Book Review
Title: Lover Revealed (The Black Dagger Brotherhood #4)
Author: J. R. Ward
Genre: Paranormal/Romance
Rating: ****
Review: So, this is going to be Butch’s story and after what Vishous did at the end of Lover Awakened I am excited to see where this goes and I hope he and Marissa finally get their act together. I noticed a few things early on in this novel, the first is it takes places before the epilogue of Lover Awakened so Bella is still pregnant at this point, second the Reverend from the club is actually Rehvenge and he is making moves on Marissa as he is falling for her even though she rejects him because she still loves Butch even though the pair haven’t spoken or seen each other in a while. We see that Butch is contemplating his role within the Brotherhood as he isn’t allowed to go and fight the lessers with them because he isn’t a vampire but he is slowly sinking into a depression because he doesn’t have a purpose. When he randomly encountered a group of lessers trying to kidnap a civilian vampire he steps in and gets the male to safety only to be kidnapped himself despite being human. Throughout all this he tries contacting Vishous but he is currently dealing with Rhage who has gone full beast mode and by the time he picks up Butch’s message the sun is up and there is nothing he can do. We switch back to Butch who has been tortured for information and gives up none when the Omega arrives, the Omega puts something of itself inside of Butch which begins growing before letting him go for the Brotherhood to find hoping to infect them all with the darkness inside Butch. However, Vishous finds him first because his blood is in Butch which angered Wrath majorly because it was breaking one of their laws and he manages to tell his friend that he is infected and they get him to Havers. During this time Marissa has been having dreams of Butch but dismissed them until the Brothers come into the clinic claiming everything is ok. When Havers informs Vishous that it is looking very unlikely that Butch will survive he tells Marissa because he knows that Butch would want her to be with him and he tells her to put on a hazmat suit first which she forgets when she sees the state Butch is in which means now she might be contaminated too.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, I have no idea what was put inside of Butch or how Vishous was able to use his unique hand in order to keep it at bay but if something isn’t done soon Butch is going to die which I really don’t want and he is some of the best comic relief in this series. Some days pass but it seems that butch is getting better thanks to the healing Vishous is giving him and from Marissa’s presence although she misinterpreted his desire for her to leave as meaning he didn’t want her when he was actually just worried for her. It is Vishous who tells Marissa that Butch came to see her on a few occasions and she turned him away but Marissa counters this saying she was sick and didn’t know Butch had ever been to see her and after when she asked for him to call on her and he declined she thought he didn’t want her anymore and began to believe there was something wrong with her. When Butch is well enough to talk to her about this the pair quickly go from sullen and brooding to overflowing with passion especially on Butch’s part as he begins to show Marissa the wonderous, sexual side of relationship which she has never experienced before. I really liked Butch’s honesty in this scene and how he confesses to sleeping with a lot of women and that they weren’t only human as we know from the club scene but this doesn’t matter to Marissa as long as she has Butch with her. This first sexy scene between the pair who wonderful and suited them perfectly although I found the part where Vishous watches them on the cameras to be heart-breaking as we know he isn’t a gentle lover and yet he craves that kind of relationship and I wonder why, and yet him using his powers to manipulate Havers into leaving was hilarious as Butch definitely would not have wanted to have been caught with his pants down (figuratively – the pants were gone by now) by this older brother. Afterwards, Marissa asks Butch if humans can’t bond, which they can but not in the same way as vampires but Marissa loves Butch’s scent which is something very attractive to vampires and their mates and Butch knows that he has found the woman for him.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Marissa wants to pleasure Butch the same way he pleasured her and he lets her and everything is going amazingly well until she makes a comment about the fluid being black. This terrifies Butch as he knows lessers bleed black and his blood had been that colour not long ago, Havers also stormed in on them and we know from his thoughts that he isn’t going to let his sister be with a human and Butch decides to sever their ties until he knows exactly what is happening with him and why which breaks his heart a little but it puts Marissa back into the place she was when Wrath cut off their arrangement in the first book. After this Vishous comes to take him home because he is well enough to return and they decide to go for drinks, on the way they encounter some lessers as Vishous calls Rhage as backup but Butch willing approaches them as they see him as a lesser and he is able to determine how long they have been lessers too. He fights them and his able to draw a black substance out of one into himself but it does something to him and he orders Vishous to take him somewhere secure that isn’t home, so he gets taken to the sex penthouse where Rhage and Vishous have to leave him for the day but they both notice that he smells faintly of baby powder, just like a lesser but he can’t be one as he still has his heart but it is becoming clear that his situation is becoming dire. As the day draws to a close Vishous seems to be coming close to understanding what is actually happening to Butch but he isn’t quite there and I can’t wait to see how that plays out. We also see Havers throwing Marissa out and refusing the becoming her guardian is the council pass Wrath’s mandate that unmated females needs to be protected in seclusion meaning she is completely alone in the world with less than an hour until the sun rises to find somewhere else to live and I have a feeling she is going to go to the Brotherhood as she knows Butch is with them. However, given how things played out between the pair I am not sure but Butch does confess to Vishous that he loves Marissa.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Marissa does go to the Brotherhood where Wrath and Bella eagerly accept her in after what Havers has done and even Wrath the normally level headed leader of the Brotherhood is absolutely furious with her brother. When Vishous informs Butch that Marissa is there, he tries calling her but she is still angry with him so he has to see her in person. He explains to her what happened to him that it wasn’t a car accident but that he had been kidnapped and tortured by lessers although he omits the part about the Omega putting something inside of him which is why he was pushing her away and the pair are quickly overcome by their lust once more, however, Marissa hasn’t feed in a while as he last feeding was interrupted and she has to send Butch away twice as she wants to feed from him and she knows if she gives into it then she will kill Butch which is something she couldn’t stand. Butch ends up seeking out Vishous who explains what happens to a vampire when they don’t feed for a while and explains why Marissa wouldn’t be able to feed off him long term but he still has feelings of protectiveness and jealousy raging inside him when he thinks about Marissa feeding off someone else. Meanwhile, Marissa has contacted Rehvenge as she needs to feed soon and they agree to meet the next day even though he is still making advances towards her and I have the feeling he is going to try and become her guardian if the new rules are passed by the Council which wouldn’t be good. There is also a plotline of a Lesser prophecy that we don’t have much information on but the newly brought back Mr. X believe he has found the person the prophecy speaks of in Van Dean and quickly blackmails him into becoming a lesser. This might tie in with Butch discovering that he has the ability to kill lessers by absorbing them which turns his blood black but it quickly rights itself afterwards almost like his body is processing the lessers and getting rid of it which the Brotherhood are planning to use to their advantage along with the fact that Butch can sense the lessers when they are close to him in ways the Brothers can’t.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Butch and Marissa are getting closer and working out their issues but he can’t stand the thought of someone else feeding her and tries to force her to feed from him, in her hunger she does bite him but quickly dematerializes and goes to Rehvenge instead. While she doesn’t want to drink from Rehvenge’s neck anymore she is too far gone in her hunger to take blood from his wrist and he once again makes it clear that he wants to be with her as her hellren and she once again rejects him. Meanwhile, Butch is getting absolutely wasted in Rehvenge’s nightclub and the Brothers have to be called to come and collect him but the second Butch sees the bite marks on Rehvenge’s neck he knows that he is the one feeding Marissa and tries to take him on only to be beaten bloody by Rehvenge’s bodyguards and this doesn’t bode well for the pair. It gets worse when Marissa asks Butch to take her virginity while he is dead drunk and when he realises, she is in pain he thinks it is because of him although we later learn through a conversation that Marissa and Beth have it was the initial pain of losing her virginity and her anxiety that made Marissa stop Butch and she desperately wants to try again. However, during this time Butch has become desolate and tells Vishous that if he can’t leave the Brothers then he wants Vishous to kill him which he could never do as he sees Butch as a brother. Vishous believes the things Butch is experiencing like the jealousy, the aggression and the bonding scent means that Butch has some vampire blood in him and tries to research his bloodline. Vishous explains that if Butch has some vampire blood in him then they might be able to turn him if they get permission from the Scribe Virgin. However, the Virgin won’t see Wrath although he is going to try again the next night, when Butch explains this to Marissa as he is excited about being with her as she needs him to be all she can think about is how you can be physically close to someone and yet have them be emotionally distance from you, which isn’t a good sign for this couple.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Butch decides he is going to go through the regression to find out if he has any vampire blood in him and Marissa is against this when she finds out but after Butch tells his story of the abuse he suffered from his father, his sister’s death and how his whole family blamed him for Janie’s death, she realises that she has no choice but to let him continue down this road and by there for him when he needs her. Shortly before this we see a scene where John in training beats the snot out of a boy named Lash after making fun of another boy after he had gone through his transition. John is so angry in this state he even takes on Wrath and it is here that Wrath realises how much pain John is in after losing Tohr and decides to keep him close. By the time Butch goes through the regression which has risks of his own he realises how close he has become to the Brothers and not just Vishous. The procedure was successful and it turns out that Butch doesn’t only have vampire blood in him but he is of Wrath’s bloodline making them cousins and making Butch royalty which means he is more than worthy of a high born vampire like Marissa. They schedule his transition for the following night and he and Marissa have their first time together which was everything they wanted it to be but Marissa has a feeling that Butch is going to die that night and she isn’t going to have had any time with him which will kill her. In between all of this, Mr. X has realised what Butch is and now has a mission along with Van Dean to kill him before he can truly harness the powers the Omega put inside of him but I have a feeling it’s too late for that. With less than 100 pages left to go in this novel I can’t wait to see Butch’s transition and how and when Mr. X is going to come after him or will the Omega intervene since he choose Butch for some reason. The first part of Butch’s transition was interesting as he wasn’t born a vampire so they literally have to kill him before the transition can begin and then they have to feed him vampire blood which comes from both Marissa and Beth, which obviously sends Wrath into overdrive meaning Vishous has to hold him back but then the real transition hits and I am sure Butch is going to survive it.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, everything came together nicely and we get to see the beginnings of where the series is going to take us and why it was so important that Butch became a vampire and a member of the Brotherhood because of his unique gift. However, I really disliked the relationship in this book, in the beginning Butch and Marissa were great together but as the story progressed, I genuinely felt that having Butch and Vishous as a couple given how their gifts compliment each other and how they have been so close ever since Butch was introduced made sense and that is a ship I will go done with. Overall, Lover Revealed suffered from the same pacing issues as the second book but I did highly enjoy despite my issues with the romance and I can’t wait to see where the series goes next.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: Dark Lover
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