Yesterday was Lover Revealed day at our house. I spent the entire day camped out on the couch reading, even at the expense of my poor child. I knew he wasn't feeling right when he didn't ask to go outside to play, when he kept climbing up on my lap and leaning against me looking for snuggles, when he projectile vomited across the living room. With the help of the hubby we got the child and the living room cleaned up, the poor baby tucked into bed and I went back to reading. I read while I was cooking and finished the book around 9:00 last night.Can you tell I was totally into the story?
There are synopses all over the place, so I'm not going to rehash the story, the whole damned thing is too complicated, and besides I'm lousy at the rehashing thing anyway.
What didn't bother me:
I'm probably the only reader in romance land that didn't notice the brand dropping. Okay that's not true I noticed, and ignored it. But I thought Ms. Ward did a good job cutting back on the "My Brother" and "shitkicker" references, much less this book. And as to a good deal of the pop culture references--anything rap related went over my head, and nothing else really bothered me with the exception of the expression "Me bad" hate that no matter who uses it.
What I liked:
Marissa--she evolves and grows tremendously throughout the story. Ward does a great job with this.
John--the growing relationship between John and a couple of his classmates and especially Z is being handled very nicely, it's part of the overall Brotherhood story arc. Loved the scene where he's watching Bella and Z playing chase.
Vishous--he's got so much to deal with, jealousy, friendships, loneliness.
The interplay between non Brotherhood characters is interesting. Rhevenge, Havers, Lash and even the Lessers all add different dimensions and layering to the story. I like this, it's not simply a story about Marissa and Butch.
What I didn't like:
Did anyone notice that at times Ward is telling parts of the story without showing them? I hate this, I hate when any author does this.
I didn't like that Marissa backed away from Butch when she realized he would be spending his life in harms way. And that it requires a conversation with the "girls" to straighten her out. It was an added conflict in a story that didn't need anymore.
What I'm vacillating about:
Hmm, I've not really mentioned much about Butch. I can't decided whether or not I love or hate where the story took him. On one hand it makes everything easier and it was fascinating to watch him deal with his fear of becoming evil, that by taking in the Lessers will he lose his humanity more and more, his need for V's help to heal after these encounters. His transformation and change was interesting reading, the ritual bringing him into the Brotherhood was both interesting and bizarre.
But didn't it just seem too pat? Too easy to make him one rather than have him and Marissa and the Brotherhood deal with their differences and work within them.
Ms. Ward certainly can tell a good story. Even when it's not perfect it's still a great ride.
So is the name Jane/Janie a co-incidence or is V's girl going to be Butch's "dead" sister?
21 comments:
Hmm. Haven't bought this one yet, but I think I will. Your thoughts are very succinct & helpful (as per usual!). Hope the boy is feeling better.
Amanda, I'm not so sure how succinct, the story is so complicated that my thoughts are at times completely convoluted--LOL. The child wasn't throwing up this morning--I sent him to school, I'm just waiting for the call, so I can ask myself "What the hell were you thinking?"
I agreed with almost everything here. Honestly I don't notice the brand dropping anymore along with being omg about the names...
I expect it.
The name thing with the sister! I completely notice. But it was brought up in the Q&A - she said interesting idea but no.
Sybil, I expect it. That's just it, I was surprised by how many people this is still annoying :)
So what didn't you agree with?
..she said interesting idea but no. well, I'm still not convinced, guess I'll have to wait until the next ones out.
The Jane/Janie thing? I agree TM I'm not convinced either.
I read this in almost a day as well. I thought both Butch and Marisa needed a head knocking a couple of times.
The name branding doesn't bother me but the immaturity of the characters does sometimes. After living for so long don't you think they'd have some insights?
While not my fave in the series there was enough there to keep me reading. Unlike CindyS I'm intrigued by the blurb from Vishous's story.
The name branding doesn't bother me but the immaturity of the characters does sometimes. After living for so long don't you think they'd have some insights?
LOL -- who can argue with that?!
I was looking forward to Butch's story, because as the only (former) human male in that group, I always had a certain interest in him. And I enjoyed *his* story --- it was just his relationship with Marissa that didn't do it for me, largely because the sparks he had with V were so much more powerful, IMO.
I thought it was interesting what HK or Wendy said on PBR about Ward having to make Butch *physically* bigger than life to give him the impact of the other brothers, because that seems to be the general consensus on the series. Which suggests to me that clearly we're not all reading these books for some rendering of authentic human interactions. And maybe that's the secret of their success -- they're so beyond the believable and the logical and the rational that they provide that heightened buzz for readers. Which makes me wonder whether that buzz will wear off as the series continues. Already, this book seems to be garnering more criticism than outright praise.
Hopefully that won't mean we'll need ten foot monster warriors with 3 penises next to satisfy a bigger appetite!
Rosie, I have to agree with the maturity thing. And, I'm looking forward to Vishous' story too.
Robin, You may have noticed I didn't really say much about Marissa and Butch as a "couple" because I have to agree the sparks were more interesting between V and Butch. I wonder if there will soon be a mainstream romance writer willing to actually take that on, probably not and that's too bad.
I haven't read the review on PBR yet. From what you've said they're probably right with their assesment about expectations and buzz which is too bad also.
I'm not so sure that the buzz will gradually go away. From what I've read on some of the boards there are people uncomfortable with the V/Butch relationship and that puts this one in an ackward position to start with
I noticed the brand dropping in the first few chapters. After that, I didn't think it was any more noticeable than usual. Probably less. Same with the slang. Actually, the slang never bothered me all that much. I think as a non-US reader, I have a higher tolerance for not being bothered by turns of phrases that aren't familiar to me. I just assume people do talk like that...somewhere. (As long as they're not trying to "talk Australian" - those books hit the wall pretty quickly.)
I didn't like Rehv at all in the previous book, but now I'm really looking forward to his story.
I loved everything with John. I'm going to keep reading this series for him.
I absolutely loved anything to do with Wrath-especially his jealousy. It was just good. LOL I can't explain it.
Kat, I have a higher tolerance for not being bothered by turns of phrases that aren't familiar to me. This is why the rap references go right over my head :)
Rhev--where is she going to take him. Really he's probably the most morally ambiguous of the bunch--it should be interesting.
Ames, John is enough to keep the series going, I'm waiting patiently for him to go through his change. And you're right Wrath/jealousy was good. There was just enough of Wrath/Beth and Z/Bella to remind you their stories might need a reread. :D
I'm going to ask a question that may contain spoilers, so sorry.
******Spoilers*****
I just finished reading LR yesterday night/this morning, while I should be asleep, so there's this thing I didn't catch. Was Butch's father a vampire? If so, that makes Butch a half-vampire, like Beth right? so why didn't he go through the transformation.
******END of spoilers******
This book was okay and like Ames, I'm going to keep reading the series just for John :D
nice review TM :D
Nath, ***spoiler***
He must have been, but I have no idea why Butch wouldn't have had some sort of transformation/change, unless not all half vampires change??
Does anyone else have an answer for that one??
***spoiler ending***
***********spoiler answer**********
I remember V saying that were going to "try to jump start" the change in Butch, so maybe not all those with vamp blood go through the change. Butch's father was the vamp (or part vamp) chief of surgery at the hospital where Butch's mom worked, so maybe it depends on how much vamp blood he had?
Robin, you're right :D And the fact that Butch's real father was a surgical chief of staff leaves me questioning the Jane character in the next book, she's a surgeon too :)
I'm coming back to comment more later, but I just wanted to mention that I'm almost positive that at the beginning of Dark Lover, Darius mentions that he was hoping that Beth wasn't going to go through the change b/c not all half-breeds do.
Ok, I just finished writing my review to post tomorrow, so I can FINALLY read people's comments.
The Jane/Janie thing went right over my head when I read it, but it does make sense!
I saw Marissa's final coming back to Butch a bit differently... I thought she'd already mostly decided when the wives came to talk to her. But I don't know, I might have been reading things into the scene that weren't there.
Supposedly Ward has said there's no connection between the Jane's, but I'm not sure I buy that. Which probably says a lot about how much faith I put in her ability to resist reader pressure!
As for the comment Rosario made about Marissa and Butch's resolution, I also thought Marissa had arrived at clarity on her own, and wondered at her giving the other women so much credit. I guess they just assuaged her fears about the men being warriors? Hey, let's face it: subtlety is not the hallmark of this series!
Devon, you're probably right, I'll have to pull out Dark Lover, Darius' part isn't all that long. But then I may have to read the whole thing. :D
Rosario & Robin, I would agree that she was probably coming to that conclusion herself, but the whole conflict seemed a little overblown for me.
Rosario, I avoided the reviews too :D
I'm completely immune to the names and the slang, but boy did the label name dropping bug me. I would imagine it had to do with the price dropping that went along with it. But that's my issue being jealous of imaginary characters who wear watches that cost as much as I make in a year.
The stuff with Marissa at the end has been niggling at me since I finished the book. I agree, she seemed to come to the conclusion that she had been a putz on her own. So why did she attribute it to the ladies? And why did the convo take place offstage? I wouldn't have minded the four women interacting.
Part of the reason the romance didn't work as well for me was that their difficulties all seemed so contrived.
Devon, So why did she attribute it to the ladies? And why did the convo take place offstage? I wouldn't have minded the four women interacting. This is exactly what I meant by being told instead of shown, this scene would have been a pleasant change from all the over the top testosterone. :D
Post a Comment