The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood #13) by J.R. Ward

Posted April 3, 2015 by Karen in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood #13) by J.R. WardThe Shadows by J.R. Ward
Also by this author: The Bourbon Kings, Blood Kiss (Black Dagger Legacy, #1), The Bourbon Kings (The Bourbon Kings #1), The Beast (A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood), The Angels' Share (The Bourbon Kings, #2), The Chosen (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #15), Devil's Cut (The Bourbon Kings, #3), Blood Vow (Black Dagger Legacy, #2), Prisoner of Night (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #16.5), The Savior (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #17), The Sinner (Black Dagger Brotherhood #19), The Jackal (Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp, #1; Black Dagger Legacy, #5), A Warm Heart in Winter (Black Dagger Brotherhood #18.5), Lover Unveiled (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #19), Lover Arisen (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #20), Lassiter (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #21)
Series: Black Dagger Brotherhood #13
Also in this series: The Beast
Published by Berkley, NAL, Penguin on March 31, 2015
Genres: Fiction, Paranormal
Pages: 576
Format: eBook
ISBN: 0451417070
ASIN: B00LTZQOZA
Goodreads
five-stars

Two brothers bound by more than blood fight to change a brutal destiny in the heart-wrenching new novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by #1 New York Times bestselling author J. R. Ward.

Trez “Latimer” doesn’t really exist. And not just because the identity was created so that a Shadow could function in the underbelly of the human world. Sold by his parents to the Queen of the S’Hsibe as a child, Trez escaped the Territory and has been a pimp and an enforcer in Caldwell, NY for years- all the while on the run from a destiny of sexual servitude. He’s never had anyone he could totally rely on... except for his brother, iAm.

iAm’s sole goal has always been to keep his brother from self-destructing- and he knows he’s failed. It’s not until the Chosen Serena enters Trez’s life that the male begins to turn things around... but by then it’s too late. The pledge to mate the Queen’s daughter comes due and there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no negotiating.

Trapped between his heart and a fate he never volunteered for, Trez must decide whether to endanger himself and others- or forever leave behind the female he’s in love with. But then an unimaginable tragedy strikes and changes everything. Staring out over an emotional abyss, Trez must find a reason to go on or risk losing himself and his soul forever. And iAm, in the name of brotherly love, is faced with making the ultimate sacrifice...

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Karen two Cents

I have been a BDB (Black Dagger Brotherhood) gal for a LONG time, and I love each and everyone of these characters. The reason this series works is that it has gone beyond the initial boy meets girl romance and has become a sweeping story arc with multiple plots, intrigues, characters and the layers upon layers of vampire societies. I think newer readers who devour one book right after the other don’t give these stories enough time to percolate in their brains; as can be noted by some varied one star reviews. Which I saw after I finished the book and had my first draft of my review completed.  I on the other hand have been with Ward’s brothers in the long haul; and I love how much these books and characters have developed over the years.  The
Does Ms. Ward make a literary misstep in The Shadows; that is an answer each individual reader will have to make. I’m not going to say that I was always intrigued by Trez and iAm; but as the books got more complex these two real brothers, becoming part of characters that make up the brotherhood, just seemed to fit.  The shadows being a kissing cousin of the vampires, more than sparked my interest, and both these two characters and their pasts did have me hanging on for little hints of who and what they are.
The vampire race as a whole is very a discriminatory one, where social deformity, class structure, woman’s rights, outsiders and those of varied sexual orientations that don’t fit into the prescribed social norms of the glymera, the vampire ruling class, are seen a deviant of the social mores and not to be tolerated. This is not a society of equals, it is a class society fashioned in the Middle Ages, by people who took divisions of the classes very seriously.  The Black Dagger Brotherhood, the protectors of the vampire population chafes at these constraints and ignores them. They more than ignore them, they flip their middle fingers at them.  The brothers no more fit into their own society than the social misfits. They are seen by the ruling class as a necessary evil; one if no longer needed would be expunge from their society; with all the other deviants. This is where Ward is brilliant; as she is giving the reader social commentary about inclusion of everyone by detailing the discriminatory nature of the vampire society. When rituals and social mores negatively impact your society and it’s people; or even a minor part of your society and a blind eye is turned to discriminatory practices, the society is at a marked cross roads, it can either rise up and thrive, or face the fall as so many civilizations have experienced in the history of the world.  Those who do discriminate sometimes stand behind religions teachings, whereas those of the glymera stand behind the trappings of traditions and the genetic perfection of the race. Which makes this so appalling is that the most pure blood of the entire race is blind, because of the selective breeding program of his race, has lead to a genetic problem with his eyes.  The Chosen the perfect breeding females of the race are affected by a disease that may only effect a few of them, but is also proof that the genetic purity of the race, may end being their very downfall.
Ward’s books have transformed from standard paranormal romance to something I want to call high paranormal, with multiple plots, love stories  and varied intrigues.   As both Trez and iAm are the main characters and what both men go through is the major story line of The Shadows.  Ward never disappoints in weaving, Xcor, Layla, the Lessers, and the others into a complete package of one hell of a book.   As always Ward writes a damned fine novel, and I highly recommend it.

Don’t read beyond here if you have not finished the book.

I AM NOT HAPPY WITH J.R. Ward and spent the last part of the book crying. PS no freaking Scribe Virgin save in this book! I am pissed at the  Scribe Virgin, Payne, Lassiter and the universe, all nada nothing and big ‘F’ing Zero. That has made me throw more Fbombs than in my entire real LIFE!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!!!!!!
If you read my reviews I am the reviewers that normally roles with the punches; but not his time; I am devastated that she (J.R. Ward) did this to my family!! Yes, these fictional characters are my freaking family. Not really but I am being dramatic here!  I have had enough with death and illness, and little hope, in my real life; and  now be devastated by my fictional world is major suckage. Suckage is not a real word, but I don’t care!  First Assail and Sola no HEA, and now this? I am as pissed as a wet hen and cat thrown into a freaking deluge. Not a HAPPY CAMPER!! I swear if I would have been reading a ‘real’ bound book; I would have been searching for the missing chapter. Shaking the books pages trying to get the ending I wanted!  I might have then thrown the damned book against my fireplace, just to have the satisfaction of the thud against stone. I may be  venting and pissed for a while, going to go wrap myself up into a fetal possession and go cry some more. I have a freaking raging headache as my emotions ran so high while reading this book. The wonderful highs and the devastating loss have left me drained and in despair.
five-stars

About J.R. Ward

J.R. Ward is the number one New York Times bestselling author of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series of vampire books. She is a winner of the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA award for Best Paranormal Romance and is a multiple RITA nominee. A graduate of Smith College, she was a double major in History and Art History with a medieval concentration in both and she still longs at times for a return to those days sitting in dark lecture halls, looking at slides of old triptychs and reliquaries. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, she was a corporate attorney, serving for many years as the Chief of Staff of one of Harvard Medical Schools premier teaching sites. Her idea of absolute heaven is a day filled with nothing but her computer, her dog and her coffee pot and the Brothers, of course.

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