Fangirl Fridays – JZB

Eric Etabari is my Jericho Barrons

Another Friday and another Fangirl post about one of our favorite characters. This time it’s my turn to rave about my favorite alpha of all time! Jericho Z. Barrons! And what good timing, since yesterday was JZB’s birthday! So from all of us here at the Saucy Wenches Book Club:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Barrons!!

Hello, my name is Katherine, and I have been addicted to Jericho Z. Barrons for two years, 3 months, 25 days, and counting.

Phew, it feels good to get that off my chest, although the Wenches have known for quite some time that I’m certifiably insane when it comes to Barrons! Make no mistake — Barrons is a Wench favorite and we’ve done our share of raving about him — but for me, I think he’s even more. I just can’t move on; I keep coming back.

Why am I Pri’ya for this man? I’m going to try to explain my obsession below, readers, but beware! Spoilers will be everywhere!!



Yes, I am aware that Jericho Barrons is a fictional character and that he doesn’t really exist, but the man Karen Marie Moning created is so incredibly addicting, so commanding of notice, that since he came into my world there has been room for no other. The animal magnetism, the passion, the fierce intensity that lies just below Jericho’s skin thrills me and makes me tingle with fear and anticipation with every page that I turn.

Barrons surprises me with his hidden depths and weaknesses, and breaks my heart with the intensity of the love he feels for Mac. Barrons commands our attention and adoration on each and every page he is on, and he makes every cell in our bodies stand up and take notice. He is a fine beast!

In my opinion, he is the most alpha of all alphas, and is indeed “the biggest, baddest fuck with all the toys”. I’ve met other alphas, and I have been tempted, but at the end of the day, I always go back to Barrons. So with all those incredibly sexy alphas out there, what is it about Barrons that has me coming back to Dublin time and time again?

Okay, first things first. Have you ever heard how Barrons is described in Darkfever? It wasn’t my fault that I fell instantly!

“He didn’t just occupy space; he saturated it…He wasn’t handsome. That was too calm a word. He was intensely masculine. He was sexual. He attracted. There was an omnipresent carnality about him, in his dark eyes, in his full mouth, in the way he stood. He was the kind of man I wouldn’t flirt with in a million years.”
~ Darkfever

I love that he is dangerously, almost scarily, sexy. Just like Mac, I was immediately intrigued by this man, and I couldn’t help trying to figure out what is it about him that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up from the electricity that crackled when he was near. I can just imagine and almost feel how she felt when meeting him. You know you should look away, you should probably leave, but ultimately, you just can’t stop yourself from being attracted to his masculinity. For me, hands down, Barrons is the sexiest male in the paranormal universe.

Barrons comes in a breathtakingly masculine and sexy package, but you get way more than just looks with this male. His soul is what drives me nuts. One of the things I love the most about him is that, although he is ancient, Barrons remains remarkably in touch with his humanity. Barrons has walked the earth for eons, and yet he feels all emotions, every single last one, with immense intensity. Rage, joy, lust, love, everything! He’s been through it all, and despite the monotony of these never-ending cycles, he still feels everything acutely. Especially love. This man, who still has one foot in the swamp, who is always at war with the beast within, feels love.

Source

“Do you think love just goes away? Pops out of existence when it becomes too painful or inconvenient, as if you never felt it?” I looked at him. What did Jericho Barrons know of love? “If only it did. If only it could be turned off. It’s not a faucet. Love’s a bloody river with level-five rapids.”
~ Shadowfever

Although he has been around since the dawn of time, Barrons still retains his humanity. He laughs. He teases. He gets into ridiculous and childish fights with Mac and suffers terrible bouts of jealousy that invariably result in Mac being chained up to walls in the bookstore, all because of his feelings. Why would he bother after all these years? How is he even capable of it? I would think he would be so beyond it, or just cold and dead after literally having seen and done it all, but the opposite is true. He isn’t dead inside. He is alive and full of passion and lust, for life, for the fight, for love, but most of all for Mac. He is electrifyingly alive, and that is so damn sexy!

Source

“He looks at me with cold, hard eyes. I see what’s in them now. To the rest of the world, they might seem empty. I remember thinking a few times myself that they were void of all humanity, but that’s simply not true. He feels. Rage. Pain. Lust. SO much emotion, electric beneath his skin.”
~ Shadowfever

I just imagine being looked at by those ancient eyes that feel so much and I melt. Can you blame me?

Another thing that drives me wild about Barrons is that he is a natural leader. He leads his men, yet he does not need to be a part of any political structure. He doesn’t have to jockey for position in order to obtain power because he truly is the master of his universe. Unlike other alphas I have loved, Barrons doesn’t need to worry about his reputation. He does what he wants and suffers no conflicts with himself over the things he wants and the lengths he’ll go to in order to get them. Barrons owns his own skin. He accepts himself totally, completely, and unwaveringly. No one commands Barrons. No one, that is, except Mac. I love that, for Mac, he bends. He does things he wouldn’t otherwise do, like kill someone Mac wants killed for revenge. With a word, he’ll kill Dani, if that’s what Mac wants. Mac has him wrapped around her finger and she doesn’t even know it, and that makes me smile every time. Mac comes first.

Source

“You were first to me,” Barrons said. “There was no queen in front of you with me.”
~ Dreamfever

I also love the fact that Barrons understands Mac. Barrons gets into her skin and inside her head. Because he sees her so clearly, he gives her the things she needs before she needs them. Every step of the way he is shaping her, molding her, making her the fighter and survivor she needs to be in order to learn and operate in the real Dublin. He makes her realize the worthlessness of words and the meaning of actions. He sees the potential in her the second he meets her and stands by her every step of the way (even when she doesn’t know he’s there), because he sees something in her that no one else does. There is nothing sexier than a man who believes in you.

“Words can be twisted into any shape. Promises can be made to lull the heart and seduce the soul. In the final analysis words mean nothing. They are labels we give things in an effort to wrap our puny little brains around their underlying natures, when ninety-nine percent of the time the totality of the reality is an entirely different beast. The wisest man is the silent one. Examine his actions. Judge him by them. He thinks you have the heart of a warrior. He believes in you. Believe in him.”
~ Bloodfever

Barrons accepts Mac at face value. He knows exactly what brand of crazy she is and he wants her anyway. He sees her at her absolute worst, sits with her day after day, and brings her back from the brink of insanity, from being lost forever. Barrons does that because he loves her no matter what and who she is at the moment. How can you not fall for that? I mean, Mac goes through identify crisis after identity crisis. Blond Mac, Pink Mac, Black Mac, Grunge Mac. He loves it all because he knows her inside and believes in her despite it all.

“He’d seen it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. He never asked me any questions, unless he thought I needed to figure out the answers. He never decked me out in convenient labels and tried to stuff me in a box. Even when there were plenty of labels to stick to me. I was what I was at that moment and he liked it, and that was all that mattered to him.” ~ Shadowfever

Oh, Barrons, he just makes me melt. I ask you, how is it possible to not obsess over a man who can singlehandedly fuck you back from the brink of insanity and bring you juicy, ripe mangoes in a post-apocalyptic Dublin? He is a sexy beast of a man, and he oozes ferocious masculinity and power on every single page. Smart girls would stay away from men like him because they are dangerous in every sense of the word. But because we get the rare glimpse into this man’s actions, we see that, although he is an animal, he is so much more. He is the total package. He is sexy, brilliant, strong, powerful, and soulful. He is playful in his lighter moments and intense seconds later. To me he is perfect and always will be.

So, Saucy Readers, what do you think? Is Barrons worthy of so much praise? Are other alphas your forever loves? Sound off below!