Squawk Radio

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Christina Dodd says LOVER AWAKENED by JR WARD has a real bite


I’m sitting here at my kitchen table with an unnamed friend and we’re arguing about the names in The Black Dagger Brotherhood. Unnamed says that Zsadist and Phury and Vishous, names that suggest real words (sadist, fury, and vicious) drag her out of an incredibly powerful story and are too literal. Unnamed says she prefers more subtlety. I say, “Honey, these guys are sadists, furious and vicious. It works for me!”

I love it when I’m right.

Because JR Ward has created the intricate world of Zsadist, a former blood slave, who loves a vampire aristocrat and will do anything to free her from the bad guys who have captured her. He can’t love her; his memories never release him from the old pain and humiliation … yet what must he do for a woman who’s faced the kind of torture and anguish only he can understand?

In the Black Dagger Brotherhood, the vampires are alpha heroes who search out their females and will do anything to protect them. The bad guys are lesser, soulless beings who lose everything, even the color of their hair, in their quest to serve evil. There’s a sense of cosmic planning — this is no small struggle, but the eternal brawl between good and evil. JR Ward has, from the very first book, has created a fully realized underworld of darkly erotic vampire and the lessers, and at the same time makes us deeply care about each vampire’s individual story.

I don’t want to give away any of the LOVER AWAKENED plot — the twists and turns of the story are so exciting I couldn’t the book down, and I want you to experience the same please.

So you know what? Unnamed and I are both right, because Unnamed and I both finished LOVER AWAKENED in record time. Whether you like the names or dislike the names doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the Black Dagger Brotherhood books grab you, grip you and shake you until you can’t think of anything else.

JR has promised to come in and discuss LOVER AWAKENED with us, and she’s donating autographed copies of each of the first three books to one lucky winner picked from our mailing list. So … if you have a comment or a question for JR Ward, now’s your chance. Talk to you, ask her question, and tell you how much you love her books — because heaven knows, I love them.

And so does Unnamed.
Christina Dodd, 2:45 AM
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