Book Review: Lover Unbound by J. R. Ward

Review: Lover Unbound
Series: Black Dagger Brotherhood – Book 5
Author: J. R. Ward
No of Pages: 502
Release Date: 25 September 2007

In Caldwell, New York, war rages between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers – six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Now the cold heart of a cunning predator will be warmed against its will...

Ruthless and brilliant, Vishous, son of the Bloodletter, possesses a destructive curse and a frightening ability to see the future. As a pretrans growing up in his father’s war camp, he was tormented and abused. As a member of the Brotherhood, he has no interest in love or emotion, only the battle with the Lessening Society. But when a mortal injury puts him in the care of a human surgeon, Dr. Jane Whitcomb compels him to reveal his inner pain and taste true pleasure for the time – until a destiny he didn’t choose takes him into a future that cannot include her...

My Thoughts:

Lover Unbound almost surpassed Lover Awakened as my new favourite in this series, until the ending.

Vishous is the intelligent one, the ruthless one, the cursed one. With his birthday just around the corner he gets a visit from the Scribe Virgin telling him that he is destined to become the Primale, a warrior who lives amongst the Chosen and is charged with replenishing the race. But when he gets shot in the chest and rushed to a human hospital, a wrench gets thrown in the works in the form of Jane, the doctor who saves him.

I have loved Vishous from the first book. He’s dark mysterious ways and his unique, calculating nature was all explored in Lover Unbound. His odd sexual tastes that seem to stem from his violent and traumatic past involving his father all come to the surface as Vishous is ripped apart and put back together again because of his attraction for Jane who was at the centre of his first vision in a long time.

Jane is a strong woman, nothing much fazes her and she is only interested in surviving and saving lives with her work. After losing her sister when she was young Jane went into the medical field to try and save as many people as she could, so they would never have to go through what she went through.

I loved Lover Unbound; I loved exploring Vishous’ nature and the inevitable barriers of falling in love after being traumatised by people he should have been able to trust. I loved Jane’s and Vishous’ relationship in general Jane’s no nonsense attitude when it comes to what she does best. She doesn’t care if Vishous is a dangerous monster as long as he is well.

Lover Unbound was beautifully written as the others are in the series and gave us further insight into John’s story and that of the Scribe Virgin. Lover Unbound was almost perfect, I say almost because of one thing. The last fifty pages.

The ending of Lover Unbound was absolutely atrocious. Ward created an unneeded problem and then created an even worse solution. She had laid all the ground work for an ending that would have worked perfectly giving each party what they wanted in the end, but no, she had to rip one apart and give all of the control to the other.

It was unfair on the couple, and unfair on Vishous what she did to them, she couldn’t just leave him alone to finally be happy. Perfect ending right there, I’ve found what I’m looking for, I am a complete person now let me take my woman home and be happy. But no.
The ending disappointed me, not because it didn’t end how I wanted it to, but it ended stupidly and unnecessarily. It makes me worry about what is in store for the rest of the series if Ward is willing to destroy a perfect book in the way she did.

Of course I am eager to continue on, because I want to get to John’s story, but I have become wary of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series in general now because it was moving along swimmingly, until this.

Also in this series:
Dark Lover
Lover Eternal
Lover Awakened
Lover Revealed
Lover Enshrined
Lover Avenged
Lover Mine
Lover Unleashed

Book Review: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Review: Living Dead Girl
Author: Elizabeth Scott
No of Pages: 170
Release Date: 2 September 2008

The thing is, you can get used to anything. You think you can’t, you want to die, but you don’t. You won’t. You just are.

This is Alice.
She was taken by Ray five years ago.
She thought she knew how her story would end.
She was wrong.

My Thoughts:

I expected Living Dead Girl to horrify me, sicken me and make me feel all sorts of thing for this poor stolen little girl. But I didn’t.

Alice wasn’t always called Alice. There was a time when she was part of a family, had friends and a future. But when Ray kidnapped her from a school trip when she was ten, everything changed.

While being in a traumatic situation, Alice is not likeable or even relatable as a character. I wanted to feel sorry for her and I did at times when she was starving or being abused but it wasn’t enough to make me feel anything more than a passing thought of something being mildly wrong. It may have been the writing or it may have been Alice or it might just be me, but there were times when I couldn’t feel sorry for her.

Alice wished her situation on other little girls in hope of freeing herself. She was supposedly broken and yet she could still fight back in her small ways. Stealing food and coming up with escape plans. She hated herself so much and yet she still wanted this done to a child in hopes of her dying or being free, it made me really dislike her as a character but it also made me feel like she was contradicting herself. She talks about how she used to be selfish and yet she still is. She talks about how shes given up and yet she still fights. She talks about how bad it is to live like this and yet she wants it done to someone else.

Ray threatens Alice with killing her parents if she ever tries to leave him. Beats her if she doesn’t comply with his wishes and starves her so that she will only ever way one hundred pounds or less. He makes her feel bad for growing up and beats her whenever he feels like it. He rapes her because he can and because he thinks he loves her and he makes her tell him all the time about how she will always be his little girl. Ray is a despicable person, and yet I don’t hate him. He just wasn’t around enough for me to hate him. Everything he did to Alice was diluted by constant repetition or complete glossing over of details.

Living Dead Girl sounds fantastic in theory but the writing takes a lot away from it. The short chapters and fragmented sentences don’t drive points home like they are meant to. Too many details are glossed over in the treatment of Alice to the point where there is almost nothing to visualise and the constant repetition of how each day was the same became tedious.

I was expecting a lot more from Living Dead Girl than what I got. I read it in a couple of hours but it didn’t affect me in anyway.

My Two Cents: When Books Make You Sad...

I posted my review of Forbidden the other day and this post is stemming off that. Please note that this post contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma, do not read any further if you do not want the end of Forbidden to be ruined for you.

You have been warned...

I said that by the end of Forbidden I was a mess. I was...a crying, depressed, needed to be held and rocked to sleep mess.

Why? Not because Lochie and Maya fell in love with each other, not because they had a stupid mother, not even because of the incest. Nothing contraversial about the book actually affected me. It was the second last chapter...when they got caught.

Even that didn't affect me.

It was the detail with which Lochies arrest was described.

That affected me the most throughout this whole book...why? because it forced me to remember my own past.

It forced me to relive the day in which I watched someone extremely close to me get arrested for something I was willing to swear in court that they were innocent for. As Kit ran down the street after him it forced me to remember the fight I put up as I attempted to go after the police.

For the rest of the story I was a mess. Him dying didn't bother me, her nearly killing herself kind of bothered me...because I felt it was a waste.

I knew that was going to happen, I knew they were going to get caught...It was inevitable. I knew it was going to be sad, I will be honest and say that I didn't know it was going to affect me like it did...but I knew it was coming.

So I ask...

Why do we read books that make us sad? Why do we read books that make us question what we believe, bawl our eyes out or make us so angry that we are tempted to throw the book across the room?

If reading relaxes you, helps you get away from your daily life, makes you happy with all the wonder it holds, takes you on a journey to a new and magical place...why do we read books that make us sad?

Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of reading? Doesn't it defeat the purpose of doing something that makes us happy...if we need a box of tissues next to us because the story is so heartbreakingly powerful that we are going to end up snot faced and red eyed.

About halfway through Forbidden, I knew I should stop, I knew I should have just put it down and walked away because I knew it wasn't going to end pretty.

And yet I didn't.

Why?

I know I won't stop reading sad books...I don't know why, but I won't. It is why I deliberately keep a stack of "extra happy" books on hand. After Forbidden I have read two "happy" books one that was so funny I nearly wet myself laughing. I am still not over Forbidden, I still need that hug, and I am going to need a few more happy books before I go anywhere near another sad book.