Lover Unbound - J.R. Ward

Released in September 2007, Lover Unbound is the latest in the Black Dagger Brotherhood novels and now the fans will have to wait until April 2008 for the next novel. With rumors of Ms. Ward putting the releases from one every 6 months to one every 8 months, her addicted readers will have to be increasingly patient between each new novel. As one of those fans I'm torn between the need to have the next novel in my hands, now damnit, to understanding why she needs more time to work on the novels. Each book has been a little longer than the one before. Ms. Ward is a talented author, but she does need some time off every now and then.

Fans of the series have been able to turn to other authors, such as Angela Knight, L.A. Banks, Kenyon and Feehan in order to keep themselves from having serious withdrawals, and they also have been able to kick back and enjoy the show, Blood Ties. - though the jury is still out on Moonlight.

Lover Unbound explores Vishous, or V, son of the Bloodletter. V is perhaps one of the most seductive members of the Brotherhood. His taste for S&M sex and his love for Butch, the cop turned vampire, have been used as tantalizing threads through the previous books. Now, in his book, the pieces are all, finally put together.

He is the son of the Bloodletter, and possesses a destructive curse and frightening ability to see the future. As a pretransitional vampire, growing up in his father's war camp, he faced both emotional, physical and sexual abuse either at his father's hands, or under his father's instructions. But V has a secret, one even he isn't aware he carries.

The Scribe Virgin, the goddess figure and mother of the vampire race is his mother. Not spiritually, but physically. He is the son of the goddess of the vampires. Needless to say this is information he does not take well, and things go from bad to worse when he's told he needs to take his place as the primale, the male who will work and live with the Chosen, the female vampires who serve the Scribe Virgin. His task, to mate with and impregnate the prime members of the Chosen to repopulate the Warrior race - as a male who has no use for females in general, except as toys during his SM play, the thought of becoming Daddy to a whole new generation of vamps doesn't appeal to him.

V, like the others of the Brotherhood, finds his mate at the wrong time, and certainly in the wrong place. His mate is a human woman, a doctor who ends up being the one in charge of him when he takes a nasty injury. The resolution of their relationship has had mixed reviews from Ms. Ward's fans, and I have to admit that, as much as I loved the book, if it hadn't been something Ms. Ward had put together I'd have ranted and raved. She's a wonderfully skilled author, but the resolution hasn't sat well with me and I can't put a spoiler in.

But - apart from that, the book is an amazing look into the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. The change for John Michael, son of Darius- or Darius re-born as it's now very clear he is, takes place in this novel. And other members of the brotherhood are slowly making their appearance. So even, if like me, you find the way the Jane/V situation is handled a little much to take, the book as a whole is worth reading as part of the series.

ISBN- 978-0-451-22235-0