J.R. Ward's stunning Black Dagger Brotherhood series continues with a bang with LOVER REBORN! High-impact action that begins on page one and continues through to the bittersweet end! LOVER REBORN features something for every reader, whether its violence, action, heartbreak, romance, or just a good warm love story LOVER REBORN has it! J.R. Ward manages to keep the stories fresh, the plots get deeper, and she still maintains the same thrilling characters that we have already fallen in love with. Fair warning if this is the first of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books that you have read be prepared to go back to the store and buy the other nine!

Initially I dreaded reading this book for two reasons. When I first got LOVER REBORN I really pushed off reading it, I was trying to pretend that it wasn't looking at me. So naturally three days later I simply couldn't stand it any longer. I had to know if this was it. You see I really thought that LOVER REBORN was going to conclude this series. Here we are ten books into the series and basically Tohrment is the last of the brothers to have his story told. There were some other minor characters that Ward introduced, but the best of the best well their books had already come to pass. Fortunately, I no longer think that this is the end of the series. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by my new found interest in a few of the so-called minor characters and a few of the new ones too! Ward did a remarkable job of establishing a new line of brothers. She generated enough interest in them these new/oldish characters that I will definitely be trotting along beside Ms. Ward through books number 11 through 50 in the years to come.

There was another concern that I will also address here about my reading LOVER REBORN. I knew that this book was going to be entirely different from all the others. I completely did not like the fact that Tohrment did not get his happily ever after with his Wellsie. The idea that Tohrment could/would love another woman seemed totally foreign and off mark for this series. I mean after all through the entire series we have been told that there is only one female for each male, one soul mate, and Tohrment should have died when Wellsie did. I am completely grateful that he did not die as I feel that he has played a crucial role throughout the series. However, I could not fathom how Ward was going to pull off giving Tohr his story and not giving him Wellsie and still make me happy with this book. I know life isn't fair, but I somehow wanted Ms. Ward to find a way for Tohr to have his own fairytale ending with a dead woman. Thankfully I didn't get my wish! However, I feel that in many ways Ms. Ward pulled it off remarkably well and in reality Tohr did get his happily ever after and at the end of a book that is what really matters.

Tohrment is a lonely somewhat demented man. Of all the brothers, he alone has survived the death of his mate. If you call killing any Lesser in site surviving, if you call having your mind torn apart and put back together with sticky tape surviving, and if you call living as half a man surviving -- well then Tohr is surviving. Not only did he lose his soul mate, but he lost his children too. One died before he ever knew it and the other drifted and grew on his own while Tohr was overcome by loss, grief, and the never ending pain that goes with it. Now he has been told that the only way he can save his wife's soul is to find love again? Really? As if he hasn't learned that lesson the first time....

No'One is somewhat confusing as a heroine. If you have not read Lover Mine you are virtually in the dark about where this woman comes from and her background for much of the book. However, reading the series as I have I knew that she was Xhex's mother who had been raped, brutalized, rescued by Tohr and Darius, then made one of the Chosen 300 or so years ago. This woman has been through hell and back literally. Having the background information on her I really, really wanted to see her smile and figure out what the true meaning of love really was. I have to admit that I could not have been happier to see her and Tohr struggle with their feelings, their personal demons, and their ultimate choice to learn to love together.

The only downfall that I found with LOVER REBORN pertains to the utter lack of romance. The spark and sizzle is just not here as it has been in prior books, which almost left me wanting that something more. Ward seems to be moving farther away from a romance book and into an urban fantasy. Please Ms. Ward return the romance and all the steamy little extras that we have come to love and know back to the brothers!