The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series

Romance isn’t really my thing, but if the sappiness is diluted with plenty of erotica and/or literary porn then I am all for it. I was introduced to the urban paranormal romance genre by a bestie who is prone to reading sappy books. The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R.Ward was an excellent introduction to the genre.

If you’re after a fast paced, intense story with huge hulking testosterone driven possessive tattooed vampires, you’d be hard pressed to find better than the extremely sexy Black Dagger Brotherhood (BDB).

The first few books in the series focus on introducing you to each Brother’s story as they find their one and only mate (the romance component with loads of hot, hot, hot sex), while fighting The Lesser Society (the action component where the brothers get injured heroically).

Eventually the books branch out to pick up all the different strands of the central plot that runs through the series. And did I mention it is hot? Hot hot hot! Most readers will soon find they have a favourite brother. Mine was Vishous. How about you?

With that said however, there has been some criticism of the books as sexist and anti-feminist. Some comparisons with Twilight were even made much to my disgust. I am definitely not a fan of Twilight and I can say that the J.R. Ward series beats Twilight pants down. One of the important things to note here is that unlike Twilight, these books are for adults, looking for some mindless page turning entertainment.

Even so, it would be advisable to be aware of the standards and stereotypes imparted during reading. For example, women are not property yet the books glamourise jealousy and possessiveness from the male vampires. As with Twilight, I would not want my teen reading these books without discussion about how values like that present in unhealthy relationships, and how women are controlled by such behaviours.

Back to the series, BDB makes for fun reading as a page-turner. Whereas most page-turners operate on an intriguing central plot luring readers in to find out what happens, BDB turns pages using larger-than-life characters, their painful histories and tumultuous hormone fuelled relationships.

On discussion, I heard some readers express disappointment the series branched out into different storylines instead of focusing on one Brother as the author did with her early books. I guess it will depend on how you, the reader forms a connection to the story. I will admit the change in focus did throw me a bit, but I enjoyed finding out more about the different threads of the storyline that were picked up.

If you like your romance laden with hot sex, this is definitely a series for you! Bonus: No sparkly soft vampires boys in these books.

#Fiction
#Urban_Fantasy
#Paranormal
#Romance
#Page-turners
#Romance_Competition

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