Book Review: The Jackal

Author: J. R. Ward

Title: The Jackal

Publisher: Gallery Books

Publish Date: August 18, 2020

Buy: Amazon

Book Blurb: 

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.

Review: To say I struggled with this book would be an understatement. I have heard about the Black Dagger Brotherhood series for ages and I thought reading the first book in a spin off series would give me an idea of whether or not to go and read the rest.

I probably won't.

For me this was more violent than I usually like. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not all about hearts and flowers where vampires are concerned but this was just not my cup of tea, so to speak.

I could totally see this being done for tv and I think this story might even, dare I say it, work better there, than on print. The characters, Nyx and Jack really needed something more to bring them to life for me. I never felt truly invested in either of them.

Nyx goes off, half cocked to find her sister who was imprisoned for murder. Jack is imprisoned for something he didn't do. The backstory on Jack is by far the most interesting part of the book for me than anything about Nyx.

The time spent in the prison looking for Janelle felt like forever when it was only a few days. That made the instant love between the two main characters feel outrageous, but they are vampires, so anything is possible, right?

There definitely were a few interesting plot twists involving Janelle and also involving Jack, which felt sort of contrived for me, because as the story was going on, something had to happen or it would just keep plodding along with no direction. I wish the twist would have given more oomph to the story, but it only gave a small "wow" before it fizzled.

I was hoping for something great with this book, but it really was a mediocre read for me.

Rating: 3 flowers