J.R. Ward - Lover Mine

I thoroughly enjoyed Lover Mine, the 8th book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.



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 - vampire warriors, defenders of their race...John Matthew has been through his vampire transition and taken to the life of the Brotherhood with a vengeance, but he still can't shake the nightmare of his past and is unsure of his future as a warrior hero. He's made a promise to honour the Brotherhood and their fight with the slayers at all costs, until the love of his life is kidnapped and he is forced to make a choice that could change his life and the Brotherhood's forever...


It is very fast paced written, and it seems like the cursing and the violence is getting worse. But the story line itself keeps captivating me. In this book the main part is for John Matthew and Xhex, but there are flashbacks to the life of Darius, his father, and Thorment which gave a very good and useful insight in the history of the Brotherhood.

Xhex has been kidnapped by Lash in the previous novel, and John Matthew is doing whatever he can to find her, even things the Brotherhood probably won’t approve of. But he doesn’t want them to know the truth about his feelings for Xhex. He knows she doesn’t feel the same for him, and is ok with that, as long as she is safe.
So when finally Xhex has escaped, can he suppress his warrior instincts enough to let her fight Lash on her own, as she so desperately needs to do? And can Xhex look at the future, enough to choose for life, instead of the past and the end?
The emotions John Matthew feels for Xhex, makes him get closer to Thor again, understanding what happened with the Male after his shellan was murdered.

Lash, the son of the Omega, is starting a drug imperium, to finance the Lesser Society. But when he asks his father to convert a female, just for him, he gets disowned, and replaced by the little punk he just recruted himself! Ofcourse he can’t have that, now can he.

The parts between Qhuinn and Blaylock are wrought with emotions, but as I don’t like reading about gay romance, I am not interested about those kind of details, which were minimal lucky for me. Qhuinn is kind of screwing every woman he meets, and Blay is tired of pining away for him, waiting for something that will never happen. So when a nice guy is paying attention to him, attracted to him, he decides to go for it. And then Qhuinn will have to decide: will he go on with his charade, trying to get the approval of the glymera by bonding with a female of worth (if any of them will have him) or will he go for Blay after all?

So, a book with a lot of story lines. But they all come nicely together, and let me crave the next book.