The Jackal

Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp, Book 1

By: J. R. Ward

Narrated by: Jim Frangione

Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

The number one New York Times best-selling author of The Sinner brings another hot adventure of true love and ultimate sacrifice.

The location of the glymera's notorious prison camp was lost after the raids. When a freak accident provides Nyx clues to where her sister may still be doing time, she becomes determined to find the secret subterranean labyrinth. Embarking on a journey under the earth, she learns a terrible truth - and meets a male who changes everything, forever.

The Jackal has been in the camp for so long, he cannot recall anything of the freedom he once knew. Trapped by circumstances out of his control, he helps Nyx because he cannot help himself. After she discovers what happened to her sister, getting her back out becomes a deadly mission for them both.

United by a passion they can't deny, they work together on an escape plan for Nyx - even though their destiny is to be forever apart. And as the Black Dagger Brotherhood is called upon for help and Rhage discovers he has a half-brother who's falsely imprisoned, a devious warden plots the deaths of them all...even the Brothers. 

©2020 Love Conquers All, Inc (P)2020 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

"Utterly absorbing and deliciously erotic." (Angela Knight)

"Hot, sexy, unique, intriguingly wicked." (Christine Feehan)

OH.. MY.. GOD. UNIQUE & TOTALLY EPIC

I’ve been with The Black Dagger Brotherhood and JRW from the very beginning.. obsessed and blown away with each and every awesome new book in the series (and spin-off series) and preorder them asap. Why? well that’s easy answered.. because their storylines are always unique.. and world-building.. and romantic.. and a gripping tension-filled rocky rollercoaster ride as good battles bad while someone within The Brotherhood falls in love. And this, book 1 in the new spin-off series, was just as pulse-pounding and intense as all the others that went before it.. but a wee bit darker being set in the dank underground labyrinths of the Glymera Prison run by a cloaked Evil monster. However, determined and strong Nyx would walk into the bowels of Hell to save her innocent sister who’d already been there for far too long.. and the bowels of Hell it truly was. But there were tentative moments of joy and Heaven too when Nyx meets Jackal (aka Jack) and he helps her in her quest.. and they quickly fall in love. Through it all though, Jack sadly knows that there will be no happy ever afters for them.. so all he can do is help, protect, fight and sacrifice for the woman who has claimed his heart.

JRW does what JRW does best and takes you on a multi- layered jaw-dropping journey of harsh backstories, revelations, twists and nail-biting chilling and thrilling drama as the storyline builds, intensifies and races to its climactic breath-stealing epic ending. There’s a couple of sweet, sexy stolen oasis moments amidst a backdrop of danger, imminent capture and death is around every bend or wrong move.. and twists.. and twists.. and twists. And, before the tears of joyous happy ever afters, this magnificent insanely talented maestro of an author, seamlessly ties all the invisible threads of twisty twists together and delivers the ultimate 5 star Paranormal Romance.. with those invisible threads all leading back to, and deeply rooted in, the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

Worth a credit? Oh.. my.. God it was everything I was hoping for.. and absolutely nothing like I was expecting too (.. but in a good way). I’m blown away with JRW’s abilities at spinning and growing her epic tales that have it all and so so much more.. and YES it’s absolutely worth a credit, And it just wouldn’t be the same Brotherhood world I love so much with anyone other than Jim Frangione’s glorious voice bringing the multiple POV’s, new characters, old preloved ones and the multi-layered multi-dimensional storylines to life.

Great start to a new spin off series

I love J R Wards’ Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Usually I’d stay up all night and read a book straight through and give it 5 stars. I only gave this 4 stars because I gave up halfway through and it was a couple of days before I came back to it. I just wasn’t that invested in what happened next for the main character, Nyx, in the first half of the book.
I think the problem is that for the first half of the book Nyx just isn’t very likeable. She’s supposed to come across as tough and brave but I found her emotionally hard, stupidly stubborn, impulsive and reckless to a point where she needlessly endangers the people who are helping her. I know she has to keep getting herself in deep trouble for the plot to be engaging and the underlying theme is about the transformation of her character through adversity. The problem was there just wasn’t much to make me like her in the beginning despite her flaws. I think the fact she’s desperate to save her sister is supposed to counter her personality flaws but it just didn’t work for me. There just wasn’t enough background early on about why she HAD to save her sister so desperately to make me really care about her or her sister or whether she succeeded or not. That may sound harsh but JR Ward is normally one of the best writers I know for making us care deeply about the characters. Very few books normally make me cry for the characters but she usually manages it. So I was really disappointed that not only couldn’t I connect with Nyx but that I actively disliked and was irritated by her in the first half. Well I suppose she was engendering some emotions - just not the right ones!
Having said that I ‘fell in love’ with the Jackal right away. In fact of all the BDB’s male characters I think he (and Rhage) are at the top of my ‘fantasy boyfriend’ list. I also think this book has found a really good balance with the ‘naughty’ scenes. There aren’t too many or totally unnecessary sex scenes. (Take note Christine Feehan!) Each one drives the plot forward and isn’t so detailed as to come across as crude. You also feel a convincingly deep connection between the characters in these scenes. A very difficult balancing act for a writer to achieve which for me, many writers in this genre don’t get quite right (or very wrong in some cases!)
But of course in the second half of the book Nyx redeems herself so stick with it if you’re struggling. It’s worth it in the end. I was totally engaged with the second half and read it in one go.
The only other minor niggle I have is a bit of a believability issue. I got the impression from earlier in the series that there aren’t a huge number of vampires in the USA, perhaps a few thousand, and their society is mainly centred around Caldwell. It kept bothering me that it seems pretty unlikely that a thousand vampires disappear from Caldwell, even if it is over a couple of centuries, and the brotherhood knows practically nothing about this prison. And trying not to give away any spoilers - Nobody notices that the management has gone rogue. But it’s these ‘niggles’ that pull you out of being absorbed in the story whilst your brain says ‘Hang on...?’
Finally, as usual, Jim Frangione does a great job with the narration. If you’re you’re unfamiliar with him he can come across as a bit ‘overblown’ until you get used to his voice but he’s excellent at expressing the emotional tone of the writing. The highest praise I can give any voice actor is that in short order you don’t notice them because their voice becomes the characters voice. Jim always manages to achieve that for me.
Overall I just couldn’t give it 5 stars because of these issues. However a 4 star book of J R Wards is WAY superior to to 90% of the books in this genre on Audible that are rated as 5 star.
If you don’t know JR Wards books I’d still highly recommend it.

Good book

Loved every second of it, love the story and will read/listen the next book ind the series

No spoilers

The book the Jackal was fantastic, lots of vivid imagery and a story to get lost in.
Like so Black dagger brotherhood books the book of the Jackal was a fantastic story completed over 72 hours , I have to admit it's one of the best books I've read.

You will not be disappointed

As always a very good storyline. Although less erotic passion but in keeping with plot

Could listen to Jim for hours

I love this narrator, he brings the story to life.
I’m not much of an audio book, I like the feel of a book, I like to read it myself.
But if I have to listen then I’ll listen happily to Jim.