The Viper

Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp, Book #3

By J.R. Ward

ISBN# 9781982179908

Author’s Website: jrward.com

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Review

Mayhem and Apex just escaped the prison camp, taking the severely injured Kane with them.  During the escape they run into Lucan and his mate that had come back to help them.  And, they think they’re in trouble when they run into Lucian’s cousin Callum.  Callum was the reason Lucian had been falsely imprisoned.  Now Callum wants to make amends for what his family forced him to do.  He helps the group defeat the guards that are after them, and gives them all a place to stay.

And while everyone is hunkered down at Callum’s camp, Kane is with the Gray Wolf, a mystical being of Callum’s clan.  Kane is dying and she offers him a choice, a chance for a resurrection, but if he takes it, he won’t be the same, but he will be healed of his injuries.  He can go to the fade and be reunited with the shellan he was accused of murdering.  Or he can be healed and save the woman that has kept him alive all this time in the camp.

Kane chooses to take what the Gray Wolf is offering so he can go back to the prison camp and save Nadya.  He doesn’t know that he’s taken on a curse.  He can now kill with a single bite, the bite of the viper.  They go back and rescue Nadya, but it may all be for nothing when he later feeds her from his poisonous veins. 

And, the leader of the guards will stop at nothing to get payback on the escaped prisoners, even if she must hurt an innocent to do it.

There are things about this book that I enjoyed.  I liked the whole concept of Kane becoming the viper and having a new side of himself, a deadly new side.  It allowed him to protect those he cared for and to be healed from his horrible injuries. 

I also enjoyed the budding romance between Apex and Callum.

However, this book felt a bit disjointed overall, trying to split time between two couples.  I didn’t care for how this one ended.  We didn’t get a conclusion on poor Callum.  And, why did nobody bring Zsadist in to help him overcome what had been done to him?  Surely, nobody would be better to help than a person that lived through similar horrors and came out the other side.

I really hope that Callum and Apex get a story of their own where we can see Callum’s healing.  I don’t know though since it seems this would be the end of the prison camp series.  Maybe they will continue the storyline in the regular Black Dagger Brotherhood series.  I’d also like to see a Mayhem book, I really enjoyed him in the last novel, teasing Lucian.

I felt both couples got cheated in this one, having to share this book and I want to see more of both pairs.  And, I desperately need to see a happy ending for Callum and Apex that this book did not have.