Dark Lover Audiobook By J. R. Ward cover art

Dark Lover

The Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 1

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Dark Lover

By: J. R. Ward
Narrated by: Jim Frangione
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About this listen

The first novel of J. R. Ward's New York Times best-selling Black Dagger Brotherhood series features a unique take on vampire lore and heavy doses of sensuality.

The vampire Darius fears for the life of his half-breed daughter, who is unaware of her unusual destiny. To oversee her transformation, Darius seeks help from Wrath, a dangerous loner and the world's only purebred vampire.

©2005 J.R. Ward (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC
Fiction Horror Paranormal Paranormal Romance Romance Romance Essentials Romantic Series Essentials Scary Fantasy Vampire City
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Featured Article: Seek Out the Strange and Supernatural with the 45 Best Paranormal Audiobooks


The folklore of just about every human culture is rife with stories that feature talking animals, shape-shifters, demons, witches, spirits, and more. Whether you arrive seeking horror, thrills, romance, or fantasy, there’s a title here for you. And with a slate of narrators that includes famous actors and award-winning voice artists, it’s impossible to go wrong with any of these picks.

What listeners say about Dark Lover

Average customer ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7,515
  • 4 Stars
    2,243
  • 3 Stars
    884
  • 2 Stars
    345
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    276
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    6,200
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  • 3 Stars
    923
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    1,692
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    665
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    198

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Awsome title even for the Men

I know this is a romance novel, but I will tell you her style is alot closer to Urban Fantasy than Romance. She is an awsome writer and this is my favorite series even though I am a guy. Have read all the books and this kicks the series off in a great way. Very different world of Vampires, much different than the Dracula or Anne Rice visions of Vampires. Check this book out, it is dark and at the same time the character development is AWSOME. check it out.

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138 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic Author & Fantastic Series

Sometimes a person reads an author and is so captivated by that author a need to devour everything they have ever written arises. This is one of those rare and precious authors. The Black Dagger series is worth a read and a re-read. She crosses boundaries of age, sex and violence with delicate precision. To say this series of books are frantic page turners is not even adequate to express how my friends (and me) were not able to put these books down to do normal life stuff. Enjoy and share with others this fabulous set of books from this extremely talented author.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Goofy, but still fun.

Story was interesting enough for me to listen to the whole thing but mostly because I'm usually committed regardless of how silly a book is. I only quit if the narrator is so bad it makes me mad. The sexy parts were okay, but I can't stand the amount of erotica that has a woman climaxing with a pump or two - I don't care how hot the guy is or how turned on we are - that's just not a thing. But there was a lot of incongruous stuff I also found just goofy. By the descriptions these guys are biker-looking, but listen to rap? And their names are completely ridiculous.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

My Guilty Pleasure

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I love this series. It's my guilty pleasure. I love the characters, the stories and the narrator. Can't wait for number 11 .

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Can't get enough!!!!!

This book is So good! I love the couple and the Brotherhood! Can't wait till book 2

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful Paranormal Romance

Well written and very entertaining. The band of brothers are so beautifully damaged. Being introduced into their world through the eyes of a human, Beth, made the experience even better.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

My favorite series!!

I absolutely love the BDB. My favorite paranormal romance series!! I love the interaction between the brothers.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Audible

For a honest review in my own words . wow i loved getting to know these fine warriors as the fight the lessers . king Wrath is a pure blood vampire and head of the black dagger brotherhood. Also known as the blind king . when one of his warriors is killed he finds that the daughter elizabeth is more to him . can't wait to see this as a movie on passionflix

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Yep, I'm hooked!

If you could sum up Dark Lover in three words, what would they be?

COMPLETELY-TOTALLY YUMMY!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Dark Lover?

The engaging characters and story

What does Jim Frangione bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The depth! This isn't just another fanciful teenager vampire story. ;-)

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love the Series, Tolerate the Narrator

This may be the third time I've read Dark Lover, but it's the first time I've listened to the audio version. While I love the Black Dagger Brotherhood and will continue on with my audio re-read (for now), I am not impressed with the narration. Some narrators perform a book, while others simply read it. Unfortunately, the narrator, Jim Frangione, does little more than read the book when I was really hoping that he would add more depth and emotion into the world. I was expecting a great Southie accent for Butch, but didn't get it.

Maybe once Jim Frangione gets more involved in the Black Dagger Brotherhood, his skills narrating the world will grow. If not, I may not finish this series via audio. I give Dark Lover 5 stars and give Jim Frangione's lackluster narration 3 stars. Guess that gives us a decent balance at 4 stars this go round.

Original review:

This is a book that had been sitting in my TBR pile for a long time. Now I'm kicking myself in the ass for not reading it sooner.

First I want to say that I love that there was a glossary of terms at the beginning of the book so that I could read through them before starting it. Most books don't include a glossary (even when they need one) and those that do always put them in the back. In the case of this series, you really need to understand the terms to follow the story. Props to J.R. Ward for being smart and putting the glossary first.

The world that J.R. Ward has created is different and very interesting. I enjoyed the fact that vampires are born in this world and that they can not be "turned" like most vampire novels. That makes for a very interesting world and opens up the possibility of extinction since it is hard for the vampires to breed. Vampires in this series must feed off of members of the opposite sex within the vampire race in order to be healthy and strong. Though they can feed off humans, the blood doesn't sustain them.

The Brotherhood is a group of warriors that protect the civilian vampires from a society of soulless humans referred to as Lessers. The Lessers are pure evil and will do anything to kill vampires, even murdering humans to lure them in. After many years of taking joy in killing civilians, the Lessers have decided to aim higher and take out the Brotherhood.

After the Lessers kill one of the Brotherhood, Wrath, the vampire King (who just happens to be legally blind which I thought was beyond cool), feels the need to step forward and take his dead friend's daughter under his wing to help her through her transition to vampire. Little did he know that she would change his world.

I really enjoyed Dark Lover and the character development. The villains in the story are flat out creepy and Mr. X is a whole new level of bat shit crazy. This book opened up a lot of possibilities for the other Brothers and I can't wait to get to their stories.

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