The King

Author Essay

Dear Reader:

If you’ve never been to a JR Ward event, it’s kind of like being in the VIP section of a rock concert. Fans come from literally thousands of miles away to meet the creator of the Black Dagger Brotherhood novels and author of The King. It’s part State-of-the-Union for the Black Dagger Brotherhood and part pep-rally, as the “Warden” (as her fans call her) shares insights about her unique books and characters, and then opens the floor to questions from the audience. And like any good concert, the tempo builds breathlessly until the end when Ward delivers her encore: revealing the Brother who will become the protagonist of the following year’s Black Dagger Brotherhood novel. And the crowd goes wild!

Last year at the end of the event for Lover at Last, Ward shocked the crowd when she told us that this year’s novel would feature Wrath—the Brother whose story originally began the series 12 books ago in DARK LOVER. The Black Dagger Brotherhood was coming full circle, with the tortured hero of the first book who fought to avenge his family now emerging as of The King in Book 13. The fans, understandably, went nuts!

One of them said to me, “This is my all-time favorite series. I just got my sister to read Dark Lover and now she’s binge-reading the whole series.” That got me thinking: In an era when people binge-watch TV series, it’s wonderful to know that books can have the same addictive quality. This is one of the reasons we created a community specifically for Binge Readers. Since there’s no series better for a binge-reader than Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, that’s where we started. And for those readers who don’t know the origins of Wrath or the Brotherhood, we decided to re-publish Dark Lover in a brand-new edition with a new cover and some new material, including a fresh introduction from JR Ward reflecting on the last decade of The Black Dagger Brotherhood.

Our Binge Reads community may have begun with the Black Dagger Brotherhood novels from JR Ward but now we’re also binge-reading Jim Butcher and Laurell K. Hamilton. Binge Reads provides eager fans with access to special offers and contests, as well as unique messages from their favorite author. Perhaps more importantly, it allows readers of these novels a place to come together and talk about their own insatiable appetites.

Happy Binge Reading!

Kara Welsh

Publisher

New American Library