{Review} Blood Kiss (Black Dagger Legacy #1) by J.R. Ward (@JRWard1 @SignetEclipse)

The legacy of the Black Dagger Brotherhood continues in a spin-off series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author…

Paradise, blooded daughter of the king’s First Advisor, is ready to break free from the restrictive life of an aristocratic female. Her strategy? Join the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s training center program and learn to fight for herself, think for herself…be herself. It’s a good plan, until everything goes wrong. The schooling is unfathomably difficult, the other recruits feel more like enemies than allies, and it’s very clear that the Brother in charge, Butch O’Neal, a.k.a. the Dhestroyer, is having serious problems in his own life.

And that’s before she falls in love with a fellow classmate. Craeg, a common civilian, is nothing her father would ever want for her, but everything she could ask for in a male. As an act of violence threatens to tear apart the entire program, and the erotic pull between them grows irresistible, Paradise is tested in ways she never anticipated—and left wondering whether she’s strong enough to claim her own power…on the field, and off.

​Paradise – daughter of Abalone, First Advisor to the King – is finally going to get her chance to prove that she’s more than just window dressing.  She’s going to join the ranks of The Black Dagger Brotherhood.
 
Thrown headlong into the most grueling of physical and psychological training of the brothers, she’s never felt so strong or so sure of where she should be.  Until she meets Craeg.
 
Craeg isn’t a member of the aristocracy.  He’s just a laborer’s son and he’s one of the fiercest warriors in their class.  The spark between them is fast becoming a raging inferno.  Will they be able to navigate the suffocating demands of the glymera or will they both just be consumed in the flames?

“And besides, aren’t you afraid that I’ll do something I shouldn’t?”

“I’m sorry?”

“You saw what happened when you pushed me in the gym. You know exactly what I’m talking about.” Paradise felt her body start to warm— and it was then that she owned up, at least to herself, that she had come in here to offer her vein because she wanted more of that . . . whatever it was . . . with him. That connection. That . . . electrical charge. That sexual burn. And if there was one sure way of getting it? It was offering a starving male her vein: She might be a virgin, but she wasn’t that naive.
​
 “Do you like playing with fire, girl?” he growled. “Because if you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to burn you to the ground.” 

​Marissa still remembers being spurned by her brother for falling in love with Butch.  Only when it was revealed that he was far more than a mere human, was she redeemed in the eyes of her family.
 
Now she finds peace in the running of Safe Place – a shelter for the abused and abandoned.  All of the hurt from the past comes rushing back when a young female is discovered outside beaten beyond recognition.  It’s going to test all that she is and all that she loves to give a nameless innocent the justice that she deserves.

“This is not about whether or not you were ever with Xhex. It’s about the fact that you didn’t think I could handle you telling me. Isn’t it. You didn’t want to hurt my feelings, and that’s noble, but don’t couch what happened between the two of you in terms of being ‘unimportant.’ That’s a copout.” She shook her head sadly. “The whole sex-club thing is the same. So is your issue about blow jobs— which you also refuse to discuss with me. The bottom line is, you have a very flattering, but very limiting opinion of me. You want to caretake me, but you’re putting me in a prison— and no offense, I grew up in the glymera being told all the things I couldn’t do because of who and what I was. I’m not going to put up with that anymore.” 

Blood Kiss introduces to the next generation of The Black Dagger Brotherhood. And the surprising leader is female named Paradise!  Don’t let the name fool you.  She can go head-to-head with any male and win and it’s such a refreshing game changer for this series.
 
Both Paradise and Marissa show a courage and inner strength that we’ve never seen before and it makes this book all the more inspiring for me.  Still charged with J.R. Ward’s ever-present wit and wisdom, it’s further evidence that to be a warrior, one doesn’t always have to wear leather and shitkickers to get the job done…

Get The Book -