Second Bookses

Someone seriously needs to take this box of books away from me and return them to my friend. It's starting to make Pandora's box look like a sheet cake.::: The Plot :::As in the previous three books, we have the warrior vampires of the Black Dagger Brotherhood (BDB) fighting the soulless and evil vampire slayers, the lessers. Up until Lover Revealed, each novel has featured one of the brothers as the hero in these vampire romance novels. Lover Revealed, however, focuses on the human friend of the BDB, Butch O'Neal, an Irish Catholic cop who was first introduced to the world of vampires via his editor friend Beth, who is now the vampire queen. (We met Beth back in Dark Lover, for those keeping track).Butch has been hanging around as a sort of pet of the brothers, but he's fallen in love with Wrath (the King)'s former shellan (wife), Marissa. Trouble is, he's human, Marissa is a vampire of the aristocracy, and Butch is feeling a little left out. When he's abducted by the lessers and implanted with some capsule of evil by the Omega, spiritual leader of the lessers, um, the plot kicks in? Usual business here: vampires fighting lessers, Butch and his vampire BFF Vishous trying to figure out the source of the black stuff in Butch after the whole evil implantation, the love story, and... I'm probably missing something. Oh yeah. We also need to figure out how Butch can stay with the BDB (and Marissa) when he's human.::: This Is My Official Cry for Help Here :::Consulting with friends as I've been reading this series, the consensus was that the majority of them are Team Butch. I'll be honest; I just don't get it. While most of her characters so far have been at least sympathetic, even if the whirlwind romance is sort of far-fetched, the Butch story is so far out there I spent a lot of time rolling my eyes.One of the first things that J.R. Ward set in her vampire canon was that there was no possible way for humans to be changed into vampires. They are born, go through a change they may or may not survive, and that's it. However, Ward obviously fell in love with her character and wanted to make him a vampire, so Lover Revealed includes a change in that if a human has vampire blood, it might be possible to force a change.I would assume that no one suggested to Ms. Ward that a series be outlined from the beginning so that we didn't have to flip over on our own canon.Of the four books in the series that I've read so far, this is my least favorite, mainly because of the author's seeming inability to keep to her own plot contrivances. However, you know that I'm already starting the next novel in the series. Either I'm a glutton for punishment, or the addiction born during the previous three novels can't be kicked that easily.This review was originally published on Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_Lover_Revealed_A_Novel_of_the_Black_Dagger_Brotherhood_J_R_Ward/content_516166553220