Review: "Lover Reborn" by J.R. Ward

*Warning:  Plot spoilers if you are not current on the series.*

       Lover Reborn follows the relationship between Tohrment and No'one.  Tohrment has been deeply mourning the loss of his mate, Wellsie, and their unborn child after their murder over a year ago.  When Tohr finds out that Wellsie and their child have not made it to the Fade but are in fact stuck in the In-Between, Lassiter is tasked with helping Tohr let her go.  We follow the budding relationship between Tohr and No'One but also John and Xhex, The Band of Bastards and Layla as well as the Quinn/Blay/Saxton drama.

       No'One apparently enjoys being walked all over.  She has almost no voice of her own and is just out to please and service everyone around her.  I found her character extremely annoying and couldn't for the life of me figure out what Tohr would see in her.  I'm glad that she helps him through the emotional and physical pain he is in over Wellsie's death and am glad that he will get a second chance at a happily ever after though.  She does redeem herself a little by the end of the book luckily.  There were definitely some emotional parts involving Wellsie.  I don't know what the heck is up with John and Xhex.  They've been married all of about 3 days and they already are having issues and there's talk of vampire divorce?!  I find it a little hard to believe that they had issues so quickly during their "honeymoon" phase.  We continue with the Blay/Quinn/Saxton/Layla drama as we have for the past couple of books.  Blay is still with Saxton and it's driving Quinn crazy.  Layla and Quinn have been feeding from each other but luckily Layla has gotten over her crush on Quinn and now has a new love interest, and it's a controversial one.  Luckily we no longer have to deal with the Lessers leaders and what's going on with them, which I am very happy about. That was the one thing I never liked about the series.  I was always tempted to skip over the Lesser sections.  They're still around but now the secondary focus is on the Band of Bastards.  The leader Xcor and his second, Throe, are out to overtake the throne from Wrath and The Black Dagger Brotherhood.  While I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first few in the series, it was definitely better than the last book.  Don't get me wrong, I love The Black Dagger Brotherhood series, I just hold it to very high standards now :)  This was one of the more emotional books in the series.  I think it would not have been nearly as bad if we hadn't read about the actual murder and Tohr's reaction in previous books.  The Brothers seem to have gotten so much closer since they all started getting mates.  I also love that Tohr treats John as his own son and is honored as such by the Brotherhood.  I had heard that some people felt that this series is taking a turn towards more UF instead of PNR and I definitely see where they're coming from.  Each book still focuses on a main couple but the last 2 books have felt like they were as much about the side stories as the couple themselves.  I'm not complaining though, the Band of Bastards (what a name?!) are getting a little more depth to them and I am starting to feel like maybe Xcor and a couple of his men maybe aren't so bad, just misguided.  Overall, I loved this book as I do the whole series.  J.R. Ward is amazing and I'm glad that she has decided to continue the series beyond the original 10 that were planned.  I can't wait for my next BDB fix!

       The next book in this series will be Blay and Quinn's story.  It's about time!  While originally I was a little unsure how she would pull a book off for them and not offend anyone with some of her racier scenes, I am really looking forward to their story.  Their relationship has been a tumultuous, heart-wrenching saga and I will be glad if things finally work out for them.  There is some... issues... from this story that will be interesting to see how they play out in the next book.