The Shadows by J.R. Ward

The ShadowsNarrated by Jim Frangione

Ever since I read Dark Lover, I’ve been hooked on the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Around Book 5 or so, I learned these were available as audiobooks, and was introduced to the narration of Jim Frangione. The Shadows is Book 13, and both the series and the narration continue to appeal to me, despite a few rather basic flaws.

Before getting to the meat of this review, I have to caution potential readers. If you haven’t read the first dozen entries in this series, neither this review nor the book itself will make sense to you. Due to some extensive plot and character development plus a ton of world building, this is a series that must be read in order.

This installment focuses primarily on twins Trez and Iam who are, as the title suggests, shadows. Now, I’m not terribly clear what shadows are, but my best guess is vampires with quite a few extra powers. Trez is still on the run from the queen of his race, who is determined to mate him to her daughter. He’s also fallen hard for Selena, one of the Scribe Virgin’s chosen females. Trez isn’t sure how things will play out, but one thing is certain – he wants Selena in his life forever. His determination is only heightened when Selena begins to exhibit symptoms of a strange and possibly fatal disease.

Iam has pretty much always taken a backseat to his twin. He’s served as Trez’s sounding board and protector for as long as they both can remember. He knows he’ll never have a life of his own as long as the queen and her executioner are ruthlessly hunting Trez. Selena’s illness sends Iam back into the clutches of his people. He hopes to find some mention of her illness in the archives of the healers. Instead, he finds his own chance at eternal happiness, but is it one he can afford to take?

Fans of the original cast of Brotherhood characters shouldn’t fear. We see quite a bit of Wrath, Rhage, and the gang – they’re just not front and center here. Still, they’re featured quite often in this twenty-two-hour story.

This is the only series I’ve heard Mr. Frangione read, and I’ve always been satisfied with his narration abilities. He doesn’t have the widest array of character voices, which can pose a bit of a problem, given Ms. Ward’s ever increasing cast. Still, I admire his attempts to make each one stand out from the rest, even if he isn’t always as successful as I would wish. He creates both male and female characters in a believable manner. His pacing is excellent, and he puts just the right amount of extra sensuality into the copious steamy scenes.

The names in this book have posed a problem for Mr. Frangione. This came to a proverbial head in this book. Suddenly, he pronounced characters’ names differently. John Matthew’s mate was always called Zex, but now he pronounces it Hex. The leader of the band of bastards has been known as Score, but Mr. Frangione is now calling him Core. Granted, Ms. Ward does spell the names of her characters with a great amount of creativity. Looking at a cheat sheet for the huge cast showed me more x’s and h’s than I’ve ever seen. Still, what would possess Mr. Frangione to change his pronunciations this late in the game? It was disconcerting, to say the least. I would have preferred the former pronunciations, at least for continuity’s sake.

Ms. Ward’s creative naming brings me to the issue of her technical skill as a writer. Honestly, if her plots and characters weren’t so addictive, I doubt I’d have read this far. Ms. Ward has a rather alarming tendency to shorten long words, making people sound like they’re speaking in perpetual slang. The shortening of relocation to relo is a prime example, and these things take place in general narrative as well as in the dialogue. She also uses words that aren’t really words. Conversate is one that drives me absolutely nuts.

In spite of my complaints, I definitely plan to read book fourteen when it’s released. So many loose ends need to be tied up, and I’m well and truly invested in Ward’s characters, even if my fondness for her writing style has dwindled over the years.

Shannon


Narration:  C

Book Content:  C

Steam Factor:  For your burning ears only

Violence:  Escalated fighting

Genre:  Paranormal Romance

Publisher:  Penguin Audio

 

The Shadows was provided to AudioGals by Penguin Audio for review.

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4 thoughts on “The Shadows by J.R. Ward

  1. I wanted to comment on the change in pronunciation. I’ve been reading this series for years and didn’t start listening to audiobooks until a couple of years ago. The King was my first BDB. I ended up buying all of the audiobooks to do a re-read before The Shadows and was irritated every time he mispronounced names. Apparently a lot of people complained and J.R. Ward FINALLY did something about it. In the interview I read with Jim Frangione, he mentioned the numerous complaints on his pronunciation and said “What J.R. Ward wants, she gets”. I just wish she’d done something about it sooner so the series was more consistent. The Shadows was the first BDB book he’s narrated that I was actually pleased with the narration. Mispronunciation is a huge pet peeve of mine.

  2. I agree with you about the pronunciation. I know he is correcting a mispronunciation, but book 13 is a little late to the game for me. Couldn’t she have given him some direction in the pronunciation going into this if she is going to spell everything so weird. After listening to so many books, it is weird and disrupting to me to hear it differently now.

  3. I agree that this is an issue that should have been addressed way earlier. Had I only listened to the books and not read them first, the mispronunciation wouldn’t have bothered me so badly. Chances are I wouldn’t have noticed. I’m just glad it was finally fixed. Better late than never. That said, I get that not everyone will be happy with the corrections. Especially if they believe the pronunciation was correct in the first place. Like you said, she spells stuff weird.

  4. I listened to the series for the first time with The King and questioned some of the pronunciations on Ward’s Facebook page. She responded with the phonetic pronunciations and that seemed to rile things up. For me, The Shadows got things right for me but I can understand how jarring this may be to those who’ve listened to the series longer. Curious as to why Ward has given direction to Frangione earlier.

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