Review: Blood Kiss by J. R. Ward

I have been looking forward to this spin-off series.  As much as I loved the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, this spin-off felt like we were getting back to the basics.  Focusing on moving what the BDB stood for forward and that meant re-opening the training center and finding the best of the best…no matter who they were.

BLOOD KISS focuses on two couples:  Butch/Marissa and Craeg/Paradise.  It was amazing the similarities between these couples.  Marissa and Paradise the belles of the glymera who fall for men who feel they are so far beneath them.  They each have a male family figure who tries to uphold the beliefs of the glymera.  But there is one big difference between Marissa and Paradise.  Paradise bucks the glymera system at a much younger age.  She felt trapped, just like Marissa.  She didn’t want to disappoint her father, just as Marissa did with Havers.  But she also realized she would never be happy in that world.  She joined the program with the Brotherhood to have a purpose.  To fight the war and help her people.  She bucked the system and discovered she was a much stronger person than everyone (including herself) gave her credit for.  Marissa did all of this, but not until she was almost broken by Wrath, Havers and the expectations of society.

Craeg was a male who had a chip on his shoulder (not much different than a certain Red Sox fan).  His family lost during the Lessening society attacks, he entered the program set on exacting revenge on those that took his family away.  He doesn’t feel he’s worthy of much, considering who his parents were or how they were treated by the glymera, and that is very apparent for many of his interactions with Paradise.  He fights against his feelings and his baser vampire instincts when it comes to Paradise, treating her cruelly at times (even when he was verbally kicking himself).  We’re left to wonder, practically to the end of the book, if Craeg was ever going to get out of his own way when it came to Paradise.  He eventually does, but it takes him having to take a good look at himself and figuring out he was worthy.

BLOOD KISS was an excellent start to this spin-off series.  I can’t wait to see what happens with the remaining trainees, what brothers will share the stage with them and how they all will fit into the overall fight with the Lessening Society.