The girls and I, along with my mother in law and Rob's cousin, spent spring break this year in New York City. One night during our visit, we spent the evening with friends of my husband's cousin, drinking delicious drinks and enjoying great conversation before dinner. During this conversation, it came to my attention that Steve, my husband's cousin, has a dear friend who writes "vampire stories" for teenagers. Being a huge fan of the Twilight books, I was intrigued and asked for more information. She writes under a pen name, I was told, but to google J.R. Ward. I did one better--I searched Amazon and ordered a book right there on the spot (I love my smart phone).
What I did not do, and I blame the champagne for this one, was to closely read the summary of the book before clicking the Order Now button. Had I done so, I would've realized that the book I ordered, Covet, was not from her vampire series, but is instead the first book in her Fallen Angels series. Oops. Oh well.
Covet is the first book in a series of seven dark novels about the struggle between good and evil here on Earth. In this book, Jim Heron (a character that will appear in the next six books as well) works construction and one day suffers a terrible accident, after which time he learns that he is a Fallen Angel and will spend his days searching for six people (who are each prone to one of the seven deadly sins) who are at a crossroads in their lives. It is Jim's job to get them to choose good over evil so that evil will not take over Earth. I have to admit that I really like the premise behind this series of books. I have wanted good to triumph over evil for years!
What was not to my taste was how "dark" this book was in places. Too much leather, too much black. Not for me. During the conversation that led to me learning about J.R.Ward, it came up that her readers are almost cult-ish in their following of the vampire series of books. Apparently they dress the part and transform themselves into characters from the books. This was intriguing to think about and was part of the reason I read the book--I had to see what all of the fuss was about. Now I know. The story was a page-turner, don't get me wrong, and it was a great change of pace from the sunshine and rainbow stories I sometimes read. But it was dark and scary and demonic. And while I do want to know what happens to Jim and if he succeeds in his quest, I am not sure that I will ever read another one of these stories. They, quite simply, are just not me. And I'm OK with that. But, if you are into this sort of thing, these stories will make you happy, I am sure of it. The characters are awesome (Devina will make you shiver for sure!) and are very carefully developed. This is in no way a shoddy written story--quite the opposite, really. This doesn't surprise me at all either. I have never met a single friend of Steve's who isn't positively brilliant and wildly successful. And while I haven't met J.R. Ward, I can only imagine from reading her book that she is both of these, and then some.
I did take time this afternoon to google the series of books by Ward that I was supposed to read. They are a series called The Black Dagger Brotherhood, if anyone is interested. I even went so far as to read the first chapter of the first book online. Much like Covet, the series is dark and while I like vampires and werewolves, apparently I like the sweet romantic ones found in Forks. Not the ones created by Ward. Again, this is not her fault; this is all about personal preference. But, if you have a preference for these sorts of stories, I can only imagine that they are well-written and worth a read.
Happy reading everyone!
-Dodie
No comments:
Post a Comment