Book Review
Title: Lover Unbound (The Black Dagger Brotherhood Book 5)
Author: J. R. Ward
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
Rating: 5 Stars
Review: After reading the first four books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series in February, I was excited to re-join this crew of vampires. Lover Unbound is Vishous’ story and we have already learned a fair bit about him including his unusual sexual habits, but I was excited to see his story play out. The experience I have had with this series has been a little hit or miss as some books are far better than others but we are getting into the main core of the series now as it was revealed in the previous book that the combined powers of Butch and Vishous have the power to destroy and track the Lessers. We are initially introduced to Dr. Jane Whitcomb when she is a child growing up in a rich yet lonely household with her younger sister Hannah, one night after her birthday sleepover is cancelled, Jane uses a Ouija board with Hannah and it tells her she will marry someone called Vishous and that Hannah won’t have any Christmas presents. Jane dismisses this but wakes the next morning to find her sister death due to an undiagnosed heart condition. We switch back to Vishous who is struggling with the feeling of losing Butch to Marissa because he can’t spend all of his time with Butch now and it is getting to him. In order to keep himself in check, Vishous arranges a meeting with a submissive and while we don’t see it the aftermath is messy, in a good way but Vishous fear of sleep comes back to haunt him.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, I liked the introduction of Jane but I always felt that a relationship was hinted at between Butch and Vishous but this was thrown over in favour of Marissa who I said in my previous was the blandest character I have ever come across so I hoping Jane is better than that. Things get really interesting really quick as we learn that the Scribe Virgin is Vishous’ mother and she has chosen him to be the Primale who will carry on the Brotherhood’s line with a mate of her choosing, Cormia. At first Vishous refuses because he is angry but he agrees to impregnant with female if he can stay with the Brotherhood and have nothing to do with the child and the Scribe Virgin agrees but this is something against Vishous’ nature not only because he likes to rough but because he doesn’t want children because of his own upbringing with his father. Cormia is also against the mating because of Bloodletter, Vishous’ father’s fearsome reputation and while Vishous doesn’t hurt his female he has a reputation himself and Cormia wants no part of it. However, she has been chosen as an act of punishment for whatever she did and I have a feeling that this isn’t going to end well for them at all considering we can already see the pattern and know Vishous and Jane are going to end up together and I can’t wait to see how she ties into this. Vishous is furious at what the Scribe Virgin has asked of him and despite his promise he isn’t sure he is going to go through with it and decides to go hunting to blow off steam but he does alone. While he deals with the Lesser, Vishous takes a bullet to the chest which hits his heart and he ends being taken to a human hospital where Jane is going to be treating him. They rush him into surgery as he has technically died twice before they even get to the hospital and he wakes during surgery as his heart is failing again but Jane commands him to stay with her before he passes out again and honestly this is the most invested I’ve been in this series since the first book.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Vishous wakes from the operation to see Jane and he semi-realises that she is his mate and despises the other doctor chatting her up in front of him. At that very moment, Butch, Rhage and Phury bust into the hospital to take Vishous back to their own people but he won’t leave Jane behind so they have to take her with them which poses complications of its own as we saw when Mary was brought into the Brotherhood’s circle before they found out she was Rhage’s mate. The first time Jane comes around within the compound, she is greeted by an argument between Vishous, Butch and Marissa over feeding when Wrath calls a meeting about what to do with Jane but Vishous manages to convince Wrath that he needs her at least until he is healed but Jane has her own opinions on this causing her to be put under again. The second time she awakes she has more time to assess her situation and realises there is no way out of the compound as it is the day time and the shutters are down but she also has time to assess Vishous when Butch informs her she is going to be caring for him. During this time Jane has labelled them as vampires but when Butch and Vishous come together in order to heal Butch from consuming Lessers she is stunned. Meanwhile, we transition back to Cormia who is trying to find out more about Vishous but there isn’t any information on him other than his lineage which is intentionally only for his father’s side but his father was an evil man. We see from Vishous’ memories that Bloodletter was evil through and through abusing his own son under the guise of making him strong despite the fact he hadn’t yet transitioned and I hope that Vishous was the one to kill him.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, we get to see more memories of Vishous’ childhood and how he came into his powers before his transition, possibly from his mother to protect him from some of the brutality of his father’s camps but the most interesting thing he is the development between Vishous and Jane. We see the pair banter back and forth, in a way we have only seen between Vishous and Butch previously and she brings out a side of Vishous we haven’t seen before. We get two small scene between them and while the first was very short, the second had promised but they are interrupted. In between these moments we are also following John as his transition seems to be approaching and not a moment too soon as Lash has transitioned and he still has it out for John. John also learns about how the vampire upper-class can treat even their own children very badly as that is the case with one of his friends. We are also following Phury very closely as he is still in love with Bella and when she starts bleeding during her pregnancy, Zsadist comes to him for help and he refuses as he is trying to keep his distance from Bella and his feelings for her. However, during a hunt for Lessers he is injured quite badly and refuses to go to Havers, so they call upon Jane’s skill to help him as his face is badly smashed up. I was really enjoying the interactions between Vishous and Jane but the pacing seems off. Everything seems to be happening very quickly but not much is actually happening. Vishous is still bed bound because of his injuries even though he is mostly healed, he is trying to forge a relationship with Jane but it is made very hard because of the fact they basically kidnapped her but Vishous mind reading ability allows him to know that she desires him as much as he wants her but this does feel like a major invasion of privacy especially since Jane doesn’t know about this ability which taints the whole interaction for me but I am hoping something happens soon. The most interesting character we are following in this book besides Vishous, is John as he has made some friends but they have already transitioned which makes him feel a little left out and the knowledge that the transition could take a few more years is weighing on him heavily as he wants to avenge the mother and father that have been torn from him by the Lessers. I am now almost 100% sure that John is Darius’ reincarnated form but he isn’t aware of his previous life other than his desire to protect Beth and I hope to see more of this story line in the next few instalments of the series. Jane deals with Phury’s injury and it seems like someone outside of the Brotherhood is going after Lessers and I have a feeling this might be John but I am excited to see where the novel goes.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, things really start picking up with numerous characters. Phury and Zsadist are trying to work through their issues over Bella who has now been put on bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy as vampire having a high mortality rate in mothers and babies which is worrying them both. John also goes through his transition after killing a Lesser for the first time to save his friends. However, that gets interesting as some of Darius’ memories are returning but John doesn’t recognise them as his own memories but as the memories of a possible father. After he transition, Layla offers her services to him as he is aroused but the second she touches him he is assaulted by memories of a possible sexual assault when he was living rough and he has to send her away making him feel like a failure of a man. Meanwhile, Vishous and Jane actually discuss the attraction between them like consenting adults as he wants to make sure she is on board with him being a Dom and gives her the choice of being asleep when he touches her. She chooses against them as we get one of the hottest scenes in the series so far and it is isn’t laced with the angst of previous books because they discussed everything beforehand which was very refreshing. The relationship between Vishous and Jane is nice but I am honestly more interested in John’s story right now as he has been heavily featured in this book which was disappointing as I wanted to see more of Vishous and Jane without others interrupted or constantly cutting away.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, we learn that John was raped which is why he couldn’t perform with Layla but Zsadist having been through something similar himself doesn’t make John talk about it but he offers advice and is most likely the first person to tell John that it wasn’t his fault which was a beautiful scene and I definitely believe that Zsadist is going to be an amazing father as he shows real potential with John. Meanwhile the relationship between Vishous and Jane only deepens especially after he takes her to the penthouse and takes up the submissive role, giving her something that he has never given to anyone else in his long life. However, after this he is taking her home and is going to wipe her memories of him which works to some extent but subconsciously she does remember him and I have a feeling that the mind wipe isn’t going to stick with her and we will definitely see more of her before the end of the novel. After Vishous leaves Jane he takes Phury with him to meet the Chosen he is supposed to mate with, however, during this scene both Vishous and Cormia almost have panic attacks and Vishous calls a halt to the ceremony as Phury has found his mate I believe in Cormia. Vishous does speak with Cormia and tells her he will be back in two days but makes it clear that neither of them want this mating. All of the other brothers can see how badly Vishous misses Jane and he even visits her one night but she believes she slept with a man who fancies her at work as she can’t remember the incident. Phury knowing he might have found his mate and the Scribe Virgin’s mandate is keeping Vishous from his, he offers to take Vishous’ place as the Primale if the Scribe Virgin will allow it and even Wrath agrees to allow Vishous and Jane to be together if Phury is accepted in his place.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, I was really excited to see how Lover Unbound concluded. The ending of Lover Unbound was definitely not what I was expecting and it genuinely brought me to tears more than once in the final 100 pages. I really liked the fact that Zsadist seems to be clocking onto the idea that John is very closely related to Darius but I am hoping it is revealed that he is Darius very soon especially since he has transitioned now. I am also hoping for Tohr to return at some point during the future as we know he isn’t dead, just missing. Honestly, this series was a hit or miss for me depending on the book and Lover Unbound was definitely a hit but I am reserving judgement on the series as a whole until I have either completed it or DNF’d it.
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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