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Lover Unbound (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #5)

J.R. Ward

Start date: May 1, 2013

Finish date: May 31, 2013

Discussion: Challenges: What's the Rush

Why we're reading this: Part of our group series (re)read: Black Dagger Brotherhood …more
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Challenges: What's the Rush

* 2025 Series Read: K.N. Banet's "Jacky Leon"
By Steph , Serious series addict · 103 posts · 33 views

last updated Sep 26, 2025 08:29PM

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* YEAR-LONG CHALLENGES
By Steph , Serious series addict · 1 post · 389 views

last updated Aug 17, 2010 11:14PM

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What Members Thought

Jan 26, 2010 Mandy Beyers rated it really liked it

In the fifth book of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, as Butch and Marissa settle into married life, Vishous deals with his feelings of jealousy and sudden inability to see the future - a curse he suddenly realizes he depends upon. A call to fulfill a promise made before his conception throws his life for a tailspin, and matters are only complicated more by a shooting that lands him in a hospital in the hands of a gifted doctor. As he suddenly feels more for his doctor than he ever thought p ...more

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Sep 29, 2010 Katyana rated it really liked it

Shelves: abuse, dark, kleenex-required, vampires, fantasy, pnr, romance

This one is really rough for me to try and evaluate, and it's possible I should take some time to digest before attempting a review, but... I've learned that if I don't do it in the immediate aftermath of a book, I won't do it.

So, let's start with the good: Vishous and Jane

I love them. What can I say about Vishous? I've loved Vishous for a few books now, and his whole arc with Butch in the last book was just heart-rending. And Jane was really the perfect woman for him, in every way. Brilliant, b This one is really rough for me to try and evaluate, and it's possible I should take some time to digest before attempting a review, but... I've learned that if I don't do it in the immediate aftermath of a book, I won't do it.

So, let's start with the good: Vishous and Jane

I love them. What can I say about Vishous? I've loved Vishous for a few books now, and his whole arc with Butch in the last book was just heart-rending. And Jane was really the perfect woman for him, in every way. Brilliant, brave (and I mean fearless, but not in a TSTL way), compassionate, strong, I really just loved Jane.

But there were a lot of things I just wasn't sold on.

Firstly, I would like to state for the record that there is are a couple recurring themes in the BDB series that sort of bum me out, and one is the idea that humans are just so much less. You got an intro to that with Beth in book 1 (half-breed, oh noes!), more with Mary in book 2 (full human! :O ), LOTS with Butch (so much lamentation that he was never good enough as a human - couldn't be a Brother, couldn't mate Marissa, couldn't protect, couldn't feed, blah blah blah), and now with Jane. The human characters are all to be pitied, can't be relied on, etc etc. It gets a little tiresome, to have them have to strain to become vampires to even be taken seriously. Now, Jane doesn't strain to be a vampire, so that's at least not the case here, but... she's still treated as less. She's "handled" when the vamps feel like it (in the beginning, as a kidnap victim), her life is rearranged, her mind is fucked with, ugh. I mean, sometimes I honestly wonder if the lessers don't have the right idea. Don't get me wrong, clearly the lessers and the Omega are evil, but what do the vampires bring to the planet, aside from rampant ego? They treat humans like inferior toys. Bring on Buffy, for reals.

The other recurring theme that has me, frankly, taking a break from this series after this book is the horrible treatment of women. Getting a look at how the Scribe Virgin treats her Chosen women, for all intents and purposes her priestesses... are you fucking kidding me? They are prized cattle. Bound, gagged, and blindfolded... and then LITERALLY offered up on a platter for men to have sex with as they wish. I was utterly, utterly disgusted. I've never been a fan of the SV, as you know, but this made me much less of a fan. What use is she, honestly? She fucks up everyone's lives, she keeps women enslaved, she's a total bitch... no. And I'd also like to state for the record that her Hail Mary pass at the end of this book did not win me over. Sorry. Too little, too late. She remains Queen Bitch in my book. Any goddess that has the utter subjugation of women as part of her dogma can piss off, in my book... much less all the other shitty stuff we've seen her do in this series. Also, (view spoiler)

Also, not sure that I am so down with the HEA in this one. I just... don't know that it works for me. Seems like the only real HEAs in this series are the ones where you fated mate happens to also be a vampire.

And lastly, I really thought that in this book, the secondary plot lines felt like they eclipsed the major plot line. E-fucking-nough with Phury (he gets his own book ffs!) and John Matthews. It was made worse that their stories felt so circular - just going round and round, spinning the same damn wheels over and over. I wish that Vishous and Jane got, oh I don't know, at least 50% of the page time in the book... but it sure feels like they got about 30%. Tiresome.

So... 4 stars for me. Though Vishous and Jane will always be *5* in my book.
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Aug 18, 2011 Nairabell rated it it was amazing

Shelves: paranormal-romance, 5-star, read-in-2011

Vishous is the most ruthless and brilliant of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, but a single mistake leaves him bleeding from a gunshot wound alone in an alley. That mistake leads him to Dr Jane Whitcomb's trauma surgery and after she saves his life, V can't seem to make himself let her go. As Jane is drawn into the world of the Brotherhood, she is forced to deal not only with her tragic past but also with the horrors V was subjected to as a child in his father's brutal war camp. But V is not who he ...more

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Apr 01, 2010 Ashley rated it liked it

Shelves: paranormal-themed, series, romance

The book started out seeming very predictable. I was starting to wonder if they were all going to start with an injured Brother. But the latter part of the book made things interesting, but I won't give any spoilers away. I've discovered that it's the outlying characters that I really enjoy better than the couples in this series. Should be reading the next in the series in April. ...more

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