Well shit. I should follow my gut more often. This was pretty damn good. Okay it was awesome! And this is coming from a previous skeptic. I'm kicking myself for not grabbing all BDB books off the shelf when I had the chance. Dammit. 
 I kept sitting on this for months after I bought the book. Kind of scared, mostly hesitant and just put off reading this. This was a very pleasant surprise and those are the kind of surprises that I LOOOVE. I relish it. Makes me want to re-read books like this that blow me away. Finally a contemporary-paranormal book that's worth its salt. About damn. freaking. time. BDB boys WHERE have you been? See this is how vampires should be portrayed in CPR. 
 I was fully prepared to be underwhelmed and just blah after reading this given the big hype that follows this series and the author. It's safe to say why I'm leery about books like that. I've heard over and over again about the praises of these colorful characters and the whole BDB gang. But I get it now. Yes I get it! lol 
 Here we have Wrath leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood and King of his race of vampires. He's also known as the Blind King given he has poor eyesight and shields his eyes all the time with dark sunglasses. (And thank you Ward for letting me see what is BEHIND those glasses cause I was dying to know lol) I will say Wrath is a very unique character and definitely not your typical cliche dark brooding vampire hero. Oh hell no. Of course he's the total alpha-male take charge possessive hero who's mere presence in scenes just makes you consume the whole book cause it's addictive and so enthralling. His physical description is not what I would personally find attractive but damn did he make it work. He wheeled me in completely. He's a lumbering giant brute, but a gentle one (er when he wants to be). He has long black raven hair, is packed with muscles, wears leather pants and has amazing sharp senses and stealth for someone his size. He makes quite a commanding presence in every scene he's in that you can pretty much feel it. He is a package of contradictions a fierce ruthless warrior who will kill to protect those he loves but has a very tender incredibly gentle surprising vulnerable side that I found very attractive, endearing and damn sexy. The way he was with Beth was just sigh and melt-worthy. They had a lot of sweet intense passionate poignant scenes between them that I personally couldn't get enough of. I was greedy for more of them. I just love alpha-male heroes who have this bad ass exterior but incredibly tender loving side that comes out when he's around the right woman and not afraid to show it in front of others no less. Just oof! Yu-mmy. Made me turn into a puddle more than once. 
 On to Beth, what can I say I loved her. I adored Beth! The perfect Queen to his King. She was pretty courageous, sharp-witted yet with a very kind patient compassionate heart. I liked that she could stand on her own and wasn't afraid to stand up to Wrath who is a very intimidating male. I found her incredibly brave and sweet and so perfect for Wrath who was the complete cynic when it came to love and all-things-human. She turned his world upside down and it was great to see. Beth Randall is half human half-vampire daughter of Darius, one of the Brotherhood warriors who asks Wrath to protect and watch over her during her 'transition'. A transition is the period in a vampire's life when they become fully vampire. After a twist of fate, the responsibility falls in Wrath's hands to look out for her and take care of her during her change which she has no idea about. I loved their first encounter and everything that follows after. Ward really knows how to go there there with sensual and steamy moments. The sex scenes in this....oh my! *fans self* Good lorrrrd. That's some pretty sensual stuff. These two were just insatiable and I just loved how Wrath couldn't get enough of her. They were just too sweet and so adorable and freaking beautiful. Wrath kept surprising me with how tender and loving and generous he was with her. He's such a gentle giant I really loved it. I will say as far as the sex scenes, I was fully prepared to get all kinds of crazy kinky shit in this (which I don't mind) but it was surprisingly toned down. Okay maybe 'toned down' is a poor choice of words cause it was still freaking HOT and very raw and intense but I was expecting to get crazy kinky raunchy shit with 'hot dripping pussy' in every other line, but thankfully there wasn't any of that over the top crap. Thank you Ward! But in all seriousness, Ward pleasantly surprised me in the romance department. She really knows how to do raw hot steamy sexy time yet make it beautiful and suck you in completely. And I really loved the descriptive detail with every Brother and their distinctive personalities; they certainly are a unique bunch. I couldn't help but draw parallels between these bad boys and Gena Showalter's Lord of the Underworld warriors. Lots of similarities there! 
 I love the whole Brotherhood gang of guys but the one that stood out to me besides Wrath in this was Zsadist. Oh man. *thud* @_@ Oh my! Talk about dark incredibly screwed up character. He caught my attention from the start, he's a pretty terrifying male who has a lot of issues but I'm most intrigued by him out of all the BDB gang. There's something about him that stood out to me and I want to know what kind of gal will catch his interest and give him hope again. I can't help it, the dark tormented guys are the most interesting to me. Yeah I need help. lol Those few infrequent run-in scenes between him and Beth were very telling and caught my interest. For a male who says very little besides blunt words he is a total scene-stealer. 
 Aside from that the *only* hold up I had with this that kind of surprised me was regarding Beth's transition. The book started out and pretty much built it up as the story progressed about how horrific and life-altering the 'change' is and how Beth may not survive it. We have Wrath constantly fearing and stressing out over it and trying to warn her that she needs to go with him to be prepared but finally when the transition takes place it felt a little.....lacking. I was waiting and waiting for the climactic moment only for it to fill out a page where the author kind of glosses over it really fast in a quick summary. All I got out of it was Wrath feeds her his blood and she sleeps...and sleeps some more. She wakes up with fangs and that's it. Huh? Besides the bickering over the sunlight there wasn't much of a dramatic change as I was hoping. I was expecting to get tension between her and Wrath and major angst over her trying to adjust to her 'new life' but got nothing. The only 'tension' was them arguing over her going out in sunlight. That was pretty much it. I was anxious to see how she would survive the change and deal with being a vampire but she just adapted to it so easily like it was nothing that I felt it came off a tad bit contrived. Yes she's technically half-human but still, the girl's world has completely changed I was hoping to get a few scenes of her actually trying to deal with it. Or at least Wrath showing her how to feed. But nada. 
 Anyways I will continue this series...for now. I'm definitely intrigued but cautious still. I'm trying to stay away from any kind of spoilers cause I have seen enough comments about this series and the characters and inadvertently read big spoilers about a few books that I wish I didn't see. Ack! I just hope I get to see more of Wrath and Beth as it continues. I will be bummed if this is the last I see of them. Great start! Love me some Wrath and Beth. <3