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Lover Unleashed (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #9)

J.R. Ward

Start date: September 1, 2013

Finish date: September 30, 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"
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* YEAR-LONG CHALLENGES
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What Members Thought

Apr 09, 2011 Lisarenee rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-i-own

The Black Dagger Brotherhood - A group of elite vampire warriors sworn to protect their people and King - Wrath. Doesn't hurt they're also some of the best looking, sexist, loyalest and, at times, scariest group of guys you'd ever have the pleasure or displeasure to meet.

Payne, it was discovered in the last book, is Vishous' (V's) twin sister and the daughter of the Virgin Scribe and the Bloodletter. She is now in the "real" world and still paralyzed. Jane has done all she can to help her, but d The Black Dagger Brotherhood - A group of elite vampire warriors sworn to protect their people and King - Wrath. Doesn't hurt they're also some of the best looking, sexist, loyalest and, at times, scariest group of guys you'd ever have the pleasure or displeasure to meet.

Payne, it was discovered in the last book, is Vishous' (V's) twin sister and the daughter of the Virgin Scribe and the Bloodletter. She is now in the "real" world and still paralyzed. Jane has done all she can to help her, but decides Payne's best chance for recovery is Dr.Manuel Manello (Manny), Jane's her former boss and friend. We will finally get to know more about Manny and find out what the connection he has to the Brothers.

A new, or should I say old, set of warriors enters the land of Caldwell, New York. The Bledletter's band of warriors is now being led by Xcor. As there seem to be no lessers left in Europe they've decided to come to America. A new story line that has to do with Payne will be revealed and it will put her life in jeopardy. They will also end up being another force that the Brothers will need to eventually deal with. I look forward to seeing what Ward will do with this group.

Meanwhile, Jane and V are having marital problems. Some of the problems are caused from abuse V suffered from his father. Something V is still trying to deal with. This part of the story I liked because Ward doesn't do the classic fairy tale ending. Let's face it in real life seldom do we fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after. There are almost always bumps in the road and if you ask any long married happy couple what's their secret they will almost always tell you it's something you have to work at. So kudos to Ward for letting her book mimic, at least in some ways, real life.

Qhuin is still dealing with his feelings for Blay. Again kudos go out to Ward for portraying the feelings of a person who has not yet 'come out of the closet' about his sexuality. Even though I'd probably classify Qhuin as a bisexual as opposed to gay, he is having trouble dealing with the fact he might just end up in a long term relationship with another man. I also like the flip side of this story which is that of Blay's. He already knows his feelings and has to deal with the person he loves not being able to reciprocate.

Something I didn't care for in the story is the BDSM angle that comes along with V. While I applaud Ward for making it clear something like child abuse doesn't just magically go away once the abuse stops, I kind of don't care for all the whips, chains, masks, etc that go along with V's story line. I don't understand the lure of this stuff and, to be truthful, I find it a bit creepy. Was hoping Ward had gotten the whole BDSM out of her system with V's book. If she goes more and more into this I will need to stop reading her series. That is one story line I just don't want to explore or read more of. Granted, she's kind of not fully delved into this area and kind of dances around the hard core stuff. When it comes to Ward, however, I've always sensed she tries to test the waters with her readers before taking the big plunge to gauge how her readers respond to wherever she's thinking of leading them.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Notes: BDSM and homosexuality are in this one.

Favorite Quote:
Vishous, the one who always had an answer for everything, seemed to get tongue-tied. But then he said, "You're the reason I get out of bed every night. And you're the reason I can't wait to come home every dawn. Not the war. Not the Brothers. Not even Butch. It's...you."

Song that danced through my head with this one:
Sexual Healing as sung by Marvin Gaye ...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Nairabell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal-romance, 4-star, read-in-2012

Payne, twin sister of Vishous, is cut from the same dark, deadly cloth as her brother. After spending eons imprisoned by their mother, Payne escapes only to find her spine broken. To save her life and try to reverse the paralysis Vishous is forced to abduct human surgeon Manny Manello, the head of his field in neurosurgery. But when Payne and Manny meet sparks fly and it soon becomes clear that a romance is growing despite their different species.

This is the ninth book in the Black Dagger Brothe Payne, twin sister of Vishous, is cut from the same dark, deadly cloth as her brother. After spending eons imprisoned by their mother, Payne escapes only to find her spine broken. To save her life and try to reverse the paralysis Vishous is forced to abduct human surgeon Manny Manello, the head of his field in neurosurgery. But when Payne and Manny meet sparks fly and it soon becomes clear that a romance is growing despite their different species.

This is the ninth book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series and one I approached with trepidation. I'd heard this was different to the previous books and having read it I agree with that assessment. In previous installments the focus has been primarily on the featured couple with other storylines kept firmly in the background, while this barely focuses on Payne and Manny and has a lot of distracting plotlines.

What there is of Payne and Manny's romance was incredibly sweet and well written. Payne's spinal injury at the start of the book is delicately handled and yet accurate in terms of her emotions (I showed certain scenes to my Mum who also has a spinal injury). Manny's medical training does show through and it was interesting to see how the previous memory wipes have affected him. The Brotherhood have really changed his life, and not in a good way.

The predominant storyline of the book though focuses on Vishous and his relationship with Jane. I expected V to play a key role here as Payne's twin but his storyline takes over the book and huge chunks are dedicated to his life. It is almost as if this book is Lover Unbound part two rather than focusing on a new couple. There are also tiny cameos from pretty much every other character from the books, although most are only mentioned and never given any purpose or dialogue.

There are also three other storylines, the first being a heartbreaking view of the Qhuinn/Blaylock story from Qhuinn's perspective revealing his true feelings for the first time (their book Lover at Last is out next year) which was kept mostly in the background. Then you have the introduction of Xcor and the Band of B*****ds, a rival group to the Black Dagger Brotherhood formerly led by the Bloodletter who, while relevant to the storyline, take over with some unnecessary scenes. The third storyline is a human murder case which I expected to tie everything together so was disappointed to find not only does it fail at this, it's actually tied into the author's other series.

All in all this was an okay read and I'll still pick up a copy of Lover Reborn.

Plot: 7/10
Characters: 8/10
Ending: 9/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Cover: 8/10

Overall: 40/50 ...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Lisa M added it · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal-romance, kindle, vampire

4♥s
Please see my review under the name Lisa Annesley, where I am more active. I welcome all Friend requests. ...more

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Jun 30, 2014 Rachel Willis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-read-in-2014

Per usual, loved this new one. I also loved the progression that was shown here for back characters.

Just realized that reading these mammoth books is really dragging down my book count. In addition to my book hopping and just crazy life in general, I'm not looking like I'm going to meet my goal book count of 150...

We shall see. ...more

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