Lover at Last (Black Dagger Brotherhood #11) by J R Ward

I am trying to write a summary that I normally preface every review with and my brain decided to inflict narcolepsy on me at the very idea. Why?

Well, I’ve shaken this book, looked around the edges, skimmed through it again, double checked, skimmed through it the other way in case there’s a secret code – I’ve even put on my Enigma Brain and looked for some kind of secret code.

But no, despite being over 500 interminably boring pages long, there is no plot in this book. None, none at all. There are random events but nothing actually happens, not one damn relevant thing. Let me sum up the gazillion unnecessary storylines in this 590+ page book.

Blay & Qhuinn:  Angst! Convoluted reason why we can’t be together! Angst some more! And some more! Ridiculous misunderstanding that drives us apart! OMG MORE AAAAANGST! And secrecy and ANGST!

Xcor and the Band of Bastards: RAWR. Well, growl anyway. More biding our time. Which is code for doing nothing – except stalking Layla in a tragic romantic fashion that’s totally not creepy honest

Layla: I’m pregnant with the baby Qhuinn and I randomly wanted out of the blue without any forethought! Yay! No I’m not, ANGST!  Yes I am, YAY! Oh and still fixated on violent, vicious traitor with no redeeming features – this is romantic and not a sign that I need a serious intervention or a slap upside the head!

The Lessers: Rawr! Actually, no; rawr suggests we’re doing stuff. We’re kind of hanging around being evil. Go Evil! Still evil!

Sola: Hi, I’m a completely new character dropped in because even the teeny tiny side characters you don’t give a damn about simply must have a love interest! Assail looked at me and I am now smitten for life and completely ruined for other men. Despite my utter pointlessness, you get to spend several pages in my POV! Funsies! Seriously, a ride around in Wrath’s dog’s head would be more interesting and relevant.

Luchas, Qhuinn’s brother is alive and stuff! Yay… I guess? Was there a reason I was supposed to care about this guy?

Assail: remember me? Probably not because I’m a completely unnecessary side character and little more than a clone of Rehvenge anyway. I’m here for no damn good reason and no-one should care about me but I’m apparently important, who knows why. I have a love interest now – let the creepy stalking and threats commence! Yay romance!

Trez & iAm: Hey you finally get to learn about the Shadows and our culture, who we are and what we’re doing! Hah, just kidding! No Trez is a sex addict who is running away from an arranged marriage, deals with that by sleeping with every other woman in the city, possibly the state and is now fixating on yet another woman as his one and only twu lub forever after glancing at her once, from a distance. Ho-hum. Creepy stalking and angst will, no doubt, commence in the next book.

I think that about covers everything. Wrath is the king and being kingly, the glymeria are still pointlessly wasting their time plotting pointlessly about pointless things. There’s some random fight scenes for the sake of fighting and we get an eternally long sequence of Quinn flying a plane because funsies (and I am resisting the urge to say something about motherfucking vampires on a plane, I hope you realise this)!

Which covers most of the book – nothing actually happening, all the plots kind of drifting in the breeze, the Brotherhood serving more as comic relief than as any actual warriors and all delivered with JR Ward’s… signature writing style. Hopelessly overwritten with ridiculous descriptions, the longest winded possible ways of describing anything and three styles of dialogue: a grossly stilted formal to show how posh people are; an archaic style which includes lots of “o’er” which is damn unpronounceable and I don’t believe anyone has ever used in actual English, ever and then this terrible, awful fake street-tough-guy-wannabe-ghetto talk that is the Brotherhood’s trademark which is made only MORE ridiculous by the book opening with a Black character from the poor side of town complaining about a middle-class to rich White kid mimicking his way of talking to sound cool. Tell me that was an attempt at self-satire! Tell me! Because I can’t believe an author can be aware enough of this issue while writing 11 books of the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s dialogue!

Review: Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward, Book 10 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series.

Tohrment finally learns why the angel Lassiter is following him – his shellan, Wellsie, is lost in limbo and only Tohrment can free her. But he isn’t read to let her go and he still grieves her as if she were only just lost – and into that grief comes No’One.

No’One is still traumatised by her horrific past and has come through to bond with her daughter, Xhex, she lost so many years ago. But No’One still hardly knows who she is and still carries the burden of her own self-loathing.

Xhex and John Matthew are not finding their relationshiop eashy – especially as John Matthew insists on protecting

And byond all of that and the standard lesser attacks, Xcor and his band of Bastards are thoroughly entrenched in Caldwell – and have their sights set on Kling Wrath. Xcor wants the throne – and whether by politics or bullets, he intends to claim it.

This book has 2 main relationships in it that we focus on. The first I consider full of barely redeemed awfulness, the second I consider a lost opportunity. So let us begin with the barely redeemed awfulness.

The female (in Black Dagger Dudebro culture women are referred to as females and men as males. No I don’t know why either, especially since the humans keep forgetting and using the same terminology. At very least they should be fehmahles and mahles.) is No’One. Yes, No’One. Not the name she was born with – but many many decades ago she was kidnapped by a Symphath (evil sociopath vampire – and we know they’re evil because of their spooky androgyny), raped and impregnated. She had the baby and then committed suicide – but the Scribe Virgin (that would be the Vampire’s deity and embodiment of purity – you can tell by the whole “virgin” thing, in case the anti-female sex messages weren’t strong enough) resurrected her and she changed her name to No’One to represent what she now thought she was. She has spent the last few decades as a maid, wearing a hooded robe that hides her from everyone (because she is so good looking people treated her with respect which she couldn’t allow), out of self-imposed penance. Yes, penance. I would very much have liked someone to explain to me why her extreme victimisation was treated as something she had to do penance for and why none of the Chosen or the Scribe Virgin her holy self couldn’t have spent a little time in the centuries sitting down, talking with her and trying to instil her with some sense of worth.

Then there is Tohrment, still in deep deep mourning for Wellsie, his shellan (wife) of many many decades who died back in Lover Awakened. Since then he has been suicidal, the only thing stopping g him actively committing suicide is Lassiter, the angel sent down to save him, and the fact that the Scribe Virgin has Issues with suicides (as we can see from poor No’One). But he has tried many passive suicide attempts – such as being extremely reckless and starving himself.

Now, the basis for the “love”. Wellsie is not in the Fade (heaven) no, she is in the In Between (limbo) and she is stuck, in pain and slowly fading away. Lassiter is on Earth to save her – by making Tohrment move on and let go over her so she can pass into heaven probably with some twee music in the background.

I’m sorry, these 2 were together for, what, 200 freaking years? I don’t think it’s unreasonable to allow the man more than a couple of years to get over that. It is not an unreasonable amount of time to mourn here and I can’t imagine in a society where a) everyone lives for centuries and b) they biologically BOND with their mates in holy stalkerdom – sorry, love – that prolonged mourning periods and refusing to move on is in any way uncommon. The In Between must be standing room only.

Anyway, Lassiter’s solution to Tohrment needing to move on is, naturally, a grief counsellor and some intense therapy. HAH! Just kidding, nothing so sensible. I mean it’s not like they have an in-house therapist or anything, is it – oh hey there Mary! No, Lassiter wants Tohrment to find another woman – because of course nothing removes your deep and abiding grief for your murdered pregnant soulmate like the magical healing vagina, right?

GBLT people and themes in the Black Dagger Brotherhood

Since I’ve finished this series (so far, until the next book) I’m doing a few posts to analyse various series wide tropes. Previously I’ve looked at how the series treats women, now I’m looking at GBLT issues in the series. I think this is ideal in long series because you can recognise persistent patterns that often make an individual problematic scene far far worse that (for example, one of the women being kidnapped? Not ideal. Nearly every last female love interest being kidnapped, stalked or threatened with such is a whole different level of problematic).

Ok, now buckle in folks, because this is going to be a bumpy ride. Eye protection may be needed.

Let us start with what is probably the most extreme and objectionable element - in fact, it is so extreme that I have difficulty criticising beyond this because it becomes redundant. It’s like complaining that the neighbour’s dog has messed in your garden while it’s busy trying to bite your leg off.

The Omega is the big bad guy. He is the evil god that wishes to destroy all of the vampires out of spite and envy. He is evil, sadistic, genocidal - and literally an animate figure of living darkness. He’s also gay. Yes, animate living shadow is gay. But, it’s far far worse then the simple gay villain trope.

See, the Omega’s weapons in destroying the vampires are the lessers. The lessers are humans (usually rapists, murderers and similar) who are inducted to become undead by having their heart ripped out and the Omega’s blood pumped into them. And he rapes them. In the beginning of the series there was a hint that the Omega was raping his inductees and punishing disobient lessers with the same - but when we reached Lover Mine we’d given up on hinting, there’s definite rape going on. But it gets worse.

See, when the Omega is on the outs with his son (more on that in a moment) he gets a new recruit. And, yes he is raped - but, what’s this? Lash listens in and hears sounds of pleasure - why, the rape victim must be gay! Yes, the animate darkness is raping a man (who is having his blood drained and heart ripped out) and the victim likes it because he’s a gay man. Yes, just pause a moment and let that sink in. now think about how there is a pervasive idea that a gay man cannot be raped because gay men like it. But it gets worse!

Because the Omega is seduced by his rape victim, kicks out his disappointing straight son (hey, see what they did there? The gay man is kicking out his straight offspring for being straight - despite it being the opposite that happens all too often) and sets up his new “boy toy” as the head of the lessers. The rape victim seduces his rapist (that would be the animate living darkness).

Ok, take a deep breath and let that sink in, because we’re going to have to talk some more about rape here in the series - because there’s a lot of it. Including a lot of rape-as-emasculation. The Bloodletter, in his warrior training camp had the fighters spar with each other - and the loser was raped. John Matthew and Zsadist have both been raped - both consider the process emasculation - and in Zsadist’s case, he finds being raped by a man far more shameful and demeaning than being raped by a woman. These victims continue to hold their attacks as something that needs to desperately be kept secret (not being raped by a woman, however) and while many victims may feel that way, it’s never addressed or challenged. There’s never any real attempt to make it anything other than a shameful secret. And between the Omega raping his servants as punishment/to show them whose boss, Zsadist and John Matthew being emasculated by their rapes and the Bloodletter having a rape camp where the big strong men repeatedly rape other men to show how much stronger they are - we have an ongoing theme of male rape victims being seen as lesser men. Not just a theme - it’s writ large and bold and constantly repeated.

Ok, we can move away from the rape now, thank gods and move on to another problem - Blaylock and Saxon, the only 2 gay men in the series and probably the only male vampires in these books who can be considered mild. Polite, restrained. It would probably be less blatant coding if it weren’t for the constant emasculation theme and Blay’s existing to serve without even having the Ahstrux Nohtrum to justify it. Which is something else I have to touch on while I’m on the subject of service - while the rest of the cast are members of the Brotherhood, Blaylock (gay man) and Qhuinn (bisexual man actually seeking a relationship with another man) are not independent members - they’re attached to (and serve as sidekicks for) John Matthew, a straight guy. A definite secondary role.

Review, Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward, Book 9 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood

In the last book, Lover Mine, we saw Payne, daughter of the Scribe Virgin, twin of Vishous, be badly injured in her sparring match with Wrath. With a severe spinal injury she needs desperate help and soon – enter Manuel Manello (I was going to say something about the name but then I remembered Vishous, Rhage, Phury and the unpronouceable Xhex and decided against it), a surgeon who used to work with Dr. Jane, Vishous’ partner.

Of course, Manuel meets Payne and and the twu love begins. But Payne needs to adapt to the world after centuries being imprisoned by the Scribe Virgin as well as loving a man for the first time. And then her heritage kicks in – and she has her powers as a child of the Scribe Virgin to also adapt to. To complicate matters, Xcor, son of the Bloodletter, has travelled from Europe to the US – seeking to destabilise Wrath and hunting Payne, the woman who killed the Bloodletter.

Meanwhile Manuel has his world opened up to the existence of the vampires and the lessers and has to deal with the fallout of the Brother’s altering his memory while he does his best to remember Payne. 

On top of that, we have the lessers are continuing the new tactic of mass conversions – for the first time the Brother’s face literal armies of lessers arrayed against them – and with that the injury rate sky rockets.

At the same time Vishous finally comes to terms with his past, how that has affected his relationship with Dr.Jane and the huge issues that have been raised that he has never dealt with or worked through.

In this book we returned to having a large number of side plots running at the same time – but it was pretty well balanced; too much focus on Payne and Manuel would have been rather dull with relatively little plot between them, beyond, of course, either lots of sex or some extra convoluted make-plot. So, the side-plots I was generally happy to see. I look forward to seeing more from Xcor and the lessers, both of which promise for some major plot and world development with 

Ok, I’m not sure why Xcor wants to take down the king or why, given the prejudices of the glymeria, he thinks he could replace him. Nor do I think that the Omega’s new tactic of mass conversion is even remotely sensible given the Dhestroyer prophecy – it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But neither of them are especially world or story breaking – and both can be explained away.

Fangs for the Fantasy podcast, episode 43

This week we examined the lastest episodes of The Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, Lost Girl and American Horror Story

We examined our book of the week: Cold Fire by Kate Elliott, as well as the books we're reading including JR Ward, DB Reynolds. We also mentioned Charlaine Harris and infamous Teagarden series. Next week we will be reading My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

Review: Lover Avenged, by JR Ward, Book 7 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood

Rehvenge and Xhex continue to battle their dark Symphath natures with Rehvenge also having to pay their blackmailer to prevent their secret being revealed. Revelation could mean both of them deported to the sympath colony where their deaths are nearly assured. Yet the price being asked is slowly killing Rehvenge – both in body and in spirit.

This is only further complicated as he meets Ehlena, a nurse struggling to care for her schizophrenic father on a limited income. Met and fallen for – but can he pursue a relationship with his symphath nature? What will she says to the revelation -a nd worse, how much is that secret threatened as more and more vampires learn and threaten exposure.

And Wrath, the king, has started fighting again – fighting on his own and covering up, causing ructions among the Brotherhood and most certainly with his wife, Beth. As if that weren't complicated enough

The Lessening society continues to reorganise under Lash, the Omega's vampire son who wishes to establish a greater income for the society.

Tohrment continues his road to recovery, dealing with what he left behind – and John Matthew continues in his rocky rocky path with Xhex

Lover Enshrined, by JR Ward, Book 6 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood

The plot for this book is actually surprisingly involved for the Black Dagger Brotherhood. While we do have a relationship between His Whineyness Phury and Cormia front and centre but it's relatively easy to ignore and you can see the true action beneath.

The Omega has decided to combat the Dhestroyer prophecy with both a new fore-lesser and to tap his son – the son of a powerful vampire aristocrat. Bringing him back into the fold not only brings a powerful warrior with terrifying abilities but also bringing with him powerful intelligence that allows the lessers to hit a lot of extremely high profile targets which in turn leads to the looming shadow of politics in the glymeria

John Matthew's story develops a lot with his relationship and the relationships between him, Baylock and Quinn growing. The trio are more firmly ensconced in the Black Dagger Brotherhood and I think these 3 are the most engaging characters in the series

Rehvenge has to continue to negotiate his half-sympath side, and the things he has to endure to keep it hidden. And to cap it all we have Lassiter, a fallen angel, coming to the Brotherhood with something they had lost

Lover Unbound, by JR Ward, Book 5 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood

Lover Unbound is another instalment of the Black Dagger Brotherhood in their continuing quest to protect the vampire race from the lessening society and the Omega's goal to destroy them all..

Well, kinda. With the fore-lesser dead in Lover Revealed the lessening society is even less effective than it was before. And virtually absent in this book. You run into a couple now and then for random drive by murdering

But the Scribe Virgin is worried. The deity of the vampires is concerned that there remains only 5 Brothers to defend the entire race. In the past, the Brotherhood would mate with the Chosen, a select order of sequestered females dedicated to the Scribe Virgin, to produce more Chosen and Brothers, but that hasn't happened for centuries. The numbers of both are dwindling and without more warriors the Brotherhood, and the whole vampire species is doomed.

So she needs a new Primale – one of the Brotherhood to go among the children and begin having many many babies. And she chooses her actual son, Vishous, to be the prospective daddy.

But Vishous is not willing. Aside from his less than enthusiastic relationship with sex, he has kidnapped his own true love, his own mate (yes, kidnapped. We'll get to that) who he wants to be with, despite her being human. He also has to reconcile his long and tortured past with the knowledge that his mother, actual flesh and blood mother, was their species' deity and she did nothing to help him as he was tortured, mutilated and abused for decades.

Lover Revealed, by JR Ward, Book 4 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood

Our latest adventure with the Black Dagger Dudebros follows Butch, the human ex-policeman who lives with the Brotherhood and his long distant love affair with Marissa, King Wrath's ex-shellan who he first met in Dark Lover

After months with no contact during which they mistakenly think they both hated each other, Butch is forced to share a long quarantine with Marissa after a painful encounter with the lessers and the Omega himself. They rekindle their old love, but Butch is permanently infected by the darkness of the Omega and fears endangering her and the Brotherhood.

Butch also has to wrestle with his own demons – his past, his family and the problem with being a human living with the Brotherhood. As he increasingly feels himself as an outsider and an interloper in the lives of the Brotherhood who, as a human, cannot aid them in their war against the lessers, he questions his place, his continued living with them and even his continued purpose and existence.

He certainly questions if he can be good enough for Marissa, pure blooded aristocrat with impeccable lineage and station. But Marissa herself has to find her own place with Butch, overcome her deep sense of inadequacy and faces vampire society's push to sequester all unmated women for their own protection

An old prophecy has also arisen – the legend of the Destroyer – no, sorry, the Dhestroyer (no, really) – which may be the key to ending the lessers - and the Omega – entirely. But with the darkness of the Omega help Dhestroyer kill him, or lead to Dhestroyer himself being consumed

Fangs for the Fantasy podcast, Episode 35

This week we discuss Vampire Diaries, Lost Girl, the Secret Circle, the Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez, Nalini Singh, Caitlin Kittridge's Black London series, JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood

Lover Eternal, by JR Ward, Book 2 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood

Rhage has fallen in love. And, even more complicated, he has fallen in love with a human woman, against all the laws and customs of vampire society, and most certainly against the rules of the Brotherhood. He's faced with a choice between the Brotherhood and the battle to protect his species, and Mary – and he had to protect her from the Lessers who will use her to get to him. Worse, through this he has to navigate his curse – there's a beast within him that doesn't know friend or foe, only rage and killing.

And this is before they work out how to get round the simple basics of vampires and humans living together – and the problem of Mary's illness

At the same time, the Lessers have not stopped in their war to annihilate the vampires. Every Brother can face attack when out on the streets – and they are kidnapping a growing number of civilian vampires to torture – even building a new centre to facilitate holding and torturing them. They're digging for more information, more details on the Brotherhood to finally try to bring them down.

Meanwhile, Zsadist may have finally found the woman for him... if he can save her

Dark Lover by JR Ward, Book 1 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood

Vampires are trying to live quiet lives as best they can. Their society is secretive and often separated from humanity – who they have little to do with. But there numbers are dwindling. An ancient group of human hunters has tried to annihilate them throughout the ages. To fight the vampires these Lessers sacrifice their souls, continually recruit more members and hunt the vampires with a sadistic glee. In response, the Vampires have the Black Dagger Brotherhood – a small group of veteran fighters to defend them against the predation of the Lessers. Each with their own darkness, they are the few warriors that try to save their species from extinction.

Wrath is their leader – and heir apparent to the empty throne that he refuses to fill. Cold and aloof, he dedicates himself to nothing but the fight – until his Brother, Darius is killed by the Lessers and his dying wish is for Wrath to take care of his daughter, Beth. Raised as a human Beth is soon approaching her transition to becoming a vampire – a transition that may kill her without Wrath's help.

Together they deal with their overwhelming attraction, transitioning into vampiredom, avenging Darius' death, saving themselves from the continued attacks by the Lessers – and to complicate it all, Beth's friend Butch, a police man, knows something is up and are watching all too closely. All the while the shadows of Wrath's past continue to haunt him