2. The dialogue. The H-men (as I like to think of them) talk like rappers for a third of the book and bikers for another third. In theory, either one of these is fine. After all, dialogue should match a character's personality. But when every line of entire sections of dialogue ends with the word "true" or "man", it starts feeling a little intrusive.
3. The caricature factor. The H-Men have an almost caricature quality. Picture the most alpha male you can conjure up, then magnify him 10x and that's how these men are portrayed physically. I know some readers like a love interest who is "real" but I'm a fan of the pretty ones - give me a handsome face and a hot body. If I want to fantasize about "real", I can do that walking around the office.* But, I do like a healthy dose of believability mixed in with my love interests. When I have a hard time believing they make clothes large enough to encompass the man's massive thighs, it's gone a little too far for me.
4. The relationship. Or, lack thereof. All the main couple seems to do when they're not shagging is argue. That makes the HEA a little less credible for me.
Now that I've aired my grievances, let me tell you all the reasons that I kept turning the pages--feverishly, at some points.
1. The dialogue. Yeah, I know. You thought we'd covered this one above. The thing is, when I wasn't rolling my eyes at the gangsta-speak, I was admiring how few compromises Ward made in the dialogue. It's thick with profanity, which is an automatic turn off for some readers. (Though it's a plus in my book. I love me some swear words.) But it felt right at home coming out of the brothers' mouths. The dialogue was also pretty sparse for most of the book, which was spot on as the majority of the characters are gruff alpha males who would rather express themselves with knuckles and steel than words.
2. Depth. This one seems to be at odds with my beef about the caricature factor, right? I know, it's puzzling. There were many stereotypical alpha qualities about the brothers but Ward also did a good job at giving each brother his own personality and vulnerability that gave them an unexpected depth. It kept me reading.
3. The relationship. Are you seeing a pattern yet? Despite the fact that Wrath and Beth seemed to infuriate each other half the time, they also made each other vulnerable in a compelling and (dare I say it?) tender way. I wanted to see Beth break through Wrath's gruff exterior and I wanted to see him win her over. I wanted it so bad that at some points, I was skipping pages just to see what happened next -- the Cardinal Sin of reading in my book. (Though I did go back and read the skipped pages once I'd finally quenched my need to know more.)
At the end of the day, Dark Lover produced a puzzling mix of reactions in me. There's no denying I liked it -- a great deal, in fact. But there were definitely aspects of the book that pushed my buttons.
What I find most interesting about the reading experience is that all the things that sucked me into the book were things I would have told you "weren't me". I would have told you I wasn't into the stereotypical alpha male, and that I would never be drawn in by the obvious ploy of strong-man-exterior/wounded-man-interior, and that it would take more to light me up inside than the been-done-before story of self hating boy meeting sad girl who helps him realize he has value.
Boy, was I wrong. {grin}
Ward manages to pull all these disparate factors together--this collection of "ooh I loved that!" and "oh for christ's sake"--and weave them into a story that's compelling and satisfying. I've already added Book 2 to my shopping cart at Amazon.
*Don't get me wrong, I like "real" in my books, too. Not every guy has to be described as a weightlifting GQ cover model to catch my interest. But, yanno, it doesn't hurt. ;)
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