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Stars: 3 / 5
Recommendation: The Black Dagger Brotherhood and the vampires certainly creates a universe that keeps you on the edge. Complex plot weaving and anticipation of future books keeps the reader immersed. This was a tender and warm story. It was very interesting, lots of cryptic things through the book that kept the reader guessing with and mazing ending.
Lover Revealed is the fourth book in the long running Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J. R. Ward. The series deals with Vampires and Humans, trying to co-exist and at the same time fight the evils in both species. The first book Dark Lover introduces us to the key members of the Brotherhood along with Humans who would follow in the subsequent books. This book was published in March 2007.
Wrath is also the Blind King of the Vampire Species apart from being the leader of the Brotherhood and he is mated to a half-breed, Beth Randall. Females who mate to a vampire are called Shellan, while the men are called Hellren. The remaining Brotherhood we see are – Rhage (his shellan Mary Luce), Tohrment “Tohr” (Official leader of the Brotherhood since Wrath ascended the throne), Vishous “V”, Phury (Celibate and has an artificial leg) and Zsadis (Phury’s twin, “Z”). They work together to destroy the lessers (de-souled human whose sole purpose is to kill the Vampires as a member of Lessening Society) who have been slowly working to exterminate the vampires. So far J. R. Ward has written 23 book in this series before she did a spin-off called Black Dagger Legacy. Also we are introduced to the human, Butch O’Neal, the Homicide Detective, a human, in the first book and becomes best friend of the brotherhood, who is attracted to Marissa, a vampire. And also to the Scribe Virgin (a mystical force counselling kings and keeper of vampire archives).
The story revolves around Butch O’Neal, a Human Homicide Cop, but very tight with the Brotherhood, and Marissa, a female-vampire who once had been Wrath’s shellan as just one to give blood. Butch fell in love with Marissa in the first book, Dark Lover, even though she was a vampire-female, and he just a human. Marissa rejects him even though she is in love with him. Will she accept Butch eventually? Or will Butch have to sacrifice his life and become a vampire for her to accept him? The story takes place in March.
In the previous book, Lover Awakened, we see that Bella gives birth to a female child in the epilogue, obviously they are . But the incidents that happen in this book are a few months before the epilogue when Bella announces her pregnancy to Z and he mates with her. In the previous book, it came across that V got back his visions after giving his blood to Butch. But in this book we see that his visions are lost and he is empty and silent inside.
Even though both Butch and Marissa love each other, mis-conceptions from incidents in book #1 and #2 make them believe that both don’t want each other. They are unaware of each other’s feelings so far. The author had brought the buried love within them thru this book.
Tohr’s story pulled me a lot, and cant wait to see what he does after his shellan, Wellsie gets killed in book #3. But Butch and Marissa’s story pulled me as a reader right-in. It was tender and warm. Scenes between V and Butch were hot and for a minute there I thought the author will pair them in the end. But we know V has a story of his own coming in the next book.
Some of the scenes among the supporting characters is playful when needed and romantic when needed and serious when needed. This gives more insight into those characters and of course, its gives us a peek into the stories that have not been told yet.
The romances that J. R. Ward spins between the main characters of each book are very romantic and erotic, all spun into one tale. Yet, it bothered me that the characters get attracted to each -other just because they are mated to each other. There are other series’ by Christine Feehan (Dark Series, Leopard Series, Shadow Series, etc.) that follow similar plot. It bothered me there as well, but I read those series. Same goes with this series as well.
The author shows multiple plots within the story and also writes each plot in multiple POVs. This leads to new characters as John and Bella get added to the existing characters. Obviously we will see more future books centering on the new characters also.
I liked that the characters that are paired with the brotherhood are equally strong. They have to be to face the brotherhood. They are not meek and whiny that would have been a turn-off. The brotherhoods’ constat teasing and comments to each other add the much -needed humor to the otherwise serious series.
J.R. Ward thanks Sue Grafton, the author of the Alphabet series (A series I have to read from E yet.), as one of the Executive Committee member. She mentioned in her blog that Sue had mentored her. Sue passed away in 2017.
The unique names of the vampires threw me off a bit considering the violent nature of the words. But again, they are brutes of large size and violent only to those who cause harm or threaten their species. Perhaps the names suite them.
There is a glossary of all the Terms and Proper Nouns used in the series at the beginning of each book. Intriguing names such as The Scribe Virgin, The Lessening Society, the Omega, Mr. X, etc.
A few things that I did not appreciate much. The way the females end up having sex with the mates male vampire from the brotherhood even though they hadn’t known the guys, just because nature had made them true mates and they could not do anything but sleep with him. The thought of Marissa being so ruthlessly pushed to become Wrath’s shellen even though she was not the true one – makes me think how little women meant to them. The idea that a man can have as many as shellans he want at the same time, the very notion made me feel a slight disgrace to womenfolk. May be this flaws might get repaired in future books.
The Black Dagger Brotherhood and the vampires certainly creates a universe that keeps you on the edge. Complex plot weaving and anticipation of future books keeps the reader immersed. This was a tender and warm story. It was very interesting, lots of cryptic things through the book that kept the reader guessing with and mazing ending.
Spoiler Alerts:
- Grammatical / Character / Plot / Geographical / Historical / Mythological Errors:
- On Pg 193, Line 13, it should be “…what he was doing…”
- Plot Reveals:
- There is more to Rhevenge’s story and we have to wait for his book to read about it.
- Xhex, a trans-gender vampire who goes mostly as a female, is the security officer for Rhvenge, works at ZeroSum, and is a sympath. Rhev knows about Xhex. There is some history between them which perhaps we will know more in Rhevenge’s book.
- V not only stops seeing the visions of the future of a person, but also increasingly has his nightmares and his had glows like a sun. He keeps it hidden in a glove always.
- Marissa is given a task to open a home for battered women and children, similar to what the humans do. She forms a home called Safe Place.
- Butch is distant cousin to Wrath. He is converted to a full-vampire like the brotherhood. He is the first one to be inducted into the Brotherhood in 75 yrs. He and Marissa get mated in the end and also have a catholic wedding ceremony. Butch’s mom in her one of the lucid days mentions that she had sex with one of the doctors which resulted in Butch. That is why his adopted father hated him. He says good-bye permanently to his family after mating with Marissa and his induction to the Brotherhood.
- John’s friends with Blaylock and Qhuinn. Will we see more of them in future books?
- The Omega and The Scribe Virgin as brother and sister, but both work in opposite directions – one kills the vampires, one makes the vampires.
- Sub Plots:
- From Love Eternal (#2):
- Havers, a physician to vampires is introduced in this book.
- Vishous runs the security and monitoring systems The Brotherhood. He can vision the future of a person.
- Wrath and Mary Luce have a cat named Boo.
- Fron Lover Awakened (#3):
- Reverend, a vampire owns the club ZeroSum. He is the brother of Bella aka Rehvenge “Rehv”. He anonymously runs the club and Bella is unaware of this. He is at least half-sympath and hides it from his aristocracy, glymera. However he know about the Brotherhood as his sister is shellan to Z, one of the members of brotherhood. He provides feed to Marissa but not sleep with her. He seems impotent. He also needs dopamine to keep him seeing everything in red, but it numbs other senses as well.
- John Matthew is adopted by Tohr and Wellsie in book #2. He is approx 21 yrs old and when he goes thru transition. But, in book #3 Wellsie gets killed and Tohr disappears and no one knows where he went and Wellsie’s body’s journey to Fade is put on hold until Tohr is found.
- From Love Eternal (#2):
Galavant Reflections 