And Cormia? Talk about stupid. Her character was stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. It would’ve been fun if she was an ehros. Still, I hated that their problem could’ve been solved if they just worked it out sooner- but they didn’t-hence, more talking about none sense and less sex.

It was my least favorite book of all. I’d give it a C-. It was less romantic because Ms. WArd was too focused on the plotlines which she kept on doing ever since Lover Revealed came. But at least LR and LU had some cool, erotic scenes in it. In Lover Enshrined? Not enough. That’s all I’m saying.

My grade for Lover Enshrined was a B-, and we are pretty close in how we saw the book.

I’ve come to accept the weird slang of the BDB world with a fairly low-grade but constant hum of irritation as I read. It spiked when Wrath (I think it was Wrath) used the word “frenemies” – a word I associate with the Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan crowd. At least Ward has cut back a bit on the use of “so” (e.g. “We are so not going there”), a linguistic tic I associate with Chandler on “Friends” – not an image I would think Ward would want to cultivate.

I’m curious about who Ward’s next book will feature – does anyone know?

i agree with your review, i loved the world building, i loved JM,Rhev,Quinn and Blay’s developement. I respect JR for her ability to weave so many thread and do so much head hopping without driving me insane (i hate alot of head hopping usually)

i will disagree with you when you say those that are reading the series for the romance should of gave up long ago, i found Wrath,Rhage,Zsadist and Butch’s books all romantic, they each had different styles to thier books and how thier relationship evolves but i would say the romantic in me was satisfied.

V’s book and Phury’s didn’t satisfy it – V’s was lacklustre at best and Phury’s was downright non exsistant. When Phury told Cormia that he loved her, i actually said out loud “since when”.

i thought Phury out of all of the brothers deserved a better HEA, he spent a century looking for his twin then shot his own leg off for him, let alone what he did AFTER he found Z. He was always one of my fave brothers. I was disappointed with how JR depicted him in this book, he seemed like a total stranger compared to vamipre i have known in the last 5 books.

i bet JR hits NYT # 1 for this book and i really dont think she will deserve it…

If you do want to give it a try because you’re intrigued by all the reviews mentioning world-building, watch out for the plotholes.

In reading the book, you know early on that Phury’s true heart is for Cormia even though he doesn’t realize it yet. When he is drawing who he thinks is Bella, but draws her with her hair up and small wisp of hair coming loose that was Cormia.

And yes, there was a lot in the book. Tons of information for the books to come, but I think it was necessary and yes, I will probably need to read it again to make sure I have it all.

As far as having more of the Lesser’s…hello, that’s who they fight. The world would be a bit boring if everything became all is right with the world, no fighting tonight, just stay in the compound.

If you decide not to read this one, or to continue on with the series that’s totally up to you, but you’re going to miss everything that began in book one.

The book read like a soap opera. Everytime I would get into the scene with Phury/Cormia the story would shift to other storylines, then jump back. It was like a commercial break at a pivotal point of the story. I really hated that. The cut away felt entirely out of place and made it difficult to get back into the previous scene. Seeing as how there weren’t many scenes at all between Phury/Cormia to begin with, it made the book all the more difficult to continue reading.

The only bright spot in this book had to be the Blay/Qhuinn scene. I thought it was handled very well. Other than that, the book was useless. I would rate this book a D – as in DONT buy it. I will not be buying any more books from this series.

And yes, the romance in this book was terrible. I absolutely hated it, and it was very, very boring to me. Probably because, as someone stated, Cormia decided she wanted Phury sometime in between LU and LEN. To me, the delicious part of a love story is when you first realize ‘wow, I really want this person.’

I will say though, that I don’t just read the series for the romance, and as the rest of the plotline is developing, I doubt I’ll stop reading it. I just get so sucked into these worlds that authors build. I did comment on the review for LU saying that yes, there is some inconsistency in the world-building, but I’m hoping that JR will clear that up within the next book(s). I’m also intrigued as to how their, as someone put it, antiquated belief system is going to change to fit into this modern world. Yes, it seems that JR is tearing down her original belief system, but perhaps it’s to make way for a more up-to-date one? Or maybe to bring them into a world that’s not dependent on their deities, like we are.

I can’t really say.

All I know is that despite the shoddy romance in this novel, I do intend to keep reading, if only to satisfy my curiosity regarding other aspects of the plotline.

And yay, Payne and Qhuinn! I had that thought too, though I highly doubt it’ll happen. I think I read somewhere that Payne and Qhuinn are both due to have their own books. If they were going to have a romance, wouldn’t it make sense to just put them in one book? That’s what I think at least.

With Lover Awakened in the bag and no reasonable expectation of Tohr falling in love with someone so soon after Wellsie’s death that only left V and Phury to meet their mates. If the “secondary” characters in Ward’s books are to remain secondary then with Lover Enshrined, Ward’s series would be over. The only way to keep people comming back to the series would be to flesh out the secondary characters with each book. I know that secondary characters can get some face time while still basing the book around two central characters but with as many pans in the fire as Ward tends to have this book would have jumped from 500+ pages to Stephen King’s The Stand. Unabridged.

In my opinion the love affair between Cormia and Phury was weak. More time was spent in prolonging the inevitable than actually developing it. Neither of them lose their virginity until page 300 and something. However, if in reading the other Black Dagger Brotherhood books you got hooked on some of those “secondary” characters then this book is definitely for you (and me)! I’ve been waiting for more on JM’s crush on Xhex and Rhev’s secrets, but with this book I COMPLETELY fell in love with Qhuinn. Dark hair, mismatched eyes and leather are definitely my kind of fantasy.

Long story short, if Ward had focused most of the last two books on a Brother and his HEA and then tried to write a book about one of her secondary characters who is not a Brother and pass it of as a novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood I think many of her fans would feel confused and cheated since they wouldn’t actually be one of the Brotherhood. By building each successive story on the one that came before Ward has managed to build one hell of a foundation of a universe that will appeal to anyone who can’t get enough of the paranormal.

Not that this post isn’t long enough but I just want to put it out there that I would love to read about Payne having some torrid history with Rhev and having Qhuinn fall in love with Payne. Exclusively.

As the sixth installment of the BDB series, LEn gets the job done. The overall story arc definitely moves forward, new characters make their appreance or are developed, the BDB world changes, and the war with the lessers is finally looking liek a war. As a paranormal or urban fantasy, it’s a good book. But as PHURY’S book or even worse, Phury’s ROMANCE, it fails completely. I’m seriously wondering whether we saw Phury more often in this book than in V’s one. He and Cormia were apart most of their respective screen time, They see each other from time to time (generally ends with near-miss sex and/or disaster), then Phury realizes Cormia is hot and stops thinking about Bella, then after much red smoke and nearly dying, he gets his act together and decides he loves Cormia. The end. Some romance. You don’t “see” them falling in love, there is no sorting out his feelings for Bella on Phury’s side and sorry, but I didn’t feel the heat between them. And it takes them forever to have sex. Jeez. It’s sad to think the books used to be so hot.

Other points I didn’t like include the Brotherhood completely washing its hands off Phury (Zsadist included, which disappointed me), lack of brotherhood camaraderie, absence of Vishous and Butch (my favorite 2), overlad of Phury-up-in-smoke and Phury-getting-bashed-by-the-voice-in-his-head, and lots of Rehvenge that didn’t manage to make me warm up to him. Good points include Cormia, surprisingly lovable and much stronger and interesting than expected, Tohr’s return, interaction between JM, Qhuinn and Blay, JM and Xhex (who I am FINALLY warming up to) and changes in the war and the vampire society in general.

So, not a bad book, but definitely not a romance. It bugs me a lot because J.R.’s first four books were wonderful paranormal romances and that’s primarily why I liked them. I’m invested enough in the characters and the world that I’ll probably keep reading the series, though, but for Chrissake, if J.R.’s decided to stop writing romance, I’d rather she flat-out tells us so.

glad to help

I noticed that somebody on the comments thread at SBTB was really irritated by the slip. http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/enshrining-the-anger/#com

Some of the other misspellings in the book irritated me. Misspellings = VISUAL BARBED WIRE (even though I can’t type & I misspell everything. So I should clarify: Other People’s Misspellings = Reading Barbed Wire)

But this one? It justified the purchase price of the book. I’m giggling about it in odd moments days later. I would give out the page # so you all could dog-ear the pages of your own copies, but I was compelled to read the whole dang thang on the tiny screen of my blackberry pearl. Thank you booksonboard.com for further enabling my junk reading addiction by removing my cooling-off period (the walk to the store)

. Completely loving it, esp this eggcorn I just hit in the middle of Ch 15: think “penal system” but spell it–wait for it–”the penile system.”

Ok, Renee the “Penile System For Vampires” just made me snort loudly in the office. I obviously must go re-read for all the misunsed words, phases and abbreviations for fodder. LMAO!!