kaadee's reviews
97 reviews

I love the black dagger brotherhood series so much. I love the characters so much. I love everything about it. That being said, the plot holes in the book is actually insane. It makes me upset because it had such potential to be an amazing addition to this world but the whole “Rhage’s brother” thing was stupid. I enjoy that Jack created the house design, I like that it was full circle in that way. But everything else? No. The fact that the brotherhood didn’t even know about the prison?? Stupid. The introduction of wolves is also idiotic. Wouldn’t you think that the brotherhood would know about a whole other race?? You’d think. Anyway, not my favorite book out of this universe.

So I’m changing my initial review. I’ve done a lot of thinking about this book, especially reading the Prison Camp first book and the short story about Blay and Qhuinn.

I have a love-and-hate relationship with JR Ward and it's getting annoying. I love her characters ( the boys, and the women are god awful honestly ) and universe but at this point, she must have a ghostwriter. We've gone off track from the original characters. I like the band of bastards, but I love the main cast more. Why do I need to know about some dude who adds nothing to the original plot? WHERE IS THE ORIGINAL PLOT? 

The whole mafia plot was idiotic and added nothing important. We could have skipped all of that. The mafia thing just gave us a whole meet cute with Jo and Syn. I don't know. It took up too much of the book for me to be okay with it. Where is Vishous? Where is Butch? Where is any important main cast character? Why were their chapters so short? IT'S ANNOYING.

Jo was an almost unbearable character. She was stupid with her attitude. Running into danger isn't smart and you only do it because you want to prove you're a "feminist" and can "handle yourself". JR Ward sucks with female characters and tries to make them "strong" and "intelligent" and they can figure out any situation. It gets on my nerves. Your characters aren't strong! They're IDIOTS! I've read books with strong female protagonists and this isn't one of them. As a feminist myself, I just can't handle the fake woke. You're only doing it because social media is pushing it. Stick to the original plot. These men are supposed to be annoyingly alpha. Let's keep that ok? I'm not reading for shitty female characters. 

Syn was ok. I don't have much to say. He doesn't have much of a personality except being a killer. It's annoying. JR Ward has slacked so much with giving good character arcs and building up characters. In previous books, we've gotten build-up over several books to then get to the character's book. Syn has gotten 2 lines in the 3 previous books. We don't know him, so we can't connect. Whatever.

Butch and Vishous? Ugh. Such a missed opportunity to make the best gay couple ever. Their connection is absolutely insane and one of the best I've read. It's disappointing that JR Ward doesn't focus on the main cast because the main cast is an absolute gold mine. Their connections are so fleshed out and well-written, I'm upset that we don't have that anymore.

The ending with the Omega. I will talk about it once and never again. God AWFUL. Book 18. I've read 18 books to get to this point and I get.. nothing. The original villain gets sucked up by the NEW villain. Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? We GET NO closure with the Omega whatsoever. He just gets sucked up! Where is the epic fight against him? The brothers get knocked out the second they get there. Butch is defending all of them but then Devina shows up. COME ON!!! So annoying. I can't believe I get this anticlimactic fight after dedicating my time to 18 books. I'm just so disappointed. 

I will keep reading JR Ward's black dagger brotherhood books but will I enjoy them? Probably not. I'm just attached. They've helped me through a really dark time but.. i'm just sad it has come to this. 

I enjoy the concept of a torturous AI but other than that the story just didn’t hit for me!

Okay, so now that I’m truly done with the first 3 books (which I basically consider the series) I’ll give my full, TRUE review.

I hate America. She is one of the worst characters I’ve honestly read in a book. God, younger me was so enthralled with the series that I barely even gave notice to the actual way she acts. She’s selfish, a liar, and mostly does things for self gain. There are some moments I enjoy her, but the most part I don’t. In my other reviews, I have a basic review but didn’t dive in depth. Im telling you now, I’ve really hated America since the beginning of the series. She cheats on Maxon throughout the whole thing, she lies to him about the most basic things, while he is absolutely devoted to her. Ugh, imagine having a puppy dog man who follows you around while cheat with other men. I don’t even blame Aspen, it’s America’s fault. She strung them both along for the whole series. I hate her.

The plot was okay. I didn’t love it as much as I once did. This book is better than all the others, very fast pace, goes into a lot of the world building (kinda, the world building overall sucks so bad, so the tiny scraps of good I will take, okay?) it just felt very basic. I feel like the author has a very bland writing style. In general, I would recommend it.

I love Maxon so much he’s literally a perfect boyfriend. I am team Maxon 100% but only if I end up with Maxon and America leaves or something. lmfao.

Some problems I have with it is the terrible, terrible depictions of classism and castes. It just feels like a watered down version, a badly thought out version of the real thing. Literally take one second to look at real politics and your whole plot would change, for real.

This book definitely has “middle book syndrome”. It was enjoyable but not as good as the first. 

Ahhh, another book from my childhood. I absolutely adore young love and innocent love. Maxon is truly a character that I adored when I was younger and really shaped the way I look at people even now in books. I like America as a character for sure but Maxon captures my attention much more. Aspen is ok and kinda annoying but we always need an annoying love triangle character. The writing isn’t bad but very easy to take in and understand. Great to read before bed so you get relaxed. I’ll be continuing the series!!

Sarah is my favorite female character in this series, mostly because she is me. A total nerd and stumbles over her words, a woman after my own heart. This book was better than I thought it would be mostly because I thought we would stop seeing the main group of people. I’m glad John got inducted. I’m crying over the scene at the end with the Apple with Zsadist. Lassiter is an absolute KING I LOVE HIM WITH ALL MY FUCKING HEART AHHHH

Cant wait to read the rest of this series!

I love the Dork Diaries series so much! One of my favorites as a kid and I’m going to be re-reading them all again. These stories just bring me so much joy and nostalgia. They’re super easy so I read them right before bed so I can just have happy thoughts. I absolutely love first romances/young love so Nikki and Brandon’s relationship is so adorable. I remember being so happy for these characters in my youth and I feel the same way now.