I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Excerpt can be read at the bottom of my review.
“I’m not scared”
“Maybe you should be. Wolves are wild animals. Their rules are their own.”
Set in the same world as The Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Claimed is the first book in J.R Ward’s new series, The Lair of the Wolven.
Lydia Susi is passionate about protecting wolves in their natural habitat. When a hotel chain develops a tract of land next to the preserve, Lydia is one of the most vocal opponents of the project – and becomes a target.
The new hire at Wolf Study Project, Daniel Joseph, is both mysterious and someone she intrinsically wants to trust, but is he hiding something?
As the stakes get higher and one of Lydia’s colleagues is murdered, she must decide how far she will go to protect the wolves.
Some fates demand courage, others require even more, with no guarantees. Is she destined to have true love… or will a soul shattering loss ruin her forever?
“Unless you tell me to go,” he said in a husky voice, “I’m going to kiss you.”
As Lydia stared up into his face, they both knew what she wanted. What she needed. Still, she kept them on the edge for a heartbeat or two.
“I don’t want you to leave.”
Claimed started out strong and I really fell into the first half to three quarters of the novel but there were a number of things that disappointed me about the book as a whole to the point that I was honestly unsure whether I actually enjoyed the book or not. After having time to process the novel, I’ve come to the conclusion that I did enjoy it but there were quite a few things that did inhibit my overall enjoyment of it and a lot of those came down to the expectations I had for it based on both the genre & my past experience reading J.R Ward’s books & the way her books/series are written.
On one hand, I really did enjoy it. I liked the characters and I’m keen to find out what happens next, but on the other, this was not at all what I expected. The paranormal aspect seemed almost non-existent for a lot of the novel, and I ended up finishing the book with more questions than when I started it – and not necessarily in a good way.
I think what threw me off the most and stopped me from enjoying it as much as I could have been that I was not expecting these characters arcs to be continued across more than one book. I was expecting The Lair of the Wolven series to follow the same format as JR Ward’s other series and be more interconnected stand-alone than a full series, with each book featuring two central characters whose arcs would be wrapped up and plot are resolved by the end of the novel, while the central plot for the series would be left open enough to continue in the future books. Claimed, however, was not written this way & it appears that the series is going to follow Lydia & Daniel throughout the books.
This is not a bad thing, but had I known this going into the book I would have been more prepared for the number of unanswered questions I had – not to mention the cliff hanger – & would have expected the level of confusion I was left with. Instead, I was caught off guard, tracking the number of pages I had left of the book as I tried to reconcile how close to the end it was with the abundance of unanswered questions that seemed to be growing by the page. Trying to figure out how Ward could possibly wrap the story up in such a short amount of time while providing satisfying answers ended up souring my enjoyment of the book itself because so many twists were being dropped, leaving me with more and more questions and very little clarification, right when – if it had been an interconnected stand alone as I was expecting – I was anticipating getting some answers & resolutions.
Claimed is definitely an enjoyable and gripping novel but don’t go into it expecting the arc/progression of an interconnected stand-alone.
“The pair of them had hopeful expressions on their faces, as if they were trying to appeal to her better nature—which was a joke because she didn’t really have one.
Well, except when it came to . . . well, the two fighters who stood in front of her.”
I loved the Black Dagger Brotherhood and loved getting to see a bit more of them during Xhex’s chapters. I particularly loved getting to see some more of John Matthew and Xhex as well as Xhex and Blays friendship. Although as much as I enjoyed that, I did find that her chapters didn’t really seem to fit with the rest of the book and because I would get so engrossed in Lydia & Daniel’s chapters and plot, I found myself wanting to skim read them in a similar fashion to how I skim read the Lesser chapters when I reread the BDB books, so I could get back to Lydia and Daniel.
It wasn’t until towards the end of the novel that inclusion of these chapters started making sense and I could understand why Ward included them, but unfortunately by that point they had already detracted from the pacing of the novel and my overall enjoyment.
“I wonder if there’s a plumbing deity somewhere out there I can pray to.”
“You want me to build you a shrine to Drano?”
“Will you?”
There was a moment towards the start where I thought Claimed was going to mirror Dark Lover (sort of like how the Star Wars movies mirror the episodes from the original trilogy) & I got really excited because I LOVE Dark Lover. It always has such a fresh vibe every time I reread it & I can’t put it into words but it’s always just stood out to me in a way a lot of other books, even other BDB books, haven’t (no matter how much I’ve loved them). But Claimed ended up being quite different, which is also great.
As I mentioned above, the paranormal aspect of this book was not at all prominent. Apart from Xhex’s chapters and the occasional line or paragraph during Lydia and Daniels chapters that alluded to something paranormal occurring, the vast majority of the book felt more like a contemporary crime novel.
I really enjoyed getting to know these new characters and am really excited to see where Lydia’s arc – in particular – goes from here and see her grow as the series progresses, and also to get some answers for the copious amount of questions I still have.
Claimed is packed with Ward’s signature dry witty humour and I loved the chemistry between Lydia and Daniel and I’m looking forward to getting to see more of them in the other books.
“I understand. We do work together—”
“That’s not why I’m leaving.”
“So why are you?”
He traced her cheek. Then her jawline. “If I stay, I’m not going to let you get any sleep at all.” He stepped back.
If you love a good plot twist then Claimed is for you. I was honestly not expecting any of the plot twists that got dropped in this book, to the point where my jaw dropped on multiple occasions. I loved how it flipped a lot of the expectations I had on their heads & subverted some of the common Paranormal Romance tropes.
Overall, I did really enjoy this book and I wish I had gone into it knowing that these characters would be the focus of the series as a whole and not have their individual arcs wrapped up at the end, but I am really excited to read the future books and get some more information on the Wolven.
Claimed is out now. Read on to check out the excerpt from the novel.
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Excerpt:
In so many ways, Lydia should have known. From the moment Daniel Joseph had appeared in her office doorway, there had been something about him.
But she hadn’t expected . . . this.
“Unless you tell me to go,” he said in a husky voice, “I’m going to kiss you.”
As Lydia stared up into his face, they both knew what she wanted. What she needed. Still, she kept them on the edge for a heartbeat or two.
“I don’t want you to leave.”
“Good,” he growled.
When he lowered his head, there was a rumble of satisfaction in his chest—and then she wasn’t hearing anything. Thinking anything. Worried about anything.
As big and strong as he was, his lips were soft against her own. Gentle, too, as if he knew she wanted to be handled with care—not because she didn’t want him, but because she did. Too much. And God, there were more reasons to pull away than get close to him, except there was no denying the chemistry. The connection. The heat.
And the experience was even better than the anticipation.
Aware that she was going to stop this sooner than she wanted, but much later than she should, Lydia lifted her arms and put them on his shoulders. His heavy body was rock-hard under his windbreaker, the muscles roping up to his neck—and that was where her hands went.
She just wanted to see if his hair was as thick and lush as it looked—
It was.
As she dug into the waves, he purred in response, like he was a great cat and she had found his favorite stroking place. And that was when he wrapped an arm around her waist. She did not feel trapped, though. She had the sense, as he continued to stroke her lips softly, that he would let her go immediately.
Not that she was going anywhere anytime the hell soon.
Inch by inch, their bodies came into full contact, her breasts against his chest, the front of her thighs meeting his, their hips brushing. And then the kiss deepened, his tongue licking into her—
Letting out another moan, she tightened her hold on his nape, in his hair, a sense of desperation making her rougher than she should have been—she was holding him to her now, grabbing on to him. But he was going with it. One of his hands traveled from her shoulder to her waist, to her hip, and she moved against his palm, imagining what it would be like to be naked with him touching her.
With those workman hands.
Daniel eased back and stroked her hair away from her face. “You’re a good kisser, you know that?”
“Am I?” She smiled like an idiot. “I could have sworn it was you.”
“I guess it’s us.” His eyes roamed her face. And then one side of his lips tilted up. “I’m going to go now.”
Lydia exhaled in surprise—but like she was going to sleep with him here on the mauve kitchen floor?
Not a bad idea, actually, she thought as she glanced down.
“Okay,” she said. “I understand. We do work together—”
“That’s not why I’m leaving.”
“So why are you?”
He traced her cheek. Then her jawline. “If I stay, I’m not going to let you get any sleep at all.” He stepped back. “You know where to find me, if you need me. And I’ll see you after we’re allowed to wake up at four-oh-one a.m.”
She nodded. “Good night, Daniel.”
Turning away, he lifted a hand over his shoulder. When he got to the door, he said, “Don’t forget to lock up.”
And then he was gone.
About the Author:
J.R. Ward is the author of over thirty novels, including those in her #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling series, The Black Dagger Brotherhood.
There are more than 15 million copies of Ward’s novels in print worldwide and they have been published in 25 different countries around the world. After graduating from law school, Ward began working in healthcare in Boston and spent many years as Chief of Staff of one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation. She lives in the south with her incredibly supportive husband and her beloved golden retriever.
Writing has always been her passion and her idea of heaven is a whole day of nothing but her computer, her dog and her coffee pot.
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