Lover Revealed by J R Ward

It's not that I don't like the character of Butch. It's just that he's a minor, a groupie, a hanger on, a gofor, and actually police brutality is no longer as fashionable as it once was for anti-heroes. Which of course is why Butch got slung off the CPD. Having the real name Brian doesn't help either. And Butch gets his own novel before Phury or Vishous?! It's like trying to turn Scooter Libby into a hero. It is so not going to occur. And most gross of all. Butch calls Marissa 'Baby' as in 'Hi Baby,' or 'How's it going Baby?' Ugh. See what I mean about being an alkie slob. No way is he hero material.

Most of what happened to Butch could easily have been written for for the tragic one-legged Phury. Including the romance with Marissa.

I was quite happy with the world of the BDB brothers. Reading about them doing their useless Lesser slaying business. But now in this novel we’re stuck with Butch’s backstory and his relationship with his relatives. Boring. That device that he really really has vampire blood in him. So pathetic. Plus it's time for that nerd John Matthew to be accidentally torched. All these new people being introduced…purely for the sake of setting up the next novel in the series. I don’t never want to read any criticisms of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter books ever again. Her plot details may be minimal but Lover Revealed is the other extreme. You can't appreciate the plot because the wordage gets in the way. Something like that.

I read it and felt like someone was treating me like a fool. Showing me disrespectfulness. tbh I think these novels are evolving away from my type of romance. There is much too much going on. And most of it doesn’t hold my interest. I mean this is a story about vampires, right. Both Butch’s issues and Marissa’s are minor minor compared with either Mary or Zsadist.

Somewhere in this novel is an excellent vampire adventure trying to fight it's way through too many words into the light. I quite liked how V and Wrath converted Butch into a vamp. The prophecy sub-plot was good. But I didn't understand the little poem. In this novel the brothers gain their first big victory over their enemies, the Lessers. And it was done not through hard work or detection but through blood-lines and destiny. That is supremely appropriate for a vampire novel. And now those fun-filled mini-Hannibal Lectors, the Lessers, have no temporal leader or hierarchy. I quite liked them too. Although I'm glad the torture scenes were few and far between in this novel.

This story also recycles the notion of 'the good dealer' who sells safe product versus 'the bad dealer' who sells contaminated product. Like that makes a difference to the poor stooges who grow the stuff. Believe me, all dealers will rot in hell.

I must be the only reader who doesn't mind that the wives have no jobs. (Another tyranny) Having seen the awe-inspiring portrayal of Dracs wives in the film van Helsing I appreciate that the function of vampire wives is entirely to support and build a community around their men. And to look stunningly beautiful. (even Mary) One of the posters on Amazon suggested the author should write 4 more books about Zsadist and I agree with that. (Plus a big dose of Vishous)

Also I don't like the influence the fans are having on the outcome of the stories. This is exactly what happened with LoTR. The fans prevented Arwen from being more active in the films which is what the director seems to have originally intended. I much prefered Arwen when she advised and guided Strider.

The words, Jump. The. Shark. come to mind. Well for me anyhow. Signing off in sorrow.

Genre; vampire romance; movie rating 18; use of knives, murder, explicit sex, voyeurism, profanities, mysticism, lots and lots of dripping blood.