| | |  | Amazon Kindle | Home » » » Lover Eternal (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 2) | | | | | | | Description: | | Within the brotherhood, Rhage is the vampire with the strongest appetites. He’s the best fighter, the quickest to act on his impulses, and the most voracious lover—for inside him burns a ferocious curse cast by the Scribe Virgin. Possessed by this dark side, Rhage fears the times when his inner dragon is unleashed, making him a danger to everyone around him. Mary Luce, a survivor of many hardships, is unwittingly thrown into the vampire world and reliant on Rhage’s protection. With a life-threatening curse of her own, Mary is not looking for love. Her faith in miracles was lost years ago. But when Rhage’s intense animal attraction turns into something more emotional, he knows that he must make Mary his alone. And while their enemies close in, Mary fights desperately to gain life eternal with the one she loves…
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74 of 77 found the following review helpful:
 Rhage Is A Hero You'll Love!Apr 23, 2006
By Kristi Ahlers
Rhage is a member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. He is a warrior and with the help of his fellow brothers he fights those that kill vampires living a life of violence and loneliness. Not only does he have his vampire life to deal with there is the added matter of the curse put on him by the Scribe Virgin. It forces him to live a life without being allowed to feel and love...that is until Mary comes into his life. Mary is sick. Her leukemia has come back to haunt her and her options are few and than she meets Rhage. This handsome man is more then she has ever allowed herself to imagine. He's handsome, strong, and he wants her? Will she live to see her own happy ending?
First off this is a page turner! Ms. Ward has created a dark but sensual and entertaining series. The romance between Rhage and his Mary is at turns sensual, romantic, and heartbreaking! Make sure you have Kleenex handy. Secondary characters are pivotal to the story and her secondary storyline revolving around the "lessers" continues. This is not your regular vampire read and the groundwork for Zsadist's story has been introduced cleverly. This is a unique and enthralling read!
57 of 60 found the following review helpful:
A fresh new aspect on the vampire genreMar 07, 2006
By iheartjackbauer
Each author brings their own vision of vampires to their books. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. JR Ward writes books that will suck you in from the first page and make you wish you would never make it to the last page.
The 2nd book in her Black Dagger Brotherhood series, JR Ward brings us Rhage. Rhage was cursed 109 years ago by the Scribe Virgin. He is part vampire, part man, part beast. We saw a bit of the beast in Dark Lover. In Lover Eternal, we learn more about who the beast is and why it's a part of Rhage. There are only two things that keep the beast at bay. Fighting and sex. Rhage needs one or the other when he meets Mary.
Mary knows that the cancer has returned. She knows that she'll fight it. What she doesn't expect is to be thrown into the world of paranormal. A world that she had no idea exsisted. When a young boy follows her home and befriends her, her neighbor recognizes him as different. Together they take the boy to the Brotherhood (though Mary doesn't realize *what* exactly the Brotherhood is). There she meets Rhage. Mary always knew that no man would feel an "animal" attraction toward her. Little did she know!
JR Ward takes us through her paranormal world where vampires are just trying to protect their race from extinction. Trying to avoid detection by humans and slayers alike, they will do anything to preserve their race. Mary and Rhage's story is the second in a series that you will be hooked on. Do not miss out on this series.
50 of 53 found the following review helpful:
You'll Want Even More, And It STILL Won't Be Enough!Mar 14, 2006
By K. Montgomery
The first book, "Dark Lover", in the unique Black Dagger Brotherhood, was no big thrill for me. Sorry to all those instantly loytal fans out there (as I take a formal bow of respect), but I found that the first book fell flat in so many ways: underdeveloped characters, silly comic book style names that were just so at odds with such a strong new concept for a vampire series. There's a thrill that readers experience though, when they've picked up a book they had high expectations for, and you just KNOW after the first few pages that the author has come through for you in a big way. That rush of satisfaction was my intro to J. R. Ward's fabulous second book in the series and I'm still flying high.
Within the Black Dagger Brotherhood resides a set of warrior vampires dedicated to the protection of their endangered race. Rhage is such a warrior - Proud, aloof and fiercely loyal to his kind, he's fighting everyday to keep his inner cursed self from wreaking too much havoc on their lives. Punished for an unforgivable and negligent slight, the Scribe Virgin (The vamps goddess) has cursed him with an alter ego, one that is only to happy to break out when the going gets tough and tough calls for a little more force. With the Lessers becoming an even more frequent problem, Rhage is finding it difficult to keep his beast from taking over. Of course, shy and innocent Mary Luce may have something to do with that too. Mary knows about curses. She's survived a gravely personal one of her own. When that same curse comes back to bite her where it counts, she's not looking for commitments of any kind. She's going to need all her strength to focus on her coming battle. So maybe that's why she didn't see Rhage coming. And man, does he ever come on strong. It's the kind of instant, primal attraction that every vampire knows is his body's way of saying "mine". And Mary is his. He'll have to fight literally tooth and nail for her, but he'll get what he wants, even if it means sacrificing what he wants most.
I was torn whether or not to continue with this series. Wrath's story in "Dark Lover" was an okay debut, but Rhage's story blew me away. With this second installment, readers are blessed with stellar character development and the continuation of a very unique plot that keeps getting better and better. The story has flowed nicely from the first book into this one and I was very pleased to see more details about the world that Ward has created. The subplot involving Zsadist and Bella was excellent and has left me weeping for the next book (releases Sept. '06, entitled "Lover Awakened"). We still get lots of Butch's smart alec comments, though I fear he may continue to be a supporting character only (I want to know more about him and Marissa, not just the snippets we're getting in this book!). Rhage was a much more interesting hero, and I felt I really came to know him and what made him tick. His helplessness about his curse intermingles nicely with his solid determination to have as much a life as possible with Mary. Mary, thank goodness, is just as interesting a heroine. Her own battle with a recurring medical problem draws readers in and her zeal for life invokes honest emotions that many of us have felt. My only wish was for a better insight into the lessers' motives and machinations. But hey, all in good time I suppose. I just love the way this series is going now, and I feel the tide has turned with this installmnet. It can only get better. Ward, we're all eagerly anticipating Zsadist's story!!
15 of 16 found the following review helpful:
Best book I've read in a LONG time.Mar 07, 2006
By Mrs Dee
"Dee"
Right off the bat, I have to say that this is the best paranormal romance I've ever read, and maybe one of the best romances, hands down. I've got to give J.R. Ward credit where it's due, although I've been very critical of other authors in this genre. From an analytical standpoint, Lover Eternal is well written, well plotted and extremely well-edited (which is becoming very hard to find in this genre, particularly). It's a quality product from start to finish, although I would have liked to have seen what she'd have done with maybe 5-10 more pages at the end of the book.
Whether or not you're a fan of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, whether you think their names are silly or not, you can't help but be drawn into this love story. Rhage (also known as Hollywood to his Brothers) is a vampire warrior who was given a nasty curse by the Scribe Virgin- any time he loses control over himself, he becomes the dragon tattooed on his back. Although the beast is useful in battle, Rhage controls it by having lots of empty, meaningless sex with humans which isn't too hard when you have a face that belongs on the big screen and a killer body. Mary Luce is a human woman who finds out that she's dying of leukemia in her early thirties. When circumstances put Mary in Rhage's path, he's immediately struck by her bravery, strength and beauty (which Mary of course doesn't see).
As attracted as Mary is to Rhage, she tries to push him away because she doesn't want him to see her sick and in pain... but he won't take no for an answer. Then again, Mary seems to threaten Rhage's control over his beast and when he tries to resort to his old methods to keep it in check, there are some serious fireworks. Now, if any other male character had behaved this way, I wouldn't have been able to continue with the book. It's a true testament to Ward's skill with her characters that this feels justified. It also feels very genuine, as does the majority of the book which is really saying something given that it's about *vampires*. The alpha male vampire is a character that's been done to death, but Rhage is definitely three dimensional, with a very convincing vulnerability to match his physical strength. Similarly, Mary isn't a common-or-garden storybook heroine, and she compensates for her fears with a core of steel and a level-head. I didn't have any trouble understanding or sympathizing with these two, and through the course of the book I shed tears for both of them.
The author's attention to detail and layers within this piece make it a very accomplished piece of work, as well as a truly beautiful story. She even manages to work in the roots for her third book throughout the second half of Lover Eternal in ways that only contribute to this story, instead of over-complicating it. This book is very different to Dark Lover in many ways, which is only right given the differences in the characters and plot. This may sound like a no-brainer, but I am absolutely sick to death of certain paranormal series where, if you've read one book, you've pretty much read them all. It's as if once the authors achieve any kind of success, they become a little lazy. Well.. this book puts them to shame.
This book is an absolute keeper as far as I'm concerned, and from now on, J.R. Ward is going to be the only author I have on auto-buy.
21 of 24 found the following review helpful:
 Great read and potential for perfect but didn't quite get thereNov 16, 2006
By shazzyrose
"Shaz"
A lot of people has written some overview of the storyline so I'm not going to repeat it here.Overall, it was a great read with a very interesting and imaginative alternative reality. The Brotherhood characters totally sizzled and the main plot of plain-jane-gets-prince-charming (sex-god is probably a more apt word to apply to Rhage) is one I personally can never get enough of. There was a lot of action and violence but tempered by moments of tenderness, camaraderie and humorous one liners. All the ingredients were there to bring readers ultimate satisfaction. So, why did I find myself feeling not quite as satisfied and blown away as I should have?
It may have been the silly names (yes, a few readers have commented on the names and I totally agree). Also way the brotherhood characters sometimes talk I found a bit annoying. These males are supposed to be centuries old and yet sometimes they talk like modern hip-hop rappers (or as another reader have pointed out "frat boys"). You'd think that having spent more time living in the pre-20th century era, their speech and manners would be more old world than hip-hop.
My biggest complain however is Mary's character. I think it needed a lot of sprucing up to be more deserving of Rhage. I don't mean a physical sprucing up to make her physically beautiful but certainly something more substantial than just her voice to make Rhage fall in love with her almost at once. Don't get me wrong, I totally loved the idea of using the heroine's voice as the basis for the hero's initial attraction. However to turn that attraction into enduring love almost overnight would require a unique redeeming feature to convince readers that a magnificent warrior such as Rhage could fall in love with the plain jane heroine. So where's the defining strength of character or the engaging wit or the self-sacrificing compassion or at the very least beguiling innocence? Fair enough she's got "warrior's" eyes but all that wallowing in self pity for most part of the book belies any notion of a "warrior's" internal strength. I agree she's been through a lot with her mother's illness and also her own but strength of character is not defined by what life has dealt you but what you are doing with what life has dealt you. Wallowing in self pity and pushing away those who want to love you is a sign of defeat. She would have shown more spirit if she defied the gloom of impending death by not only embracing every opportunity of happiness that comes her way but also giving as much of herself to those who love her with the little time she has left. That'd be more akin to saying up-yours to death and shown a more admirable trait than the meek submission she exhibited. So, instead of empathising with her plight, I was more annoyed each time she shuts Rhage out and pushes him away.
Rhage on the other hand, I totally fell in love with. For beneath that overwhelming masculine beauty and sex-god exterior beats a lonely heart seeking a partner to love and cherish. All that raw power capable of brutal violence subdued by touching tenderness and achingly enduring love. Wow! I only wish he showed a little bit of struggle against the inevitable - especially when he knows he can be lethal when his emotions are in full throttle. I was a bit disappointed that such a warrior with all the makings of an alpha male could fall so easily and yet so deeply with so very little enticement. Not that I'd complain if I was the Mary Luce to his Rhage but unfortunately I'm a reader who wants a heroine that matches up to the hero.
Rhage also did not deserve the brutality he had to endure just because he fell in love with a human. There wasn't even any direct law that prohibits them from falling in love with a human. As to breaking the code of the brotherhood, what greater code of honour is there than love? Even the king (Wrath) and his second in command (Tohr) admit to this.
The last niggling thing about the book which I found a bit disturbing is the ritual of self mutilation. What's the deal with that? I mean, I can understand the Omega dishing out this kind of punishment since he's supposed to be the bad guy but the Scribe Virgin? For a creator with a lot of powers and mysticism, I expected her to be more compassionate and her "consequences" more sophisticated. Cursing Rhage with the beast, I find this poetic justice and I understand that every action always has consequences, and for each give there's a take. But deliberate blood letting for atonement of transgressions is way too brutally primitive for my liking and not at all in keeping with general conceptions goodness and light. I mean, are we supposed to like the Scribe Virgin because I don't. I like her no better than the Omega.
So, overall, it was a great read and had all the ingredients for perfect escapism material, but it didn't quite deliver the ultimate satisfaction for me (to my intense disappointment).
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