Guest review: Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward

Lover Reborn: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood

Ever since the death of his shellan, Tohrment has been unrecognizable from the vampire leader he once was. Physically emaciated and heartbroken beyond despair, he has been brought back to the Brotherhood by a self-serving fallen angel. Now, fighting once again with ruthless vengeance, he is unprepared to face a new kind of tragedy.

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Fiona Druce

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When Tohr begins to see his beloved in his dreams—trapped in a cold, isolated netherworld far from the peace and tranquility of the Fade—he turns to the angel in hopes of saving the one he has lost. But because Lassiter tells him he must learn to love another to free his former mate, Tohr knows they are all doomed....

Except then a female with a shadowed history begins to get through to him. Against the backdrop of the raging war with the lessers, and with a new clan of vampires vying for the Blind King’s throne, Tohr struggles between the buried past and a very hot, passion-filled future…but can his heart let go and set all of them free?

Guest Review

After waiting eons for some sort of resolution for Tohrment and our beloved Wellsie, I could finally rest my weary heart, knowing it worked out the way it needed to.

In build-up to this grand book release, many readers were upset at the idea of Tohr's HEA not being Wellsie, feeling that this was a betrayal of her.

My opinion?

That's a pretty darn cruel stipulation to put on him.

I won't be writing any spoilers, but I will say that J. R. Ward, the heralded author of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books, did an excellent job of appeasing both Pro-HEA and Anti-HEA camps.

Tohr's progression was believable and relatively enjoyable. Hard to say ""enjoyable"" when you spend a lot of the time grimacing. Which just shows how well the WARDen wrote her charactrer POVs.

The rest of the book was a VERY positive change for the series. The past few books have been getting a bit aggravating, as the over-arching plotline seemed to drag on. Additionally, while everyone loves a bit of angst, the stale-nature of the plot only caused greater attention to the individual angst of the characters, which tended to outshine their excellent qualities. This change means great things for us as the readers!

The "Band of Bastards" promises to provide excellent fodder for plot devices and future situations. I cannot wait! I see the BoB as the BDB through a Clown-House mirror: the same, but distorted and not quite successful at approaching the reality of the situation. Psychological conditions shall thrive and frolick through future pages. Yeeess!

In fact, J. R. Ward has already hinted at such issues with certain scenes involving Xcor (leader of the Bob) and his internal dichotomy. The juxtaposition of the honor code to which he binds himself, against the cruelty and heartlessness of trying to fill the Bloodletter's shoes, will assuredly carry through a few books before resolution and promises to give our beloved hotties a run for their money.

Oddly enough, the relationship most lauded through the book isn't Tohr's: it's everyone's favorite M/M couple: Blay and Qhuinn! Towards the end of Tohr's book, Qhuinn makes a few decisions that will have your heart a-thumping!!

J. R. Ward did an excellent job of keeping us hooked for her next book which will be (insert drum roll here!) Blay and Qhuinn! That's right! We get to see if they can finally work through Qhuinn's issues! (Yes, I meant that the way I wrote it, lol)

But Qhuinn has added yet another complexity to the plot. Can Blay work with this? Or has he had enough?

On her Facebook page, J. R. Ward officially announced that 2013 will see the next couple to grace the cover of her BDB line and our two hunky heart-throbs are the shining stars!

As she so eloquently and aptly puts it:

"THEIR TIME HAS COME. 2013- NEXT BDB HARDCOVER.....BLAY & QHUINN!!!!" ~ J. R. Ward