I’m confused. At first I thought it was because para-romance isn’t really my thing, combined with the fact that I’m coming in at the eighth book of The Black Dagger Brotherhood series. However, it turns out—it’s not just me having issues. Apparently, die-hard BDB fans were echoing the same concerns I had with Lover Mine, including the confusing mishmash of storylines, pointless side-stories and flashbacks.
Lover Mine is the continuation of a series about a group of vampires (The Brothers) who protect their people from the evil Omega who hates The Brothers and sends its soldiers (Lessers) to wage war in an attempt to destroy them. John Matthew is a (hot) mute orphan who works with The Brothers and is not exempt from the hatred of the Omega—mostly in the form of its son, Lash. Lash’s goal is to make John suffer in the worst way; by kidnapping the one thing he loves most, his half vampire, half sympath girlfriend, Xhex. Now John is on the rampage and won’t stop until he finds Xhex and makes whoever took her pay.
My issues started from the very beginning of the book. The excessive slang use and extraneous cursing was really annoying. Cursing, when used appropriately, can actually enhance the tone of a plot; but this was overkill. Same with the slang, which is ok in small doses, but this bordered on ridiculous. Don’t even get me started on the alternate spellings of things—Murhdur? Puhlease.
Xhex and her commitment issues got old very fast. You can be a tough chick and not have to act like a waffling moron, especially when you have a hot guy who is madly in love with you, who thinks you’re his soul mate, the sex on a scale of 1-10 is a 12 and he tattooed your name the size of a Buick on his back. Really. Get over it.
I did find one interesting thing—which probably made most of the die-hards cringe—and that was the homosexual bro-lust of Blaylock for his close friend, Qhuinn. Although Qhuinn is excessively active with those having lady parts, he apparently harbors extreme he-lust for Blaylock. Sadly, all this man-love will remain unrequited, at least for now.
I wish all the BDB fans luck in getting their beloved series back. However, you’ll have to let me know what happens next, I don’t think I can make myself read another one.
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Hardcover: 528 pages
Publisher: NAL Hardcover; 1st edition (April 27, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-0451229854