Ok, I’ve had my crack injection and I’m well satisfied.
Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely loved the first 3 books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward. So I have to say I wondered and wondered if Love Enshrined was going to be worth the read since Lover Revealed was a huge disappointment and Lover Unbound was, well…frustrating to say the least.
I’m not going to do a review since I’m sure I couldn’t do the book justice and you can get great reviews at both Christine’s blog and at Katie(babs) and Kristie(j)’s Blog. But, I just wanted to say that for those of my friends who are wondering if they should read this or not. READ IT!! The romance in the book (if you can call it a romance) is virtually non-existent, but the rest of the book is wonderful.
Okay I just don’t get the whole Crack thing. The first book was DNF and I… wow just wow…
I am happy that you got your crack though *g* I understand the feeling.
So when’s the next one coming out?
You didn’t finish DL? huh. Being a crack addict myself I find that hard to believe but there have been times when I’ve been told to read a book and wondered why and didn’t finish it so I understand.
Next one coming out? Not soon enough! lol I really have no idea but hopefully we won’t have to wait 8 months again!
I swear, I am soo not with what seems to be the majority. I have found no flaws in these books!! Not one! The romance between Phury and Cormia seemed to be put on the back burner alot but it was still extremely satisfying for me. I guess, for me, this series has turned to something far more than a romance between two people but more of a life and times in the characters and their relationships in her world. I loved it as I have loved all the ones previously! 🙂
See and I thought there was no romance. It was desire turned into sex. Now on Cormia’s part I thought she had some valid reasons to love Phury (whether I agreed or not) but Phury – never once was it spoken WHY he loved Cormia. Their sex scenes -meh. Just didn’t do it for me. But other than that I loved the book.
I am still a BDB crack addict but Phury and Cormia’s relationship was such a disappointment. But overall, LEN was still an awesome read with all the other characters and some twists I didn’t see coming.
And as for Rehv… oh baby! 😀
yeah, yeah, enough with the Rehv love! Rehv – blurk
Rehv and his barbs. 😀
Definitely no fish hook, that’s for sure.
Sounds painful my friend!
Well, Rehv’s mate is going to have to like it. I think of barbie when I see the work barb.
Barbie’s too calm for him. He needs someone named hmmm…Kate!
Thanks for the shout out, chica! 😀
LOL @ Sarai! For me the BDB started out as Crack because the series was just so addictive after reading the first three books and I couldn’t wait for the next ‘fix’. But then… slowly…. (and sadly)… the BDB became Crack in the truest of metaphors. It was still so incredibly addictive, but oh so bad for you! LOL Actually, LEn puts Ward back in the upward trend for me, which I’m happy about. I liked it so much better than LU (book 5). And better than LR, too (book 4).
Tracy, your points on Phury & Cormia’s non-existent romance (after Amy’s comment up there…) is right on the money. Their love story was more believable than V & Jane’s was, but still lacking development in a huge way.
Amy, I’m glad LEn worked so well for you! Another satisfied crack head. LOL 😉 I’m on the same page as you with regard to this series meaning more to me than just the romance between two people, but I still expect all of the relationships to be fully fleshed out- especially with regard to a couple who is coming to their HEA in a particular book. And I didn’t feel I got that with Phury and Cormia. But I still really enjoyed this book very, very much. 🙂
When I think about it, in real life, a lot of couples come together to form relationships like Phury and Cormia. Ones in which the two people have physical attraction between them… and admire the each other’s strengths and accept each other’s weaknesses… and enjoy each other’s company… and still not have a whole heck of a lot of “romance.” Not everyone is a romantic. BUT… their love (not romance), ought to be genuine no matter what. In my opinion, Ward didn’t really convey the genuineness of their love. I didn’t feel convinced, shall we say, that their love was genuine and strong.
Okay … this comment is pathetically long. LOL Sorry, Tracy. But who doesn’t love chatting up the Brothers? Well… aside from Sarai, that is! ha ha. ;p
Can that comment count as my blog post for this week? 😀
Code name for Rehv’s mate: BARBie
ROFLMAO!!!!
We have found Rehv’s mate!! Bharbie!
OMG Bharbie! It’s perfect!
Christine – thanks for your input. I completely agree with you on everything. I also felt the relationship was more believable than Jane and V’s…but maybe because I could never come to grips with Jane. I liked her…I just didn’t like her for V.
No – this cannot be your blog for the day! lol
Tracy babe, I want to say I was NOT going to read this latest installment of the BDB but Christine talked me into it after we had a spoiler discussion…lol
I wish she would change the titles of these books because its really silly calling them Lover this or Lover that when the loving is no longer a part of this series or the characters that the book is supposed to be about. Honestly just because it has the word Love in the title does NOT make it a romance.
With that said the only part of this book that I really enjoyed were Lash (the motherfucking king) of the lessers. Sad I know but I had some good fantasies about what he is going to do…lol
I thought the use of several different speech patterns were just plain annoying. The brotherhood slang (yes, my b) to I don’t know what kind of slang (Mr. D…yes suh!) to poor fritz ( I shant be just a moment.) Can I say migraine!
I thought I would never live for the lesser moments. In previous books I would just skim them. In this book I looked forward to them, go figure. I really liked the dynamics between Blay and Qhuinn but been there done that with V/Butch and I am not falling for that again….Sort of like shame on you once, second time around its a shame on me……
I could go on and on but I won’t bore you or the other ladies. I guess I feel like a disgruntled romance reader. I would have had no problem if she finished the six warriors in the romance genre and moved on to greener pastures. I feel used, and I think the romance community in general was used to garner readership and Best seller lists. That of course is just my opinion and you know what they say about that =)
Okay seriously digging the naked for a cause man OMG nice
Now see – Lash just annoyed the crap out of me. He’s like a toddler who hasn’t gotten his way and now he’s gonna show them! Whatever!
Loved the Blay/Qhuinn thing and was glad that they had their moment but nipped it in the bud there. As much as I wouldn’t have minded it at all I’m glad that Ward didn’t drag it out.
I finished the book last night and here are a couple of thoughts on my side. 🙂
I think JR should just get out of the whole romance thing all together. 99% of the time I feel like it’s more of an afterthought anyway. Where she specializes is the urban fantasy area. I mean, whoa! 🙂
The whole Blay/Qhuinn/John thing? It was kind of meh for me. Maybe I need to read it again (because I read most of it at work and we were really busy), but it wasn’t as BIG as I thought. *sigh*
I thought the “romance” was lame. No chemistry, no nothing. All of a sudden…”she’s my mate. I must loves her.” Puh-leez! 😛
All in all though, I did really enjoy it. 🙂 Will review on my review blog when I get a minute. *sigh*
Hey Kaitlin…as I’ve said I really liked the whole Blay/Qhuinn/JM thing. I thought their friendship is incredilbly strong and I thought that it was nice to see that when it appeared that the brothes were having such a hard time with Phury – it was a nice contrast.
Glad you liked the book! 🙂
Samantha! Great point about Lash and the lessor POVs. Finally… in the sixth novel, they have a shape and purpose in the series. Finally the motivation is explained. Seriously, why wasn’t this established in DL, or did I just overlook it at the time because in that book THERE WAS AN ACTUAL ROMANCE THAT CAPTURED MY ATTENTION!?!!? *ahem*
And OMG the language in this novel! UGH. Totally agree with you Samantha.
Damn you changed the picture what’s up with that? I came over for my fix and now it’s underwear man?
LOL Sarai…you don’t like my new man??? I’ll email you the other guy! 🙂
Hi, Tracy! It’s Ness. And “Hi, Ladies!” to Christine, Samantha, & Amy. I hope you’ve all been doing well! I got here from the link on Jacki’s site, & it’s so nice to see all of your names here, chattin’-up the romance novels. I love what you’ve done with your site, Tracy!
I’m sorry that I’ve been so out-of-touch. Life got a bit crazy (plus, I haven’t been able to get onto my darned MySpace page), but those are long, boring stories and I’d MUCH rather focus on discussing the BDB. 🙂
I agree that Ward has been taking small steps towards urban fiction and away from romance, particularly starting with LR and culminating into LE. Although I do love her writing, it’s so disappointing to be expecting a great love story, only to find yourself in a “bad mood” through out most of the book. I was, like, pissed at Phury for being such a jerk to Cormia until he, all of a sudden, just seemed to “snap out of it”; pissed at Zsadist for, at times, really acting like an ungrateful jerk towards Phury; pissed at the Brothers for seeming to nearly abandon Phury until the very, very end; pissed that Ward felt there even needed to BE the sub-plot of love between Quinn & Blaylock when the concept really hadn’t gone over that big before (V&B); pissed that the Scribe Virgin was suddenly easy-going on Phury after all of the crappy sacrificing she had made the other Brothers, & their mates, go through; and REALLY pissed that the “romance” between Phury & Cormia seemed to take a complete back seat to a gazillion other sub-plots.
However, this is not to say that I didn’t enjoy those sub-plots. I enjoyed reading more about Rev, John Matthew, Xhex, Lash, Tohr, & the introduction of that new, “angel-gone-bad” dude. I just don’t think all of that should have been thrown into this book. Too much, all at once. Now, her NEXT book seems as if it would have been more appropriate for a lot of those subplots.
My pissiness aside, I’m not ready to give up on Ward, yet. I love the Brothers’ characters, and Ward has created too compelling a world, in which I’ve invested too much of my time and interest, to just walk away from it all. However, I agree with the person who posted that Ward should leave “Lover” out of her titles, from now on, unless there’s actually going to be more loving and less going off on character and plot tangents through out the book. I really look forward to reading more about Zsadist & Bella, and about Nalla’s birth, in the next book (going by the excerpt I read). But, I swear, if she kills-off one of the Brothers, or one of their mates, or any weird crap like that, I think I’ll be done. We’ll see.
So, just my two cents. It’s great to get back to discussing the more important issues in life! 🙂 I hope you all have a great weekend! ~ Ness
Hey Ness! Good to see you again. I have to say I was wondering where you’d gone! Glad to see you’re well.
I can’t say I was pissed about the things you were pissed about, but you’re right and so is Sam in the fact that she needs to take Lover out of the titles. They are to a point, but that’s so not what the books are about anymore. Maybe that will change in the future but who knows! 🙂
Thanks for the comp on the site!