Since this book has several stories running at the same time, I’m going to do this review in three parts. And, in advance, I warn you that what you will read here contains some SPOILERS, so, if you haven’t read the book, don’t read this! And in case you ignore me and read this review anyway, you do so at your own risk.
Balthazar and Erika
Balthazar, a warrior of the Band of Bastards (allies of the Black Dagger Brotherhood), is possessed by Devina. In order to destroy the demon, he needs to find the Book of Spells, which was stolen from the Sanctuary by Throe. Searching for it, he runs into Homicide Detective Erika Saunders. Their paths intertwine again and again and Balz finds himself immensely attracted to Erika. Will this human be the salvation for the vampire?
I found in Baltz and Erika a duo with a lot of chemistry —sexual and romantic, among other things— that fit very well with each other. But I also see this couple somewhat unbalanced. Erika has such a tragic past that it makes you want to take her in her arms, hug her and never let her go. Something similar to what Balthazar feels for her, come on. Her life is defined by a macabre event in which her parents and siblings die at the hands of her ex-boyfriend and she barely survives being stabbed countless times. This happened in her teenage years and everything she does and says in this book revolves around it.
Dying was easy. The living was the much harder option.
Then, we see Baltz and…nothing. I mean, literally. The vampire is over 300 years old and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of his backstory in the book! We don’t know where he comes from, his family (except his cousins, Syphon and Syn), how he came to the Bloodletter’s Camp, how he became part of the Band of Bastards… We “know” this vampire from Lover Reborn (book 10) ], beginning to have real relevance since A Warm Heart in Winter and Lover Unveiled (books 18.5 and 19)… and nothing is said of his past, except that he’s a thief?
Devina and Lash
Can someone explain to me what the heck happened here? Of all the characters that may return to the saga, Lash is the least that the Black Dagger Brotherhood fandom would like to see return (I definitely don’t). Can everyone forget how vicious this being can be, and how he abused Xhex (book 8)? Why didn’t you better return Darius, Ms. Ward?(Ah, that story already exists in an audiobook that bears his name. Did I read that it would be a digital/print book in the future? The audiobook sheds more light on the life of the honorable Brother. Anyway, I already listened the audiobook and I will bring you the review soon.)
In short, because I don’t want to spend more time on this malevolent pair than I have already given them, in her search for true love, Devina, at the end of Lover Unveiled, rescues the famous Book that Balz is looking for from a fire in order to make a spell that brings her true love and, consequently, resurrects Lash. Lash’s return joining Devina, oh wow. This pair will get together to make life impossible not only for the Brotherhood, but for the entire vampire community. Starting with Balthazar, whom Devina not only possesses but frequently sexually abuses, continuing with Erika (a collateral damage to spite Baltz), and ending, at least in this book, with Lassiter, whom she treats the same way she does. Baltz, stealing her virginity.
Seriously? Devina raping Balthazar and Lassiter? I know that Devina is delusional, evil, cruel, ruthless and all the bad epithets you can think of, but this? No, no and a thousand times NO! Not even Devina’s fashion sense is incentive to digest this.
Well, let’s forget about the couple created in hell (literally), and continue with the Fallen Angel desecrated by the demon.
Nate, Rhavyn and Lassiter
Nate, whom we met as the boy freed from the human lab and adopted by Muhrder and Sarah in The Savior, has already had his transition and is infatuated about Rhavyn, the girl who appeared out of nowhere in that same book. Only Rhavyn doesn’t feel the same way about him. She is a more powerful entity than the Scribe Virgin, the creator of the vampire race. And with a power that many would like to use for her benefit.
She is the Gift of Light. And if you want the vampire species to survive with Devina on the planet, you’re going to need her.
While her power was not revealed, she was apparently fine. But by bringing Nate back to life after an incident in which the guy was mortally wounded and making him immortal in the process, she’s been exposed, so she needs to get away from everyone.
The male who had come to see her was wrong, however.
He was very dangerously wrong.
She was not the Gift of Light.
Perhaps she had once been. But the night of her cousin’s brutal death, when the loss of her innocence had been so violently imparted, had changed that.
And this is where our favorite Fallen Angel makes his entrance.
In fact, Lassiter has an essential role in this book in all the stories that happen in the plot, and not precisely because he is the Scribe Virgin’s substitute. In this book we see Lassiter as we have never seen him before; the angel with a fixation for the eighties with the image of a rocker of that time is transformed into a solemn being, sacrificed in every sense of the word and deeper than we could imagine. When the angel wears Disney princess’s sandals, it’s very difficult to get rid of the frivolous image that Lassiter presents as a shield…
I have to save two people tonight. I have to… sacrifice something to save them. And after this, it’s all going to be different. For me. For… you.
In addition to his sacrifice so that Balthazar and Erika can live happily (which is why Devina now possesses Lassiter with all that that entails), there is a past history between him and Rhavyn. Or so the author makes us believe at a given moment. And it is that Lass reaches a point of suffering that makes you love him more than you did before reading this book. And it gives way at once for what will be the 21st book in the saga, titled after its hero: LASSITER.
Overall, the book keeps you addicted to the saga, leaving you wanting to read more. In that, Ms. Ward has a Ph.D. in holding your audience captive. However, the beginning has an unsteady rhythm. It’s like she’s preparing you for what’s coming. And what follows is intense! Once they get out of that kind of literary lethargy, it’s hit after hit and dozens more hits.
Having said that, I have to highlight something: I think that the world that Ms. Ward has created is so immense that certain details are escaping her and sometimes she forgets that this universe has a shorter time than the author has been writing the saga. like the three spin-offs that have come out of it (the Fallen Angels series doesn’t count, although Devina has slipped into the Brotherhood saga). According to the plot of the books, chronologically this book would be in the year 2011, 2012 at most. What is Lassiter doing using Tik Tok when it didn’t exist then? I won’t pretend that the author have to be so strict but, if we are going to fill books with references to Pop Culture (and it must be recognized, this ability in her writing is her greatest strength if we exclude her enormous imagination), let us do things according to the time at that belong.
Also, there’s something really wrong with this book. The main story is supposed to be Balthazar and Erika’s. However, it is monumentally overshadowed by the Rhavyn/Lassiter romance. Because make no mistake, Nate is out of the picture once Lassiter enters Rhavyn’s radar. Or vice versa. Well, I’m not surprised that Lass gets all the credits; the Fallen Angel is a force to be reckoned. And as things are at the end of Lover Arisen for Lass, it’s imperative that he be the center of all attention.
For now, I’m more than anxious to read Lassiter’s story. I only hope that —PLEASE, MS. WARD!— the book is not marred by pointless situations and ridiculous scenes that damage what has the potential to be an EPIC book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood saga.
About the Book
Release Date: April 5, 2022
ASIN: B09842JY93
Published By: Gallery Books
Series: Black Dagger Brotherhood #20
Genre: Paranormal Romance
eBook, 429 pages
True love brings a deadly threat to the Black Dagger Brotherhood in this sizzling new novel in J.R. Ward’s #1 New York Times bestselling series.
Possessed by the demon Devina, Balthazar is once again on the hunt for the Book of Spells—and fighting an undeniable attraction to a woman. As a thief, he has stolen a lot of things…but he never thought his heart would be taken by another. Especially not a human.
As a homicide detective, Erika Saunders knows there is something otherworldly going on in Caldwell, New York. Mutilated bodies that cannot be explained are all over her case list—and then there are her nightmares in which she’s hunted by shadows and captivated by a mysterious man who is both a suspect and a savior.
When Devina’s wish for true love is finally granted, Balthazar and Erika unwittingly become the gateway for the rebirth of an old enemy of the Brothers. Will the very thing that brings them together lead to the ultimate destruction of the Brotherhood? Or will they have to lose everything in order to save the race’s most sacred defenders?
About the Author
J. R. Ward lives in the South with her incredibly supportive husband and her beloved golden retriever. After graduating from law school, she began working in health care in Boston and spent many years as chief of staff for one of the premier academic medical centres in the nation. She is the author of the Black Dagger Brotherhood and Fallen Angels series.J.R. Ward is the author of over thirty novels, including those in her #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling series, The Black Dagger Brotherhood. There are more than 15 million copies of Ward’s novels in print worldwide and they have been published in 25 different countries around the world.
After graduating from law school, Ward began working in healthcare in Boston and spent many years as Chief of Staff of one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation. She lives in the south with her incredibly supportive husband and her beloved golden retriever. Writing has always been her passion and her idea of heaven is a whole day of nothing but her computer, her dog and her coffee pot.
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