Dark Lover by J.R. Ward

This was my first audio book this year, and my second audio book ever. The Black Dagger Brotherhood is a huge series and I figured it was about time to get started on it. I wasn't disappointed. The story was exciting and really held my interest from start to finish. There's an interesting mix of traditional lore and the author's own little twist. I loved the concept of the Lesser society. It was a new look at vampire slayers and demons that added a nice layer to the world Ward has created.
The Brotherhood was a little over the top - and I know they are supposed to be - but they were just too "big" for me. The saving grace was that they each seem to have some serious flaw in their physical-self, personality, or haunted past to help balance out their amazing power and size. Their leader, Wrath, is quite a hard person that is very driven in his task of taking out Lessers, even more so after the one of the Brotherhood is killed. There's quite a bit of suspense and excitement in the story that revolves around this death and the rise of power in the Lessers that takes the Brotherhood by surprise.
But this is a romance, and quite a good one. Beth is a unique woman, She's not a vampire, but she's not a human, and Wrath can't seem to stay away from her. I loved her fire and her spunk. She wasn't one to let a big vampire walk all over her and tell her what to do. Her introduction to the vampire world was great. I'm a big fan of the freak-out moment. The moment where someone realizes all those scary stories are real and they just walked into one. Beth's realization was great and it only made me like her more.
The narrator of the audiobook took a little getting used to. Partly because it was a male, and the voice in my reading head has always been female. But he told the story well and drew me in quickly. He was quite a nice companion on my daily walks.