The Barnes & Noble ReviewReady for your next J. R. Ward adrenaline rush? We're back in Caldwell, New York, home of the Dark Brotherhood, but this time the focus is not on one of J. R. Ward's irresistible big bad vampires but on Butch, the only human allowed in the inner circle. An ex-homicide cop with a number of issues, Butch fell in with the Brotherhood through a bizarre series of events. He has what seems to be a hopeless love for the elegant, aristocratic Marissa, the only unmated female in the glymera, or vampire aristocracy. When Butch goes down in a fight, the lessers try to use him as their own Trojan horse, implanting a piece of evil in his belly, but he is saved by Marissa. The heart of the book is the love story between Marissa and Butch, and the transformation each undergoes, but Ward also offers other characters to follow -- in particular, the ongoing secondary story of the adolescent John. Ginger Curwen