on the hood, one heel stabbed into a tire rim. Her head was back, the pur-ple ends of her black hair licking the metallic paint, her pink lips parted as she stared up at nothing. The night was chilly because April was still a bitch in this zip code, but she didn’t give a fuck. Her bustier was all she had on up top, and the bottom half of her wasn’t covered much better.
Fuuuuuuck. Those tattoos on her upper thighs were showing. And the ones on the swells of her breasts. And the sleeve on her left arm.
She’d always refused to get one of his initials.
She was like that.
As if she caught his drift, Chelle slowly turned her head. Then she licked her lips with the tip of her tongue.
Ralphie’s hand went to the front of his jeans. She was not the kind of woman you brought home to mother, and at first, that was the rea-son he’d fucked her. But she was smart and she had her own hair salon. She didn’t check his phone. She didn’t care if he went out with the boys. She had her own money, she never asked him for a goddamn thing, and she had options, lotta options.
Men wanted her.
She was with him, though. And no matter what she looked like, she didn’t come on to his crew. She was not a pass-around, and anybody rubbed up on her? She was one slap away from knocking their fucking teeth out.
So yeah, after a year, Ralphie was way into her.
To the point where he didn’t care about what anyone else thought, including his traditional Italian mother. As far as he was concerned, Chelle was wifey material and that was all that fucking mattered.
“—got this, Ralphie—”
To kill the ass-kissing all up in his face, Ralphie put his hand on the center of his boy’s chest and pushed the guy back. “Gimme a minute.”
His crew knew what was up, and they turned around and faced the crowd, closing shoulder to shoulder.
And Chelle was well damn aware of what he was after.
The G wagon was parked ass in, with a couple of feet of space be-tween the rear bumper and the garage’s nasty concrete wall. Chelle went around and assumed the position, leaning back on the Benz’s boxy rear door and arching her shit. In her heels, she was as tall as Ralphie, and as her lids lowered and her breasts strained against the lace trim of the bustier, she met him right in the eye.
Ralphie’s heart was going fast, but his smile was slow as he put his hands on her little waist. “You want it?”
“Yeah. Gimme it.”
Ralphie unzipped his jeans and stroked himself as he kissed her throat. ’Cuz she wouldn’t want him to mess up her lipstick. That kinda shit would come later, after he beat the ass of whoever was going to try him tonight. But he wasn’t about to drive his truck through mud, and he wasn’t about to mess up his female in public.
Chelle moved her thong aside, and as she put a stiletto against the concrete, he pumped into her while she grabbed onto his bare shoulders.
The sex was hot as fuck. Because it turned out that if he respected the female? It made everything hotter.
As Ralphie lifted her up so she could put both her legs around his hips, he closed his eyes. The pre-fight rush, the coke, Chelle, the new G wagon from the cake he was earning at BKC, it was all power in his veins. He was the man. He was the monster. He was—
Ralphie started to come, and he would have yelled out, but he didn’t want people catching his girl like this. Instead he gritted his teeth and held on tight, dropping his head into Chelle’s perfumed neck and squeezing out curses through his locked jaw.
And then he had to say it.
“I love you, I fucking love you,” he grunted.
He was so into his girl, so into the coming, so into the feel of her coming with him . . . that he didn’t notice who was watching them from the shadows about twenty feet away.
If he had, he would have packed up his true love and his crew, and left rubber on the road as he got the fuck out of the parking garage.
Most of destiny was on a need-to-know basis, however.
And sometimes, it was best that you didn’t get a heads-up on the inevitable that had your name on it.
Way too fucking horrifying.


 

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J.R. Ward is the author of more than thirty novels, including those in her #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series. There are more than fifteen million copies of her novels in print worldwide, and they have been published in twenty-six different countries around the world. She lives in the South with her family.

Don’t forget to sign-up for exclusive Black Dagger Brotherhood original content:
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JR Ward’s publisher (Simon and Schuster) is offering a paper copy of LOVER UNVEILED  to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.

1. If you have not previously registered at The Reading Cafe, please register by using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

NOTE: If you are having difficulty commenting after logging onto the site, please refresh the page (at the top of your computer).

2. If you are using a social log-in, please post your email address with your comment.

3. Follow J.R. Ward on Facebook.

4. Follow Simon and Schuster on Facebook.

5. LIKE us on FACEBOOK and then click GET NOTIFICATION under ‘liked’ for an additional entry.

6. LIKE us on Twitter for an additional entry.

7. Please FOLLOW us on GOODREADS for an additional entry.

8. Please follow The Reading Cafe on Tumblr

9. Giveaway is open to USA only

10. Giveaway runs from April 25-30, 2021

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A Warm Heart in Winter by JR Ward-Review & Giveaway

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A Warm Heart in Winter (Black Dagger Brotherhood 18.5 / A Caldwell Christmas) by JR Ward-Review & Giveaway

A Warm Heart in Winter
A Caldwell Christmas
(Black Dagger Brotherhood 18.5)
by JR Ward
Release Date: December 1, 2020
Genre: adult, contemporary, paranormal, romance

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 1,2020

In this romantic and sexy addition to the #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series, a beloved couple has everything arranged… until it all goes horribly wrong.

Blay and Qhuinn always intended to do a proper mating ceremony, but life has a way of getting in the way. With a pair of young, responsibilities to the King, and a grueling fighting schedule, the two are exhausted and overwhelmed. When Qhuinn gives his male the proposal of a lifetime, however, they are excited for their special night and more in love than ever.

Everyone in the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s mansion gets into the preparations, and the after party takes on epic- and immortal- proportions when Lassiter forms the Party Planning Committee. The celebrations promise to be all that the couple deserves… until a Nor’easter land locks Caldwell in a fierce storm, and things go from lighthearted to deadly dangerous.

Battling nature and responding to emergencies, Blay and Qhuinn get separated, and when a catastrophic chain of events puts one of their lives in jeopardy, the night they had so looked forward could mean the end of everything..

••••••

REVIEW:A WARM HEART IN WINTER is instalment 18.5 in JR Ward’s contemporary, adult BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD paranormal romance series focusing on a group of vampire warriors known as the Black Dagger Brotherhood. A WARM HEART IN WINTER is the continuing story of Blay, aka Blaylock, son of Rocke, and Qhuinn, aka son of Lohstrong. A WARM HEART IN WINTER can be read as a stand alone but I recommend reading the series in order for back story and cohesion.

NOTE: A WARM HEART IN WINTER contains scenes of M/M sexual situations and may not be suitable for more sensitive readers.

Told from third person perspective A WARM HEART IN WINTER focuses on a winter storm that is about to shut down Caldwell, New York, and leaving a deadly path of destruction in its’ wake. On a late night call, Quinn finds himself the victim of an attack while helping a young girl after a motor vehicle accident. Fearing for his mate’s life, Blay comes to the decision that he and Qhuinn should embark on an official mating, to make their union formal in the eyes of the people they love. Meanwhile, Qhuinn’s brother Luchas continues to struggle with his recovery, in the aftermath raids three years earlier, raids that have forced Luchas to reflect on his life, and everything that has happened, before, during and after. As Qhuinn comes to terms with what happened in the past, Luchas makes a decision about his life going forward.

A WARM HEART IN WINTER is a story of family and friendships, relationships and love; of struggle and acceptance; of heart break, pain and loss. JR Ward pulls the reader into an emotional and tragic story but a story that is impassioned, genuine and real.

Copy supplied by the publisher

Reviewed by Sandy

FOLLOW: Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads / Website/

J.R. Ward is the author of more than thirty novels, including those in her #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series. There are more than fifteen million copies of her novels in print worldwide, and they have been published in twenty-six different countries around the world. She lives in the South with her family.

Don’t forget to sign-up for exclusive Black Dagger Brotherhood original content:
HERE

JR Ward’s publisher (Simon and Schuster) is offering a paper copy of WHERE WINTER FINDS YOU  to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.

1. If you have not previously registered at The Reading Cafe, please register by using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

NOTE: If you are having difficulty commenting after logging onto the site, please refresh the page (at the top of your computer).

2. If you are using a social log-in, please post your email address with your comment.

3. Follow J.R. Ward on Facebook.

4. Follow Simon and Schuster on Facebook.

5. LIKE us on FACEBOOK and then click GET NOTIFICATION under ‘liked’ for an additional entry.

6. LIKE us on Twitter for an additional entry.

7. Please FOLLOW us on GOODREADS for an additional entry.

8. Please follow The Reading Cafe on Tumblr

9. Giveaway is open to USA only

10. Giveaway runs from December 5 to December 9, 2020

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The Jackal (BDB: Prison Camp #1)by JR Ward-Review & Excerpt Tour

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The Jackal (Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp #1)by JR Ward-Review & Excerpt Tour

 

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 18 ,2020

The location of the glymera’s notorious prison camp was lost after the raids. When a freak accident provides Nyx clues to where her sister may still be doing time, she becomes determined to find the secret subterranean labyrinth. Embarking on a journey under the earth, she learns a terrible truth—and meets a male who changes everything forever.

The Jackal has been in the camp for so long he cannot recall anything of the freedom he once knew. Trapped by circumstances out of his control, he helps Nyx because he cannot help himself. After she discovers what happened to her sister, getting her back out becomes a deadly mission for them both.

United by a passion they can’t deny, they work together on an escape plan for Nyx—even though their destiny is to be forever apart. And as the Black Dagger Brotherhood is called upon for help, and Rhage discovers he has a half-brother who’s falsely imprisoned, a devious warden plots the deaths of them all…even the Brothers.

•••••••

REVIEW:THE JACKAL is the first instalment in JR Ward’s contemporary, adult PRISON CAMP: BLACK DAGGER LEGACY paranormal, romance series-a companion / spin off to the author’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. This is vampire Jackal ‘Jack’, and Nyxanlis ‘Nyx’ story line. THE JACKAL can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Several of the characters cross-over from the original series for cohesion and familiarity.

Told from several third person perspectives following two timelines and two intersecting paths THE JACKAL focuses on the atrocities of the Glymera prison camp, thought to have been disbanded and disarmed. Nyxanlis aka ‘Nyx’ has been desperate to free her sister Janelle, who was sentenced to the subterranean prison fifty years earlier for the murder of a man for which she had worked. Sneaking into the prison was easy but Nyx never expected to find herself falling in love with a vampire, a prisoner who called himself The Jackal, a man whose own life sentence was questionable and wrong. Working together alongside several vampires and wolven, Nyx and Jack would go in search of information regarding Nyx’s sister only to find themselves facing a potential death sentence when their adventure is discovered.

Meanwhile, the author takes the reader back a century where we get our fist glimpse into the life of the man known as The Jackal, and his initial encounter and association with the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Following a fight with the lessers, an injured Rhage finds himself recovering at the home of one of the Glymera, where he will meet a man, whose face is familiar, but a man who will be falsely accused of a crime against a female vampire. One hundred years will pass before Rhage will get a chance to meet his half-brother, for the second time.

THE JACKAL is a story that focuses on the heart breaking, and unethical conditions of a vampire prison camp where ‘The Command’ controls with an iron fist. Most of the prisoners has been sentenced for who they are, and not what they have done but at one time the rich and powerful thought they controlled the world of the vampire, and in doing so, sentenced anyone and everyone who got in their way.

JR Ward, once again, pulls the reader into the world of the vampire-a different world than what we have seen with her Black Dagger Brotherhood. The prison camp shows the underbelly of corruption, power and control by the wealthy Glymera, an underbelly I would have thought the BDB should have had some idea still existed. The premise is engaging and captivating-there is a bit of a twist to the story line premise; the characters are energetic and dynamic; the romance is a case of insta-lust to love, a fated relationship that quickly develops in the face of potential discovery and loss.

Copy supplied by the publisher

Reviewed by Sandy

Excerpt courtesy of Simon and Schuster publishers

 

Western New York State, Present DayThe whole “life is a highway” metaphor was so ubiquitous, so overused, so threadbare and torn-patched, that as Nyx sat in the passenger side of a ten-year-old station wagon, and stared at the moonlit asphalt trail cutting through brush and bramble in west-ern New York State, she wasn’t thinking a damn thing about how sim-ilar the course of roads and lives could be: You could get sweet-sailing easy declines of coasting. Bad, bumpy, rough patches that rattled your teeth. Uphill hauls that you thought would never end. Bored stretches between far-apart exits.
And then there were the obstacles, the ones that came from out of nowhere and carried you so far off your planned trip that you ended up in a completely different place.
Some of these, both in the analogy and in fact, had four legs and a kid named Bambi.
“Watch out!” she yelled as she clapped a hand on the steering wheel and took control.
Too late. Over the screeching of tires, the impact was sickeningly soft, the kind of thing that happened when steel hit flesh, and her sister’s response was to cover her eyes and tuck in her knees.
Not helpful considering Posie was the one with the access to the brake pedal. But also completely in character.
The station wagon, being an inanimate object set into motion, had no brain of its own, but plenty of motivation from the sixty-two miles an hour they’d been going. As such, the old Volvo went bucking bronco as they left the rural byway, its stiff, cumbersome body heaving into a series of hill-and-dale dance moves that had Nyx hitting her head on the padded roof even though she was belted in.
The headlights strobed what was in front of the car, the beams point-and-shooting in whatever direction and angle the front grille hap-pened to be thrown in. For the most part, there was just a leafy morass of bushes, the green, spongy territory a far better outcome than she would have predicted.
That all changed.
Like a creature rising out of the depths of a lake, something brown, thick, and vertical was teased in the verdant light show, disappearing and reappearing as the shafts of illumination willy’d-their-nilly around.
Oh, shit. It was a tree. And not only was the arboreal hard-stop an immovable object, it was as if a steel crank-chain ran between its thick trunk and the undercarriage of the station wagon.
If you’d steered for a collision course, you couldn’t have done a better job.
Inevitable covered it.
Nyx’s only thought was for her sister. Posie was braced in the driv-er’s seat, her arms straight out, fingers splayed, like she was going to try to push the tree away—
The impact was like being punched all over the body, and there must have been a crunch of metal meeting wood, but with the airbags deploy-ing and the ringing in Nyx’s ears, she couldn’t hear much. Couldn’t breathe well. Couldn’t seem to see.
Hissing. Dripping. Burned rubber and something chemical.
Someone was coughing. Her? She couldn’t be sure.
“Posie?”
“I’m okay, I’m okay . . .”
Nyx rubbed her stinging eyes and coughed. Fumbling for the door, she popped the release and shoved hard against some kind of resistance. “I’m coming around to help you.”
Assuming she could get out of the damn car.
Putting her shoulder into the effort, she forced the door through something fluffy and green, and the payback was that the bush barged in, expanding into the car like a dog that wanted to sniff around.
She fell out of her seat and rolled onto the scruff. All-four’ing it for a spell, she managed to get up on to her feet and steady herself on the roof as she went around to the driver’s side. Peeling open Posie’s door, she released the seat belt.
“I got you,” she grunted as she dragged her sister out.
Propping Posie against the car, she cleared the blond hair back from those soft features. No blood. No glass in the perfect skin. Nose was still straight as a pin.
“You’re okay,” Nyx announced.
“What about the deer?”
Nyx kept the curses to herself. They were about ten miles from home, and what mattered was whether the car was drivable. No offense to Mother Nature and animal-lovers anywhere, but that four-legged scourge of the interstate was low on her list of priorities.
Stumbling to the front, she shook her head at the damage. A good two feet of the hood—and, therefore, engine—was compressed around a trunk that had all the flexibility of an I beam, and she was hardly an automotive expert, but that had to be incompatible with vroom-vroom, home safe.
“Shit,” she breathed.
“What about the deer?”
Closing her eyes, she reminded herself about the birth order. She was the older, responsible one, black-haired and brusque like their father had been. Posie was the blond, good-hearted youngest, who had all the warmth and sunny nature that their mahmen had possessed.
And the middle?
She couldn’t go down the Janelle rabbit hole right now.
Back over at her open door, Nyx leaned in and moved the deflated airbag out of the way. Where was her phone? She’d put it in a cupholder after she’d texted their grandfather as they’d left Hannaford. Great. Nowhere to be found—
“Thank God.”
Bracing her hand on the seat, she went down into the wheel well. And got a palm full of bad news.
The screen was cracked and the unit dark. When she tried to fire the thing up, it was a no go. Straightening, she looked over the ruined hood. “Posie, where is your—”
“What?” Her sister was focused on the road that was a good fifty yards away, her stick-straight hair tangled down her back. “Huh?”
“Your phone. Where is it?”
Posie glanced over her shoulder. “I left it at home. You had yours, so I just, you know.”
“You need to dematerialize back to the farmhouse. Tell grandfather to bring the tow truck and-”
“I’m not leaving here until we take care of that deer.”
“Posie, there are too many humans around here and—”
“It’s suffering!” Tears glistened. “And just because it’s an animal doesn’t mean its life doesn’t matter.”
“Fuck the deer.” Nyx glared across the steaming mess. “We need to solve this problem now—”
“I’m not leaving until—”
“—because we have two hundred dollars of groceries melting in the back. We can’t afford to lose a week’s worth of—”
“—we take care of that poor animal.”
Nyx swung her eyes away from her sister, the crash, the crap she had to fix so goddamn Posie could continue to give her heart out to the world and worry about things other than how to pay the rent, keep food on the table, and make sure they had such exotic luxuries as electricity and running water.
When she trusted herself to look back without hurling a bunch of be-practical f-bombs at her fricking sister, she saw absolutely no change in Posie’s resolve. And this was the problem. A sweet nature, yes. That annoying, bleeding-heart, emphatic bullcrap, yes. Iron will? When it came it down to it, boatloads.
That female was not budging on the deer thing.
Nyx threw up her hands and cursed—loudly.
Back in the car. Opening the glove box. Taking out the nine milli-meter handgun she kept there for emergencies.
As she came around the rear of the station wagon, she eyed the re-usable grocery bags. They were crammed up against the bench seat as a result of the crash, and it was a good news/bad news situation. Any-thing breakable was done for, but at least the cold items were clois-tered together, united in a fight against the eighty-degree August night.
“Oh, thank you, Nyx.” Posie clasped her hands under her chin like she was doing a devotional. “We’ll help the—wait, what are you doing with the gun?”
Nyx didn’t stop as she passed by, so Posie grabbed her arm. “Why do you have the gun?”
“What do you think I’m going to do to the damn thing? Give it CPR?”
“No! We need to help it—”
Nyx put her face into her sister’s and spoke in a dead tone. “If it’s suffering, I’m going to put it down. It’s the right thing to do. That is the way I will help that animal.”
Posie’s hands went to her face, pressing into cheeks that had gone pale. “It’s my fault. I hit the deer.”
“It was an accident.” Nyx turned her sister around to face the station wagon. “Stay here and don’t look. I’ll take care of it.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt the—”
“You’re the last person on the planet who’d intentionally hurt any-thing. Now stay the hell here.”
The sound of Posie softly crying escorted Nyx back toward the road. Following the tire gouges in the dirt and the ruined foliage, she found the deer about fifteen feet away from where they’d veered off—
Nyx stopped dead in her tracks. Blinked a couple of times. Considered vomiting.
It wasn’t a deer.
Those were arms. And legs. Thin ones, granted, and covered with mud-colored clothes that were in rags. But nothing about what had been struck was animal in nature. Worse? The scent of the blood that had been spilled was not human.
It was a vampire.
They’d hit one of their own.
Nyx ran over to the body, put the gun away, and knelt down. “Are you okay?”
Dumbass question. But the sound of her voice roused the injured, a horrific and horrified face turning up to her.
It was a male. A pretrans male. And oh, God, the whites of both his eyes had gone red, although she couldn’t tell whether it was because of the blood running down his face or some kind of internal brain injury. What was clear? He was dying.
“Help . . . me . . .” The thin reedy voice was, interrupted by weak coughing. “Out of . . . prison . . . hide me . . .”
“Nyx?” Posie called out. “What’s happening?”
For a split second, Nyx couldn’t think. No, that was a lie. She was thinking, just not about the car, the groceries, the kid who was dying, or her hysterical sister.
“Where,” Nyx said urgently. “Where’s the camp?”
Maybe after all these years . . . she could find out where Janelle had been taken.
This had to be Fate.

 

 

FOLLOW: Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads / Website/

J.R. Ward is the author of more than thirty novels, including those in her #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series. There are more than fifteen million copies of her novels in print worldwide, and they have been published in twenty-six different countries around the world. She lives in the South with her family.

Don’t forget to sign-up for exclusive Black Dagger Brotherhood original content:
HERE

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THE SINNER (Black Dagger Brotherhood #19) by JR Ward-a review

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THE SINNER (Black Dagger Brotherhood #19) by JR Ward-a review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

About the book: Release Date March 24, 2020

Syn has kept his side hustle as a mercenary a secret from the Black Dagger Brotherhood. When he takes another hit job, he not only crosses the path of the vampire race’s new enemy, but also that of a half-breed in danger of dying during her transition. Jo Early has no idea what her true nature is, and when a mysterious man appears out of the darkness, she is torn between their erotic connection and the sense that something is very wrong.

Fate anointed Butch O’Neal as the Dhestroyer, the fulfiller of the prophecy that foresees the end of the Omega. As the war with the Lessening Society comes to a head, Butch gets an unexpected ally in Syn. But can he trust the male—or is the warrior with the bad past a deadly complication?

With time running out, Jo gets swept up in the fighting and must join with Syn and the Brotherhood against true evil. In the end, will love true prevail…or was the prophecy wrong all along?

••••••••

REVIEW: THE SINNER is the nineteenth instalment in JR Ward’s contemporary, adult BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD paranormal, romance series. This is Band of Bastards mercenary and vampire Syn, and journalist Jo Early’s story line. THE SINNER can be read as a stand alone but I recommend reading the series in order for back story and history as THE SINNER ends this particular arc of the series.

Told from several third person perspectives including but not limited to Syn, Jo, Butch and Devina, THE SINNER follows several paths -the building relationship between Syn and Jo; Butch’s destiny as The Dhestroyer; the reappearance of Devina and the revelation of her true identiy, and the inevitable end of the war with the Omega but the beginning of another.

Journalist Jo Early has been investigating the paranormal including the possibility of dragons and vampires but our heroine never expected to come face to face with a man who may or may not have been sent to kill her. As well as investigating the supernatural, Jo begins looking into a series of brutal killings that are linked to the mob, an investigation that places Jo in the direct line of fire. Syn considers himself a mercenary for hire. Working with the Brotherhood, as well as taking side jobs in an effort to quell his need to kill, Syn finds himself facing his future when a half-breed vampire, just entering her transition, is Syn’s fated mate. What ensues is the building but heart breaking relationship between Jo and Syn, and the potential fall-out when secrets and lies are revealed.

Meanwhile, Brian ‘Butch’ O’Neal aka the Dhestroyer knows his destiny to take down the Omega is about to come to fruition. Believing he will meet his maker, Butch struggles knowing he may not survive the upcoming battle, a battle meant to end the war.

The relationship between Jo and Syn struggles in the face of preconceived notions and Syn’s battle with the demons from his past. Jo suspects Syn is one of the mythical vampires but has no idea that her fate is in the hands of the BDB.

THE SINNER is a detailed and complex story line that ends this particular arc of the series, and sets the stage for the next. As the Band of Bastards begin to find their own happily ever afters, a promise of war is on the horizon, a promise that comes with a surprising revelation. The reader learns about Jo Early’s heritage and her connections to the BDB. We are witness to the Dhestroyer’s purpose, and the end of the Omega. The premise is entertaining and edgy; the characters are broken but spirited; the romance is tense and not without some issues including secrets and lies.

Copy supplied by the publisher

Reviewed by Sandy

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Where Winter Finds You by J.R Ward-Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

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Where Winter Finds You by J.R Ward-Review , Excerpt and  Giveaway

WHERE WINTER FINDS YOU
Black Dagger Brotherhood 17.5
by JR Ward
Release Date: November 26, 2019
Genre: adult, contemporary, paranormal

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 26, 2019

#1 New York Times bestselling author J.R. Ward is heating things up this winter with a holiday novel featuring some of her most iconic Black Dagger Brothers.

When Trez lost his beloved to a tragic death (The Shadows, Black Dagger Brotherhood #13), his soul was crushed and his destiny seemed relegated to suffering. But when he meets a mysterious female, he becomes convinced his true love has been reincarnated. Is he right? Or has his grief created a disastrous delusion?

Therese has come to Caldwell to escape a rift with her bloodline. The revelation that she was adopted and not born into her family shakes the foundations of her identity, and she is determined to make it on her own. Her attraction to Trez is not what she’s looking for, except the sexy Shadow proves to be undeniable.

Has fate provided a grieving widower with a second chance…or is Trez too blinded by the past to see the present for what it really is? In this sensual, arresting book full of the themes of redemption and self-discovery, two lost souls find themselves at a crossroads where the heart is the only compass that can be trusted…but that may require a courage that neither of them possesses.

•••••••••

REVIEW:WHERE WINTER FINDS YOU is the 17.5 instalment in J.R. Ward’s contemporary, adult BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD paranormal, romance series. This is Shadow Trez Latimer, and Therese’s story line. WHERE WINTER FINDS YOU can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty but I recommend reading THE SHADOWS book 13 for Trez’s backstory and history.

WARNING: If you have not read book 13 THE SHADOWS, there may be some spoilers in my review.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Trez and Therese) WHERE WINTER FINDS YOU follows Shadow Trez Latimer as he struggles to go forward without the woman he loves. Months earlier Trez’s ‘shellan’ (mate) Selena, one of the Chosen, succumbed to a rare disease of her kind, known as the Arrest. Fast forward to present day wherein, with the approach of the Christian human holiday Christmas, Trez battles not to join his shellan in the fade but if not for a female vampire called Therese, whose likeness to Selena gave Trez, and everyone pause. What ensues is the building relationship between Therese and Trez, and the potential fall-out as Trez continues to struggle with the loss of Selena.

Therese, a female vampire, struggles with her past. Discovering she was adopted, Therese felt compelled to come to Caldwell, New York, in an effort to move on with her life, such as it is. Everyone she meets is shocked at her appearance, and if not for Trez Latimer, Therese would not be alive today. Trez Latimer, one of the rare Shadow vampires, finds himself battling between head and heart as it pertains to the woman that looks identical to his beloved shellan. With his brother iAm warning him about the potential for another heart break, Trez begins a slow seduction of our story line heroine, a seduction that brings with it too many memories of the past.

The relationship between Trez and Therese is one of instant attraction but Therese is unaware of her uncanny likeness to Trez’ former shellan. Nights of dreaming about her mysterious shadow man finds Therese realizing that perhaps, her dreams are more memories than anything else. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

The colorful secondary and supporting characters include Trez’ brother iAm, as well was iAm’s shellan; symphaths Rehvenge and Zhex; as well as several members of the BDB; Bitty, Fritz; Therese’ parents Larisse and Rosengareth, and her brother Gareth; and of course, the ever present Lassiter; and Therese’s co-workers Emile and Liza.

WHERE WINTER FINDS YOU is a story of family, heartache, grief and loss; struggle, depression, second chances and hope; a story of love transcending pain and loss, sadness and time. The premise is engaging and emotional; the characters are numerous, colorful and energetic; the romance is seductive and captivating- wrap yourself up in a cozy blanket for a long winter’s night.

Copy supplied by the publisher

Reviewed by Sandy

_______________

THE SAVIOR
(Black Dagger Brotherhood #17)
by J.R. Ward
Genre: adult, contemporary, paranormal, romance

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 2, 2019

In the venerable history of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, only one male has ever been expelled—but Murhder’s insanity gave the Brothers no choice. Haunted by visions of a female he could not save, he nonetheless returns to Caldwell on a mission to right the wrong that ruined him. However, he is not prepared for what he must face in his quest for redemption.

Dr. Sarah Watkins, researcher at a biomedical firm, is struggling with the loss of her fellow scientist fiancé. When the FBI starts asking about his death, she questions what really happened and soon learns the terrible truth: Her firm is conducting inhumane experiments in secret and the man she thought she knew and loved was involved in the torture.

As Murhder and Sarah’s destinies become irrevocably entwined, desire ignites between them. But can they forge a future that spans the divide separating the two species? And as a new foe emerges in the war against the vampires, will Murhder return to his Brothers… or resume his lonely existence forevermore?

•••••••••••

REVIEW: THE SAVIOR is the seventeenth full-length instalment in JR Ward’s contemporary, adult BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD paranormal, romance series focusing on an elite group of vampire warriors known as the Black Dagger Brotherhood. This is Murhder, son of Murhder, and Dr. Sarah Watkins’ story line. THE SAVIOR can be read as a stand alone but for backstory and history, I recommend reading the series in order.

Told from several third person perspectives including Murhder and Sarah THE SAVIOR follows human molecular geneticist Dr. Sarah Watkins’ in the aftermath of discovering the people she works for at BioMed Research have been conducting illegal, immoral and unethical experiments. With the FBI questioning the death of her fiance, Sarah will begin an investigation of her own only to discover not all is right at BioMed Research. Attempting to rescue, what she believes, is a young boy, Sarah will come face to face with her future. Enter vampire warrior Murhder, and the male with whom Sarah will fall in love. What ensues is the building relationship and romance between Murhder and Sarah, and the potential fall-out as Murhder’s past, and his strained relationship with the Black Dagger Brotherhood, force Sarah out of Murhder’s life, and Murhder away from the only ‘brothers’ he has ever loved.

Murhder’s story has been building throughout the series. The reader was first introduced to Murhder as part of Xhex’s past. Believing he had gone insane, Murhder was kicked out of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, only to return twenty years later, desperate to locate a female he failed to save years before. But be aware, if you are looking for a ‘big bad’ you won’t find it in The Savior-our hero is a savior-an avenger-a male of worth.

Meanwhile, John Matthew and Xhex’s relationship is strained with the arrival of Xhex’s former lover Murhder. Believing he has lost his shellan to her former love, John Matthew goes rogue risking not only his life when he tangles with one of Throe’s shadows, but any chance for Murhder to return to the Brotherhood. Speaking of the ‘shadows’, Throe’s dabble into the ‘black arts’ threatens the BDB when they are unable to destroy that which they do not understand.

There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including all of the previous story line couples, their growing families, Fritz, Havers, Rehvenge, Lassiter, and newly transitioned vampire Nate.

THE SAVIOR is a story of betrayal, revenge, acceptance and love. We are witness to the backstory that pushed our hero into a murderous rage, and the resulting expulsion from the Brotherhood he desperately loved. The premise is engaging and captivating;the characters are numerous, energetic and determined-another vampire will be accepted into the Brotherhood; the attraction between Murhder and Sarah is immediate; our heroine is quick to accept the existence of vampires; the romance is passionate and heart breaking.

Own a copy

Reviewed by Sandy 

NOTE: The excerpt is intended for mature readers due to strong language and content

 

“Holy f–k,” Trez yelled as a semitrailer truck the size of a building went blasting past the front bumper of his brand-new BMW.
Like right past. Like . . . nearly peeling off the hood of the damned car.
As his four-wheel drive, heavily treaded snow tires abruptly grabbed at that which they had been spinning on, and a pedestrian who’d slipped suddenly righted himself out of the way of the truck, Trez decided that the definition of in-the-nick-of time was exactly what just happened. If he’d been able to go when the light had turned, if that pedestrian hadn’t caught himself just when he had, they would both have been filing their termination papers tonight.
Because about a split second prior to the almost catastrophe going down, Trez had been debating whether or not to just drive on. And not merely through the intersection.
Having spent two decades in Caldwell, watching with his Shadow eyes the way a couple generations of humans built up the city, he knew exactly where this particular street in this particular section of town ended up.
At the Hudson River.
So if he hit the gas and kept on a direct, no wavering course until the street ended, he could take a Fast & Furious jump off the concrete embankment under one of Caldie’s two bridges. The BMW would not last long in the free fall, the sleek car having been built to fly over asphalt, not literally fly, and soon enough, both he and all this expensive steel, leather, and plastic would be sinking beneath the cold, sluggish waters of the Hudson.
As his eyes had flashed peridot, his brain had imagined what it would be like. At first, the water would infiltrate through seams and vents, a trickle, not a rush. But that would change as he used the last of the electrical system’s power to lower the windows. After that, he would sit and wait for his drowning to take place, probably with his hands still on the wheel, maybe not, his seat belt remaining pulled across his chest, his clothes dampening and then clinging to his warm body with the clammy touch of the corpse he would soon become.
He would not struggle. He would keep his eyes open. He imagined himself feeling a calmness that had been missing since all the light in his world went out in that hospital room about twenty miles, and some distance underground, away from where he himself would die. He would be so relieved. Even as the water reached his throat, then proceeded over his mouth and into his nose and ears, even as his body temperature tried to rally against the icy submersion and failed to conserve any warmth, even as his air supply dwindled to that which was in his lungs and no more, he would be at peace.
The death throes, when they came—and they would, for his body was, as all were, evolutionarily adapted for survival, the conscious mind in charge only up to a dire point, whereupon autonomic function took over and things went haywire—would thrash him about in the bucket seat, throwing his head forward and back, his mouth opening and drawing in water as a reflex, as a desperate hope that his lungs were merely being denied oxygen as opposed to there being none available to them. He was under no illusions that it would be easy. There would be suffering from the suffocation, burning inside his body, perhaps even some last-moment panic kicked over his mortal transom by the lizard part of his brain.
But then it would be over. Done with. The whole miserable biological accident of his life dusted, in the bin, over and out.
A void, and nothing more.
Which was heretical.
As a Shadow, he had been raised in a slightly different belief system than regular vampires. His people, an evolutionary extension within the fanged species, relied a great deal on the stars in the sky, the traditions of the s’Hisbe a variant of what was accepted as the way the afterlife worked. The core tenets, however, were the same for both. It was like Protestants and Catholics—same essential language, but different dialects—and as such, his kind, too, had the theory that after you died, you went up unto the Fade, and lived out eternity with your loved ones under the benevolent auspices of the Scribe Virgin. Assuming you hadn’t been a total douche down on earth. If you had been an asshole, you were relegated to Dhunhd, also known as Hell, which was where the Omega and his minions hung out. Either way, your conduct over the course of your mortal nights determined your final zip code, and there was something after your last breath to look forward to—or dread—depending on your worthiness.
It was an okay theory, and a construct that he understood was, in its own fashion, to be found on the human side of things as well. Not the Fade or Dhunhd, perhaps, not the Scribe Virgin or the Omega, exactly, but rather other, similar belief systems that covered both how you treated yourself and others while you were mortal, and also considered what happened to you after your coil, so to speak, got popped. Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and countless other religions, they were all efforts to give more of a vista after death than just a coffin and a grave. Or a pyre.
He knew from pyres.
God, did he ever.
What he no longer knew from, however, what he no longer believed in, was all the rest of that stuff. He’d never been particularly spiritual, but man, you didn’t know how much you had been until you were not any longer.
At all.
Anyway, prior to the whole truck/intersection/ almost-obliteration thing, he had been considering what was not exactly a sin, but rather a really, very not-so-hot idea. Assuming you were a believer. In the lexicon of both vampires and Shadows, if you took your own life, that was it. No Fade for you, motherfucker. Now, no one had been able to provide him with a good explanation of what the alternative repercussions were—sure, lore had it you were closed-door’d on the whole Fade thing. But where did you end up? Dhunhd? Worm food? Who knew. Yet everyone and their uncle was damn clear on the fact that you weren’t going to be elbows deep in people you liked for the next jabillion years.
The message apparently being, if you took your own life, well, then, to hell with you if you didn’t appreciate the gift you were given at birth.
Yeah, like this whole breathing/heart-beating thing had been such a fucking prize, these years he’d been upright and walking around such a goddamn joy. He’d been destined for a loveless mating since the night he was born, been responsible for the senseless suffering of both his parents, watched a dear friend get tortured by a psychotic cunt for a good twenty years—that was fun—been a pimp, a drug dealer, and an enforcer.
Real partridge-in-a-pear-tree shit.
And then that heaping sundae of shit-chip ice cream—which he’d self-medicated with an outstanding sex addiction, thank you very much—had been cherry-topped by the granddaddy of all gutwrenchers.
He’d met the female of his dreams, fallen in love . . . and, after what felt like twenty minutes of happiness, had had to hold her hand as she died of a wasting disease right in front of him.
Honestly, he hadn’t just been born under a bad star; he’d been born under one that kicked him in the nuts so badly, he’d coughed them out in his hand.
So now he was here, in this BMW he’d just bought, on this snowy night, during the motherfucking human season of cocksucking joy, contemplating suicide—only to have the GODDAMN ACCIDENT THAT COULD HAVE MADE IT ALL COME OUT ALL RIGHT DENIED TO HIM BY A SET OF ALL-SEASON RADIALS THAT HAD WORKED JUST FINE AT EVERY OTHER FUCKING INTERSECTION HE’D EVER DRIVEN THROUGH.
Not to put too fine a point on things.
But FFS, he couldn’t even have a chance to get dead in such a way that he could both end this bullshit AND not run afoul of the maybe truth that suicide got you, literally, nowhere.
Not that he believed in the afterlife anymore anyway. No matter what he’d thought he’d seen after Selena had died.
Hell, if there was anything that the last three months had taught him, it was that death was a hard stop. Especially if you were the one left behind.
Well, Trez thought, as he sped along in the snow, at least there was still the embankment option.
There was that to look forward to.


 

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J.R. Ward is the author of more than thirty novels, including those in her #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series. There are more than fifteen million copies of her novels in print worldwide, and they have been published in twenty-six different countries around the world. She lives in the South with her family.

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JR Ward’s publisher SIMON AND SCHUSTER is offering one mass market paper back copy  of WHERE WINTER FINDS YOU to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe:

1. If you have not previously registered at The Reading Cafe, please register by using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

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10. Giveaway runs from November 27 to December 2, 2019

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BLOOD TRUTH (Black Dagger Legacy #4) by JR Ward- a review

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BLOOD TRUTH (Black Dagger Legacy #4) by JR Ward-a review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 13, 2019

As a trainee in the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s program, Boone has triumphed as a soldier and now fights side by side with the Brothers. Following his sire’s unexpected death, he is taken off rotation against his protests—and he finds himself working with Butch O’Neal, former homicide cop, to catch a serial killer: Someone is targeting females of the species at a live action role play club. When the Brotherhood is called in to help, Boone insists on being a part of the effort—and the last thing he expects is to meet an enticing, mysterious female…who changes his life forever.

Ever since her sister was murdered at the club, Helania has been committed to finding the killer, no matter the danger she faces. When she crosses paths with Boone, she doesn’t know whether to trust him or not—and then she has no choice. As she herself becomes a target, and someone close to the Brotherhood is identified as the prime suspect, the two must work to together to solve the mystery…before it’s too late. Will a madman come between the lovers or will true love and goodness triumph over a very mortal evil?

••••••••

REVIEW: BLOOD TRUTH is the fourth instalment in JR Ward’s contemporary, adult BLACK DAGGER LEGACY paranormal, romance series focusing on an elite group of warriors in training. This is Rexboone ‘Boone’ son of Altamere, and Helania’s story line. BLOOD TRUTH can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary. The Black Dagger Legacy Series is a spin-off from, and runs parallel to the author’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Several characters cross-over for cohesion and history.

Told from several third person perspectives including Boone and Helania, BLOOD TRUTH follows the search for a killer; a possible serial killer who is targeting young, female vampires at an underground club (Pyre’s Revyval) catering to vampire wanna-bes. An anonymous phone call to the Black Dagger Brotherhood pulls Boone into his first murder assignment, an assignment that brings our hero face to face with his fated mate. Enter Helania, a vampire female who is searching for person who killed her only sister. What ensues is the building relationship between Helania and Boone, and the potential fall-out as the killer is closer than anyone could have imagined.

Boone knows loss having suffered his mother’s mysterious death, and the recent murder of his sire but meeting Helania stirs something within Boone he could never have imagined, something that would bring our couple closer together towards their own happily ever after. Helania has struggled in the eight months since her sister’s murder. Desperate to learn the truth, Helania goes ‘undercover’ at the local club in search of the person responsible for destroying her life.

Meanwhile, Boone’s life at home spirals out of control when a number of the Glymera (rich and powerful vampires) are murdered including the man he has come to call father. As Boone prepares to send his father into the ‘Fade’, our hero will discover that his father kept many secrets, secrets that are about to be revealed.

The relationship between Boone and Helania is one of immediate attraction but Helania becomes a suspect when Butch O’Neal’s experience as a detective tells him Helania knows more than she is willing to reveal. Protective of the female he will come to call mate, Boone’s need to bond will be overridden by Helania’s need to remain independent and strong. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large and familiar ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including several members of the Black Dagger Brotherhood (Wrath, Butch, Tohr, V, Rhage, Dr. Havers, Doc Jane, Saxton) as well as the ever popular doggen Fritz; BoB’s Zypher, Syn and Balthazar; the re-appearance of Boone’s fellow trainees, as well as Boone’s friend Rochelle; his father Altamere, and the numerous members of the Altamere household including his father’s butler Marquist.

BLOOD TRUTH is a story of betrayal, revenge, family and blood. Secrets are revealed; vengeance takes aim at the innocent and young. The premise is engaging, entertaining and energetic: the romance is seductive and intense; the characters are familiar, dynamic, and colorful.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Blood Kiss
Blood Vow
Blood Fury
Blood Truth

Copy supplied by the publisher

Reviewed by Sandy

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Prisoner of Night (Black Dagger Brotherhood 16.5) by J.R. Ward-a review

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PRISONER OF NIGHT (Black Dagger Brotherhood #16.5) by J.R. Ward-a review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 7, 2019

From #1 New York Times bestselling author J.R. Ward comes an unforgettable story of passion and vengeance in the Black Dagger Brotherhood world.

When Ahmare’s brother is abducted, there is nothing she won’t do to get him back safely. She is unprepared, however, for the lengths she will have to go to save his life. Paired with a dangerous but enticing prisoner, she embarks on an odyssey into another world.

Duran, betrayed by his father, imprisoned in a dungeon for decades, has survived only because of his thirst for vengeance. He has been biding his time to escape and is shocked to find an unlikely and temporary freedom in the form of a determined young female.

Battling against deadly forces and facing unforeseen peril, the pair are in a race to save Ahmare’s brother. As time runs out, and the unthinkable looms, even true love may not be enough to carry them through.

••••••••

REVIEW: PRISONER OF THE NIGHT by J.R. Ward is a stand alone, contemporary, adult, paranormal, romance story line in the world of the author’s Black Dagger Brotherhood. This is vampires Ahmare and Duran’s story line. PRISONER OF NIGHT can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty.

NOTE: PRISONER OF NIGHT contains scenes of graphic torture and violence that may not be suitable for all readers.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Ahmar and Duran) PRISONER OF NIGHT follows female vampire Ahmare as she barters for the release of her brother Ahlan, imprisoned by warlord Chalen the Conqueror. Demanding payment and services for her brother’s release Chalen sends Ahmare on two quests: to bring back the severed head of a local drug dealer; and to find and return Chalen’s ‘beloved’. Enter Duran, another vampire prisoner of Chalen the Conqueror, and the man with whom Ahmare will fall in love. What ensues is the journey across country for Ahmare and Duran; the building relationship and love between our leading couple, and the potential fall-out as Duran sets out on a quest of his own to destroy the man that destroyed everyone he loved.

Duran knows where Chalen’s beloved is kept but the journey to freedom brings back too many memories of the past, a past that imprisoned our hero for over twenty –one years enduring torture and abuse at the hands of Chalen the Conqueror. Ahmare is desperate to negotiate her brother’s release but working with Duran finds our heroine falling for a man who is willing to sacrifice himself for the ultimate goal.

PRISONER OF NIGHT focuses on never-before mentioned side-characters of J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, characters with no connection to the main series but characters whose lives, like the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s, are affected by torture, pain and abuse, with the added benefit of a ‘religious cult’, previously unknown to the Scribe Virgin and Wrath the King.

We are introduced to Ahmare’s long suffering brother Ahlan; Chalen the Conqueror; Duran’s friend Nexi, and Duran’s father Excalduran.

PRISONER OF NIGHT is a tale of survival, dedication, vengeance and love. The premise is heart breaking, emotional and raw; the characters are broken, determined and lost; the romance is passionate and intense, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

Copy supplied by the publisher

Reviewed by Sandy

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The Wedding From Hell, Part 1: The Rehearsal Dinner (Firefighters .5) by JR Ward-a review

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THE WEDDING FROM HELL, Part 1: The Rehearsal Dinner (Firefighters .5) by JR Ward-a review

FREE ebook: Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

Release Date: July 17, 2018

Are you ready for The Wedding From Hell?

Dear Reader,
It’s a classic recipe for disaster: Take one bridesmaid who thinks pink is the root of all evil. Mix with a best man who’s hotter than a four-alarm fire. Add in their explosive sexual attraction, a nightmare bridezilla, two catfights, and an emergency call, and you have the wedding from hell! Come get to know Anne and Danny, the hero and heroine of Consumed, and see their relationship go from friends with innuendo to holy-&*#-did-that-just-happen?! Is this the start of something good for them? Or just an erotic one-night stand that rocks them both but is never to be repeated? Only their hearts know the answer to that, much as their minds might disagree.

Happy Reading,
J.R. Ward

•••••••••••

REVIEW: THE WEDDING FROM HELL Part 1: The Rehearsal Dinner is the introductory novella in JR Ward’s contemporary, adult FIREFIGHTERS series focusing on the men and women who work and breathe at the 499 firehouse in New Brunswick, Massachusetts. This is fire fighters Anne Ashburn, and Danny Maguire’s story line.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Anne and Danny) THE WEDDING FROM HELL, Part 1: The Rehearsal Dinner reveals the friendships and camaraderie between the member of the 499, as well as the building sexual tension between fire fighters Anne Ashburn, and Danny Maguire. With the impending wedding of fellow fighter Robert ‘Moose’ Miller to his bridezilla Deandra Cox, the members of the 499 embark on a night of fun that spirals out of control when a very inebriated groom disappears, and Anne and Danny find themselves involved in a knife fight between a pimp, a prostitute and the man that she loves. As the palpable sexual tension continues to grow between Anne and Danny, Danny’s past pushes at something more.

THE WEDDING FROM HELL, Part 1: The Rehearsal Dinner is a very quick read; a short, revealing and intriguing novella that introduces the men and women of the 499. A strong start to what promises to be another fantastic series by the amazing JR Ward.

Own a copy

Reviewed by Sandy

THE WEDDING FROM HELL, Part 2: The Reception (Firegighters)

Release Date: August 7, 2018

Preorder: FREE ebook: Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / Google Play

The Wedding from Hell, Part 2: The Rehearsal Dinner is the exciting second adventure in J.R. Ward’s three-part ebook serialization: The Wedding From Hell. This exclusive prequel to her upcoming standalone suspense, Consumed (available in October 2018) takes us to where it all started between arson investigator Anne Ashburn and ‘bad boy’ firefighter Danny Maguire. The Wedding From Hell is a sexy standalone novella that sets up Consumed’s storyline, leaving fans hungry for more and dying to snatch it up.

The Wedding From Hell, Part 2: The Reception: As the wedding from hell continues, Anne and Danny find themselves walking the delicate balance between professional distance and explosive attraction. Will the desire they feel last through the night and change their lives? Or are they doomed to part after one night of passion?

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THE WEDDING FROM HELL, Part 3: Exclusive Excerpt of Consumed

Release Date: August 28,2018

Preorder: FREE ebook Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / Google Play

The Wedding from Hell, Part 3: Exclusive Excerpt of Consumed is the final part of J.R. Ward’s The Wedding From Hell ebook serialization. Don’t miss this exclusive teaser to her upcoming standalone suspense, Consumed (available in October 2018).

From the creator of the #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series, get ready for a new band of brothers. And a firestorm.

Anne Ashburn is a woman consumed…

By her bitter family legacy, by her scorched career as a firefighter, by her obsession with department bad-boy Danny McGuire, and by a new case that pits her against a fiery killer.

Strong-willed Anne was fearless and loved the thrill of fighting fires, pushing herself to be the best. But when one risky decision at a warehouse blaze changes her life forever, Anne must reinvent not only her job, but her whole self.

Shattered and demoralized, Anne finds her new career as an arson investigator a pale substitute for the adrenaline-fueled life she left behind. She doesn’t believe she will ever feel that same all-consuming passion for her job again—until she encounters a string of suspicious fires setting her beloved city ablaze.

Danny McGuire is a premiere fireman, best in the commonwealth, but in the midst of a personal meltdown. Danny is taking risks like never before and seems to have a death wish until he teams up with Anne to find the fire starter. But Danny may be more than a distraction, and as Anne narrows in on her target, the arsonist begins to target her.

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