I gave up Susanne Brockman when she made a mess of a character. Bought the current one due to her dedication, to her hero, Paul Newman. I remembered why I’d liked her before. lol

I can’t say i didn’t enjoy Vishous’s story. Love his bondage fetish and how Jane explored this with him. My only two negatives are how Jane turns into a ghost…although these books are fantasy, this just pushed it to another level. But my biggest gripe is how quick Vishous left his emotion for Butch and fell in love with Jane. I wished there was more in V’s and B’s relationship. More description about how they held each other and V’s feelings towards Butch. Jane could’ve come later after V was over Butch not to latch onto Jane after he met her.

Other than that I love the books but everyone’s got their own opinion on things.

Alot of you have pointed out the ‘casper thing’ with jane and v. And why couldn’t the scribe virgin couldn’t do all this for tohr and wellsie. V is the physical son of the scribe virgin and his constant pain due to the lack of a mother and a very abusive father and upbringing, is her fault because she birthed a child that should never have been born, so, i think she owed him a bit, dont you think?

Although it is a bit hastily thrown in there.

The affair with Butch and V.
V, because of his up bringing and the trauma of living with his father will have, obviously, emotionally/physically/mentally scarred him, so when his relationship with butch reached a level of closeness that normally a person would identify as a very close bond to a very good friend, it confused him. Because naturally he had never known affection or closeness from anyone who wasn’t a sexual partner ot someone who did not have intentions of a sexual nature. So….. to the point….. V, totally misunderstood the feelings thinking that he was falling in love with butch, where in fact he was just growing to love butch like a person would do with a close friend.

And also John Matthew is Darius reincarnated, that deal was made in the first book.

On the subject of V, one of you pointed out that the fact that Jane had to concentrate to take form in the world. And also made a reference to V and Jane's sex life now she is a ghost? V's cursed hand is what enables them to be together without her concentrating because he is half his mother. He can reach her the same way she can.
He is apart of the temporal realm as well as the other.

Leilani, V crashed her car because he intended to bring her back from the dead. By means of a forbidden ceremony.

And I can't go on because it's depressing. I will, however, agree that LU was not the strongest book in the series so far. I think the book felt rushed, but soon learned in the next book that everything mentioned in LU bore importance. Like Phury's continual appearance. After all he took V's place as the primale. So he would have to play some sort of role in LU.

Also, all the things that people don't understand that are on this forum is explained in the book, and through the characters. I think everyone just needs to read the books more carefully.

im sure JRW appreciates all of your feedbacks though. i am anxiously awaiting the reverends book. My friend and i are shameless addicts to the series and discuss’s it often. Particularly the characterization. Lover Enshrined, was, in my opinion, a fantasic book so unlike the others but the same, if that makes sense? probably not.

Also, i have seen several people blog about the funny things the brothers say like ‘get of my dick!’ my all time fav has to be one of the reverends directed to marrisa in LR ‘ hot damm girl! you are so the shit!’. Stunning. thats all i can say!

Well, I read Lover Unbound and that was the book that I was most looking forward to as Vishous was my favorite character. He was a badass, he was untouchable, smooth, sexy and then…seriously. What the hell happened? He was not the Vishous that was in previous books. He was weak, no smooth comments and quite honestly. He ended up with the wrong person. I really thought that Ward was stepping out of the confines of so many romance novelists with the whole V/B thing and it wasn’t just in Lover Revealed that the hints of a possible romance was there. It was always a question of: ‘will they get together?’ I actually ran upstairs when I finished Lover Revealed, hoping that Vishous would end up with someone (Oh dear, I’m going to say it…) that wasn’t a female. Please everyone, don’t faint. Sadly, even I knew that that wasn’t going to happen since Ward’s fans would throw a fit and probably boycott her books or something like that, yet…even though Vishous had had sex with women (Mentioned and seen in Lover Revealed) it never seemed like anything that he enjoyed and he even said that. In Lover Unbound he said that he really felt no attraction to men either. I must bring up the point that he wasn’t really gentle with Jane in the same manner that he was with Butch. The attraction and love that he felt for Butch was beyond just the romantic, sexual level and I am sure that everyone can agree with that. I was heartbroken when he fell out of love with Butch so quickly, I honestly didn’t believe it for a moment, it was too easy. One moment he was angsting over loving his best friend and the next it was: ‘oh hot chick in scrubs, want to bend her over the sink.’ I was reading through the comments, both here and on other board and have to laugh whenever people write that Vishous and Butch were not sexually attracted to one another, they say so right in the book and as for Butch being ‘Hetero by nature’ I really do have to call that a crock of bull. At least when it comes to Vishous. It all really boils down to this. At the end of Lover Revealed it felt like the wrong two people ended up together. Butch and Marissa never fit. As soon as I saw Jane, I just couldn’t picture her with Vishous, they never meshed and come on, seriously now. She went from wary and nervous over the whole BDSM thing to wanting to buy leather? That was cheesy as was the whole Jane turning into a ghost thing. I admit, I was hoping that Jane would stay dead and Vishous would be able to find someone that fit him better than her. Seriously, I don’t even want to read Phury’s book since he ends up with that timid, virginal, ‘never saw a man before’ woman. It’s cheesy, it’s ridiculous and please…if I see the SV one more time I am going to tear my hair out and commit myself to an insane asylum. She serves no purpose and her being Vishous’ mom? Come on, that doesn’t sound even a little like The Destroyer being Acheron’s mother? Ward, Come on! Go back to when your books were good! Stop writing for your overbearing ‘fans’ and write for yourself! Go back to Wrath’s book when things were good, step out of the box some more! Take you time to write your books, allow your fans to wait for a couple of years as you make it perfect! Don’t settle into a cardboard formula. All that does is makes your books forgettable and they used to be mesmerizing. I’ll keep reading the series only to see if she gets her spunk back but if she cops out again (especially with Rhevenge) I’m finished.

I mean…not to be mean, but I’ve been on that board, and her fans are BRUTAL. While this is America and we encourage free speech, some people on there seem to lack a certain…politeness, and are very vocal about what they think should be happening in the series. According to rumor, JR had a difficult time writing Lover Enshrined (the newest book) and even had to push back the release date because she was so disheartened by what her supposed fans were saying.

I agree that Lover Unbound was not one of my favorite books (nor was Lover Enshrined, for that matter) due to the inconsistencies mentioned in the review. But I think JR’s trying to…create more than a simple romance storyline. At least…

S
E
M
I
S
P
O
I
L
E
R

…that’s the way it seems after reading Lover Enshrined.

On other note, I also think that the whole war between the lessers and vampires is due to sibling rivalry. I thought that in the beginning of the series, but Lover Enshrined seems to confirm it. And since that is the case, one has to wonder who is responsible for the creation of the SV and the Omega, and what their limitations are, since obviously they are not omnipresent and omnipotent. I intend to keep reading the series if only to answer these mythological questions.

And yes, even though there are some inconsistencies, I’m looking forward to the rest of the series to see how the race changes, how the war turns out, and to answer those questions. Perhaps in the next book or so, the reason for those inconsistencies (other than shoddy workmanship) will be revealed. Maybe it was done intentionally.

I just hope that JR learns to tune out those disgruntled fans, and stops writing what the fans want and instead focuses on what she, as an author, wants of her creation.

I am mesmerized by the whole world J.R Ward has created. I have never read anything like that. I, who owned hundreds of books in two languages, haven't come across any other authors as imaginative and talented as J. R. Ward. Having said that, I have to admit that I was so disappointed by the ending of “Lover Unbound” at my first reading. V didn't deserve to be left with a ghost. Then I began my second, third, fourth, and so on reading. And I got it. I'd have liked a better turn out for V and Jane. However, you wouldn't expect to like any heroine better than you do the Brothers, would you? No females are ever going to match up to them. Still, I think Jane was actually a great match for V. Who else but a brilliant heart surgeon would stand toe to toe with V and win him over, just like Butch would. Jane had already held his physical heart in her palm to make it whole again. At the end, his very cursed right hand was the way he could hold her. I find it so smart of J.R. Ward to clearly state that point.

So I love LU as much as I do the other four stories.
I read through all other reviews and I respect all the passionate opinions expressed. I even checked out the songs (Nickleback's Far Away & Seether featuring Amy Lee's Broken) recommended by one reviewer as suitable for V's story. And I love the songs! Thanks, everyone! I'm glad we are in the BDB's world together. I'll keep on reading and buying the coming stories of the other Brothers and the lone Female Brother (Payne).

The best part of the enitr series for me WAS the interaction between Butch and V. It was so engrossing, emotional and sexually enthralling that the sudden Bucket of Cold Water that was Dr Jane just didnt ring true.There was no sexual tension. There was no emtional crisis. IT was so dissapointing to suddenly see V fall out of love with B in the blink of an eye.

I still love these books and will buy evey single one she writes. But my heart was broken just a little when the B/V thing went cold.

*The rest of the comment contains some spoilers.*

Publishing lesson aside, I found this one was not my favorite book in the series. I’m a huge fan of the books, so saying it hurts my heart, but yes, this one could have been better. I didn’t actually take the time to itemize the problems in my head, but it was a feeling that the story was lacking–in quantity and in substance. I adore the subplots immensely, and some of them were necessary to move the story forward and to set up the next book, but others could probably have waited or been cut altogether.

Although, for such a fast-moving series plot, I’m sure it’s been difficult for her to get everything in without at least one of the books suffering.

So said, I didn’t totally dislike this book. While I wasn’t completely happy with the ending and the way Vishous and Jane were able to stay together in the end (it reeked a bit of “dead heroine”), I thought the twist was necessary to keep them together for any length of time. She could have revisited her other solutions, but that would have been dull. Butch got to be a vamp, Mary got to be immortal, Darius got to be reincarnated, and I’m not entirely of the opinion that Wellsie is gone for good, either.

Personally, I loved the insight into the SV and thought her relationship to Vishous was an amazing twist. Did anyone else catch the allusion to the SV being God’s daughter? I can’t wait to see if more will be said about that.

Overall, I liked the book okay, and the fact that it wasn’t as good as the rest doesn’t mean I’m going to quit the series entirely. So far we see that Rehv, Manny, and possibly JM are going to have their own books as well, and I’m hoping she’ll still bring in more characters for the BDB, because you can see that their ranks are very low. And as Phury is going to obviously be a flunkie as a primale (I think), that means the position will still be open–who’s gonna handle that? She left a lot of plots open for huge developments, and I can’t wait to read them.