Darius

A Black Dagger Brotherhood Love Story

By: J.R. Ward

Narrated by: Jim Frangione

Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's Summary

In this powerful audio exclusive, #1 New York Times bestseller J.R. Ward shares the star-crossed love story of listener favorite, and original member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Darius.

Darius, son of Marklon, isn’t looking for love the night destiny comes to claim him. He’s also not interested in crashing his new car. But when a human woman runs out into the road and he must swerve to avoid killing her...everything goes off course. 

Disillusioned by his King’s lack of leadership and the losses in the war against the Lessening Society, Darius finds purpose in protecting a woman he cannot make his own. Love finds a way, however—until the truth of what he is comes out and she leaves him in horror.

Unbeknownst to them both, Anne is carrying his young, a female who is destined to be Queen—and after a tragic reunion, he vows to protect their daughter. Resigned to perpetual sadness, he is determined to serve the memory of his beloved no matter the cost...unless by some miracle, fate sees fit to once again bring them together.

©2022 Love Conquers All, Inc. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

I'm So Very Grateful

I was late to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, but they arrived in my life at the perfect time. My husband passed away, leaving me alone with morbid thoughts. Reading has been my escape from my solitary world. Then I discovered J. R. Ward and Jim Frangione. I am so grateful for the amazing talent and for being the beneficiary of such intelligent humor, touching plots, gorgeous heroes and heroines, and meaningful, unforgettable themes. I have been dreading the July anniversary of my wedding. The isolation, the painful, but beautiful grief. Then appears "Darius" in my library, a work of redemption and hope. So yes, I'm grateful for Ms. Ward and Mr. Frangione for their work that brings an undeniable joy to so many of us.

Pure Perfection!!

I really don't know how to even express how much I loved this book. The back story of Darius was pure perfection. To learn how Beth came to be. More about the Male ( I was going to say man, but he's a vampire and they call themselves Males!) who owned the house where this story all started with Wrath and Beth, as well as the Mansion he wanted them all to live in. It was a very emotional story, at least to me. It's hard when you know what happens to him. He was a very special soul, very civilized for a Brother and I just loved this book. It was fascinating having the different Brothers either pop in or be mentioned and talked about from a perspective of prior to the 1st book Dark Lover. 20 stars!!! The cherry on top is Jim Frangione narrating. He's THE voice of the Black Dagger Brotherhood and there can be no other. He makes the Audio pure perfection!!!!

I'm not crying, you're crying

just so much love for this story. We, BDB fans, had been begging for Darius' story and like the boss b*tch she is, JR Ward delivered a freakin gem. We all knew how this story had to end, as book 1 of the BDB series, is the "end" of Darius, so it softened the blow We knew would come. I want to wrap this book in my arms and hold it forever.

🌻I kept pausing to avoid the ending 🌻

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻V from Kansas🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

I always binge listen to any new release, in the BDB series. However, I found myself finding reasons to NOT finish, this one. I just didn’t want to get to the sad parts I knew were coming, based on the knowledge from the early books, of the BDB series.

After all of the books I’ve listened to and the character growth that has happened, during the series, it was interesting to get a reminder of where a lot of the characters started, before their transformation.

There was an important scenes that the author did not revisit, during this book, that I really felt needed to be included. One was the scene where Darius asked Wrath to help Beth through her transition, and the other was the scene, in the sanctuary, between the Virgin Scribe and Darius, when they make their “deal”, allowing Darius to continue to watch over his daughter.

Although there were some important missing elements, in my opinion, I’m glad that Darius finally found his peace and his HEA.

Darius

My heart, I am so so glad we get this story.

Yes is it tragic, yes we know the ending isn't going to be in our favor but that wasn't why we all wanted/needed this story.

Darius is like the conduit for everything the BDB is now. He brought them all together. Without him I don't think the BDB would still be fighting. I loved the his shellan is a human.
I loved that Scribe Virgin visits Anne. The bigger picture and how it all fell into place because of these two.

I got a lot of closure after listening to this and I can't wait to see where the rest of the series is going to take us now.

Again Jim does a phenomenal job with the narration.

Left me feeling neutral

Admittedly, this is the first book on audio I have tried, so please take this review with a grain. I like my imagination far more when I can read the book and create the characters in my own mind; voices too. So this was a challenge for me to finish listening to the story. And I am drawn to this series such that I have read and re-read the series several times over. Unfortunately, being forced into an audio only book and craving the story of Darius, I had internal conflicts with how the other characters reacted, talked, responded, etc., due to the flat narration. I am not a fan of audio books, and this one sealed this dislike towards any further audio book time again.
Let me begin with the narration: I fought to keep listening, and actually welcomed interruptions. The interpretation of the material and characters felt off. Anne sounded far too naive and mousey, with clipped responses, pushing the scenes into "rolling the eyes" territory. And the Males of the Black Dagger Brotherhood have more bravado and a masculine swagger which I didn't quite feel Darius lived up to in this area.
Like I just mentioned above, the narration fell flat for me personally. It isn't enough to simply read the words coherently, but to also set a scene and bring it to life. I just didn't feel this happen, and listened with only a clinical interest.
As for the overall story: it seems rushed into completion and the story lines teetered on thin strings. Unusual, considering that prior books took entire chapters to develop a single angle. Again, this is my first attempt at listening to a "book" on audio, so I may be missing something to the experience?
If this story was releases in print, I would much prefer it than to ever listen to this version again.

Great Read

I am so glad that the story of Darius was written. We obtained some of his early life from his diaries and through the story of Zex and Autumn. Now we have the pleasure to see how he met Ann and conceived Beth. What a great conclusion to his story.

This was just okay for me

It might have been that I'm not a fan of audio or that the whenever the narrator spoke for Ann, she seemed like she was too sweet and an idiot. I cannot stand female protagonists who are too perfect and never have an imperfect thought. Ugh!

I did, however, crack up at the voice of the taxi driver.

I liked the overall story and the references to the eighties.

Good story

it was good but disappointing. nothing about Darius knowing about his son, John Matthew.

love Darius

He's classy and should have been the leader of the Aristocracy. Calm and collected. I see him as the perfect Brother. sad that he didn't get to talk to Thor.