Although I rated this book 4 stars, I would have preferred a 4.5 rating if it was possible.
First, for the positive. If you are a J.R. Ward and/..Show More »or Black Dagger Brotherhood fan, Crave (and Covet) will not disappoint. For all of the fans who disliked reading about the Lessers in BDB, these books have much less detailed background about the demons so they will be pleased. What we do learn about Devina helps us understand her quirks and makes her into better evil being.
Ward has created a great leading man in Jim and he just keeps getting better. His character is coming along nicely. Jim's 2 sidekicks are becoming more likable and we are learning a little more about them.
I thought the narrator, Eric Dove, did an excellent job. I know that many fans were unhappy that Jim Frangione of the BDB series did not do the narration with this series, but I did not find a single problem with Dove. In fact, I think he did a fine job with Isaac's Mississippi accent.
As for the negatives of the book, there was one torture scene that was a little too graphic for me. I would have preferred to hear about that scenario in a little less detail. I'm not usually squeamish, but this is not for the faint of heart.
Grier and Isaac started out smoldering, but by the 2nd half of the book they had dropped by several degrees into a lukewarm relationship. It was a little disappointing.
There wasn't nearly as much "branding" in this book as in the BDB books. but most of it was well placed in the plot. A few spots missed completely. I'm all for slang and branding if the character calls for it, but a 50-something year old, suit-wearing, rich lawyer calling mushrooms "shrooms" is pushing it. Not likely to happen.
Overall, I think this book is a solid 4.5. I tend to get bored unless a book is very good and this kept my attention all the way through. I am waiting for the next book in the series. I think the series will continue to improve and I predict the next book will be a solid 5 stars.

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I'm in love with Eric Dove! He could read the dictionary and I would listen to it. Oh and the strory was good too.

I'm so MAD! Who was the genius who thought that speeding up this narration was a good idea? I've listened to the first hour and had to go back several..Show More » times because I couldn't follow what's going on! I've listened to hundreds of audiobooks and this has never happened to me before. So far it seems like the book is one big paragraph without punctuation because the narrator is just rushing through. There's one part at the beginning where Mathias is supposed to be reflecting the bad things he's done in his life and it goes so fast that it almost sounds like the legal disclaimer in medication ads. I'm tired just listening. (Not blaming Eric Dove who did an amazing job with the previous books but the producer or whomever makes those decisions.)

I woke up at 5am on the book release day and the first thing I did was check Audible to see if the audio was available. I checked several times during the day and bought it as soon as I saw it - didn't even bother listening to the sample because I loved the previous 3 books. BIG MISTAKE! If you compare the narration of the first 3 books with this one, you can tell there's definitely something wrong. All the other books are around 500 pgs. in print and around 14 hrs. hours in audio...how can this book have the same number of pages but be almost 2 hrs. shorter?

Somebody fixes this or I'm returning this book. I just bought this audio because I loved the narration...if this SUCKS, then I'm definitely not reading this in print.

(Rating is due to the speed of the narration...if I understood what was happening, maybe I could rate the story more appropriately.)

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