Leafing Through Pages – Lover Unbound (Black Dagger #5)

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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. Didn’t like the ending much, but perhaps it required for future books. And the author delves more into the life of V and this give us an insight as to why he was thus, and why his birth mother is like that. It not only created sympathy for V but also hatred for Scribe Virgin in reader’s eyes.

Lover Unbound is the fifth 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 who we would follow in the subsequent books. This book was published in September 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), Zsadis (Phury’s twin, “Z”) and Butch O’Neal (Dhestroyer, a human turned vampire and inducted into the Brotherhood as of Book #4). 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.

The story revolves around Vishous “V” and Dr. Jane Whitcomb, a human surgeon. He was tormented and abused as a pre-trans that doesn’t give him any love or emotion, except towards Butch. But a mortal injury to him puts him close to Jane and compels him to taste true pleasure. But what about his destiny and future of Jane? This book happens in March, a week after the incidents in the previous book, Lover Revealed (Black Dagger #4)

As much as Tohr’s story pulled me a lot, and cant wait to see what he does after his shellan, Wellsie gets killed in book #3. Reading about Vishous hit a new edge for me as a reader. Scenes so far between V and Butch were hot and for a minute there I thought the author will pair them. But she mated Butch with Marissa. They have a relationship that goes deeper than anything either of them ever believed possible, and so the author thought.

Vishous runs the security and monitoring systems The Brotherhood. He can vision the future of a person. But as of Book #3, he loses the ability to see a person’s future. His nightmares also increase rapidly. His hand and whole body glows which can interfere with electrical or magnetic fields.

It felt a little lengthy and could have cut short a few places. But I guess the author had to show more characters that might come in future book.

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.

In this book J. R. Ward shows from the man’s perspective how he has to choose destiny over love. How he is forced to become the Primale for all the Chosen. We also see how that even though the Chosen is chosen to mate the primale, and then eventually have sex with all the Chosen to procreate for next generation of brotherhood, the Chosen has her own mind and that she is not as manipulated as the other’s think. Atleast it felt like a redemption in my eyes on the author’s part.

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. There is a glossary of all the Terms and Proper Nouns used in the series at the beginning of each book.

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.

There is a TV series based on these books in the BDB series by J.R. Ward since 2025 with mixed reviews. This can be watched on Passionflix and Amazon Video with subscription.

A few things that I did not appreciate much. The thought of someone so ruthlessly pushed to become one of the Brotherhood member’s shellen even though they are truly not mated (like the Chosen Ones) 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. Didn’t like the ending much, but perhaps it required for future books. And the author delves more into the life of V and this give us an insight as to why he was thus, and why his birth mother is like that. It not only created sympathy for V but also hatred for Scribe Virgin in reader’s eyes.

Spoiler Alerts:

1. Grammatical / Character / Plot / Geographical / Historical / Mythological Errors:
   1. On Pg 137, Line 14 from bottom, it should be “…wanted to kick…”
   2. On Pg. 357, Line 13, it should be “…he could do was pray…”
2. Plot Reveals:
   1. All three Blaylock (in the book #3), Qhuinn and John in this book become full-vampires going thru their transition.
   2. V is the son of the Scribe Virgin. He agrees to become Primale per her orders. But he makes a deal that he comes back to the brotherhood after impregnating her Chosen. When he is at the final ceremony Phury takes his place as the Primale. We see that his visions are back. He gets a vision of Dr. Manny, Jane’s supervisor, that  he is a brother. Will we see more of Manny in future books.
   3. We see in this book, that John is the son of Darius and his name in the brotherhood is Tehrror.
   4. V has a fraternal twin Payne, that the Scribe Virgin has in suspended animation. Will we see her more in future books.
3. Sub Plots:
   1. From Love Eternal (#2): Havers, a physician to vampires is introduced in this book.
   2. From Lover Awakened (#3):
      1. Reverend, a vampire owns the club ZeroSum. He is the brother of Bella (mated to Z) 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. He seems impotent. He also needs dopamine to keep him seeing everything in red, but it numbs other senses as well. There is more to Rhevenge’s story and we have to wait for his book to read about it.
      2. 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.
   3. From Lover Revealed (#4):
      1. 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.
      2. 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.
      3. Butch is distant cousin to Wrath. 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. Will we see more of it in future books?
      4. John’s friends with Blaylock and Qhuinn. Will we see more of them in future books?
      5. The Omega and The Scribe Virgin as brother and sister, but both work in opposite directions – one kills the vampires, one makes the vampires.