Brigid Downey

Hi dreamers!

I’m currently blogging from the Chicago airport waiting on a connecting flight back to Madison from my trip to Boston! I went home to see my family and see my baby sister graduate high school and I’m so tired now.

But lets talk BDB. If you’re getting sick of reading about them, sorry not sorry, it’s a long series and literally all I’m reading right now. It’s a 25 book series and she’s not done yet, so we’re gonna be here for awhile!

Lover Unleashed is book 9 and it’s the first book where the book focuses on the female in the relationship. J. R. Ward has said before in interviews that she doesn’t think she writes female characters as well as male characters and even though I think the books are usually pretty balanced you can definitely tell she leans on her boys a lot to tell the stories through. I think she writes females brilliantly, though! I absolutely adore and relate fully to every one of the girls, as you could probably tell from my previous reviews.

Payne is no different. She’s feisty and strong and an all around bad ass. She’s very much like her brother, Vicious, but is also still very feminine. I think that’s something I love about J. R. Ward’s writing is that her females are all very strong and take no shit without giving up their femininity. I think that as writers often we focus so much on making our females strong that we forget that femininity is not mutually exclusive to being a badass.

This is actually brought up quite often in Lover Unleashed as Vicious and Wrath and the boys try to protect Payne from fighting and the war because she’s a girl, and like every other time these amazing women are told throughout this series they can’t do something, Payne fights back.

Manny is perfect for Payne as he gets pulled into the vampire world on the coattails of Doc Jane. He’s lost, confused, and just as much of a prisoner to the Brotherhood as Payne is to her injuries. Manny is also one of those characters that remind me of home. I can quite place my finger on why, but he’s got this way about him that just reminds me of Boston. It’s not as explicit as Butch’s accent, but it’s there and as we know I love it.

This book is steamy and warm and says something about support systems as a way of healing. It’s absolutely perfect and sweet without being cliche and cavity inducing in a way only J. R. Ward can write.

Have you read the BDB? If not am I convincing you to? What do you think of Payne and Manny? Let me know down below!

To read more of my Black Dagger Brotherhood Reviews look here.