Book #73 - Lover Unbound (Black Dagger Brotherhood #5)

Lover Unbound (Black Dagger Brotherhood #5), J. R. Ward
502 pages
urban fantasy, paranormal romance
Started 7/3/12
Finished 7/6/12
4 STARS

I didn't think it would ever happen, but it did. A BDB book that I wasn't totally and completely in love with. I wasn't sure it was possible, but alas. Ms. Ward, you had me until the last 25 pages or so.

This is the story of the tortured brother, Vishous. He had a brutal, difficult childhood - even more so than the others in the brotherhood. He feels not only unworthy, but also incapable of love. Until a run-in with the lesser baddies goes wrong and Vishous is sent to a human hospital and meets the woman of his dreams. Of course, there are complications - besides the fact that she's a human, Vishous had just agreed to bed 40 vampire females in the hopes of furthering the brotherhood race. Talk about bad timing.

One thing I really liked about this book is the distinct lack of lesser backstory. To be honest, in all the previous books, I mostly skimmed those sections. My interest is in the brothers and their mates - not really in the details behind the bad guys. Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the bad guys are there. It wouldn't be much of a drama without them. But, I don't really find myself caring much about their inner workings and how these guys became lessers. So, I appreciated that there wasn't a lot of that here to bog down the story for me.

I also liked that there seemed to be a bit more of a focus on a few of the other brothers. In previous books, there was always a little side storytelling going on with some of the others - setting them up for their upcoming books. But, the side stories in this one seemed much more in depth. It was nice, since V's story was kind of intense.

I liked Jane and her no-nonsense attitude. I like that she wasn't afraid to handle V. Apparently, he liked that too. :) But, for the love of Pete - THE ENDING. I'm just not feeling it. I get that vampires getting together with humans is complicated. It was handled very well in Rhage's book, as well as Butch's. I don't know - maybe Ward thought she needed a new way to keep a human around forever. Whatever the reason, I wasn't thrilled with her solution to the problem. I hope this is the last vampire to hook up with a human in her stories, because Lord knows what kinda of weird plot device she'll cook up next to keep him or her around forever.