The Jackal (Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp #1)

The author must have wanted to write a book about prison camps and the sociopaths that run them. She had achieved a highly readable book with The Savior so she pivoted 45 degrees, and instead of the bad guys keeping vampires in a diabolical research facility, she put them into a hidden prison where they live out miserable lives as tortured slaves with no hope of ever completing their sentences. The difference between The Jackal and The Savior is Ms Ward invested her writing talent in characters, and story in the latter, but with The Jackal, she tosses in a few characters, never develops them, never makes them remotely interesting, and then grabs both ends of the book, and slides in an improbable connection with Rhage, so she can claim this is a Black Dagger novel. Everyone loves the Black Dagger warriors so all of us will rush out and buy the book. In the meantime she has avoided developing a few characters who could have been very interesting and worth knowing, like the old grandfather, and even the main hero, The Jackal. We met him early in the last century where he is a highly talented architect who happens to look a lot like Rhage. In fact The Jackal is the designer of the mansion which becomes the home of all the Black Dagger brotherhood. But this is so incidental to the story the mansion,which has been almost its own character in the early novels, is reduced to a few blue prints in what is more or less a preamble.
Rhage happens to be at the home of a glymera sycophant named Jabon and gets to know this young man slightly . A highly suspect charge of rape sends the Jackal to this prison. And that is the end of the beginning. The sycophant Jabon, who appears initially as a central character, disappears from the story. Rhage never liked Jabon for reasons that are never clear so Rhage leaves in a huff and goes on with his life.
When we meet The Jackal 100 years later he is just walking around the prison, brooding. Enter the brave female Nyx.
There is sex, violence, more violence, and lots of brooding. And, at the end Rhage is brought back in to prove, yes this is a Black Dagger Brotherhood book. Rhage is as confused as the reader as to what he is doing in this book but he agrees to go save The Jackal. (Just took him a hundred years to remember who he was.)
Phury, Z, and V, Darius and the King also make cameo appearances and the book ends. Blah!
I know Ms Ward can write really gripping stories using these characters, books with humor, heart, and books you cannot put down. This is not one of them. She must have phoned this one in.

3 1/2 stars

I have been incredibly disappointed with the last 4-5 BDB books so I went into this with low expectations.

The start of the book was boring and filled with unnecessary filler and its like the author is trying to impress us with clever use of her literary skills. Less showing off and more focus on the story would go a long way. I have no doubt she is a talented author but I do believe shes been lost in the dazzle of success that the BDB has bought her and her publishers are getting incredibly greedy with their pricing. I know hard core fans wont like me saying all that , but its what comes to my mind as I read , so just sharing thats how I feel.

Once things got rolling I enjoyed the characters , Nyx was a strong female of worth and The Jackal is a great match for her , strong with a gentle caring side and I loved that he was so open with his affection for his family.

Leaning more of Rhages back story was great and I loved the things like the knife skills taught to V history also.

I hold hope that this series will grow , obviously some awesome characters we have been introduced to , so hopefully their stories are whats to come.

For hard core BDB fans , you will love this.

It was a good story. There were a few inconsistencies and the flashback speech was way outdated for the timeline and overly dramatic as far as grammar. I read some of it aloud and it sounded downright. Also, just saying…because there was a reference to copper pennies and vampires, but pennies haven’t been made with copper since the 80’s.. The Jackle seemed a lot less than alfa. Almost sissy-fide. Every time I think I will pick up a JR Ward and like it again I am disappointed. There is rarely intense passion between the protagonists and her formula has just changed into the generic and while I have liked the background characters more than the actual protagonists…I will have to say unless there is a character with the power of Wrath or intensity of Zsadist…I have to say I’m done.

J.R .Ward has to be joking.This is a absolutely ridiculous book about the BDB.She has turned this series into a joke.I have read like so many others the Whole series right from the very first one right up to this.Also the prices of her books are getting outrageous.I have seen the price of the next book after this and because of the disappointment of this book and the price I will not be buying it.So many of the top authors I have followed from the start have gone off track and their prices gone higher and higher.I feel ripped of by this stupid
greed and poor quality book….

Let me begin by saying I am a massive BDB fan so it actually pains me to leave a less than 5 star review. As it stands, on its own, this book isn’t that bad. The storyline is interesting enough, the writing is sound as always and the secondary characters are entertaining (I would love an Apex book!) However, I feel that the more characters Ms Ward introduces and the more spin-offs that come along, the further we get from the original ‘family’ that I so loved in the beginning. I am aware that this isn’t strictly a BDB novel but I have just re-read Zsadist’s book and this book pales in comparison. With each new book the brothers seem to fade into less than secondary characters. The exception being Rhage. I love Rhage but he’s had at least two books and his story has evolved in many more. What’s going on with Phury, Zsadist, even Wrath? They’re afterthoughts. I’d love the author to just stop introducing new characters, for a few books at least, and take us back to the brothers, the mansion, the wives and kids. Bring us up to date in detail, take us back to the world we’re familiar with. I miss Zsadist, Bella, Fritz, Beth…..I could keep going.
Anyway, to conclude, a nice read but if it’s more BDB you’re after I’d start rereading from book one.

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