The Beast by J.R. Ward

My rating: 5 of 5 stars.

Nothing is as it used to be for the Black Dagger Brotherhood. After avoiding war with the Shadows, alliances have shifted and lines have been drawn. The slayers of the Lessening Society are stronger than ever, preying on human weakness to acquire more money, more weapons, more power. But as the Brotherhood readies for an all-out attack on them, one of their own fights a battle within himself…

For Rhage, the Brother with the biggest appetites, but also the biggest heart, life was supposed to be perfect—or at the very least, perfectly enjoyable. Mary, his beloved shellan, is by his side and his King and his brothers are thriving. But Rhage can’t understand—or control—the panic and insecurity that plague him…

And that terrifies him—as well as distances him from his mate. After suffering mortal injury in battle, Rhage must reassess his priorities—and the answer, when it comes to him, rocks his world…and Mary’s. But Mary is on a journey of her own, one that will either bring them closer together or cause a split that neither will recover from… 

The Beast

Rhage and Mary get in tune with each other and their world

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I love coming back to the Black Dagger Brotherhood after a while and being able to jump right back into the lives of the Brothers and their mates, families and associates without missing a beat. It’s like catching up with old friends and finding out what’s going on again. For a while their I had been reading book after book in a row, but they are fairly long books at 500-600 pages each, so I sort of went into BDB overload. Now I just read one or two every few months and I hope to finish this year.

I really liked this installment because Mary wasn’t as frail as she was in her first book when she was dying of Cancer, though she will always seem a bit frail next to Rhage since he every description of him is about how huge he is and how much he eats, and how small Mary is compared to him. But despite that, the fit together so well. Mary is the perfect foil to Hollywood. She is quite an gentle whilst he is loud and boisterous. He has the curse of the beast on his back and she is the only one that is able to calm the beast. Mary can even talk to the beast whether the beast is out or just on Rhage’s skin as a tattoo and inside him.

This book began with Hollywood knowing something was wrong in his marriage but not what that something was. He figures it out one day when Beth asks him to watch LW (Little Wrath). Rhage gets emotional and figures out hid issue is that many of his Brothers are starting families while he knows he and Mary will never be able to have a child together.

The funny thing about the vampires in Black Dagger Brotherhood is that despite the fact that they do live very long lives, it seems that they are not really that hard to kill. I mean a good shot to the head or the heart will kill them, even a few shots in other places if they star losing more blood than their healing can handle and if they don’t get to a clinic. Also the women often die during pregnancies, and those last eighteen months so that is a long time to wait to find out if you will survive the birth or not.

Anyway, I also have been waiting to hear more on the story about XCor and Layla and that was furthered in this book. While Layla was on bed rest with twins in the clinic below the BDB Mansion, she sensed that XCor was near because she had fed him with her blood. She found out he had been captured and was worried that the Brothers would kill him. Which is in fact what they planned to do after interrogating him.

What I really loved about this book was the focus on the Brotherhood as a family. From Layla, Qhuinn Blaylock and her babies to Rhage and Mary and this little girl at the Safe place where Mary and Marissa work. The little girl had been abused by her father and her Mother finally left him only to have lost her baby boy and now after a long battle the mother died and the little girl Named Bitty was all alone in the world.

Mary had been doing her best with Bitty but not quite able to connect with her until she started bringing Rhage along on some outings and the girl has taken to both Rhage and Mary and started to open up more. This book has turned into one of my very favorites and Rhage is now one of my favorite characters.

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