Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 7)

by J.R. Ward

Book Overview

Rehvenge is used to living in the shadows and dealing with the roughest night walkers around--including the Black Dagger Brotherhood. As his secret identity as a sympath is threatened, he turns to the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 045122857X
• Release Date: November 2009
• Publisher: Berkley
• Length: 672 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.7" x 1.4" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

I love this series..

I won’t go into detail but I love this book just like I love the others of the series. Some parts are a little slow it seems but it happens sometimes but it’s so worth the read. By the way, my book has a page missing. Made me a little upset but it wasn’t a major page I suppose.

Best of the last 4 books in the series!

I just read this book in record time. For its size and my busy schedule, getting it read in less than 4 days was an achievement, and a testament to how hard it was to put this book down. I don't need to bore fans of this series with details and descriptions of the characters, because if you've been paying attention through the first several books of the series, you already know all that. And if you're just coming into this series now, do yourself a huge favor and go back to the beginning and read all the other books in order before you read this one. With that said, what I liked about this book was how the author stripped down Rehvenge's and Xhex's characters. I also was thrilled with the reintroduction of Tohr (continued from the last book, so this isn't a plot spoiler) and delved deeper into his life and integration back into the Brotherhood. And the setup for John Matthew's character for the next book has me looking forward to what happens with him and how he gets himself out of his funk. I will not spoil the plot twists in this book, but there were many...and they all made for such enjoyable reading. A couple I kinda saw coming, but most caught me by complete surprise. More specifically, I liked the author's witty analogies like, "...he was Kissinger without a president when it came to politics: all analysis, no authority," which started me off right on page one of chapter one. And it just got better from there. I laughed out loud numerous times - something I only seem to do with this series of books. The humor is exquisite! It kinda slaps you in the face when you least expect it, catching you off guard with a chuckle. Every page has a spark of wit or wry humor, which makes the BDB series so entertaining and refreshing, and brings the characters to life. Also, I know the BDB is classified as paranormal romance or erotic romance (erorom), but I've read a lot of books in this genre. The BDB is NOT even remotely in the same league as most erorom. It is in a league of its own. Here's why: With other erorom I've read, the story seems to revolve around the sex. The protagonists seem to hate each other -- are repulsed by each other -- and yet they end up in the sack and fall in love, anyway. The writing isn't very clever and the plots are usually openly apparent. In comparison, J.R. Ward has created in the BDB a story and a world that has depth and dimension, and then she puts in a little spice and icing with some good (very good) sex scenes. The sex is written AROUND the storyline, rather than the other way around with all the other erorom I've read. With the BDB, the sex is a cohesive part of the story - not the reason for the story. The characters are genuinely drawn to each other, and the only reason they hold back is due to their individual flaws...so you don't get those hokey, not believable, insanely absurd I-hate-you-but-I'm-going-to-have-sex-with-you-anyway-and-fall-in-love-with-you scenes. PUH-LEEEAAASE! Yawn,

The King Must Die

*NO SPOILERS* And with these four words so begins J.R Wards 7th instalment of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. I couldn't wait to read LOVER AVENGED and at 527 pages JR does not disappoint. She has encompassed it all; Surprises galore, evolving storylines, several POV's, plot-twists, humour, action, romance and of course heartbreak. I won't spoil things for you here by giving away too much, I'll just give you a brief rundown of all the goodies involved in this intricate story. First off, and this was important to me. All the brothers make an appearance and are all involved to some degree within the story. So yes, we get shots of V, Butch, Zsadist, Rhage, Phury, Tohrment and Wrath, Ah Wrath... Although pegged as Rehvenge's book, LOVER AVENGED belongs equally to Wrath and his continuing story. And oh how sweet it is to be back with the King. We haven't seen much of him since DARK LOVER (Book 1) but his character takes up a significant number of pages here as Wrath goes rogue from his royal duties and ultimately has to pay the consequences. John Mathew and Xhex also get a fair amount of attention and in secondary roles we have Blay and Quinn, Tez, iAm, and Payne. We are also introduced to George, a new companion to the King. Lassiter is back as the hilarious fallen angel, sidekick of Tohrment and the battle continues with the Lessers. Speaking of the Lessoning Society, Lash is simply awesome as their evolving leader taking things to a whole new level of evil. I've never really been a fan of Rehvenge (he kind of creeped me out) but I have to say my opinion of him has now changed. His and Ehlena's love story is well done and surprisingly sweet. Ehlena makes a worthy mate but alas their romance never takes center stage (much like Phury/Cormina in LOVER ENSHRINED book 6.) Ehlena is a nurse from the clinic who treats Rehv after he develops sepsis from repeatedly injecting the dopamine he must take to hide the fact that he's a sympath. It's an unlikely pairing that somehow works even though Rhevenge is still a major drug lord/pimp and has his hands full running the nightclub Zerosum and being a leahdyre on the council. We do get to see a whole new side of him however and gain a much greater insight into the world of sympaths. JR manages to weave all her POV's and storylines together for one explosive (literally) and nail biting finale. My one and only gripe would have to be that JR's brotherhood language has evolved. I don't mean the terms (but yes there are more of these as well) but the actual street lingo that the brothers use when speaking to each other. I occasionally found it hard to understand what they were talking about and had to re-read their dialogue several times before I could figure it out. I can't imagine how you could ever start the series with this book, so please don't try. The BDB is so involved and complex with so many major characters, interweaving stories and POV's that you would be utterly lost plus you'd miss out on the ot

A new favorite

Another amazing book in the series. I was already a big fan of Rehv, so had high hopes for his book, and Ward didn't disappoint. She created a wonderful mate for him in Ehlena and finally gave us some insight into the world of the symphaths. Much like LeN though, there was a lot else going on. Key story line developments with J.M., Tohr, Xhex and Wrath as well. In fact everyone makes an appearance and plays a part with the exception of Cormia - who only got a quick mention. We're rewarded with development in a lot of the ongoing storylines and she has done a great job of setting up J.M.'s book - I just can't believe we have a whole year to wait for it! It made me laugh and it made me cry, and even at 527 pages, I didn't want it to end. What more could you want?

Romantic, Hot, Suspenseful and Funny...what more could you ask for!

I must say that I started this book not really "feeling" Rehvenge. Not so much the look, the attitude or the person I thought he was. Once it was all over, I was as in love with him as any of the other leading men in Ward's other novels. How the heck did she do that? By crafting a beautiful, romantic and believable plot that had me glued to the book from beginning to end. I loved Ehlena, who was strong and beautiful. The perfect match for Rehvenge who we learn through the novel is very deserving of an awesome mate. Happily, the brothers are truly back in this book, with all the hilarious banter we've come to look forward too, as the Brotherhood goes through some major changes and comes out of it together, stronger than ever. I have to add that Lash makes a kick-butt bad guy and he's taking the "lesser parts" from something you had to get through to get on to more of the "good stuff", to something that you can't wait to get to. And to many of her past readers that felt as though her last few novels were not "romantic enough", I believe we can see here clearly that every character in the BDB world is different and that Ward has done them all justice in a way that was true to that character. Sometimes is was all mushy and romantic, other times is was gritty and disturbing, all the time it was well written. These are NOT formulaic romance novels. Thank goodness! With that said, this story has tons of romance, is often sweet, and has the constant intensity and excitement we've come to expect of Ward's books. There were a few side plots that were critical to the story and also very satisfying, especially to long time followers of this series. I can't recommend this book enough for lovers of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, fantasy and well...reading! You'll wish it had 1000 pages.