♥ℳelody's Reviews > The Beloved

I came for Nalla but stayed for Bitty.


Nate & Nalla

“Maybe I’m just over being nothing but the footnote of an epic love story!”

I didn't feel the chemistry between these two at all. Everything felt rushed and instantaneous so it fell flat. I appreciated Nate's backstory being similar to Nalla's father Zsadist. As a young, Nate and his mother were tested on and tortured horrifically by humans in a lab for scientific studies where they would inject Nate and his mother with human diseases and cancer. He was rescued from the lab by BDB Brother Muhrder and his mate Sarah who ended up adopting and raising him. Thirty years later we still see some of that trauma and PTSD peak through. All the elements were there to make this a great love story but unfortunately I struggled to connect with either of them. I didn't believe in the connection between Nate and Nalla because there was literally no build up to it. Like zero. Nate goes from pining over Rahyvnne for 33 YEARS to instantly lusting/smitten with Nalla after 1 scene. Page 83 no less. That's all. These two barely talked or knew much of each other before that so it didn't resonate. All it takes is one moment of seeing Nalla karate chop a lesser for Nate to snap out of his self-destructiveness? Seriously? 😐 I needed way more than that.

As for Nalla, I'll be honest I didn't really like her. Which pains me to say since she's Bella and Z's girl. :( She was insufferable as a heroine. Adult Nalla is bitter, self-centered, whiny, selfish, condescending, obliviously privileged female who treated her parents and best friend Bitty like crap. Bitty is supposed to be Nalla's BFF but I really didn't get that vibe or feel that connection at all. Like not even a little bit. The opening scene of the book is Nalla and Bitty fighting over Bitty's interest in following a life coach guru which Nalla believes is mumbo jumbo bullshit. She mocks and belittles Bitty's interest in it. And this female is supposed to be a social worker, Ward? 😐 She just came off like such a self-righteous abrasive asshole. It honestly shocked me. This character is so out of touch it's insane.

“I can’t believe I need to tell you this, but personal growth isn’t something you can pay for and it doesn’t come from YouTube videos you sit back and watch. You need to do the work yourself—and conference? Come on, you’re not going to find your life path at some Hyatt Regency ballroom surrounded by humans eating rubber-chicken entrées and taking selfies with that woman.”

It sounds like Ward herself talking at this point, not her Vampire heroines. Why the fuck would Nalla be saying stuff like this? And to her best friend? :< Absolutely not.

“I’m not worth blowing your life up for, and anyway, you shouldn’t be angry at him for keeping you safe—from lessers or anyone else. That’s love and you’re lucky he cares.”
“Oh, my God, will you spare me the benevolent rescuer act.”
Nate snapped to attention, all record-screech. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You know, you and my father should get along better. You’ve both got the same attitude.”

I really need Ward to stop writing her heroines so judgemental and cynical. It's extreme and overdone. The whole world-weary, jaded, Bitter Betty who resents her parents for literally just loving their child is a) bizarre and b) tiring at this point. This is literally how J.R. Ward writes all her contemporary heroines and it's trickled into her BDB world and I'm so so tired of it. With the exception of Rahvyne, her last 5 BDB heroines have become interchangeable because of that. Yes an independent "badass" heroine who hates toxic masculinity and sexist roles is fine but Ward always overcorrects herself where everything her heroine says is right and everyone else is feeble minded, stupid and they need a "reality check". The whole "I'm not negative, I'm honest" energy really needs to go (and yes that line is actually used here, it should be trademarked at this point 🙄). The patronizing lecturing attitude is not cute nor is it attractive. Ward loves her doom and gloom narratives but ENOUGH ALREADY. The abrasive cynical persona didn't fit Nalla at all. There is no reason for Nalla to act or talk this way. She acted like her parents abandoned her in a ditch which is the farthest thing from the truth. The extreme bitterness made no sense and just made her come off privileged and spoiled instead of sympathetic. Yeah your overprotective father prevented you from dating, big deal darling. Move out. At least you have parents who love you and gave a damn about you, you ungrateful insufferable twat. I had such a hard time buying that she had no life outside her home because Zsadist scared off a few suitors.

“Dreams are even harder to give up on than any reality. What we want, what we imagine in our heads, is a fiction that lives and breathes even though it doesn’t actually exist. When we recognize that it’s not real and we have to let it go? We give up a tender part of ourselves along with the fantasy. It hurts.”

And how are you gonna do a whole time jump just to get to a story you’ve been wanting to tell “for years” about Zsadist dealing with his grown up daughter dating only to have him just wash his hands of her not even 100 pages in all “welp, do whatever you want!”...........

I mean that's it? ONE SCENE? You raved and gushed about this scenario in your head for years to the point you reset the whole BDB timeline just to write this damn story and this is it? You did all that horrible shit to Wrath & Beth in the previous book, you put readers and your characters through ALLLLLLL that misery for…..this? Color me underwhelmed. We get an emotional apology/hug and Z giving his blessing in the end as expected but it felt very hollow for me.

Part of it was the sheer selfishness of how she felt: It was a two-year-old’s temper tantrum in a grown-ass adult, and that was not only unappealing, it was embarrassing to some degree.

Familial relationships are near nonexistent in this book which really makes me wonder what was the point of jumping ahead 30 years into the future to give the kids stories just to barely show any of it? This did not feel like grown kids talking to their parents/family but strangers talking at each other. Nalla and Nate both carry serious resentment and even indifference towards their parents. The era of Tohr and John Matthew is over. LW seems to completely not care for his mother Beth and doing his own thing. If any of the kids should carry a heaping pile of resentment and anger it should be LW not Nalla. So I can understand him struggling with his feelings more but him turning away from his mother just hurt me. She sacrificed so much to protect him and his legacy and he's just whatever about it? :( The parent-child relationships that were created pre-time jump have all but eroded for reasons that didn’t really make sense or hold weight. Nalla resents her parents and blames everything on her father. She believes her mother is more concerned about her father than her and she's just a "trophy child". Which is the farthest thing from the truth. I didn't understand where this trophy child nonsense even came from because if you read the previous BDB books, that was the farthest thing from the truth. Both Zsadist and Bella loved and doted over their daughter from the minute they found out Bella was pregnant. That's actual cannon. Nalla always came first and there was zero question in that. Nalla was their whole world, Z carried his baby girl around like an extra appendage in every scene. If you wanna give your heroine Mommy-Daddy issues at least have it make sense. Don't contrive shit. I swear if I had a child who talked to me the way this heroine does to her mother I would have slapped her with my shoe. I was glad to see Bella at least getting to go off on her and set her straight finally. Cause I swear if she didn't get to do even that I would have drop kicked this book into outer space. But that's the only meaningful conversation had in this entire book between mother and daughter and that just highlights the problem. And it's not lost on me the only reason Nalla comes around to realizing what a complete asshole she's been to her parents and friend is when she realizes she has nobody to talk to about Nate like 'Omg! You mean not everything is about me and my Daddy not letting me date boys??!' 😱

Nalla witnessing Nate's nightmare firsthand and it reminding her of her father's nightmares was a full circle moment. Her talking to her mother about it and Bella sharing how she helped Z through his nightmares was so great and I did love that scene. But even so, I just found myself wanting more emotional moments like that. One scene to address a topic here and there is not how this series used to function. And Nate completely disregarding his parents Muhrder and Sarah also felt extremely cold and selfish. We literally only get 1 scene of Muhrder confronting Nate about making his mother cry and telling him he's kicked out of the Brotherhood. That's it. Nate and his parents reconcile off the page. Just like Nate and his best friend Shuli reconcile off page too. 😐 See the problem? Nate put his parents through hell for 30 years and they didn't deserve an apology on page? That's insane. A lot of really important moments are flushed to the wayside. Important scenes are sacrificed for endless filler chapters of lesser POV instead. Who needed that? No one. I promise you Ward, nobody and I mean nobody wants to read lesser POVs. Wasting all that real estate for nothing. I literally skipped those chapters and missed nothing in the end. That should say something shouldn't it? I don't care how scared and lonely the poor stupid human is or how he got duped into joining a zombie cult or how gruesome his death is in the end. It's all the same in every book and it's not interesting at all. Why are lessers even a thing still 33 years into the future is the better question??! Ward seriously couldn't come up with something new? We are 22 books in, why are we still here? MOVE ON. There is literally no reason for Lash and Devina to be a thing still.

This author really loves to emphasize the doom and gloom and create a depressing atmosphere. How many times are you gonna remind readers that a character can die at any moment and thinking about their last moments? Jesus hell. This is supposed to be a new era and your characters should be rejoicing that their King is back instead we get more "everyone lives and everyone dies in the end" and how all good things must come to end at some point and kids losing their innocence when they grow up depressing speeches from everyone and their mother, even the freaking butler. It was endless. WTF was that weird ass epilogue from Fritz's POV?? Was that seriously supposed to give me the warm fuzzies? Cause it did the exact opposite. So incredibly somber and depressing Ward.

LW & Bitty

“I’ve noticed something about you,” he said.
She tugged at the hem of her dress, thinking that the damn thing seemed tighter and shorter and lower cut. “What might that be.”
“You’re a hugger. You hug people, and when you do, you mean it.”
“Oh. Thank you? I guess.”.....
“You never hug me,” he said.
“I’m sorry, wha—” She cleared her throat and measured his heavy shoulders. “Well, you’re not… exactly the huggable type.”
“No? Why not.”.... He opened his arms. “How about me.”

These two really stole the show for me and completely overshadowed Nalla and Nate. That slow build, the curiosity, the hesitation, the small moments, etc. is why they outshined the lead couple. There needs to be an emotional investment and connection built for me to buy it. Well these two got my attention. The chemistry was chemistrying and the tension was delicious. I really love Bitty. Just so many layers to her. Her sweetness and trying to find herself and still processing her fear of not being enough for her adoptive parents was very endearing yet heartbreaking. And the fact she's the only bdb kid who seems to still have a stable loving relationship with her parents Rhage & Mary is sweet but sad at the same time. LW also really surprised me. I did not expect him to have a soft side underneath that scowling intimidating exterior and he's already showing he's just like his father in that regard. 😭❤️ That whole aloof quiet very observant lethal giant Vampire who is untouchable to everyone but just one female? Yes please. It's my achilles heel g-d dammit. I think it's interesting that Bitty is the one who has visions when pre-time jump Nalla was the one having nightmares that seemed to hint at clairvoyance. While I'm very intrigued and surprised by the chemistry between these two I'm still hesitant. It just depends if the author gives them a great payoff. I've been down this road before with Qhuinn/Blay, Xcor/Layla and Lassiter/Rahvynne where the build up is fantastically slow burn and sweet but the actual follow through falls flat or bungled badly. The fact that Bitty and LW's first date happened off the page for example is already making me nervous. Why not show it?!!! 😩 That's a pretty big moment to skip over IMO.

Those eyebrows sank down low, making him look positively evil. “Who hurt you.”....“I wish whoever hurt you was still alive.”
“So you could take him to his grave yourself.”
“Yeah.” He reached out and stroked back a streamer of hair from her face. “People like you shouldn’t be hurt.”

*Swoon mode activated* I just...they have it.



Wrath & Beth
My babies. I love you forever and everrrr.

Zsadist & Bella
*sigh* They still got it. I wanted more than 1 damn scene of them. I'm so sorry Ward turned your daughter into an annoying self-absorbed stereotypical two-dimensional twat.

PS: I will never forgive this author for robbing us a Phury/Cormia storyline for Ahgony being born. Instead you tortured my Wrath and Beth and did this nonsense instead. Is Ahgony even gonna get a love story? Considering he got 1 tiny cameo in this and he's Nalla's cousin that answer already feels like a resounding no. But V got to semi-adopt a kid right? Can't leave him out can we. It's blasphemous. 🙄