Hello everyone!
Happy World Book Day! I would have wished you a happy first March if I'd been doing this post yesterday, but as it so happens this is even better.
But hey, at least it IS March!
If nothing else, that's something to be very happy about. In my case, it also means tossing out the heavy, furry winter blanket for a thinner one, and pulling the netting down over the window because the bugs are out in force already. How do I know this?
Unfortunately, I found one of their representatives dead on the inside of my window.
SO, the netting got pulled down after winter hibernation, and I shook myself out of my wintry mood as best as I could to sit down and write this review. And I'm still in a Ward mood here so I'm just going to go ahead and type out another one of the Brothers, because what can I say, lord knows that I'm addicted to the lot of them.
It's V's time this round, with Lover Unbound.
Lover Unbound is the fifth book, chronologically, of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and it tells the love story of the brother Vishous, aka the brains of the operation, how he ends up with his happily ever after, and a few side stories to boot, because everything is gearing up now in the books, on every level.
For one, Tohrment is still missing. For another, John Matthew's transition is just around the corner proven by all the aggressiveness he's throwing off, and then of course there's Bella, a pregnant Bella, who starts showing the first signs of trouble (vampires are notoriously bad at holding their pregnancies).
But I digress.
The main story is about Vishous, who still wants Butch with an intensity that disgusts him, and while Butch is cool with where the two of them are at, V so isn't, and he's spiralling out of control.
He also keeps dreaming the same dream, the one thing left over from his visions (which have dried up): a shot to the chest, blood on the front of his shirt, and almost instant death right afterwards, which usually wakes him up screaming like a banshee.
S'all cool though, he figures out a way to have his timer go off every half an hour to wake him, so he doesn't give Butch and Marissa heart attacks anymore.
However, first off, he needs to do a little therapy of his own, which includes getting shot in the chest.
Unfortunately, his Brothers are nowhere close when this happens, although they all feel that something DID in fact happen, and figure out he's missing quickly enough. But they're unable to locate him at first as they have to go to the scene of the 'crime' then beat feat to the human hospital he was transported to.
See, someone was bright enough to call 911, which saves V's life because a surgeon name Jane operates on him and saves his life.
Cue the dramatics when the Brothers show up to take V back to the compound and he demands she has to come with.
Wrath, son of Wrath, is obviously pissed off to no end, but there's no arguing with a patient who's bed ridden, so he snarls and stomps off while V gets cared for by both Butch and Jane, the first one because, duh, and the second reluctantly since she doesn't want to be here.
Still, she's attracted to V, so things slowly progress as they start talking and realise they have a lot more in common than they might think, and begin the bonding process which just so happens to lock into place when V figures out that Jane isn't going to go shy on him if he wants a bit more hardcore sex. See, he's usually into BDSM and all, and what do you know, Jane isn't just going to say no.
In fact, she's the only one he willingly ties himself up for and lets her use him.
Unfortunately, by the law and the King's decree, Jane has to be scrubbed (her memories taken) and V has to take her back to the real world, to the everlasting heartbreak of both.
It also doesn't help that V gets a visit from the Scribe Virgin (their deity) who announces that she is his birth mother, and that, as was agreed before he was born (his early years are described in flashbacks as to what, precisely, he had to suffer at the hands of his father, leading up to the partial castration and the tattoos that warn his species about him), he now has to take up the role of Primale, which is the first male of the species, go live among forty unmated females, and impregnate the lot of them to bring more Brothers into the fold (as by law, the only ones who can be nominated into the Brotherhood have to be born of a Chosen and a Brother).
All the happy for V!
He isn't really having it, though, especially not since he's bonded with Jane, but then an unlikely saviour pops up.
Phury had previously made an appearance when Jane had to put him on her table to rearrange his face back in order after an in-field injury, and he's been on a downward roll himself, drugging up and getting out of control, worrying about both Bella and his twin, Zsadist. When he sees V's torment, he suggests and offers himself as replacement for the Primale role, since V isn't game.
Some more Chosen from the Other side are introduced, namely the Directrix, who leads the lot of them under the Scribe Virgin (and who, coincidentally, shot V because she was on a power trip), Amalya, and Cormia, who is picked as First Mate for the Primale.
Which is when things go whacky, too, since she has to be tied up to even be presented to him.
V and Phury both aren't having that though, but Phury is the one who frees her in the sense that he brings her over to this side and the real world.
Back to a now-freed V. He heads straight for Jane and releases her memories, and they promise to work it out between them, until Jane decides that she will willingly lose her job if it means more time with her vampire, and become the Brotherhood's in-house physician.
Yay!
Except as V is leaving, Jane rushes out in his shirt, and gets shot by a Lesser.
Jane dies in V's arms, and the Scribe Virgin prevents him from bringing her back as a Lesser, which means V is wrapped around the jar of her ashes like a zombie, and his visions are all back, too. He's only freed from the vegetative state when his mother brings Jane back to him, in ghostly form, which becomes corporeal when he touches her with his glowing hand, or if she wills herself to be.
V later learns that the Scribe Virgin sacrificed her birds to bring Jane back to life, and makes it his mission to bring over new ones to the courtyard, as a gift.
As a parting note, a word on John: he does indeed go through his transition and survives it, to the relief of everyone around him, and he looks like a carbon copy of his father, Darius, which is something else they all comment on. Especially Zsadist, who discovers John is a left-hand fighter, just like Darius used to be.
So all is well that ends well!
Well, sort of. Things go bad in the following books, but that's storytelling to you!
xx
*image not mine
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