Hi readers,
It's the first book review of the new year! I was hoping to have finished this book and got it up sooner, but it's been a hard slog. Which is a bit off for me because I love J .R. Ward and her Black Dagger Brotherhood, but this novel which is number 13 in the series, had issues. I know when I read The King (which I didn't review for whatever reason) and Lover At Last (http://hailscrazyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/lover-at-last-review.html) I spotted a few problems and though Ward seems to have cut down her plot lines in Shadows, there's still a hell of a lot going on.
As normal, I'll try and not spoil anything, though reading the book's blurb does give away the key points to the main plot. I guess to draw you in? But knowing straight off that the main female character is going to die doesn't draw me in that well. Reading about the how and why does though.
So, this time we get the story of the two Shadow brothers, who have appeared throughout the series and most of their back stories are all ready known. Trez and Serena finally get to be together, though they time is very limited as she dying. It's a genetic disease that is incurable and though most of the other characters spend all the books time searching for one, nothing is found to help her. Whilst, iAm meets the female he's destined to be with, though she's not as she seems. For me, not enough time is spent getting to know her, really. Maybe, there'll be another book about them, but it didn't feel like there was going to be at the end.
I was really getting into the whole romance between T and S and I kept thinking that something would happen so that she wouldn't have to die. I was waiting for the twist right up till the no return point and then after reading Rhage's thoughts about how he got to be with his Mary though she was human and dying, made me think about why this time Ward had decided not to let her main lovers be together. That is the massive spoiler and downside to this novel. I was reading a few reviews that other people had done on Goodreads and they said that Ward had stated that though she didn't want things to happen they way they did, the characters told her it had to be so. And I just don't get that. Why have all the other books have happy endings and not this one?
Throughout all the other books bringing the two main characters together has been the first plot point. In the earlier books this could always be seen and how the two lovers overcame their problems to be with each other was always interesting. Somehow there has always been a fix, (expect for Tor and Wellsie) and things have always worked out. So, why when clearly Trez and Serena were meant to be together they didn't get their happy ending? Maybe, because Ward didn't want all her books to end the same why or maybe the death was needed to shake up all the characters? Whatever, the case, it just doesn't work and left me feeling unsatisfied.
After going on a long heartbreaking trip with Trez and Serena, where she does a bucket list of events and really enjoys life, I really got to connect with her as a character. As a reader you invest time and energy into these characters and when the ending is rolling around you want to feel like they are going to end on a high note. Instead, I felt let down by the ending as we are left with Trez trying to deal with the loss of his lover and seeing that he has to repay his brother back for supporting him throughout everything. iAm on the other hand, gets to be with his love! How unfair does that feel to Trez? (Plus, given my return to single status, I really wanted that happy ending for them!) I now hope that Trez can have another chance at love with someone else soon.
So, what are the other problems with The Shadows? I felt that overall the book was just too long. There was stuff that could have been cut. Like do we need to know about the drug trading going on between the vampires and lessers? The lesser war really felt it had slipped to the sidelines this time around too. Those plot points felt lost between the lovers and Rhage struggling to sort himself out. The Band Of B* story and what's happening between Xcor and Layla did keep distracting me in a good way because I really want to know what's going to happen between them, but I feel they are going to need their own book to tell that story. The ending also just felt too neat. Things fell into place quickly in the last hundred pages or so with the wrap up to some of the plot points seemingly too loose.
I still really enjoyed this book though and do like how Ward has created individual and dynamic characters. They all feel so different to me even though there's so many of them. The use of dialogue is just great too and I like how there's lots of slag and male language because it makes it feel more realistic. The sex scenes work fine for me too and I always feel so immersed in the world of the BDB. If you've not read the books I would so recommend them. They put vampires in a different light and it works.
In the future though and as I have heard a small rumor about, I would love for Ward and the BDB to return to the formatting they had at the very beginning. I feel that if the overloading of characters and their stories carries on and if the more then six plot points keep happening, the series is just going to die. Which would be a shame because I really really like the novels, but I'm just so tried of having to read tombs of books where I can see stuff that could have easily been cut or moved to another book. Ward writings does seem to be falling and I can only hope it picks up soon and we see better novels coming out of her.
So, this time we get the story of the two Shadow brothers, who have appeared throughout the series and most of their back stories are all ready known. Trez and Serena finally get to be together, though they time is very limited as she dying. It's a genetic disease that is incurable and though most of the other characters spend all the books time searching for one, nothing is found to help her. Whilst, iAm meets the female he's destined to be with, though she's not as she seems. For me, not enough time is spent getting to know her, really. Maybe, there'll be another book about them, but it didn't feel like there was going to be at the end.
I was really getting into the whole romance between T and S and I kept thinking that something would happen so that she wouldn't have to die. I was waiting for the twist right up till the no return point and then after reading Rhage's thoughts about how he got to be with his Mary though she was human and dying, made me think about why this time Ward had decided not to let her main lovers be together. That is the massive spoiler and downside to this novel. I was reading a few reviews that other people had done on Goodreads and they said that Ward had stated that though she didn't want things to happen they way they did, the characters told her it had to be so. And I just don't get that. Why have all the other books have happy endings and not this one?
Throughout all the other books bringing the two main characters together has been the first plot point. In the earlier books this could always be seen and how the two lovers overcame their problems to be with each other was always interesting. Somehow there has always been a fix, (expect for Tor and Wellsie) and things have always worked out. So, why when clearly Trez and Serena were meant to be together they didn't get their happy ending? Maybe, because Ward didn't want all her books to end the same why or maybe the death was needed to shake up all the characters? Whatever, the case, it just doesn't work and left me feeling unsatisfied.
After going on a long heartbreaking trip with Trez and Serena, where she does a bucket list of events and really enjoys life, I really got to connect with her as a character. As a reader you invest time and energy into these characters and when the ending is rolling around you want to feel like they are going to end on a high note. Instead, I felt let down by the ending as we are left with Trez trying to deal with the loss of his lover and seeing that he has to repay his brother back for supporting him throughout everything. iAm on the other hand, gets to be with his love! How unfair does that feel to Trez? (Plus, given my return to single status, I really wanted that happy ending for them!) I now hope that Trez can have another chance at love with someone else soon.
So, what are the other problems with The Shadows? I felt that overall the book was just too long. There was stuff that could have been cut. Like do we need to know about the drug trading going on between the vampires and lessers? The lesser war really felt it had slipped to the sidelines this time around too. Those plot points felt lost between the lovers and Rhage struggling to sort himself out. The Band Of B* story and what's happening between Xcor and Layla did keep distracting me in a good way because I really want to know what's going to happen between them, but I feel they are going to need their own book to tell that story. The ending also just felt too neat. Things fell into place quickly in the last hundred pages or so with the wrap up to some of the plot points seemingly too loose.
I still really enjoyed this book though and do like how Ward has created individual and dynamic characters. They all feel so different to me even though there's so many of them. The use of dialogue is just great too and I like how there's lots of slag and male language because it makes it feel more realistic. The sex scenes work fine for me too and I always feel so immersed in the world of the BDB. If you've not read the books I would so recommend them. They put vampires in a different light and it works.
In the future though and as I have heard a small rumor about, I would love for Ward and the BDB to return to the formatting they had at the very beginning. I feel that if the overloading of characters and their stories carries on and if the more then six plot points keep happening, the series is just going to die. Which would be a shame because I really really like the novels, but I'm just so tried of having to read tombs of books where I can see stuff that could have easily been cut or moved to another book. Ward writings does seem to be falling and I can only hope it picks up soon and we see better novels coming out of her.
So what's next for The Black Dagger Brotherhood?
There's a spin off series, Legacy. The first book is already available to buy, but not for me as I want it in paperback. That won't be out till June, so I shall have to wait. (I could get it in hardback but I've very limited room at the moment and well, it won't fit in with the other BDB books and that'd bug me). I do know that the story is going to follow Paradise, a new female character that was introduced in The Shadows and I'd got interested in. Shame, I have to wait so long to read her story though.
Then there's this: book 14. Which I just stumbled upon whilst getting the image for Blood Kiss. So, once again when I was kinda thinking that Ward was actually finishing up with the main brotherhood, I was wrong. Which now makes the loose ends of the Lessers, Layla's twins, the Band of B* and why there was a lot of focus on Rhage more into context. I've no doubt that this book will pick up where The Shadows left the story and reading the blurb, it looks like The Beast is going to to be all about Rhage. Which should be great for me because he is my favorite brother! This novel comes out in April, but it'll be October for me.
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Images all from Amazon. UK.
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