Leafing Through Pages – Lover Enshrined (Black Dagger #6)

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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. We see a change in history with this story. The Chosen are set free and Phury takes on Cormia as his mate and Shellan. The was with the Lessening Society increases and more sub-plots open in this book. Cant wait to read them all.

Lover Enshrined is the sixth 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 June 2008.

Wrath is also the Blind King of the Vampire Species apart from being the leader of the Brotherhood and he is mated to 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” (his shellan Dr. Jane Whitcomb), Phury (Celibate and has an artificial leg), Zsadist (Phury’s twin, “Z”, shellan Bella) and Butch O’Neal (Dhestroyer, a human turned vampire and inducted into the Brotherhood as of Book #4, shellan Marissa). 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 books in this series before she did a spin-off called Black Dagger Legacy.

The story revolves around Phury and his Chosen Corinia, as he becomes the Primale in the previous book. As much as Phury wants to escape the role of Primale, do nothing but be with brotherhood, he is torn between his infatuation towards Bella, he is also bound by his duty as Primale. Cormia, his Chosen, as his first mate wants to win his body as well as heart for herself. Will love prevail over duty?

I was hoping for a story about Tohr, but with his taking over as Primale from V, the obvious next story we read about is Phury’s. Looks like we have to wait for Tohr’s story to come up. This story happens in August, 5 months after incident in the previous book, Lover Unbound (Black Dagger #5).

The story of Phury brought out lot of empathy in my heart as a reader. He is endlessly supportive of the brotherhood and their shellans and demands nothing for himself or expects anything in return. That is why Cormia as the Chosen first mate want to keep him for herself.

This I felt a little longer than previous book. The number of sub-plots that the author spins in her stories are so much more, increasing the length of the book. But all are required to set stage for her future books.

Phury, as the Primale, makes a decision that instead of sleeping with all the Chosen, he sets them free. He sets up an accommodation in Adirondacks on this side for them and takes Cormia as his Shellan. He worked all his life to be a hero, and finally with this change he feels so.

The fight between brotherhood and the lessening society increases more, as many of founding members and their families of the Princeps Council are murdered by the lessening society. Brotherhood is struggling to find how the Society knew so much about the vampires and where they live.

We see in Book #3 as a epilogue that Bella comes to visit Z with their kid Nalla. In this book, she goes thru her pregnancy and gives birth to Nalla. I guess author kept it consistent with the names. Phury also mates Cormia at the end of the 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.

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.

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. We see a change in history with this story. The Chosen are set free and Phury takes on Cormia as his mate and Shellan. The was with the Lessening Society increases and more sub-plots open in this book. Cant wait to read them all.

Spoiler Alerts:

  1. Grammatical / Character / Plot / Geographical / Historical / Mythological Errors:
    1. On Pg 4, Line 5, there is no need for “from his father” in the statement.
    2. On Pg 162, Line 14, there should be no “hit” at the end of the line.
  2. Plot Reveals:
    1. From the time he had transitioned in Book #5, John Matthew has fantasized about Xkhex. Will she be his shellan when his story comes?
    2. Tres, iAm and Rally work for Rhev.
    3. Rhev becomes love slave to the Sympath Princess to hide his ability as Sympath and all the other sympaths, and keep that a secret. He also becomes the leahdyre of the Princeps Council, as many founding members are killed by the Lessening Society.
    4. Lash, who is the enemy of John, is actually the song of Omega, who got adopted by the founding family of Princeps Council.
    5. Qhuinn becomes ashtrux nostrum, an antiquate position like a private guard, to John bestowed by Wrath. To avoid the punishment he would have faced on killing Lash.
    6. The brotherhood find Tohrment, courtesy of the fallen angle Lassiter. Both Tohr and Lassiter stay at the brotherhood compound.
    7. We see in previous book that Scribe Virgin as a female child, a twin of V. We come to know in this book that Xhex is actually Payne, Scribe Virgin’s Child.
  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 forms a home called Safe Place, for battered spouses and kids.
      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. Will we see more of it in future books?
      4. John’s friends with Blaylock and Qhuinn.
      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.
    4. From Lover Unbound (#5):
      1. All three, Blaylock (in the book #3), Qhuinn and John in this book, become full-vampires going thru their transition.
      2. V gets his visions back in this book. 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 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.

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