Audiobook ARC Review: Darius (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #0.5). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Darius by J.R. Ward

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this powerful audio exclusive, #1 New York Times bestseller J.R. Ward shares the star-crossed love story of reader favorite, and original member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Darius.
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Darius, son of Marklon, isn’t looking for love the night destiny comes to claim him. He’s also not interested in crashing his new car. But when a human woman runs out into the road and he must swerve to avoid killing her…everything goes off course.
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Disillusioned by his King’s lack of leadership and the losses in the war against the Lessening Society, Darius finds purpose in protecting a woman he cannot make his own. Love finds a way, however—until the truth of what he is comes out and she leaves him in horror.
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Unbeknownst to them both, Anne is carrying his young, a female who is destined to be Queen—and after a tragic reunion, he vows to protect their daughter. Resigned to perpetual sadness, he is determined to serve the memory of his beloved no matter the cost…unless by some miracle, fate sees fit to once again bring them together.
Darius

The perfect Brother for the prequel!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙
Romance: 💚🖤💙💜❤️
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📔📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍🌎
Character development: 🙂😮😥😤🥰

The Hero(es): Darius – he is one of the most important characters in the series. He is father to Beth, the half breed vampire that ends up marrying the King, Wrath. He is also the father of John Matthew who will become one of the strongest members of the Brotherhood.

The heroine: Anne – she is running from her past when she runs out into the street and is nearly hit by Darius driving his brand new car. Anne is a human woman who immediately is attracted to the tall, handsome man that rescues her.

The Story: This is an odd one since it is both a prequel to the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, but was also written after the majority of the books in the series. Many of the people who will read this one, including me, already know how Darius’s story goes. We know he dies when his car explodes and that Anne is gone before even that happens. We know that Beth never knows her father, though he watched over her throughout her life.

Most of these things are stated at the beginning of this book, so even those who are just starting the series with this book know from the very start that things aren’t going to be roses and rainbows. However, it is still a great introduction to the series and for those of us who always wanted to know more about Darius, this was a terrific way to tell his story.

This book was narrated by Jim Frangione who narrated most of the BDB books. Jim is an excellent reader. I mostly like listening to romance books when there are both a male and a female narrator, especially when the narrators voices fit the main characters of the book. Jim is what I think of as good for when you want someone else to read a book for you but you don’t care that it is not really voice acting but just straight narration. Not that he doesn’t do inflections, different voices for different characters and such, he just doesn’t have the deep voice I would expect from the 6 ½ foot tall muscular vampires of the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

This book gave us more insight into Darius as a person and all the things he went through, but also more into the friendships he has with the other characters, like Tohrment, Vishous, and even Fritz. We also get more information on his ‘relationship’ to John Matthew which I really wanted to know more about from Darius’ point of view.

I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

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