Blood Vow by J.R. Ward

Narrated by Jim Frangione

Blood Vow is book 2 in J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Legacy series, a spin-off to her hugely popular Black Dagger Brotherhood series. It’s paranormal romance with rich world building and characters you can’t help but root for. This would not be a good place to jump into the series as it hinges heavily on events that took place in Blood Kiss, book 1 in this series, as well as The Beast, the 14th installment in Black Dagger Brotherhood. To fully appreciate the magnitude of Ward’s writing, I recommend going back to where it all began with Dark Lover. Narrator Jim Frangione narrates all the books, adding a wonderful sense of continuity to the series.

We pick things up with Blood Vow a few months after the epilogue of The Beast. I’m guessing this is nearly a year after the events in Blood Kiss, but this is never clearly spelled out. Axe continues to train as one of the new recruits of the Brotherhood’s training program, developed to strengthen the vampire forces against members of the Lessening Society. He’s a solitary guy, training hard by night and returning to the run-down cottage he calls home during the day. He gets along well enough with most of his fellow trainees, but makes it clear he’s not there to make friends.

One night, Axe is persuaded to go out for a meal with the rest of the recruits. If you’re thinking vampires usually don’t eat normal food, you would be correct, but Ward has altered vampire mythology just a bit to make ingesting food, drinks, and recreational drugs part of the vamp lifestyle. While at the popular club chosen for this meal, Axe catches site of one of the most beautiful women he has ever seen. It’s obvious she’s an aristocrat, and Axe hates everything about the aristocratic lifestyle, but he can’t take his eyes off her.

Elise is chafing against the constraints of vampire society. Her father has found out that she’s been sneaking out to finish up her PhD program and is threatening to petition the king to keep her under his control and his roof for the rest of her days. She knows her family is shaken by the brutal murder of her cousin, but she is also sure she can’t stop living just to keep them comfortable.

As a sort of compromise, Elise’s father allows her to continue with her studies as long as she is guarded at all times. This is where Axe comes in. Working as Elise’s bodyguard isn’t exactly his dream job, but he figures it’s worth it for a couple of reasons. First off, aristocrats pay really well, and second, it will give him ample opportunity to be near Elise. Sure, she represents everything he hates about aristocrats, but he can’t quite manage to hate her, no matter how much he might want to.

The romance between Axe and Elise is everything I’ve come to expect from this author. The sexual tension practically sizzles between them. I love the way Axe is forced to re-examine his prejudices and put some of them aside in order to make things work with Elise. For her part, Elise has to look at her life and make some tough choices about who she is and what she really wants for herself. It’s a relationship filled with turmoil, but their feelings for one another shine through so well.

There’s a really neat secondary plot to the story as well. Rhage and Mary have settled into life as the soon-to-be adoptive parents of an orphaned vampire child. Bitty is everything they’ve dreamed of in a child, and they’re counting the days until they can legally adopt her. Then, Mary is contacted via social media by someone from Bitty’s past, and everything she and Rhage hold dear is threatened.

I enjoyed seeing Rhage and several other Brothers. For me, it’s one of the high points of this series. Sure, I love learning about the new trainees, but the original Brothers hold a special place in my heart. Having said that, I was a bit surprised to see this particular storyline here. We dealt almost exclusively with Mary and Rhage in The Beast, so it seemed a little odd to have them get so much attention in Axe and Elise’s story as well. In some ways, it distracted a bit from the romantic arc of the novel.

I’ve loved Jim Frangione as a narrator since I first heard him read Dark Lover. His voice is incredibly sensual, and he’s very adept at bringing Ms. Ward’s characters to life. It’s a large cast, but Mr. Frangione creates distinguishable voices for everyone. He really seems to get the quirky humor Ms. Ward writes so well. In short, he’s practically the perfect narrator for this series.

My one quibble with his performance has to do with the way he depicts Elise. Several times, the text alludes to her accent. Axe thinks it’s slightly European and more than a little snobbish, but Mr. Frangione doesn’t even attempt to do an accent for her. She sounds just like the other characters, and this was quite disappointing. I’ve heard him do very convincing accents in the past, so I’m not sure why he chose to avoid one this time.

If you’ve enjoyed Ms. Ward’s books in the past, Blood Vow is something you’ll want to pick up. It’s not my favorite in either series, but it holds its own pretty well.

Shannon


Narration: B+

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Escalated Fighting

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Random House Audio

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