We all know I love me some JR Ward. I have a freaking information page that is very out of date but devoted to her. I loooooooove her books. They are cracky fun. They have 500 different plot lines in every one, use ridiculous slang but they are my brothers.
The Shadows came out yesterday. I wasn’t that excited about reading it because Trez and iAm haven’t excited me in the past – but some peeps on Twitter said crazy things happened, so I plopped my butt down and read it. And honestly I started to really get into the story. But then I started seeing all these tweets about a Goodreads post JR Ward (Link contains spoilers) had made with lots of spoilers – so I turned off Twitter and read the book.
It’s bullshit. I’ll put the rest under a spoiler tag. It’s VERY spoilery below so please do not click if you have do not want to be spoiled. You have been warned.
[spoiler]SO – this book is 571 pages. About 500 of those featureTrez and Selena. They fall in love. It’s very romantic. I sometimes have a hard time with Ward heroines but I liked Selena a lot. I liked her in the previous book too. She is a chosen, but she is fierce and sexy and likes adventure andadreline. But she is also sick, with a rare disorder that attacks some of the chosen. It’s been fatal in the past, eventually locking up their bones until they die.This goes on for 500 pages – Trez and her living each day to the fullest, allowing Selena to experience things and do everything romantic, while everyone else scrabbles for a cure.Except then she dies.The heroine of the book, dies. Like dies – and then they burn her body. There is no Jane ghost floating around. There is no miracle like Mary received. She didn’t get sexual healing like No’One/Autumn. She is just plain dead.
This is a romance book, right????
The golden rule of a romance book is – there is a happily ever after at the end for the main couple. Even a “happy for now” will work. But you see you need that “happy” part. And don’t tell me Trez gazing into the night sky is happy. Trez is now in deep mourning over the death of his bonded one. So…how is this happy? I don’t give a crap that iAm has someone, his romance barely had the page time Trez and Selena’s did. His romance was wayyyy in the background and kind of forced and insta-lust if you ask me. He was not the main character of this book. Trez and Selena were – and she dies.
Sorry JR Ward. I don’t care. This is NOT a romance book. I’m sorry if your characters “made” you do this
But, as I said, I’m stuck doing what I’m told- so last summer, when Trez and Selena’s outlining process froze early on me, I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
I don’t care if you didn’t choose this. Because you could have chosen to write it a different way.
I don’t “choose” things. I don’t get to pick who ends up with whom, or what happens. I appreciate from the outside how it must appear, that the author is some how “in control,” but that is simply not my experience.
I didn’t want Selena to die. I can assure folks that the LAST thing I wanted to do was spend four months writing a book that put me right back into the head space I’d been in losing Jonah. Some of the scenes in THE SHADOWS made me cry so hard, I couldn’t see the dayum computer screen. I hated editing it. I hated copyedits. I hated galleys.
Link.
I would never want to tell a writer how to write a book. The author and their book have such an intimate relationship. BUT – I’m going to say, don’t kill the hero or the heroine. You don’t get that choice. You want to kill off Selena? Don’t let him bond with her, kill her off in chapter one, and then let Trez fall in love somehow with his actual mate. We let that slide with Wellsie. We didn’t have a Tohr and Wellsie book, so we could just let that slide. But this? Nope. You don’t give us 600 pages of romance, just to kill the heroine. Nope.
When we read a romance book, sometimes we are really tested. Horrible things have happened to countless heroes and heroines. Sometimes like Selena, they are fighting a horrible physical disease, sometimes they are abused, sometimes they have to endure tragic things. And the romance reader is sobbing or angry right along with them – but we have trust that the author will give his or her characters a happy ever after by the end of the book. Put us through hell – make us cry, make us rant, make us angry – but make us believe at the end of true love. You broke that trust.
This isn’t the end of the world – I realize this is a book and not real life. But enough crap happens in our real lives – I want a happy ever after damn it. And The Shadows does not have one.
[/spoiler]
You said it best when you said that she has lost your trust. There truly is a rule (I don’t think it is unwritten- we write about it all the time!) that if you want to write “romance” there will be HEA. Put me through hell fine – but get me there. I can relax and read knowing I’m not wasting time on depressing shit, and the author can go wild torturing her characters knowing she’s going to get me to HEA eventually.
With all the drama and crap in regular life, it is my choice to only pick up books that have a guarantee of happy/things working out no matter how bad. THAT is the #1 reason I love romance novels. Love stories that work out. Guaranteed. Ward lost me 6+ books ago with some junky writing and I see now I made the right choice. I won’t be returning – I will just keep reading the first 5 books or so back when she had good stories and the crack-iness was fantastic.
Yep. It’s fun to be tortured sometimes because you just know the payoff is coming.
Yes! I think we’re able to endure the gut wrenching elements of romance novels because we know it’s going to be okay. It’s part of the inherent contract a reader makes when they pick up a romance novel.
Aside from the obvious NON Romance of it all…I just didn’t like it. Selena was fine and I liked her spirit but she and Trez just didn’t do it for me. I was bored silly for most of it. I vowed to DNF, then decided I could not properly and efficiently rant if I did not push through and read it so last night I finished it and it is absolutely the weakest of the series. iAm and Trez were far far better as mysterious peripheral characters. Sometimes even if these peripheral characters seem ultra cool, they just do not work as main storylines….this was certainly the case with Trez and iAM….
And I am sorry all this “the characters speak to me and tell me what to do” is utter bullshit. UTTER- unadulterated over used, corny ass excuse for writing a shit story (that you know is shit) but you want to come across as so uber authentic and “I am but a vessel”….Phoey! If you cried so hard you could not see and hated the story the characters told you to write, you would wipe your tears and let your fingers do the talking. If I want to red stories where HEA’s are not promised, then I will read a genre OTHER than Romance. I am reasonable. Hell, you can jerk my chain and make the HEA dubious and uncertain, but dammit if you write under the romance banner then I expect my HEA.
Don’t spend 20 books showing me how crazed a bonded male is and then when the shit hits the fan, Trez just does some hollering at a funeral pyre and then decides to support his brother in his love and is happy in no time at all? Absolutely not. And the reader was absolutely not invested in iAM’s happiness where it was so grate sacrifice…no no no no this just did not work.
I love Ward but this…just no.
I liked Selena. Why do all of her heroines have to almost die/die all the time????
A HEA is not the hero howling at a funeral pyre. Sorry.
I agree!!!
Sticking so closely to the claim that “the characters write the story” IS bullshit. It’s not cute, or hip, or cool or whatever other adjective of the day might be.
If you write it, then OWN it.
YES! And she doesn’t own it. She thinks she’s being so sly and so artsy by saying she has no control, when in reality she’s disrespecting her fans and blaming her “muse.” Uh. No. Just no.
o_O
What in the world is happening with this series?!
Here is what happened to me:I started reading this book and Ward compared Trez’s skin color to a dining table and it irked me to no end. I wanted to scrub that line out of my brain, so I left it.
Now I am double glad I did, since this would drove me bonkers.
Thank you for info, Mandi.
Ward described Selena as having cafe au lait skin in LaL and then never again! She was pale from that point on. As pale as boiled chicken, since she likes her food comparisons so damn much.
Ugh – I know. I hate when authors decide to describe the color of skin that way.
I was particularly frustrated with everything because she teased SO. MANY. OUTS.
-V said that Trez would make a statue dance. Nope. Just a regular dance when Selena wasn’t frozen. So go ahead and throw that hope out the window.
-Somehow, Trez and his mist can heal Selena. That one time. Write in a plot point and toss it away, sure! Why not?
-Here’s the Scribe Virgin! She’s finally back! As a delivery service. With no real dialogue. You’re telling me V or Payne never went up to have a chat with her about Selena?
-Selena fears all the statues continue to feel even after being frozen. Would have loved for that to be the case. Could have been a very cool premonition to finally throw us some more 3D Chosen.
-Rhage is uneasy the whole book. He’s funny and I love him, but if he wasn’t going to be able to do anything beyond feeling queasy about everything, why waste the pages? You didn’t see him with Mary, just some produce. Is she never going to write their much hyped baby novella and just shoehorn crap like this in to the next three books? Bottom line, I didn’t need Rhage to narrate what I was already feeling. I think it’s bad writing to tell your audience how to feel. Show, don’t tell. And what’s more, Phury, Cormia, and Rhev could have had that page time, because they actually knew Selena!
-Jane and Manny and Ehlena just killing themselves trying to help Selena and getting absolutely nowhere. Gut wrenching. I know you can’t save them all, but I’m pretty sure the Hero and Heroine are exceptions to this.
-Showing Tres’s star charts but having them rendered utterly useless in providing resolution was just frustrating. Team save Selena looked under a lot of rocks for info and found… nothing. Anywhere. Really? In a world of magic? Lamesauce.
I agree with you, it feels like Ward broke our trust and then won’t shoulder any of that responsibility. If you’re going to do something controversial, stand by it. It’s still frustrating, but at least you can keep some respect. I wanted another 6 chapters with resolution. I jumped off my kindle and found an actual book to see if there was anything I missed!
And a last piece that doesn’t really fit with the above that was just sloppy, I was really bummed that we never got to see s’Ex kill the Queen. I felt robbed of his retribution. But what the hell did I expect from a book that killed a baby in the first few dozen pages (!).
I feel better for ranting all of that out. Thank you for the opportunity! I hope it was coherent. I was gut punched about this all night :(
tl;dr- Editors, editors. Wherefore art thou editors if thou won’t edit?!
Wow – these are all VERY good points.
In particular for me: Was there an end game for Rhage acting weird??? I didn’t read the last 30 pages or so (I will today) so I was wondering if there was some wrap up with him? Or was it just panic attacks? (ugh) I really thought she was foreshadowing something big…
Scribe Virgin role was very weak. You are right.
And the V vision and Trez’s fog. Yeah…nothing comes of it.
No endgame in this book for Rhage, not at all. It didn’t even hint at anything of substance with him for it to warrant the pages. Ward did say at some point that baby questions would get answered in The Shadows, but I disagree. I felt no connection to any of that.
Cue Whoopie a la Ghost saying to JR, ‘Girl, you in danger (of your own nonsense.)’
SO Weird!! I was sure something big was going to happen with Rhage.
I assume they are taking that woman’s baby when she dies? The one Mary is caring for? But nothing comes of it. I guess we have to wait another 5 books.
Maybe I read it wrong in my fury, but I thought that baby was dead in the womb but that she already had an older child? I assumed they would probably adopt that one…?
Rhage is having a love affair with potatoes and canned peaches. Not the threesome I was hoping for with him and Mary.
At the very least, a zucchini could have been interesting ;)
whipped cream and cherries…. nom.
I’ve read everything through The King, but I can’t for the life of me remember S’ex. Was he introduced in The Shadows?
S’ex was all dressed in a robe but wanted lots of sex. I think he worked for the Queen that Iam hate? He’s one of those characters that pops up and then disappears.
Ok, I read that entire GR post she made and…no. Just no.
One of the most important things for long running series is : stick to the basic rules of the world you created. Simple as that.
Right. You write a paranormal romance series. With a different H/H pairing in each book. WHO GET HEAs!!!
Who does she think she is, Nicholas Sparks? ;)
Also, way to kill off a good portion of your sales along with your heroine.
(wasn’t finished ranting) Trez traded his HEA for his brother’s insta-lust? Are you kidding me. He should have just stayed his ass in the fade for all of this….
Was this more about self therapy after the loss of her beloved pet? I get it. We lose our companions and we cope and writing this book may have helped set her free or something. But no. No no no no no. Don’t use a fan fav series to work out your grieving process. She could have written a version to find her cathartic release….and written the real book with a real HEA. Just Sayin.
I think he totally would have stayed in the fade! That I could have lived with! At the very least it would have fit with his personality instead if turning him into a damn martyr.
And don’t you dare tell me Tohr wouldn’t have done with exact same thing.
This is why I always read spoilers and the last chapter of every high anticipated crack book…so I don’t waste my time. I’m not sure what’s happening with Ward. Is she pressed for time because of all her new stuff coming out? Is she trying to let this series go in order to build up the BDB spinoff? Has she lost her mojo? I’m surprised her editor would allow her to deviate from the HEA this much. It pretty much destroys the nature of the book.
Ah well. I was looking for a sign to tell me if it was time to walk and this is it.
*sigh* I don’t know if I can put up with this series anymore, it has become a chore. There are charaters that I adore, but I think even they are loosing their shine. Plus for fucks sake the books are so damn long!
They are losing their shine. That’s a good way to put it. She should have ended this series books ago. Or with The King. That comes full circle.
(I do want Layla and Xcor to have dirty sex and we don’t even get that yet. And now Layla is having twins. SIGH)
For me it should have been a few books ago. I had high hopes for the king but it never really made me feel like her books used too.
I truly love series but there comes a point that the author needs to let go, otherwise it feels forced.
wait you mean to tell me she doesn’t have the baby in this book? Dang…how long are they pregnant for? Until they reach puberty?
TOO LONG
Caitlin I fist pumped and made audible sounds of agreement throughout your entire post.
Rhage’s turmoil was interesting and should have gone somewhere. But it fell flat. Unless Ward considers the scene where Mary briefly head shrinks him because of his “panic attack” that he totally does not think was a panic attack- a resolution. News flash- It was not a resolution to that plot point.
Who do we think is the next pair? Xcor and Layla (I hate their pairing so I may skip it all together- no, I won’t but I will want to!)
Sheena, I feel like I could have written an essay about my disappointment (though I suppose I already did :P). I think the whole book was especially disheartening considering I thought her writing style actually improved. She handled the first half of the main romance aspects better than she has in a while, and she cut out so much unnecessary name dropping and the POV jumps were better than they were in the King, which I really liked. It really felt like Selena and Trez were in love before it went all batshit. Which is why I was so damn angry.
Surprisingly enough, I am looking forward to Paradise and Craeg. She’s not a wet blanket and hopefully he’s not just another generic ‘wrong side of the tracks but pulled himself up by his bootstraps’ charachter. I’m very naively wishing it won’t be Butch & Marissa 2.0, but it probably will be, especially since he got a name drop on the back cover.
Don’t care about anyone else in the BDB world enough for them to have their own book.
Also, TWINS?! JR has outright stated that there was one baby after LaL when she mentioned Blay coming in to the delivery room after the young was born. Not sure if that was online or in a signing, though. I swear, if she gives one to B&Q and raises the other with Xcor… Actually, I’m predicting that now. She would do that.
Oh yes! That’s (sadly) probably an accurate prediction. It will be Payne and Vishous 2.0. One raised by B&Q, one raised by Xcor – you know with him being the Bloodletter’s adopted bastard and all.
OMG if she splits up the twins… No. Just No.
Loss of trust is the BIG one here. I was not excited for this book. The last book, The King, I BARELY made it through because I didn’t love the Trez/iAM and Assail storylines. I felt she was forcing us to go through an already-happened-HEA, and these other people’s stories to put off giving us a Xcor/Layla story that has been building for the last 4 books. So when I first read her spoiler on goodreads, I didn’t really care, initially. I wasn’t particularly hooked on Trez and Selena anyway, so peripherally I shrugged. But then as the implications settled in my mind, and I heard more of how their love story is really BUILT, I grew angry. This is NOT why I am still reading Black Dagger Brotherhood. If you’re going to make me read 10 books to get to Xcor’s story, fine, but don’t pull THIS bullshit on us as well.
Pamela, I felt exactly the same way! Plus, I agree with just about everyone else’s points here as well. I have been a die hard BDB fan for years, eagerly looking forward to the next book. But, let’s face it…Ward has apparently milked this cow dry. I didn’t preorder the book because I was on the fence about it. But after reading everyone’s comments I truly don’t think I can read it. Sad.
I’ve joked with my friends that perhaps it’s time to open the series up to other writers to take over various story arcs, with JR Ward getting last word on what will be & will not be canon, as they do for so many other series out there. The world building in BDB needs some work, but it’s got a relatively good foundation to start from, but I sense the Warden is losing the plot after so many years, and maybe it’s better to give others a chance to open up her world and the characters a bit more.
For instance, I’d love to see the Scribe Virgin’s story expanded upon (who is this mysterious Father, how did the argument between her and the Omega start and what IS his real name (and is he related to Devina in Fallen Angels?). I doubt the Warden will ever tackle this, though. I’d really love to know if the creator of the Vamps ever gets her own chance at an HEA. I mean, up to this point, she’s been royally shat upon by most of the men in the series. The Bloodletter raped her repeatedly, and the thanks she gets for enduring that awful pain and the pain of live childbirth of twins without anesthesia is to be forced to give up her only son & watch from afar as he is brutalized, partially castrated, and nearly killed, unable to do anything to stop it or to interfere due to the magical pact made–how torturous a thing for a woman to endure! Doesn’t she deserve SOME happiness? **SIDE NOTE: My head-canon is that Little Wrath grows up, she gives up being a divinity & steps down into mortal life, and he mates her, bringing the entire Vamp species full-circle, but that’s just me.
I’d also love to see the Lesser War continued. Once all of the romance hook-ups are out of the way & we’ve decided to get on with the other fascinating elements of this world Warden has built, it would be neat to see how she ties up this loose string. We’ve been left hanging for books and books and *books* now (ever since Lash died), and so far the Lessers have been… well, pardon the pun, LESS than exciting for the main villainous protagonists in a story. The Vamp-Lesser war was an *epic* over-arcing plot that seriously needs resolution, sooner rather than later. I want to see how the Omega comes up with a way to step-up the war, how he finally gets his come-uppance and how his death will change the face of all species (Vamp, Sympath, Shadow, Lesser, and Human).
Oh, and maybe this is cruel to say, but I have absolutely no problem with people dying off in such a war. *cringes & knows what’s coming for saying that* Yes, yes, I know that’s awful, terrible, cruel, harsh… pick an adjective… but I really think it could be so heroic and gut-wrenching to watch Phury give his life to save Cormia and his son (because he’s got that martyr complex… and besides, his death will end that stupid Princeps things forever), or for Saxton to nobly step into the path of a bullet for Blay and take the shot somewhere mortal (since we were left by the Warden after his book aching for him, and this would right things between him and Qhuinn at last), or for Xcor to die protecting Layla and the children that aren’t his except in his heart, or for Assail and Sola to die together breaking into Lesser HQ and taking them out from the inside with a bomb. That sort of thing. Cruel, I know. Absolutely rotten to think it, in fact, but… if you’re going to write an epic fantasy series that crosses genres into romance & you focus only on the romance HEA-of-the-week aspect, you miss the opportunity to make the series so much more. I think BDB should cross genres, and stop marketing itself as exclusively a paranormal romance. It could reach a larger target audience and maybe be revitalized.
The proper term here is: “if done right”, though. I wouldn’t want to see this series become like “Star Trek”, where it’s overkill on the expansion of the universe. The flavor of the series would need to be carried over, hence the suggestion for the Warden to have final say.
Just my two cents, though.
Authors blaming their characters aka their muse for forcing them to write a certain way is total BS. If Ward couldn’t write a story for Trez and Selena, then why write it in the first place? I can’t understand why iAm and Trex were given their own books in the first place. Why couldn’t she keep them as secondary stories, even with the lack of their HEA and concentrate on characters we’ve been dying for their HEA like Layla or Lassiter? The Shadows seems like more a filler book because Ward must published 1 BDB book a year, which if she can’t, she should have skipped a year since she has 2 more books coming out in 2015.
Also Ward is at a point in her career that she can get away with breaking the rules of a genre she writes in. A romance must have a HEA or a HFN. That is the one cardinal rule of romance. If you don’t have that, then you have a Nicholas Sparks situation. Do Ward fans really want to read a Nicholas Sparks Paranormal Not Romance?
@ Mandi Yes, yes yes! @KT Grant even more yes. As as avid reader I read romance for HEA/HFN’s and THE JOURNEY to the HEA/HFN. If I want to be left sad and reminded why life sucks then I’ll read lit fic.
I wasn’t sure if to read this book or not after not liking much last books in the series. I usually don’t read spoilers, because I hate spoilers, so I didn’t know anything until I read your post. I didn’t have a clue she KILLED Selena! WTF!? I can’t believe she did that. This is freaking romance!! I read these books because after all the crap the couples go through they have their HEA. I don’t want to read about a couple that is in love and then one of them dies… and pain and sorrow and crap… No, no, no!
I’m very glad I read your “rant”. I wish I had known this before buying the book. I could have saved the money.
-Do Ward fans really want to read a Nicholas Sparks Paranormal Not Romance?
Nah.
I am so happy that I’ve stopped being as into this series as I was when it just got started because this now would’ve just pissed me off. I’ve lost my love for this series.
What gets me is it sounds like it is the most romantic book she has written in a while. I mean the last ones I read didn’t always give the main couple enough page time . There is always tons of other plots and build up to future books. This time though she gives the couple tons of time for them to fall in love and for us to fall in love with them, then she kills one of them. No just no.
RIght?? sigh.
So, so glad I stopped reading this series. This is an awful way to alienate fans.
Yikes! This makes me so glad that I bailed on this series after “Lover Mine”. So glad!!
And this is why I gave up on her. Ward is more interested in her fame than in her story. More interested in product/name dropping. It was fun in the beginning, then it got silly. She didn’t have to let her heroine die. And if she did, she still could have gone in a different direction. She wanted the hype.
Not a fan.
Absolutely 100% agree with this post. How am I supposed to trust an author who kills her heroine but writes under the name of romance. I AM GUTTED.
I am so glad I quit after the massive horrible disappointment that was Quinn and Blay’s book.
I don’t care if JR Ward thinks she’s apparently not writing romance anymore. This series started as a romance and has followed the same pattern for umpteen books. Your entire fanbase thinks you’re writing romance. To just stop is definitely a break of trust with your readers.
Yep. This.
I too thought she may try some “split the twins up” foolery. I sincerely hope not. They are both still Layla and Quinn’s babies. smh Not to mention the history between Xcor and Quinn…
I too am looking forward to the spin off this winter. I am feeling very suspicious of Ward…
Maybe I should have listened to the majority of you and bailed earlier!
(but I had to read Qhuinn and Blay)
(and then the king)
But now – Not thanks
(but if Layla and Xcor have dirty sex, I need to read that scene)
Did it feel out of charachter to you for Xcor to try to move on with a prostitute? Especially when she said he had anal sex, like that was some massive indicator that he really was out of his mind. Rude.
Yes. I hated that. I realllly want these two to get together. I love their secret affair. Layla needs to have these babies (twins, really? After nine months no one knew?) and then somehow make a move
Maybe their book is next
I can’t imagine who else would be in the next book but Lalya and Xcor. The only other couple mentioned was Assail and Sola, but she wasn’t in this book at all. Maybe another book like The King? And whatever happened to Murhder? He got a ton of page time in LM only to completely disappear after all her praise upon him.
It’s the Black Dagger Brotherhood, not Random Vampires in Caldwell. I want to what about the Brotherhood!
*ugh, I want to read, not want to what. Sorry!
I think I’m finally done with this series and it’s spin-offs. That being said, I’m going to give The Bourbon Kings a shot (heh) because I like the blurb and she does do large family dynamics really well as far as being able to juggle multiple storylines. I’m hoping it’s sort of a modern day Dynasty with more sex and HEA’s for everyone.
We HAVE to try Bourbon Kings, right?? I’m so interested to see what she does… :)
I will try the Bourbon Kings. I will read Blood Kiss because I am intrigued. I will wait when the next BDB book is released for someone to tell me if Assail is back as a legitimate hero. If its about Xcor and Layla….I will probably still read it, though I still am annoyed he cock blocked Throe with Layla…argh. Who knows when Xcor and Layla will get around to a HEA, seems like a lot to work around. Wrath and the brothers will be mortified, the Shellans will be appalled. Seriously, how will she show her Chosen-two-faced self around the mansion after mating with Xcor? He tried to usurp Wrath, now he is step-father to Quinn’s young? Can you imagine Xcor at Last Meal? haha
Thank you for this post Mandi! I´m gonna skip this book…
That´s why i didn´t read “the fault in our stars”… I NEED HEA!
Authors can make me cry all damn book, but I need to be smiling in the end.
Kisses from Brazil
Nurturing a deep, rich imagination is a talent to admire. Creative artists–be they writers, visual artists, actors, musicians, whatever–need to BELIEVE in their inner visions. Their inner voices. Does that mean the ID or inner life-of-the-mind controls a person’s actions? An artist has no agency in the creative process?
I mean, honestly, it’s creepy slash worrisome to hear such a successful writer make those kinds of claims. Because every year we lose too many creative voices. They suffer depression and self-medicate and, worst of all, hurt themselves.
The price of creativity should never be a lack of agency, of control. To suggest it is…feeds a pretty dark cultural assumption about “how writers write.”
Sigh…. Am such a fan girl to her. But I can’t read this book. ( I read to fall into another world that can be exciting and sexy but I WANT MY HEA!!!)
I have experienced loss ( husband dying) and won’t, can’t read books where that happens. Don’t need the flash back grief.
You really don’t need it. I’m so sorry.
I’m a fangirl too. I love her cracky nature – but this isn’t fun.
Mandy, I miss the old BDB days… I would take off of work to read the next Ward book.. I feel like all my old favorite old PNR authors Have gone off to LaLa land… Jeanine frost, Ward, Chloe neill, Kenyon, just to name a few.
I need new, better crack.. I need a new author/series to obsess over, but I just can’t seem to find one these days…
Do you have any suggestions?
Here are some of my current favorites that I find a little “cracky” – not sure if you only want paranormal recs so I’ll give you a little of everything: (I’m finding PNR hard to find these days)
Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series.
Roaring Twenties series by Jenn Bennett (historical paranormal – VERY well done – and sexy)
Kit Colbana series by JC Daniels (urban fantasy but very strong romance)
Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter by Jessica Sims (bear shifter hero – really cute)
Steele Street Series by Tara Janzen (fun, sexy suspense)
Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews (romance hasn’t started yet, but new magic world that I love – and romance is coming in future books)
Reapers MC books by Joanna Wylde
Hope that helps a little!
Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series and Gena Showalter’s Lords’ of the Underworld and her Angels series are my crack PR reads.
Love Singh and love Wylde. I think mc books have become my new favorite genre.
@KT Grant – I dnf’d the last COLE book. :( hoping or was just a fluke, because I love her wit and humor.
And showalter lost me when she stopped writing smex scenes, lol…
I am late coming into this but you all have covered pretty much every one of my thoughts on this book. So upsetting!
I love a book that gets emotional and makes me laugh and cry. But in the end I want my romances to leave me feeling complete and happy. This book did neither!.
I just finished The Shadows last night. I was disappointed about the lack of HEA, but I didn’t want to throw the book across the room like I did when Jane was brought back as a ghost. That was an epic WTF/General Hospital moment.
I do feel like this book was a mash-up of many characters and storylines that will branch off in the future, but it was very distracting to jump from Trez to iAm, to Rhage, to Abe’s daughter, to Xcor, etc., etc.. I also agree the ending where Trez was ready to get back to business was totally unbelievable when following storyline that was full of angst and drama. Didn’t love this book, didn’t totally hate it. However, I’m hoping for better in the future……..
I hate to say it because I Iove this series, but life is just too stressful right now for me to read this book. I’m so glad I read the spoilers! High risk pregnancy = avoiding crazy angsty books.. unless it’s Amy Lane.. she can totally bring the angst :). I really do not want to read more than five hundred pages of lurve sweet lurve only to have the heroine die. God.. does he end up going back to the colony or whatever it’s called and marrying the princess, or whatever she was?
I’m still obsessed with Layla and Xcor and sort of, seriously, want to jaunt over to B&N to skim this book now and get some Layla and Xcor bits :)
iAm ends up going to the colony looking for info on how to save Selena and unknowingly meets, and eventually bonds with, the princess. Then it turns out that was how the prophecy was originally written but that it was changed from iAm to Trez because iAm was a sickly child. *slams head on desk*
*offers pillow*
There has been a lot of head desk slamming with this book
It’s going to be okay. We’re all going to be okay. Because C.S. Pacat just turned the third Captive Prince into her editor. It’s a lighthouse in this temporary storm of nonsense and egotistical writers. Good news should be exalted higher than bad news.
Thanks! I’m thinking I’m just going to skip this one. I’m thinking five minutes of unsatisfying Layla/Xcor time won’t be worth it.
DYING for Captive Prince #3.
Your review was actually what got me into Captive Prince! Could not believe how good everything about them was. She has set such a high bar for the third book! I’m glad she’s getting some mainstream recognition for her work.
Great rant! I agree so much about the broken trust. And for me, it didn’t even register emotionally. It was so stupid.
I started buying the BDB series back in 2010. I finally got around to reading the series in its entirety in March.
I’ve head some truly negative comments about this series, especially as it moves further and further away from where it was back in the early days.
I’ve read all 13 books in the last month and I’ll be honest…not much of what Ward does is traditional. I’ve always been a reader who goes against the grain. I love that she writes each book about several different people and I love that you never really know what is going to happen…
Until of course I read Shadows and came across her blog on FB.
I get the who entire idea behind what she has done…objectively.
As a fan? Not a happy camper, not at all.
She has made a career out of building up suspenseful will they, won’t they.
For goodness sake, by the time I got to LaL I was completely ready for Qhuinn and Blay’s story.
I’ve just never felt anything towards Trez & iAm. They just haven’t invoked anything in me.
I’ve always loved how Ward can make you pity a villain. My heart has often bled for Xcor, even whilst he’s making stupid, stupid choices.
The problem I think I had with The Shadows was simply that I wasn’t invested enough in the main characters. They just weren’t real enough for me. I have to feel something to wanna keep going and… I just didn’t feel a flamin’ thing!!!
Yeah, I don’t mind the 20 different storylines so much – I love that she keeps the past characters present and we get to see their continuing stories.
Maybe part of it, like you said, is that I wasn’t invested as much in Trez and iAm – and I think it felt more of just a way to get a reaction from us rather than staying true to a romance HEA
Is Romance a dirty word to JR Ward? It must be seeing as some ‘Editor’ has allowed her to not only write this drivel but actually publish it..I know several books back, Ward made some announcement that this series was going to be more Paranormal than Fantasy (or was it the other way around? ) which reading between the lines meant, she didn’t have to try too hard on the romance aspect as long as there was some dirty sex scenes scattered in and around the story. She lost me at around Phury’s book, but dispite being dissapointed with her output since then, I’ve stuck around as I really wanted to see how all the old characters from the original seried would fare…
I agree entirley with Mandi’s review (its like you plucked my thoughts out of my head and put them down here..you are scary good), I kept looking at my Kindle page number countdown thinking how will she cure Selena? Will there be another Scribe Virgin intervention? Will the medical staff come to the rescue, or will Trez’s molecules jump start her recovery? So many possibilities to choos from and she goes with death?WTF?
If my kindle had been a book it would have been flung across the room. What a waste of my time and energy not to mention expense buying this shite…So that’s me done..done ..DONE!
I think that Ward should stop listening to her inner muse and do the exact opposite, and maybe check out the definition for what Romance means in the dictionary.
Rhage’s inner angst never ended up going anywhere, so was confused as to what that was all about as it didnt really add to the story (was it there to make the book longer?) and so not a fan of giving iAm his own HEA almost as an afterthought, again just to rush it through and make it messy and over edited.
I really dont care about Xcor, Assial and the villian of the moment Threo, I am not invested in them enough to care about what happens to them..even if I was the way this author has been writing, I’m liable to break my Kindle, so I’ll bow out know I think.
Just a quick gribe, we know who these characters are and no doubt all the BDB members including their Shellans know each other too, so why are they calling Jane, Doc Jane? Is there another Jane we don’t know about somewhere on the estate? And if so is the other Jane referred to as plumber Jane? Same with John Matthews, why can’t everyone just call him John? Whats up with that shit?
Ah, see this is where the readership differs. You’re interested in the series for it being a romance. I’m interested in the series for it being a blending of romance with urban action and paranormal fantasy. I’m more invested in the over-arcing plot and how the characters fall into the world-building, rather than just the relationship aspect. It’s pertinent to the story, obviously, but I’m much more interested in seeing how those relationships are tested and how they interact with the main plot of the series. To me, the romance is background to the Vampires’ story, not the other way around.
A good romantic story, in my opinion, isn’t just about sex and intimate moments, but also about how the characters develop and how that development shifts their paradigm and the paradigms of everyone around them.
I think there’s more than enough room in JR Ward’s BDB universe for both kinds of writing. I just think she’s not accomplishing the blending very well, IMHO.
LOL @ Doc Jane. Who knows why? Manny isn’t called Dr, is he? Sigh
The Rhage stuff really bothered me because it went nowhere!! I don’t get the point of it.
For me, the BDB is a romance series in that she gives us a main hero and heroine in each book. I want to see how that romance blossoms and grows and ends in a HEA. I ALSO want the overall story to continue with the brotherhood and all that.
But right now she is struggling with both. Maybe that is why she is doing this spinoff series and going back to “old school bdb?” Maybe BDB will be ending soon? I dunno
What exactly is old school BDB? The first few books when the story concentrated on one main couple and didn’t have 20 different POVs in one book?
What about Payne and her healing powers? And she was also a Choosen, right? But she never showed her face in the book… Poor Selena, completely ignored by her Choosen sister…
Exactly. What about Payne?? She has tooooooo much going on in this series
This series has developed quite a bit in the 13 books so far.
I put off reading them for as long as I did purely because a lot of people compared this series to Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed. I have to say; they’re nothing alike.
I like the diversity and the quirkiness of the BDB world. It’s not easy to keep holding true to a series that has gone on for as long as this series as. J.R. Ward herself said she missed the romance of the first few books, hence why she’s writing the spin off series that starts this year with Paradise. Hence why I never really pay attention to reviews.
I love how Ward takes risks with this series. Not often has an author stuck to this. When the going gets tough, often authors fold and play safe. The fact that so many people hitting the internet with comments about this shows she’s still writing a hard hitting series.
I never play safe in my reading, I prefer when an author does the same with their writing.
The reason I’m so upset about Selena dying is because I’m SO invested in this series. These BDB boys are my crack. I looooove them. So yes, I think that is why people are so vocal right now. If no one cared about this series, it wouldn’t be as big a deal.
I love weird and wonderful surprises and I think universally everyone loves a good twist. But this felt more like taking a risk just to see if she could get away with it as opposed to branching out the world in a new and unexpected way. And the most disappointing thing about it was she wouldn’t take credit for her choice! If you’re going to go all out, you need to own it.
She doesn’t need to play it safe or even make everyone happy, but I think she does need to stand by her work. That she didn’t feels disrespectful.
And what the heck happened to the lessers? Where did they go?
This is my last BDB book.. I won’t read another just disappointed.What happens to the love you had for a fiction world you love so much when the author kills it for you I used to love the world that Jr.Ward created so much but I have reach my breaking point enough is enough.. In the end I get that it’s her story she gets to write it however she likes but it’s the fans the make it last so I’m done.. Too much going on In one book it’s supose to be The Shadows but did we really get that nope. We get a whole lot of bullshit.. This story is finish JR. is just trying to string out the story and it’s going no where.. The new spinoff is her last attempt at giving the fans what they want with BDB like Dark Lover again maybe or not.. Killing Selena was just stupid and switching Trez and Iam birth record makes no sense.. What ever happend to Shasows having blue blood?? They started bleeding red all of a sudden.
As I ranted about Selena dying, I didn’t even mention the other things in this book that didn’t work for me. There is just SO much stuff/rules/character traits/ etc that she has implemented in this series…and it’s too much at this point.
And now she is going back to Rhage for the next book. I liked that she went back to Wrath because he is THE king, and Xcor was threatening him and it made sense, but maybe the series should have ended then. It would have been full circle.
Now we are going to have forced angst with Rhage.
Not that there is anything left to say here…but I have been obsessed with this post and how intense the feelings about this book are. I truly admire this blog and the fact that the readers who post don’t go off on dumb tangents and get ridiculous.
I have to say, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everyone’s comments and rants on this one and I pretty much agree with them all. I was sucked into the BDB with the straightforward but compelling beginning in Dark Lover. It seemed natural, as the series progressed, that Ward would ease us into a more complicated world. And I was okay with that because the MC’s were the focus of each book (no matter how many storylines were injected), I was confident in the HEA, and we still had danger and conflict.
I liked Trez and his brother as peripheral characters but Ward never gave us any reason to want an entire book about them. I usually preorder the BDB’s and can’t wait for the next one. But this time I didn’t. And I’m glad I passed. After reading all the rants I don’t think I could handle it. Lol.
I’ve always loved Ward’s voice and storytelling so I’ll give Bourbon Kings and the spinoff a try.
We have good peeps here! :)
I’m def going to try Bourbon Kings
Somehow, I didn’t hate this book as much as I should have. Maybe I’m going soft.
IDK, the Rhage stuff didn’t strike me as unusual for a BDB book — it’s clearly a build-up for the next book. I kind of like that Ward is actually, through Rhage, addressing the dissatisfaction around “how come some couples get a miracle and some don’t?” question.
Some authors get to break the rules. Danielle Steele did it back in the day (killed off major characters). I was surprised but not pissed off. I definitely don’t think this is the strongest book in the series and I get why people hate that Selena died… but I didn’t.
Whatever, it was still better than Phury’s book…
“Whatever, it was still better than Phury’s book…”
hahaha – I actually think I agree with you. LOL
One of her best novels to date. Loved the Shadows. Really loved it.
I bought the shadows book by ebook through barnes&noble the shadoe book cover came that was it all alothers came through fine . I hope they plan to reinbutse me
I disagree and with most of the comments that I read. Yes, it is nice when there is a HEA. Would I have preferred to have had Selena live? Yes. That being said, should this book have been written? Yes. There aren’t always HEA. I’m not going to lie I had tears streaming down my cheeks when Selena died. Trez learned how to love as did iAm. There had to be something done so they both could have a HEA. As we’ve seen with Torhment, just because their shellan dies does not mean that they won’t have a HEA eventually.