Leafing Through Pages – Lover Mine (Black Dagger #8)

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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. It was a large book with so many plots and definitely kept the readers intrigued. The ending was a bit rushed, as we have seen the antagonist for a while in the series.

Lover Mine is the eighth 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. This book was published in January of 2010.

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. The remaining Brotherhood are – Rhage (shellan Mary Luce), Tohrment “Tohr” (Official leader of the Brotherhood since Wrath ascended the throne), Vishous “V” (shellan Dr. Jane Whitcomb), Phury (shellan Cormia), 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). Rhev even though a sympath we see his story too (shellan Ehlena). 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.

We have seen about John Mathew since book #2 where is gets into brotherhood and gets adopted by Tohr and Wellsie. But when Wellsie gets killed in that book, Tohr takes off and John feels he is abandoned. He and his friends Blaylock and Qhuinn go thru transition. In the book Lover Unbound (#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. We also see that Lash, who is arch enemy and get killed by Qhuinn in Lover Bound(5), is actually the son of The Omega, who grew up as a vampire and later turned into a lesser. Xhex is trans-gender vampire, working for Rhev and is a sympath assasin. John has huge crush on her. In Lover Avenged (#7), she and John have sex. But with loss of Mhurder, her lover, she went thru she safe guards her heart and doesn’t reciprocate to John. Her going name is Alex Hass in Love Avenged (#7) and he is abducted by Lash towards end of that book.

So naturally the next book is John’s as he also vows to avenge Xhex abduction and eventually faces his tormentor, Lash. We see in this book that John has been a reincarnation of Darius, and that’s why he names himself in the brotherhood is Tehrror. Now that he wants to avenge Xhex and rescue her, will she steel herself against John? Will John accept her? Will his reincarnation give him a different destiny to John? Will he face-off with Lash eventually? The events occur after four weeks after the events in the Lover Avenged (#7)

In #5, we see that the Scribe Virgin has a twin child (twin of V) and called as Payne. In #6, author showed as if Payne is Xhex. But we know there is a story for Payne in future books. So did the author make an error with that seen in #6.

Just like we saw in the #2 book Love Eternal, we see that Bella gets abducted by the then fore-lesser. In Lover Avenged (#7 book, we see that Xhex is abducted in this book by Lash. He was going to avenge her. It might be similar to #2, but we have to wait and see when we read his book.

I felt so angry towards Lash, the way he had sexually, emotionally, mentally and physically abused Xhex. I myself wanted to kill him and that makes it impressive of the author. I am glad the chapter of Lash ended here with this book. He was getting to grate me from book #2 when he was introduced.

During the fight with Lash, John is hit by a bomb of energy that give him memory of his past. And that is when we realize how Darius and Tohr came to be together, and how he has helped a vampire who get kidnapped, and when no one wants her, he takes case of her until the kid’s birth, and the vampire commits suicide.

Going back and forth made a perspective of how John is a reincarnation of Darius. In the end, he reunites with Tohr, who becomes his father. And mates with Xhex who had given birth so many centuries ago. Darius comes back from for Xhex, aka Xhexamai, who has was just a whee-borne at that time. Also Xhex is asked by the Blind Kind to fight along-side brotherhood.

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.

Again the Author packs a lot in this book as well. It did not bore me as before, but got me interested in what her future books would like. There is so much we can see and I believe Payne story comes next as he is seriously hurt. Cant wait to see her story soon.

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.

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. It was a large book with so many plots and definitely kept the readers intrigued. The ending was a bit rushed, as we have seen the antagonist for a while in the series.

Spoiler Alerts:

1. Grammatical / Character / Plot / Geographical / Historical / Mythological Errors:
   1. On Pg 78, line 13, it should be “…pathetic idiot who…”
   2. All over the book, the author shows that Xhex had been abducted more than four weeks ago. But on Pg 155 she mentions it as three and a half weeks.
   3. She uses the word “fidiot” again on Pg 272. Should it be “idiot”
2. Plot Reveals:
   1. We see the more of Payne in this book. I am guessing we will see more of her in future books.
   2. We also see more of Layla, as though she support the Brotherhood in giving the blood, but she is disappointed that no one wants her sexually. Yes, Primale had changed the rules, but that is what she wants.
   3. Blay after much rejection from Qhuinn forms a relationship with Saxton, Qhuinn’s cousin. While Qhuinn starts a kind of relationship with the Chosen Layla, on the fear of glymera totally discounting him. He just want to be normal and not a gay. Both are going in separate ways. Hopefully they will come together.
   4. We see that Payne gets hurt in book while helping the Bling King in sparring. The only way she can be helped is going to the Far Side where the brotherhood lives and get Manny’s help.
   5. Finally Payne meets her twin Vishous, who she was told that he was dead.
   6. No’One, the Chosen who was relegated to help the Chosen because of her limp, comes to Far Side and aid Payne as her maid while she is recovering. We come to know that she is the mother of Xhex, and instead of going into the Fade after her suicide she does not get entry. Scribe Virgin feels pity and makes as help to Chosen, even she is not one of the Chosen.
   7. There is a separate story about a haunted mansion who is haunted by a brotherhood. It turns out that he is Murhder. Xhex had dated him at one time and he becomes mad when he knows her truth. Hopefully we will see him in future books.
3. Sub Plots:
   1. From Lover Revealed (#4):
      1. 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?
      2. The Omega and The Scribe Virgin as brother and sister, but both work in opposite directions – one kills the vampires, one makes the vampires.
   2. From Lover Unbound (#5):
      1. 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?
      2. V has a fraternal twin Payne, from the Scribe Virgin, his mom.
   3. From Lover Enshrined (#6): The brotherhood find Tohrment, courtesy of the fallen angle Lassiter. Both Tohr and Lassiter stay at the brotherhood compound. Will we see Wellsie’s journey to Fade (she gets killed in book #3)?
   4. From Lover Avenged (#7):
      1. The King also makes Rhev as the ruler of the Sympath colony, after he is rescued. We might see more changes in how the Sympath colony works now.
      2. Tohr takes blood from The Chosen Selena. Will she be in his story?
      3. Wrath truly become blind in this book as opposed to semi-blind he was before. He has a dog, George, assist him in his blindness.