Book 5 - Lover Revealed

I expected a greater sense of - something - when I finally, blissfully, finished the fourth book in JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Lover Revealed. In what has to be a record, I started, and stopped, reading it four times before making it to the somewhat anti-climactic end.

Lover Revealed is Butch and Marissa's story - two characters I never particularly cared about before starting the novel, and two I still don't give a damn about now. Butch is too lame, Marissa too whiny, and their story didn't compel me to turn the page at break-neck speed. I do appreciate that Marissa became a little less needy, and Butch a little more manly - but even that didn't make the read any less tortuous.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just over JR Ward. I wasn't the first to jump on the Brotherhood bandwagon, but I admit, I was enraptured by Wrath in Dark Lover. But even Rhage and Zhadist's story left me feeling a little empty - so much so, I almost didn't start the fourth book at all.

And now I've started to pick apart the writing. The "gangster" dialogue grates on my nerves, and the lesser sub plot line doesn't hold my interest - in fact, I almost want to skip right through all of that crap. The characters feel a little too over-the-top for my liking, and in the last two books, I haven't been feeling the heat. At all.

The fifth book is sitting on my book shelf, right next to Covet, the start of a new series by JR Ward. And even though I peeked at the first chapter of Covet, and Karen insists I'll love V's story, I think I need a break from JR Ward.

Thankfully, my TBR pile is nicely stacked.