Covet - J.R. Ward

Author(s): J.R. Ward
Publisher: Signet
Date : 2009

Romance and redemption kick off this first sortie in a winner-takes-all endgame between angels and demons with the final outcome determined by seven battles for seven souls. The only thing that stands between those souls and damnation is Jim Heron - a man whose own soul is gray enough to make him an acceptable advocate for both Heaven and Hell.

The first soul up for grabs is Vin diPietro's. Vin is a rich and powerful man who is never satisfied with what he has even though everything he has is the very best. A man who started with nothing, did whatever it took, and bent whatever rules he could get away with to make it to the top. A man who has `lost' himself in a fog of avarice somewhere along the way, teetering on the edge of damnation, until the night that he catches a glimpse of Marie-Terese across a crowded dance floor. Seeing the beautiful and somehow familiar Marie-Terese is like a wake-up call for the soul Vin doesn't even realize that he's been loosing.

When Vin enters Marie-Terese's life she too is at a crossroads. The job which has meant her survival for Marie-Terese has been eating away her soul bite by bite. The wealthy and handsome Vin is everything Marie-Terese finds attractive in a man, but she's been there done that and paid a steep price for that mistake.

Little do the pair realize that Vin is a playing piece in a cosmic game, with points awarded based on whether or not Vin takes that final step towards damnation. But Vin is not alone on the game board, he has a champion in the form of Jim Heron - the sole person who has been chosen by both sides to help Vin with his choice. But of course Team Hell is cheating and trying to push Vin over the line. Still, even with Jim's help, it is Marie-Terese who is the key to Vin's salvation. But if Vin and Marie-Terese can't break free from the ghosts of their pasts and Jim can't head off the demon working to keep them ensnared by said ghosts, the world will be literally one step closer to Hell.

I really liked the romance between Vin and Marie-Terese and the development of both of these romantic leads. As cold and detached as Vin starts out, author Ward does a good job of transforming him so that it is easy to root for his redemption. Ward also does a great job of fleshing out Marie-Terese, a character that we've glimpsed as the lead prostitute from Zero Sum in the Black Dagger books. The back stories that Ward develops for Marie-Terese and Vin are detailed enough that there is a really good sense of not only who they are but who they were and the choices that lead them to this point. But I really like the way that they are the catalyst for each others redemption and I liked the tenderness which augments the attraction between the pair.

Okay this is the question that all of Ward's fans want answered, "Is this as good as the Black Dagger Brotherhood series?" Ward's style is pretty distinct - which means that the f-bombs, slang, and brand name dropping which irks some readers are present here - but I enjoy her style and it gives Covet the flavor of the BDB books without the fangs. What fans will appreciate - and this is what adds the icing to Ward's other books for me - is that she is already starting to setup for the strong male friendships which will carry through the series. Another plus is that the demon who is Jim's nemesis is a better adversary than the BDB's the pre-Lash-Lessers. Also fun, since this series is set in the the Brothers' home town, it looks like there will be some crossover and future development of some characters from Ward's other books - in addition to Marie-Terese, Trez and Detective De La Cruz appear - and there is a very very brief "nudge-nudge-wink-wink" drive-by cameo which will give fans a chuckle.

So the answer to the question for me is that I think that it will be as good. I say `will be' instead of `is' only because - even though I really enjoyed the romance and what we've learned about Jim so far - the fallen angel angle is not explored much here in this first book which it makes it hard to compete with the fully established series that BDB is after seven books. Personally I would have liked to have seen just a little bit more explained this go round - I was asking myself whether Jim was or wasn't a fallen angel through most of the book. Even with my lack of patience, my only other nit with Covet is I didn't much care for Jim's heavenly pep talks. Still my nits are minor and didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. There is enough promise in what's been laid out for the series so far that I liked everything else about Covet -- there is no doubt that I will be reading the next book.

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