Reviewer: Casee Lover Mine by J.R. Ward
Series: Black Dagger Brotherhood #8
Also in this series: Lover Unbound, Lover Avenged, Lover at Last, Lover at Last, The King, The Shadows, The Beast, Lover Enshrined, The Chosen, The Thief, The Savior, Where Winter Finds You, The Sinner, Lover Unleashed, Lassiter
Publisher: NAL
Publication Date: April 27th 2010
Point-of-View: Third Person
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 528
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Series Rating:
John Matthew has come a long way since he was found living among humans, his vampire nature unknown to himself and to those around him. After he was taken in by the Brotherhood, no one could guess what his true history was- or his true identity. Indeed, the fallen Brother Darius has returned, but with a different face and a very different destiny. As a vicious personal vendetta takes John into the heart of the war, he will need to call up on both who he is now and who he once was in order to face off against evil incarnate.
Xhex, a symphath assassin, has long steeled herself against the attraction between her and John Matthew. Having already lost one lover to madness, she will not allow the male of worth to fall prey to the darkness of her twisted life. When fate intervenes, however, the two discover that love, like destiny, is inevitable between soul mates.
*****As part of our 10 year anniversary celebration, we’ll be re-posting old reviews and posts that make us cringe, laugh or sigh all over again.
Holly: I can’t believe this book was released in 2010 and the series is still going. Crazycakes.
This review was originally published June 4, 2010
John Matthew has come a long way since he was found living among humans, his vampire nature unknown to himself and to those around him. After he was taken in by the Brotherhood, no one could guess what his true history was- or his true identity. Indeed, the fallen Brother Darius has returned, but with a different face and a very different destiny. As a vicious personal vendetta takes John into the heart of the war, he will need to call up on both who he is now and who he once was in order to face off against evil incarnate.
Xhex, a symphath assassin, has long steeled herself against the attraction between her and John Matthew. Having already lost one lover to madness, she will not allow the male of worth to fall prey to the darkness of her twisted life. When fate intervenes, however, the two discover that love, like destiny, is inevitable between soul mates.
This is the first book that I’ve really liked since Lover Eternal. As I’ve said numerous times, I loved Dark Lover, really liked Lover Eternal and was so-so with Lover Awakened. I read the rest of the books in the series b/c I’m a glutton for punishment I suppose. I just couldn’t quit (though I went the library route). John Matthew is probably the only character besides Tohr that still interests me. I wonder at the fact that this book was so much better than her previous books. I believe that JRW saw the negative feedback and reversed direction a little. Or maybe we were just long overdue for a good one in the series after the wrecks that were Lover Enshrined and Lover R. ::shrug::
The previous book ended with Xhex being taken by Lash. Lash is the Omega’s son, blahblahblah. He’s still as boring as he was from the first book. He’s not scary, he’s not villainous, he’s just pathetic. First Lash took Xhex to get back at John Matthew, then he “fell in love” with her, which basically means that he wants to own her and thinks that she’s his mate.
For Xhex, her time with Lash is eerily reminiscent of the time she got taken by the sympaths. Her situation really makes you think about how many bad things can really happen to one person. I know she’s not a person exactly, but Xhex has gone through more than any person (or vampire) should go through. I never thought that I would think Xhex was anything but bad ass. Lover Mine showed a whole different side to her and that was before she even got rescued. One thing that remains clear about Xhex is that she’s a survivor.
John Matthew turned into a total man-whore in the last book. It was ridiculous. The guy was fucked up enough as it was. He’s mute, he was raped, he lost the only mother he ever knew, then he lost the father as well. Let’s add in man-whore on top of that. John Matthew’s road was never going to be easy. That was always clear. So having him change so drastically over the course of one book was just stoopid.
Everyone should know by now that John Matthew is Darius reincarnated. It was a little boring when reading Darius’ journals, but there was a point to everything. Everything comes full circle. Darius and Tohr were very close and it becomes clear exactly how close. Darius was a father figure to Tohr in the same way Tohr was to John Matthew. Tohr gets his head out of his ass in this book too. Look, I obviously felt horrible when Wellsie died. The fact that Tohr wasn’t there when John Matthew went through his transition was unforgivable to me. Tohr finally realizes that staying away really hurt John Matthew.
John Matthew and Xhex were perfect for each other. I never doubted it. A lot of readers wanted to see John Matthew and Layla together, which would have been booooo-rrrrrring. Xhex and JM complimented each other. I loved how Xhex let John see her softer side. I also loved how aware John was about that. He never took anything Xhex said or did for granted. He was grateful for her for every single second.
Of everything in the book, what Xhex said to John on page 300 was my favorite. In a few short sentences, she nailed it.
“No, you’ve got it all wrong, John.” Reading his emotions, she shook her head. “You’re not half the male you could be because of what was done to you. You’re twice what anyone else is because you survived.”
I was pretty impressed that JRW managed to keep it down to less than twenty pov’s. The whole Blay and Qhuinn story didn’t get resolved like I thought it would. I distinctly remembered in one of the chats that she said that something would be resolved. It wasn’t their relationship, that’s for sure. Everything was just as up in the air at the end of the book as it was at the beginning.
I was extremely happy with this book.
4 out of 5.
Black Dagger Brotherhood
Thanks for the thoughtful review. Although I’ve been faithfully reading JR Ward’s BDB books as they’ve been published, I have to admit that I was seriously getting annoyed with them, particularly the last three, and beginning to care less and less about the world Ward had created. I’ll have to give it another chance and pick up a copy of Lover Mine.
I was drawn into the BDB world out of order, starting with Lover Avenged and moving on to Lover Mine. I have the rest of the series on my TBR shelf… but haven’t gotten to them yet.
I have moved on to Covet though. If you want to see a different side of the same world, that is a way to go.
oh good. this is in my tbr pile, but I have been hesitant to start it pushing it off for other things because of the last book.