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!
Lover Reborn is Tohr’s story and we finally get to find out what’s next for poor Tohr after the death of his shellan, Wellsie. Let me tell you, from start to finish the tenth book in J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood Series is one hell of an emotional journey.
“I miss you….” He stroked the indentation of the gown where her waist would have been—-should have been. “I miss you so much.”
Wellsie was killed by Lessers when she was pregnant, and Tohr basically checked right out of life in the aftermath of her death. He takes off for parts unknown for awhile, and eventually returns to the Brotherhood, but he is not much better—time has passed, but it hasn’t healed Tohr nor John Matthew. Both are still grieving Wellsie as if she died yesterday and you can feel it. Seriously. Feel. It. John Matthew has the added stress of watching Tohr come undone without being able to do anything for his father figure and missing the only woman he thought of as a mother.
Lover Reborn doesn’t just focus on the emotion of Wellsie’s death; we have so many other emotional wrecks around the Brotherhood Mansion. They really need a live-in psychiatrist in that house!
Xhex is having issues with her marriage to John Matthew, and honestly those two just needed to sit their asses down and talk like normal people. You would think they were teenagers by the way they deal with their romance issues. Xhex also is dealing with the return of her mother, No’One, and how to go about having a relationship with her. She feels that he mother looks at her as an abomination and hardens herself just in case.
“Tragedy, like love, makes people blind.”
Speaking of No’One, she has so many emotional issues it’s really sad. Xhex was conceived during a rape and she hasn’t really put that behind her. She also doesn’t know how to go about cultivating a relationship with Xhex, the product of the rape. On top of all that, she wants to figure out how to help Tohr with his emotions surrounding Wellsie, as well as regain the friendship she once had with him. Honestly, she has so many issues you just want to hug her.
“I’m doing the best I can,” he said to them. “Just hold on….fucking hell, just hold on.”
We also have the “issue” between Qhuinn and Blay, two best friends with a whole heap of sexual tension between them. My heart just about jumped out of my chest the few times Blay and Qhuinn interacted with each other.
“So you’ve taken out your piercings,” Blay said.
“Not all of them.”
“Why? I mean... they were always, like, you, you know?”
“Guess I don’t want to be defined that way anymore.”
As Blay’s brows popped, Qhuinn’s kind of wanted to do the same. He’d expected something else to come out of his piehole.
Lover Reborn is emotion rich, it will have you crying as you remember Wellsie and laughing when Lassiter snarks. But most of all, it will have you wishing it was March 2013 already, because that was one hell of an ending, wasn’t it?
Natasha Carty reviews Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy on her website Wicked Little Pixie and lives in Toronto, Canada, with her cat, Seamus.
