Book Review: Lover Revealed

Lover Revealed (Black Dagger Brotherhood #4)

J.R. Ward

Release Date: March 6, 2007

Book Description:

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there's a deadly war raging between vampires and their slayers. And there exists a secret band of brothers like no other - six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Now, an ally of the Black Dagger Brotherhood will face the challenge of his life and the evil of the ages.

Butch O'Neal is a fighter by nature. A hard-living ex-homicide cop, he's the only human ever to be allowed in the inner circle of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And he wants to go even deeper into the vampire world-to engage in the turf war with the lessers. His heart belongs to a female vampire, Marissa, an aristocratic beauty who's way out of his league. And if he can't have her, then at least he can fight side by side with the Brothers.

But fate curses him with the very thing he wants. When Butch sacrifices himself to save a civilian vampire from the slayers, he falls prey to the darkest force in the war. Left for dead, he's found by a miracle, and the Brotherhood calls on Marissa to bring him back, though even her love may not be enough to save him.

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:

Just finished the fourth book in the BDB series, and believe it or not, I actually stayed up late to do so. I hate to admit it but these books are addicting, and I just can’t help craving the next book. Lucky for me, I’ve gotten into the series only recently and there are plenty of books to go before having to endure months of wait for the next installment. Although, I am still uncertain of whether I will stick it out to the end, but one never knows…

As we progress further into the BDB world, we get to learn more and more about each brother, and this story is no different. It features Butch and his lady love – Marissa. Both of these characters were initially introduced in the first novel of the series, and since then I’ve actually grown to like Butch. Marissa, on the other hand, was a different story for me. I didn’t much like Marissa’s character from the beginning, and her love connection with Butch felt overly convenient. It is as though everyone fell right into place, as the pieces of the puzzle, and from the quartet of these characters: Wrath, Marissa, Beth and Butch, we managed a HEA for each couple. I guess my main complaint here is predictability; which can be said of the whole series in general, as each book follows a fairly similar story arc: boy (or I should say brother?) meets girl, sparks fly, lesser run around making feeble attempts at being evil and menacing, some fighting takes place (where the males can be on display, saving the race), drinking/smoking happens, the brother du jour finally makes his feelings known, some more drama ensues, and then…HEA. Well, it is not exactly a bad storyline, in fact, there are a million books with a similar storyline, but when the setting is the same, at a certain point it does become redundant, don’t you agree? For now, however, I find myself quite engrossed in this world to continue my indulgence.

Character Notes:

Marissa has quite surprised me in this book. I’ve loved her finally gaining some independence and getting in touch with reality of the world, because her aristocratic upbringing clearly hampered her. If you thought 40 year old virgin was bad enough, try 300 year old! So, way to go Marissa!

“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”

And it made me especially proud, when she finally spoke up at that princeps’ meeting – put a smile on my face. I am certainly all for strong, independent women, and although Marissa didn’t stay on her own too long, as she fell right into Brotherhood and Butch’s arms, I’ve still gained some respect for her.

Butch’s story was quite predictable, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I knew he will be made a vampire and a brother, and was absolutely thrilled that it finally happened. It was clear that he couldn’t keep taking the backseat to all the action, and remain content living off of the Brotherhood. He needed to take a stand, and there were only two outcomes in this scenario, and I’m glad it wasn’t death, although that might’ve made it a surprise ending.

In this book, Omega’s involvement added a bit of excitement to the story, and for once it wasn’t as dreadful to read a chapter on the lesser. It didn’t last however. The whole Van storyline felt completely unnecessary, and I’m still confused as to why we are subjected to reading about the lesser. I wish Ward gotten rid of them altogether.

Last but not least – Vishous, who played almost as big a part in this book as did Butch. Vishous is certainly an interesting character, with many secrets; and I’m quite thrilled about his story (which is the next one in the series). It felt though, now that Zsadist has been reformed and mated to Bella, Vishous was the next black sheep of the “family,” and he certainly played such a role, with everyone following up on him. But an interesting spin on this storyline was his relation with Butch, which seemed quite unorthodox and confusing. I hope some revelations are to come in the next installment. So, on to book five I go…