Fans of the site know that I’m not afraid to jump around within a series when it comes to my reading. I picked up The Savior having only read a few of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books before, and this is book seventeen. While I was able to follow everything that was going on (Ward provides a helpful glossary in the beginning of the book and offers context clues), I do think that this is a book best suited for folks who have read the rest of the series versus newcomers.
The Savior is about Murhder, a vampire and ex-member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood turned recluse due to insanity. Murhder has been hiding away for twenty years until visions of his soulmate, Dr. Sarah Watkins, tempt him out of his exile.
The problem is, Murhder and Sarah don’t actually meet until page 157 of the book, which is a full third of the way in. Their story is bookended by drama between a past couple (from the 8th book Lover Mine) Xhex and John; so unless you already care about Xhex and John, which I didn’t, it feels like a lot of book to get through for the main romance to start.
On a side note, if you haven’t read these books before and you’re like, “Xhex? Murhder?” Yes, I am spelling them correctly and am not presently intoxicated. We also have characters like Rhage and Phury and Xcor. I have no idea how the last one is pronounced. (Ed. note: I think it’s ‘Score.’)
For future Black Dagger Brotherhood heroes I would like to submit the following name suggestions:
- Zhtaycation
- Phrepharation Hh
- And, of course, Chhad.
Anyway, fans of Xhex and John will be dismayed to know John isn’t doing so well. Fans of Murhder will be delighted that he’s finally left his hidey-hole and come back into the world.
The Black Dagger Brotherhood are vampire alpha-male warriors who wear a ton of leather and are sworn to protect vampires from their enemies. The vampires in this world choose to remain a secret because while they are much more powerful than humans (strength, the ability to heal from almost anything, the ability to teleport) they are few in number and so are somewhat vulnerable.
Years ago, Murhder came across a lab that was doing monstrous, cruel medical experiments on vampires. One of those vampires was a pregnant female. He lost his shit a little and maybe savagely murdered the people conducting those experiments (like disemboweling and staking them to the ground) and then burned the place down. And the rest of the Black Dagger Brotherhood wasn’t happy because this drew a lot of attention to the situation and why did he have to be so extra with the staking and all that, you know? They exiled him.
Maybe this makes me bloodthirsty, but if you’re doing horrific medical experiments on sentient captives, maybe you get what’s coming to you. Yeah, the staking is kind of Vlad the Impaler-y, but eh.
Remember when I said Murhder was a recluse due to insanity? Yeah we’re told that too. And I’m not sure which story is true or if both of them are because we’re missing the context from past books to explain it.
So anyway, when this book opens up Murhder is brooding and stuff, haunted by the memory of the pregnant female who didn’t escape and also by visions of a woman in distress. In a hand-wavey turn of events Murhder learns that the pregnant female escaped but her son is still being held and experimented on. When he goes to rescue said vampire-son (with Xhex) he runs into Sarah Watkins, who it turns out was the woman he’s been envisioning.
This is all fine and good and delightfully paranormal crazysauce. I expected to like it. What I didn’t expect was to love Sarah’s storyline.
Sarah is a biomedical researcher specializing in immunology. Her husband, another researcher, worked with her at the same company but died due to a diabetic crisis a few years back. When his former boss dies, Sarah learns that the FBI is wondering if these deaths were natural, and starts digging into her husband’s research and life.
What transpires is a delicious (dehlicouszzz) romantic-suspense-y plotline where Sarah realizes she didn’t know her husband at all and she sneaks around and finds top secret files, and then she figures “oh, fuck it,” and breaks into a super restricted portion of the facility at night and finds out 1. vampires are real 2. her company is experimenting on them in awful ways and 3. there are two people named Murhder and Xhex there and WTF is up with that?
So once we get past that page 157 mark, the book is mostly Murhder realizing he has a fated mate and it’s Sarah, with lots of horny-pants feelings from both of them, and a quest to destroy this company that’s doing such horrendous things.
And while I was 150% here for that, it took awhile to get there. The subplot of Xhex and John falling apart a little didn’t do much for me, but once we got to Murhder and Sarah developing feelings for each other, I could deal with it better.
This is a fated mates trope book which means there is very little internal conflict. Sarah and Murhder are meant to be together and they accept that pretty quickly. The conflict comes from the outside threats to them and also the fact that Murhder’s brethren are insisting he wipe her mind and go back into exile.
One thing that bugged me was everyone’s insistence, including Murhder’s, that he was insane. The text didn’t support that at all. Murhder is always aware of what is real, understands the consequences to his actions, and behaves in a way that has a rationale behind it (even if I didn’t always agree with it). He constantly refers to his mind as broken, but there was no evidence of that.
I also get a little peeved when you have a bunch of alpha male heroes (and this book does) and we have to stop the plot to deal with their tiny man baby feelings. These supposedly strong, supernatural, immortal warriors have no idea how to process their feelings and so periodically the plot is sidelined by toxic emotions like jealousy or self-pity. It’s irritating to have a character whom you are told is the embodiment of strength, power and leadership, but in the process of reading their story you then have to wait for them to manage emotions more suited to a fourteen-year-old. Alpha males. Pffffft.
So while I wasn’t crazy about waiting to page 157 for the romance to start, and I had some issues with the text (Murhder’s “insanity” and his teeny man baby feels) I really loved the suspense plot and the heroine. Her journey from “I thought I understood my life” to “my late-husband was an actual monster” was pretty compelling and well written.
For me, this book was very uneven. I think for longtime fans of the series, it will work better since they’ll appreciate the subplots and secondary characters more. Newcomers might want to approach with caution, while hardcore fans will likely want to bust out some Xhex Mix to munch on while they devour The Savior.
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I think I only stuck it out for five books, and part of the reason is that I cannot suspend my disbelief that some huge leather-clad dude would say the equivalent of “Hi, I’m Murder and this is my buddy Sex” and the woman hearing that introduction wouldn’t just fall over laughing right in the middle of whatever dramatic situation was occurring.
Seventeen books of just-play-along-with-the-extreme-level-of-absurdity-without-laughing is really something, though.
“The Black Dagger Brotherhood are vampire alpha-male warriors who wear a ton of leather”
don’t forget the shitkickers!
I’m not sure how many of these books I read before giving up (too many Hs and I couldn’t get the image of Wrath looking like Tommy Wiseau out of my head), I know I read an m/m one. I also remember reading the John/Xhex one though I can’t recall any of the plot and am just now realising her name is probably pronounced Sex rather than zhex or however I was saying it in my head… I’m not usually that slow on the uptake but there you go.
I pulled the plug after Tor’s book. I had to buy drywall compound to fix the holes from the numerous rage induced dents. Luckily, it didn’t actually damage the book, or the GBPL would’ve suspended my card. Or maybe they’re used to Ward’s books coming back in less than pristine condition. Anyhow, every once in a while I allow myself to get drawn back in when she returns to the original characters, ie: Wrath, Rhage, and I’m always sorry. The convoluted subplots (which were starting to seem rehashed), the lack of consistency in her world building, the seeming inability to remember her own continuity made for too little return on time investment.
I thought long and hard about this one. I always found the vague references to Murhder intriguing. The fact that the female lead seems to have an actual personality and story arch that isn’t driven by her relationship to him is thinning my resolve. I don’t know if I should thank you for that, Elyse.
When you keep saying nhever ahgain, at some poihnt you have to stick to your ghuns or you can’t rhespect yhourself. Crap, I’ve caught the hs.
So I never read these due to the fact that I read some of those serial guest reviews that used to appear on SBTB during the height of the urban fantasy craze. My question is, did Xhex and John fall out because John realized that he too had a completely unnecessary H in his name but no one ever treated him like he was special? Phonix envy. It’s a bihtch.
Okay, I tried writing my comment in the ridiculous BDB style and just couldn’t! I’ve never tried one of these books and every review I’ve ever read just seems to confirm that decision.
The ridiculous friggin names are why I’ve never touched a J.R. Ward book and never will.
I tried. I tried reading the first book, the third one and John’s book. DNF-ed all three. My problem isn’t that the vampires are uber-alphas. Kresley Cole’s heroes are all alphas too and I love the heck out of that series. My problem is that the BDB is basically a frat. Hence the manbaby feelings and the impending Chhad.
Btw, for some reason I thought the x was silent and called her Hex to this day. Oops!
Just read the first one and yes, the names are very off putting. Good first half, but I just felt that Beth and Wrath got together too easily. It was like, Insta lust, you are a vampire and also my mate, oh ok then.
Can’t say I whont rhead the othersz but strictly lhibrary borrowed copies ohnly!
I am SO glad I’m not the only one who gets the Rhage about the silly spellings. I tried this series twice, and pulled the plug about 1/3 way book one. There’s suspension of disbelief, and then there’s the Black Dhagger Brotherhood.
This used to be my favorite paranormal romance series, especially the early books. I quit at book 10 when Ward broke all of her worldbuilding rules, the books became more about the subplots than the main plot, and I discovered that I hated all the characters.
I will add that I loved that Wrath went totally blind (in the first book he’s visually impaired,) he got a seeing eye dog, and he’s still regarded as King even with his blindness.
Damn it, now I want to give the series another try.
Does anyone know of any books that are like Sarah’s arc in this one, but without the vampires, fated mates, and surplus H’s? I desperately want to read that story but definitely won’t be able to put up with the other stuff.
Thank you all for your deliciously funny comments! I’m giggling and cackling in my (parked) car. And I haven’t even read Ward’s books.
I have read all of the BDB books and I do believe you need to do that to truly understand each subsequent story. The middle books were definitely lacking. However, I enjoyed The Savior. Maybe because I have read the prior stories I just go with the flow with the language, names and spelling. I enjoy revisiting the alternate universe of vampires that J.R. Ward has created and their sense of brotherhood and loyalty.
One of the things that truly bugged me about these names was that they made no sense. Mostly, the truly stupid names were alpha-hole, warrior characters. But, other vampire characters had normal names- ones that aren’t toxic behaviors and/or sex. Doing minimal research (memory of these books is sketchy) there was a Bella, Marissa, and a Layla. Where are the unnecessary “h’s”. Why isn’t it Behllah?
Also, there was this super-snotty rigid class system. And the alpha-hole warrior types were total scum to the snobby vampires. So why are the snotty vampires naming their kids after alpha-hole warriors? Why would any parent?
Seriously, I ended up spending too much time thinking about these names. Once we got past the dragon and hit zsadist- I just couldn’t ignore it and the banana-pants fun evaporated.
There was a character named iAm. How can a reader persist after that? He was supposed to be a badass.
Xhex mix and Phonix envy lolol
Eh, though I will happily mockh the shhyyte out of the names, BDB works for me. Even though it is problematic as hell at times. And trust me, I deliberate over the problematic stuff a lot. But…I like the series.
The Savior was solid. As Was The Thief. Other books in the series have annoyed the heck out of me, but I reeeeaaaaaally enjoy a series with overlapping plot lines.
I also like that Ward is willing to look at problems that happen down the road with various couples. It makes their ongoing HFNs turn into more believable HEAs.
I will never be ok with THE SHADOWS ending, though. Gah.
Oh! And there is definitely a looming crossover with characters from Ward’s ANGELS series, yeah?
I’ve been a huge PNR and Urban Fantasy fan for years but the stupid names stopped me from reading this series. I almost picked this one up but saw Muhrder and noped out again.
The names are dumb but all the questions can be answered if you’ve read the previous books. This isn’t my favorite series by a long shot but this review seems pretty unfair.
@JoS Me too! Im just gonna keep calling her Hex anyway.
Thank you for this review and all the hilarious comments. I am a fan of the series but with each book I have to do a healthy amount of suspension of disbelief with all the names and also the fact that apparently all these people live together in one house? Their hot water bill must be OUTRAGEOUS. Also I just don’t understand how the creator of the entire vampire race just up and left one day and put somebody else in charge, but OK. I have not read this one yet but it’s on my list. However I very much hope that when the hero first meets his human fated mate that she is all “your name is MURDER?!?!?!” and he’s like “Yes. With an h. The h is silent.”
Re: Xhex….I, um, have listened to many of these on Audible, and Jim Frangione’s pronunciation of Xhex shifts over the course of the series. In earlier ones, he says, “zsex”, but then when the Shadow S’ex (I think that’s how it’s spelled?) enters the series, he starts calling Xhex “hex”.
This is brought to you from someone with a long commute who enjoys re-reading/re-listening to things and obsesses over details.
Hasn’t anyone else noted name-pronunciation shifts across various books in a series? I think I’ve counted 3-4 for Ghleanna the Decimator (G.A. Aiken) alone…
This is also brought to you from a huge nerd.
Last note: Ward explains Muhrder’s insanity as the result of Sympath torture…he regains sanity when his mental structure is rebuilt/reconfigured.
@KB:
“Their hot water bill must be OUTRAGEOUS.”
I CANNOT STOP LAUGHING.
Wow, a lot of hate just for an alternate spelling of names (that probably doesn’t bother me much because English is not my first language).
Yet I don’t see as much animosity for lazy authors who can’t be bothered to do research and give idiosyncratic or geographically or historically improper names.
The only reason I’m conflicted about the BDB books is that the female characters are underdeveloped and under-occupied sometimes in the series, and some novels hardly ever pass the Bechdel test.
And the only time I refused to read a book based on the character’s name was the one where the female MC was called Sardelle, which means anchovi in German. Can’t take a character seriously who is called anchovi, sorry not sorry. 🙂
I’m WAY behind on everything, but finally got a chance to read this review. I thought it was honest and amusing, and a pleasant change from Goodreads or Amazon reviews.
I used to be a huge fan of the BDB series, but began having doubts about it in book 6, when it shifted without notice to a UF rather than PNR feel. I’m a fan of both genres, but as has been pointed out, the author can’t remember what she’s previously written nor her own world rules, and that got to be tiresome for me moreso than the ridiculously spelled names, ridiculous made up slang spoken by centuries-old adults, and the blatant name-dropping product placement. I gave up entirely on the series when book 12, The King, gave me migraines and I had to keep putting it down after reading a chapter. Up until that book, Muhrder’s “insanity” hadn’t been fleshed out, only stated.
(Also, the whole “spin-off” series actually isn’t, because one must read those as well to follow all of the plotlines, and they are numbered as BDB series books as well.) It’s actually typical for a character to share “their own book” with several others, and no surprise that the MC doesn’t get any focus until a third of the way through. The BDB is UF after all, not PNR, and someday will be marketed correctly. Until then, I will be following the series only via reviews such as this one.
First, why are you people who haven’t read the book giving opinions? Second, sorry your delicate sensibilities are offended by the the names. These are warriors whose names are mean to intimidate their enemies and were given to them long ago. Plus the spelling is a combination of the old language and the new. So if Wrath proudly carries on the name of his father, should he change his name to Bob? So I guess my point is that if you are so easily offended, don’t read the books and don’t bring your uninformed opinions here. Thanks J R Ward for some fun and entertaining books.
I have seen this series recommended by SO MANY PEOPLE and so I took the plunge this week and I was just so so so disappointed. Okay, I can get over the weird naming schemes, sure. But I just can’t get over the cardboard cliche main characters (especially blank canvas heroines). The only semi-interesting or semi-unusual thing Beth did was comfort Rhage who she barely knew when he was all beaten up. Everything else was totally connect-the-dots.
And what’s really annoying is this – I might be an old lady now (not quite 40 yet, but still) but I find myself really noticing and getting super annoyed at the unrealistic things I see a lot in this type of fiction. Like a twenty-something virgin falling in bed with a dude literally the same hour she met him (yeah RIGHT).
Also in this series I noticed in the first and second books (I read the first chapter of it or so, and then gave up) Zsadist is kind of a rapey guy. He advances threateningly towards Beth while reaching to undo his zipper in the first book, and then in the 2nd book tells Belle she can “make up to him” for the fact she interrupted his training (or whatever) by getting on her hands & knees.
And the gross thing is I know how his story is in one of the books too and he’ll be the “hot sexy hero” of that book. YUCK. No thanks.
I was somewhat put off by the names, but really baffled when it came to words from their “ancient” language that were italicized… like “sehcluded” and “ahvenged.” Argh. I read the first three and they are page-turners! But I had to give it up because some of the writing is just atrociously bad, and the heroines are very boring? I never got to Xhex, who I think is more of a warrior chick, but in the first three there are no women in positions of power. They’re not totally helpless but they are not very interesting either.
I thought that I was alone in thinking that this series was a waste of my time. There are so many other, better books out there.
I read the first few because of my friend’s recommendations, but I can’t remember how many I read because of the repetitiveness of the plots, characters and relationships. An the women are so one-note! Not fully fleshed out, except for sex. Not to mention that the names are ridiculous.
Can you imagine? “Oh Murder, I love you!” Oh Sex, you’re my forever!” Or “Oh Wrath, you make me burn!”
Much better written and more interesting stuff out there!
I agree with you, I didn’t care about John and Xhex. Don’t care for Xhex at all; rude, abusive, ungrateful, and mean spirited (way above what is necessary). John didn’t thrill me, either. I wonder if that’s why J.R. Ward has not mentioned him much at all in later novels.
I always listen to audible. So pronouncing the names was never a problem for me because the reader did that for me. By the way I love the reader for this series. I don’t know if I could enjoy it any other way. I’d tell you his name but I don’t know how to pronounce it, I can say it because Audible told me how. I have listened to the series a few times over now and still enjoy them immensely. It seems I discover something different everytime, but that might be because I am 72 and probably just don’t remember as well anymore. I love that Wrath thinks Beth tastes like peaches.
Jim Frangione reads on Audible. I listen while cleaning and getting ready for the next day. His voice in wonderful.