Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood #10) [Thor & Autumn] by J.R. Ward

OK, lets just say it, shall we? 

THIS BOOK WAS HORRIBLE!

Now that it's out of my system I can say one last thing before I explain myself and this one is going to be - 

THOR IS A DOUCHE BAG AND DESERVED MUCH MORE PAIN THAN HE GOT!

Thor was never one of my favorites. He's too much "into" himself and the fact that he is the "level one" between the brothers. He was the only guy mated, the only guy who didn't have bad issues. Even though he doesn't have a "real" family (meaning mostly parents and/or siblings), he did have Darius who was like a father to him. So basically he was always considered the "good guy" but I felt nothing toward him. He doesn't have anything appealing about him, really. 

Then his Welsie died and he became such a walking tragedy. I get the grief, I do, I get why he walked out and wanted to die, I get it all, I don't get why with him it's all about HIM and never about anyone else including Welsie. He right about mistreated every person who was somehow close to him and naturally also the ones that aren't close.. Lassiter tried also to be there for him, as the brothers did but he kept to himself, to his brooding and trying to kill himself without pulling a trigger.. (=letting himself somehow drift away..). There's this limit to how much you can listen to (read) till it just gets boring. The pain and pity you feel sort of evaporates. Exactly how it was with Phury. You just feel like his brooding is boring. 

So while Phury's book was mostly boring because I couldn't be bothered with his shit, with Thor it was different since he did so many things WRONG that I was mostly enraged with the way he treated everyone, mostly No'One.  He just keeps offending her or treating her badly. To emphasize what I mean I'll just drop something here - You get a full disclosure of how sorry he is (towards No'One) only - get this - 92% through the book. Which means he's being a total and absolute ass up until then. So on the remaining 8%? I forgive him nothing and I think he shouldn't have gotten No'One and she surly needed to get a better guy that can actually appreciate her and make up for what she has been though in her short miserable life (and then her long sort of life in the sanctuary).

Mainly the book is about Thor letting Welsie go so she can move on from the "In Between" into "The Fade" (that's Lassiter's mission actually - helping him do that). So being with No'One is mostly about that. She knows that and it's OK by her in a way but I'm sure you realize after a while she falls for him anyway.. and well the way he treats her doesn't really help Welsie because he doesn't really let her go. I look at it as another way Thor is selfish. He wants to keep Welsie with him, doesn't want to let her go and it's selfish. Also it's stupid... the way he's ignoring the fact that she is dead.. 

I usually hold a file where I write the name of the people that we get their POV and sometimes a few words so I'll remember exactly what I wanted to write in my review. On this one? I have a whole page with complaints.. :/ 

I'm not sure if I should write my complaints down since they are sort of a spoiler.. so I'm hiding it (writing in write, just select the text with your mouse) It's mostly the notion of what annoyed me not a whole scene.. so suit yourself if you want to read it or not.. :)

Spoiler

Seeing her naked by mistake he accuses HER of being a whore who came from the other side just to she could seduce him.. right.. the woman who is scared of males (especially big ones like Thor..) after being raped by one..

What's the first thing Thor says to No'One when he sees her naked for the first time and wants to fuck her - "You should eat more". Yeah, that will get her in the mood..

He sleeps with her, play around with her, but never speak to her about anything. just sort of expect her to be in his bed.. anyone remember how to spell "whore"?

Worst pre-sex scene EVER is when he looks ravishingly at No'One and wants to fuck her senseless but what he says to John who stand beside him is he will only love one and only one woman. I think the word Romance just about disappeared from the dictionary at that moment..

Their first time together? I wanted to PUKE! No Romance, not ever affection. After her first time with the Sympath being raped again and again by him, I'd expect the first time with another male to be more, well, Romantic? Too bad that's not a word Thor understands..

You know how it goes with males that after they sleep with a woman they go to bring her food then they feed her? Well, first thing Thor does? Goes to Lassiter to check if it means that Welsie is on her way to the fade.. :/

Another disgusting retort from Thor - admitting to her face he is using her and accusing her of enjoying it as a sort of self inflicting punishment for herself (since it's obvious he IS using her). For me that was THE END for any positive sentiment I'll ever have towards Thor. Even if it's true, that's no way to speak to a living person with a heart, soul, feeling..

I have something to add before I continue with my review.. One of the main problem victims have, surely of the sexual kind is that the victim feels responsible somehow to what happened. It's a protective mechanism in a way since it helps the victim explain why it happened. Because if it was totally random it means you can't predict it or do something to ward yourself of it. So if the victim blames himself/herself then it lets the illusion that there is a way to control but also prevent further hurt. So I find it totally understandable that No'One somehow faults herself for everything that happened to her, the way she lives her life now, as a servant and not the high born she was. Unlike Thor, she didn't have anyone to really talk to about what happened, how she could heal herself. She was alone though she was surrounded by the Chosen in the sanctuary. With Thor it's different EVERYONE tries to help him deal with Welsie's death. So while accusing No'One with not being able to deal with what happened to her, he just shows how insensitive he really is! He is NO different from her, and unlike her he had so many people willing to help him, yet he neither appreciate them nor realizes that every word he uses against her is more than suitable for himself. As they say, when you point an accusing finger toward someone remember there are three fingers pointing back at you!

Maybe that's the place to write about No'One in general. On the other hand I really liked her, I "believed her", I mean I got why she wanted to be there for Thor, how she wanted to be there for Xhex but in the beginning she was just so freaking scared for so many reasons. I loved how she comes to terms with what she want, what she can have. She knows that she is helping Thor even though it won't really be something he returns back. I guess she wanted to repay him for how he and Darius took care of her back then and she "accidentally" fell in love with him now. I felt it was closing a circle. I didn't think it was about her hurting herself, or making herself be with someone that doesn't want her, it was about her trying to make Thor better and having for the first time a close connection with someone that just overwhelmed her because she never thought it was possible. 

Not to spoiler more than I did, I'll just say that I really wished that the book ended earlier than it did. Right about Chapter 72 would have been the right thing in my opinion. I know that most people won't agree with me, but well, that's me, that's how I feel.

I know I wrote too damn much so there isn't a lot more room for all the other POVs so I'll just have a few words about each -

Lassiter - what a sweetheart!!!! I loved his character even if at first I really didn't get him, maybe that's part of it. That he grows on you as he grows more "human" or you understand what he is doing, why, and how much he is willing to do without asking for anything in return. 

Assail - There's a new player in town! I love him! He's a really interesting character and I can't wait to get more of him! 

BOB - Xcor is "getting better", less like the Bloodletter and more an independent person I guess. Though I still don't consider him a smart person (mostly a brute..) at least I don't detest him as I did in the previous book or up until he sort of redeemed himself in this book. Zypher is also someone I think was a little misjudged before. We got only his bad side like with Z in the first 2 books then we got to see a real person. I think I'm going to like him! Throe isn't my cup of tea, I don't get him but I do think that without HIM there was no Band of Bastards.. Xcor might be the leader but he and the other guys wouldn't have been able to live more than a month without all the managing he does for them..

JM / Xhex - Like in the previous book where we had "troubles in paradise" for V and Jane, this one has John and Xhex first significant fight. I thought it was "well played". It really made sense, I don't know why I didn't think about it before I read it but it was just what you'd think they'll fight about and I loved how it was solved and the fact that even when they were at odds it was hard for the both of them to be apart but without resolving it they just couldn't be together. 

I should say that there are a few mother/daughter and father/son scenes, You probably guess I'm not into the father/son (Thor/JM) because of Thor but I LOVED the mother/daughter scenes of Xhex and No'One. I loved how they were built as well, it took them time but when they were both ready for it - it was just beautiful! also heart breaking.. 

Quinn - Oh boy, how much he goes through in this book! I think we really get how sensitive and alone he really is. I love this guy so much! and can't wait for the next one of him and Blay. I do think that what happened in this book between the both of them, with Layla and their friendship, how much he changed - all of it - needed to happen before they got together, before Quinn is really ready to be with Blay with all that it entails. 

Two of my Reading Updates of this one - 

Just finished Chapter 22.

I must say I applaud any and every bad feeling Thor have had the past year since Welsie has died.

He deserve every second of it!  

To say it mildly he is a total and absolute self absorbed ASSHOLE.

I should say this is the 2nd time he has been outrageously cruel to No'one.

1st - I half forgiven (though not really..)

the 2nd? Peeling the skin off his body wouldn't nearly be enough!

(Ch. 60) Struggling to keep on listening, in truth only thing that Thor deserves is a stab in the heart and making sure he NEVER EVER sees his Welsie again. He is SO disgusting I don't know how I'll bear another 4 hours of him. Lucky there are other POVs.. :/

This one is by far the WORST of the bunch and I really can't think of one romance novel I've read that all I hoped for was the MC to die in agonizing pain

Truly unworthy of finishing but I'll do it, somehow.. I'll do it.. :S

As I've wrote in the last three reviews, the narrator of this audio book version grew on me, I kinda like him now :) that I still wish he would have done the women and men in a different voice.. 

There are a few things that happen in this book (mainly concerning the BOB and Assail) that you need to read/know for the next ones and there is what happened with Quinn and Layla that makes sense as a prelude to the next book, but besides that, this book is totally pointless and unnecessary.

I could have enjoyed reading everything that happened to Quinn in the next book and didn't have to get JM and Xhex's fight (though it REALLY helped me deal with the rest of this book!) but to sum it up - I don't recommend this book, not at all. Though it is a Paranormal book, it has nothing to do with Romance. Thor is the worst hero EVER, I don't think I ever read a romance book in which I hated the hero so much I wanted him to wallow in his sorrow FOREVER (dying is too good for him, really). 

Only one more before The King!

Additional Details: Audiobook, 23:09 Hours, 27 April - 5 May 2014 / On GoodReads

 

 

ABOUT THE MCs

Tohrment
Was disowned by his father and taken in by the Brother Darius in the Old Country. Both he and Darius saved the life of the female who would become Xhex's biological mother. Later on, when Wrath became King, Tohrment took over the leadership of the Brotherhood. He was the steady and calm Brother, ever serious but with a kind heart, until a tragedy took the life of his shellan, Wellesandra, and their unborn son. He disappeared until Lover Enshrined BDB #6), whereupon he was returned weak and emaciated to the Brotherhood by the fallen angel, Lassiter. Tohrment and Autumn's story is told in Lover Reborn (BDB #10).

Autumn ("No'One")
Was a member of the glymera who named her self No'One when she served her sisters on the Other Side in the Scribe Virgin's sanctuary. She is described as having a prominent limp and is always clad in white robes which completely cover her body. She is friends with Payne and the Chosen Layla, and is revealed in Lover Mine (BDB #8) to be Xhex's birth mother, Rosalhynda. She commits suicide after Xhex is born because she can't live with the pain surrounding her child's conception but is granted life anew so that she can serve the Chosen as atonement. After the events of Lover Mine take place, she is appointed as Payne's personal servant in the human world. She is named "Autumn" by Tohrment in Lover Reborn (BDB #10) and is Tohrment's shellan.

ABOUT THIS SERIES

The Black Dagger Brotherhood is a Paranormal Romance by J. R. Ward. This was actually the first PNR I've read. I've been a HUGE vampire fan most of my life, but I used to read Fantasy and Urban Fantasy. When I fell upon this series I've realized adding the romance "bit" is the best thing ever!

This series have been one of my most favorite for a long while. I really liked the way Ward built the world of the Brotherhood and in general the "Breed". They have been living besides humans but they are not a threat as they feast from their mate (partner) and anyhow human blood isn't potent enough for them. They mostly act human but as expected they have special abilities and animalistic behaviors. 

The series follows the Black Dagger Brotherhood, a contingent of vampire warriors in charge of protecting the "Breed" (Vampires) against their mortal enemies the "Lessening Society" which are a group of ex-humans transformed into soulless being with the sole purpose of harming the vampire race. The head of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Wrath, is also the King of the race but he was trying to run away from his duties leaving in his stead a group of vampire aristocrats called the Glymera. 

My main issue with this series comes from the longgggg novels with many POVs and sub-plots. Sometimes it feels like everything is happening while there is nothing to actually move the plot. I guess it's very character driven and there is a lot of shenanigans between the "Brothers" which makes this read a fun one. This is a series to anyone looking for an action packed novel with tender romance and a lot of "bro" attitude. In each book one of the brothers gets his own HEA. There are interesting coupling, not what you'd expect (or the men themselves expected) but each woman helps her Breed male find his own happiness as they are all damages in their own way. 

I've been a huge fan of the series till the 13th novel - "The Shadows", it has been a breaking point for me, because it was different (and many reading complained about it) but also because I somehow felt I've had enough. I still highly recommend this series, It's one of the best in the genre IMO.

If you love these kinds of series I'd also recommend "Midnight Breed" by Lara Adrian. There is a few similarities (mainly in the first books) bit it takes a totally different turn. I actually enjoy it a bit more than this one.

YEP, RECOMMENDED! 

Books:
1. Dark Lover [Wrath & Beth] (published 6 September 2005) ★★★½
2. Lover Eternal [Rhage & Marry] (published 7 March 2006) ★★★★½
3. Lover Awakened [Zsadist & Bella] (published 5 September 2006) ★★★★★
4.  Lover Revealed [Butch & Marissa] (published 6 Match 2007) ★★★★½
5. Lover Unbound [Vishous & Jane] (published 25 September 2007) ★★★★
6. Lover Enshrined [Phury & Cromia] (published 3 June 2008) ★★
--- An Insider's Guide (Including "Father Mine") (published 7 October 2008 ) ★★★★
6.5 Father Mine [Zsadist, Bella & Nalla] (published 7 October 2008) ★★★★★
7. Lover Avenged [Rehvenge & Ehlena] (published 28 April 2009) ★★★★★
8. Lover Mine [John Mathew & Xhex] (published 27 April 2010) ★★★★★
9. Lover Unleashed [Payne & Manny] (published 29 March 2011) ★★★★½
10.  Lover Reborn [Thor & Autumn] (published 27 March 2012) ★
11.  Lover At Last [Quinn & Blaylock] (published 26 March 2013) ★★★★½
12.  The King [Wrath & Beth revisited] (published 1 April 2014) ★★★½
13. The Shadows [Trez & Selena / iAm & Maichen] (published 31 March 2015) ★★★

As I've mentioned there are more books published in this series but I've stopped after the 13th one.