Here you have it: A complete play-by-play of all of the events in J.R. Ward's Lover at Last (Black Dagger Brotherhood #11), out today. This review is made up ENTIRELY of SPOILERS and is intended only as a place for fans to gather and discuss the book AFTER reading it, so if you have yet to finish, steer clear of anything after the jump. Go finish the book, then come back. (There's a non-spoiler-y First Look of Lover at Last here to whet your appetite, plus a Qhuay timeline!)

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW THE JUMP.

SPOILERS SO MAJOR THEY WILL RUIN THE BOOK FOR YOU IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

[Ready to discuss allllll the Lover at Last things?!...]

EDITOR'S NOTE: This here is a NON-SPOILERY post! To talk spoilers (as in, any major events or developments in Lover at Last), visit our Lover at Last SPOILERS POST!

J.R. Ward
Lover at Last (Black Dagger Brotherhood #11)
Penguin / March 26, 2013 / $27.95 print, $14.99 digital 

Qhuinn, son of no one, is used to being on his own. Disavowed from his bloodline, shunned by the aristocracy, he has finally found an identity as one of the most brutal fighters in the war against the Lessening Society. But his life is not complete. Even as the prospect of having a family of his own seems to be within reach, he is empty on the inside, his heart given to another....

Blay, after years of unrequited love, has moved on from his feelings for Qhuinn. And it’s about time: it seems Qhuinn has found his perfect match in a Chosen female, and they are going to have a young. It’s hard for Blay to see the new couple together, but building your life around a pipe dream is just a heartbreak waiting to happen. And Qhuinn needs to come to terms with some dark things before he can move forward…

Fate seems to have taken these vampire soldiers in different directions... but as the battle over the race’s throne intensifies, and new players on the scene in Caldwell create mortal danger for the Brotherhood, Qhuinn finally learns the true definition of courage, and two hearts who are meant to be together... finally become one.

It wouldn’t be a J.R. Ward Black Dagger Brotherhood novel without name brands and pop culture, and Lover at Last doesn't disappoint. From John Matthew and Qhuinn discussing how the Antichrist is surely coming due to the fact that Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber are on the radio to Mr. C talking about Channing Tatum looking “hot as fuck,” through these references we get glimpses into what makes the BDB books so enjoyable.

[Channing Tatum's hotness IS oft discussed these days...]

Victoria Dahl
Too Hot to Handle
HQN / March 26, 2013 / $7.99 print, $6.15 digital

Merry Kade has always been the good girl. The best friend. The one who patiently waits for the guy to notice her. Well, no more. Merry has just scored her dream job, and it's time for her life to change. As the new curator of a museum in Wyoming, she'll supervise a lot of restoration work. Luckily she's found the perfect contractor for the job.

Shane Harcourt can't believe that someone wants to turn a beat-up ghost town into a museum attraction. After all, the last thing he needs is the site of his dream ranch turning into a tourist trap. He'll work on the project, if only to hasten its failure…until the beautiful, quirky woman in charge starts to change his mind.

For the first time ever, Merry has a gorgeous stud hot on her heels. But can she trust this strong, silent man, even if he is a force of nature in bed? When Shane's ulterior motives come out, he'll need to prove to Merry that a love like theirs may be too hot to handle, but it's impossible to resist.

There are three schools of romance readers: those of us who want a complete escape from reality, those of us who want a character that we can relate to and those of who want both. Luckily, Victoria Dahl writes not only relatable characters but gives us a great escape on top of a great story.

[Does this prove true in Too Hot to Handle?...]

Carrie Vaughn
Kitty Rocks the House
Tor / March 26, 2013 / $7.99 print & digital

On the heels of Kitty’s return from London, a new werewolf shows up in Denver, one who threatens to split the pack by challenging Kitty’s authority at every turn. The timing could not be worse; Kitty needs all the allies she can muster to go against the ancient vampire, Roman, if she’s to have any hope of defeating his Long Game. But there’s more to this intruder than there seems, and Kitty must uncover the truth, fast. Meanwhile, Cormac pursues an unknown entity wreaking havoc across Denver; and a vampire from the Order of St. Lazaurus tempts Rick with the means to transform his life forever.

Kitty Rocks the House is the eleventh novel in Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series, and what is most noticeable in this book is the growth in Kitty and her pack of friends. She has matured into her role as co-pack leader with her mate Ben—amazing, considering how outspoken and rule-breaking she is.

Never short on sarcastic remarks or wit, Kitty has finally learned balance, and better yet, to choose her words carefully in her new position. Between Ben’s easygoing nature and the newish position, Kitty has risen to the challenge of diplomat between the weres and the vampires as well.

[You've gotta love when characters learn and grow over time...]

As you all know, I absolutely detest the word “moist.” Since my first post on Squick Words, I’ve been known to get “moist bombed” on Twitter. That’s when a random author who knows of my moist-related phobia, has a conversation with me and throws the word moist into said conversation out of nowhere. It’s mean and cruel, but makes me cackle every time.

So I am a glutton for punishment and have come back with Squick Words post number three. Some of the not-so-lovely words I have come across or heard about this year.

Velvet sheath: now what in the bloody hell is that? Either a really rocking heavy metal band or the coolest looking outfit known to mankind.

“What are you wearing?”

“Oh, the Velvet Sheath Collection, dahling.”

[If only that were the case...]

Condom use in contemporary romance is a sticky subject (pun totally intended). Contemporary romance straddles the line of reality and fantasy; they are written usually in the same time period we are reading in, thus condom use is a sign of the times. In my generation, at least, we’ve been brought up knowing you MUST use a condom to prevent HIV/AIDS, but that is not the same for a historical romance.

Speaking to other readers about condom use in novels, many say they don’t mind them not being used because in their personal lives that have been in a long term relationship or married so they don’t notice the lack of condom. I have a problem with that theory because many of the couples in romance novels are JUST meeting and having sex for the first time. In my reality, I would be asking right away for a condom. The whole “are you clean, I’m clean” line I have seen in some books also bothers me. You’re about to have a one night stand with a man and you believe him right away? No thanks. Never mind the whole you could have a baby thing; kinda huge, don’t you think?

[Then we get into the whole secret baby trope...]

It’s been one week since someone had sex on True Blood, and this week had zero sex. WTH! We should really start doing a countdown.

Things we learned last week: Russell staked Roman, Alcide issues a Master challenge to JD, Terry leaves Arlene, Sam saves Andy’s life and Sookie finds out her parents were killed by a vampire.

(Need to catch up? Check out our previous recaps: Episode 5.01 |Episode 5.02 | Episode 5.03 | Episode 5.04 | Episode 5.05 | Episode 5.06)

This week is all about the WTF, there was just so much WTF.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Instead of killing Eric, Russell hangs him by a silver noose. He gets captured, yet is released later on.
• Sookie gets checked out by the fairies and finds out her magic is depleting. If she keeps using it, she’ll become a vanilla human.

[Sookie, a plain old human? Can you fathom it?...]

Things we learned last week: Sam finds his shifter buddies dead, Sookie is moving on to Alcide and Tara tried death by Jersey Shore.

Chelsea would normally be your recapper today, but I am subbing for her this week—she promised that this time I would get more nakedness. She lied. This really felt like a filler episode, tying up some loose ends and adding some new threads. It wasn’t all that exciting, but it made some things make more sense.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Sookie and Alcide are about to get it on, when all that Sookie drank comes back on Alcide’s shoes and that’s when Eric and Bill walk in.

[Perfect timing, boys...]

We are back with Part 2 of our H&H bloggers “List” choices—the list is the fictionalized version of characters you would love to see nekkid if you could, where not even your spouse or partner could say you can’t have them. Because hey, they’re on your “allowed to do it with” list!

(If you missed Natasha, Synde, Victoria, and Evangeline’s choices, see The List, part 1.)

Brie

Michael (Meljean Brook’s Guardian series):

He’s an angel and has black wings. Is that enough? No? Good because he isn’t really an angel. But he’s intense, brooding and mysterious. He can heal people, teleport and change his appearance, so if I ever get tired of him I can ask him to morph into Michael Fassbender (I’d have him watch Shame first so he gets all the details right).

[Someone’s priorities are clearly in order...]

Things we learned last week: Newlin is the new Nan, Eric and Bill must find out where Russell is, Pam totally did it with Eric and Tara still hates Sookie and Lafayette.

(Need to catch up? Check out our previous recaps: Episode 5.01 |Episode 5.02 | Episode 5.03)

*******SPOILERS*******

HIGHLIGHTS

• Tara goes all death by Jersey Shore and bakes herself on high in a tanning bed. Pam feels her pain and ends up commanding her dumbass out of the tanning bed.
• Lafeyette finds out Sookie confessed to Alcide about what happened to Debbie and flips out on her. He ends up calling her the Angel of Death before sashaying away.

[Oh, Sookie...]

Many couples have “The List:” you know, the list of celebrities your significant other has given you a free pass to have sexual relations with them if you somehow run into them? Because chances are you will never run into said celebrity, so it’s okay to dream.

Today, we’re riffing on the idea of “The List,” asking H&H bloggers to offer the three heroes they’d want to play hide the kielbasa with. We got some wicked answers, and I may be fighting with my fellow bloggers over a few of these men.

I had no idea our bloggers loved so many heroes, so this will be split into two parts. (Already caught up on Part 1? Click here to go to The List Part 2!)

Natasha

Bronx (The Asylum Tales by Jocelynn Drake): I fell head over heels in love with Bronx, it was love at first sight. Bronx is a troll and no he’s not built that way, he’s a big old enforcer style troll who works as a tattoo artist. Swoon, free tats! Sadly, Bronx doesn’t date humans so I’m screwed, and not the good kinda screwed.

[But then there’s always...]

This entire episode can has two major plot points: Tara is batshit crazy as a vampire and the Authority is scary as hell! Hell, to sum it up EVERYONE is pissed at somebody. Also, Newlin dancing.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Tara being completely batshit crazy as a fledgling vampire, vampire tantrum anyone? Running all over the place, attacking and biting Sookie only to have Pam giggle, then finally step up and pry her off Sook. She’s like a toddler on speed! Lafayette looks terrified the entire time this is happening, especially when she goes for him. Thankfully, Pam steps up and commands Tara not to bite the humans. Before taking off to Fangtasia and leaving Tara with Sook and Lafayette.

[If Pam goes, I go...]

Vicki Pettersson
The Taken
Harper / June 12, 2012 / $10.98 print, $9.99 digital

Griffin Shaw used to be a PI, but that was back when gumshoes hoofed the streets . . . and he was still alive. Fifty years later, he’s an angel, but that doesn’t make him a saint. One small mistake has altered fate, and now he’s been dumped back onto the mortal mudflat to collect another soul—Katherine “Kit” Craig, a journalist whose latest investigation is about to get her clipped.

Bucking heavenly orders, Grif refuses to let the sable-haired siren come to harm. Besides, protecting her offers a chance to solve the mystery of his own unsolved murder—and dole out some overdue payback for the death of his beloved wife, Evie.

Joining forces, Kit and Grif’s search for answers leads beyond the blinding lights of the Strip into the dark heart of an evil conspiracy. But a ruthless killer determined to destroy them isn’t Grif’s biggest threat. His growing attraction to Kit could cost them both their lives, along with the answer to the haunting question of his long afterlife . . .

“I don’t have to be strong," he finally said, refusing to dwell on it. “I’m dead.”

Vicki Pettersson just completed her Signs of the Zodiac series, and The Taken is the first release of her new Celestial Blues trilogy. Griffin Shaw is the series’ protagonist—and he just happens to be dead. In his previous life, Shaw was a private investigator. Griff’s current job as a Centurion (angel) is to assist the recently and violently dead to the Everlast—sort of an angelic guide—but he isn’t all sugar and spice; he makes one wrong choice and fate gets twisted.

[Ain’t life (and death) a kick in the head?...]

Paranormal Romance isn’t always just about the sexy times with our favorite creatures that go bump in the night. Some of our favorite PNR novels not only make us feel the need for a cold shower, they also make us dirty giggle. Every so often we need to mix it up to keep it all fresh, to get away from the heavy into something a little on the lighter side of the genre. Not everything has to be about sex, people—okay, I lied just there. I wouldn’t skimp on the sexy times, but add in laughter and you have the perfect combination.

Here are some of my favorite hysterical PNR novels; hopefully you have some to add to my list because we all need a giggle now and then.

Molly Harper’s Jane Jameson series

Molly Harper’s series centers on Jane Jameson, who gets fired by her boss and given a gift certificate for free potato skins instead of a severance check. Ouch! While poor drunk Jane is on her way home from having her ‘skins, she gets mistaken for a deer and shot. Thankfully, that guy she met at the bar just so happens to save her life…even if it means she’s now part of the undead crew in Half Moon Hollow. I couldn’t stop giggling throughout this entire series, and it’s definitely high on my list of all-time favorite series.

[Come for the paranormal, stay for the comedy...]

*******SPOILERS*******

I could sum up this entire episode in fewer than two words: APPLES! Alas, you all come here for a recap, so sit back and enjoy. *Yawns*

The episode starts out in a dream sequence that has Regina tied to a tree by the entire town of Storybrooke; she pleads for Henry to not let them do this to her but Henry counters with she did it to herself. Just as Emma is about to kill her (so we assume) with a sword, Regina wakes up. She walks over to Henry’s room to make sure he is there, and assumes he is because she really doesn’t check carefully, and it’s a pillow stuffed under the covers.

(Need to catch up? Check out previous Once Upon a Time recaps: Episode 15 |Episode 16 | Episode 17 | Episode 18 | Episode 19 | Episode 20)

Henry is with Emma and she plans for them to leave Storybrooke in her little VW, until Henry finds out what she plans to do and pleads with her not to leave that she is the town’s only hope. Emma doesn’t listen and keeps driving, so Henry being the intelligent child that he is, grabs the wheel and they end up in a ditch…unhurt, amazingly enough.

[Well, this *is* Storybrooke, after all...]

*******SPOILERS*******

After a few weeks without Once Upon a Time, we finally get back to the “who the hell is The Stranger, aka August Booth” storyline. We kick the episode off with August in bed having some sort of a leg spasm, and he twitches so hard he falls out of bed. Alas, that doesn’t knock him out bad enough, so he staggers over to place a call to someone (we never do find out who) and says that the plans need to move faster (again, we still have no idea by the end what the “plans” are).

He ends up meeting up with Henry in hopes they can get Emma to believe that they are all fairy tale characters faster and to get a welcome home gift for Mary Margaret at Mr. Gold’s. Henry walks in and provides a distraction so that August can sneak into Mr. Gold’s backroom to look for something. Too bad he isn’t as stealthy as he thought he was, because Gold catches him. August makes some excuse about thinking that he was in the front of the store and not the back, but Gold is on to him.

(Need to catch up? Check out previous Once Upon a Time recaps: Episode 13 | Episode 14 | Episode 15 |Episode 16 | Episode 17 | Episode 18)

[In which The Stranger gets even stranger...]

J.R. Ward 
Lover Reborn
NAL, $27.95/digital $14.99, Mar. 27, 2012

Ever since the death of his shellan, Tohrment has been unrecognizable from the vampire leader he once was. Physically emaciated and heartbroken beyond despair, he has been brought back to the Brotherhood by a self-serving fallen angel. Now, fighting once again with ruthless vengeance, he is unprepared to face a new kind of tragedy.

When Tohr begins to see his beloved in his dreams—trapped in a cold, isolated netherworld far from the peace and tranquillity of the Fade—he turns to the angel in hopes of saving the one he has lost. But because Lassiter tells him he must learn to love another to free his former mate, Tohr knows they are all doomed....

Except then a female with a shadowed history begins to get through to him. Against the backdrop of the raging war with the lessers, and with a new clan of vampires vying for the Blind King’s throne, Tohr struggles between the buried past and a very hot, passion-filled future…but can his heart let go and set all of them free?

It’s finally that time—you’re all probably sitting comfortably with a copy of Lover Reborn today, ready to discover Tohr’s story. But what you do need to have handy in addition to the book is one jumbo box of Kleenex. I admit to crying more then once while reading; at one point I had to put the book down and compose myself. Seriously, be warned and get that box of tissues ready!

[Take that moment. Okay. Ready?...]

This week’s episode starts with Mary Margaret running through the woods; yeah that was it, just a quick scene of her running. Okay then.

(Need to catch up? Check out previous Once Upon a Time recaps: Episode 11 | Episode 12 | Episode 13 | Episode 14 | Episode 15 | Episode 16)

We then have Henry waiting for Emma at the police station—she arrives with Mr. Gold. Henry talks privately with Emma about how the “escape plan” was such a great idea, too bad Emma didn’t know Mary has turned escapee.  Of course Emma takes off to find Mary, driving her old skool VW bug through the woods in the fog. All of the sudden a guy appears, she can’t stop fast enough and he dives into the ditch. She stops the car and helps him up, and Natasha’s jaw hits the sofa bottom. HELLO HOTTIE! Finally! Another hottie to replace the former Sheriff! His name is Jefferson; he’s limping so Emma drives him home.

[Excellent decision, Emma...]

Talk about dragging out a storyline! Once again, this week’s episode focuses on David/Mary Margaret and Snow/Charming. Charming and Red set out to find Snow, even though we have little clue how Red met up with Charming to begin with. Right as they set out, King George’s knights come to get them, but Red goes all alpha wolf and eats them up while Charming escapes.

Meanwhile, Snow is still living with the seven dwarves and is singing away cleaning in her bedchambers when a blue parrot appears. Snow goes psycho bitch and tries to brain the bird with a broom; thankfully Grumpy comes in and distracts her, and the bird gets out safely.

(Need to catch up? Check out previous Once Upon a Time recaps: Episode 11 | Episode 12 | Episode 13 | Episode 14 | Episode 15)

[Snow White, would-be killer of birds?!...]