Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward

Title: Lover Unleashed (Black Dagger Brotherhood #9)

Author: J.R. Ward

Genre: Adult, Paranormal Romance

Length: 512 pages

Publisher: NAL

Release Date: March 29, 2011

Source: Audiobook Purchase

Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Payne, twin sister of Vishous, is cut from the same dark, warrior cloth as her brother: A fighter by nature, and a maverick when it comes to the traditional role of Chosen females, there is no place for her on the Far Side... and no role for her on the front lines of the war, either.

When she suffers a paralyzing injury, human surgeon Dr. Manuel Manello is called in to treat her as only he can—and he soon gets sucked into her dangerous, secret world. Although he never before believed in things that go bump in the night—like vampires—he finds himself more than willing to be seduced by the powerful female who marks both his body and his soul.

As the two find so much more than an erotic connection, the human and vampire worlds collide... just as a centuries old score catches up with Payne and puts both her love and her life in deadly jeopardy.

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Lover Unleashed continues Ward's story of the Black Dagger Brotherhood with the full introduction of Payne. I've seen her sparring with Wrath in the Sanctuary in the past book, but now she's on Earth with a horrible injury to her neck. Right off the bat there were a few storyline inconsistencies with her past and Vishious that really bothered me at first. But I'm so deep into the series now that I just had to keep going.

Very glad that I did. One of my favorite things about this book was seeing one of the women, Doc Jane, playing a major role after her romance was done. My biggest complaint about the series so far is that we seem to lose track of the women. There aren't many updates or glimpses into their lives unless it's directly related to the Brotherhood. But we got to see a lot of Doc Jane here - and it was a side of her that we hadn't really seen before.

She has to make the call to bring a human surgeon in to help repair the damage to Payne's spinal cord, and Dr. Manuel Manello is the only one she trusts to operate on the vampire female. And, of course, something happens between them that no one really understands. Payne and Manello will have to fight to be together and find a way to merge their two worlds.

On the war front, we don't see too much going on. Lash doesn't play a role in this story. The conflict was all within the main characters - a bit of a change from past books in the series. I loved how the story progressed and seeing some new characters in the mix - but still - I want to see the women play more in the story from book to book.

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