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| Lover Enshrined (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 6) | 
 enlarge | Author: J.r. Ward
Publisher: Signet
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $4.12
You Save: $3.87 (48%)
New (31) Used (33) Collectible (2) from $3.15
Avg. Customer Rating:  313 reviews
Sales Rank: 2073
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 560
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0451222725
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780451222725
ASIN: 0451222725
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: GREAT BUY!Brand New From US Distributor! WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER with OVER 3,500,000 BOOKS SOLD!!! OVER ~ 600,000 FEEDBACKS ~ POSTED!!!
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| Customer Reviews:
 At Least I Can Use it as a Paperweight June 5, 2008
47 out of 61 found this review helpful
Honestly, for the first half I was loving this book. The characterization was sharp and distinctive. Ward seems to have finally learned how to give her subplots some forward momentum rather than just repeating the same scene over and over again. But then I came to the second half and I wanted to stab it with scissors. Gosh, what a mess. Basically, nothing came out of most of the plot lines and the only subplot that reached a decent resolution just kept going and going like the Energizer Bunny's zombie after it should have died.
These are the plots:
The Main Plot: Coked-up, messed up Brother Phury has been roped into the Scribe Virgin's eugenics program. The goddess wants him to impregnate her forty temple prostitutes to have children to preserve the vampires' pure blood line, apparently having two-headed incest offspring in future generations being preferable to having babies without the proper aristocratic pedigrees. Phury has to make it first with Cormia before he moves on to the others. He likes her, but he's afraid he's not good enough to get close to her. Cormia like him but is afraid she is too reserved to get close to him.
Subplots: Local drug dealer Rhevenge is being blackmailed by some sadistic wench called The Princess.
John Matthews and his buddies Qhuinn and Blay land in a pickle when a locker room brawl turns deadly.
The Lessers are back to torture us with their incompetent buffoonery. They pop up like every twenty pages in the second half. The Omega has a new improbable plan that completely defies logic. I'm still very curious as to how Omega and his bumbling goon squad managed to put the vampire race on the decline when they are about as effective as the villains in a GI Joe cartoon.
Of these, guess which is the only one which comes to a satisfactory conclusion? Hint: it's not the main plot.
Really, I loved the first half of this book, but as the pages flew by, more and more, I had moments that made me grind my teeth together. Not resolving the plots is a big reason for this. This book is over 500 pages long. There is no reason that Ward should be able to devote several chapters to a couple of lessers getting arrested, going to jail, and having a bail hearing when that has nothing to do with nothing, and then having to cram the unconvincing, improbable resolution of the main plot into the last fifty pages. We all knew that Phury would have to sober up. Really really late in the book (at a point when you would believe he would have long checked into rehab by), he almost O.D.'s on heroin and not forty pages later he has successfully gone through detox. All in the space of about a day.
The problem also stems from the fact that Ward draws vivid portraits of both characters in the first half, but she never develops them as a couple. I'm still curious as to how a sheltered woman like Cormia is going to deal with having a former junkie has a husband. I'm not even sure she's emotionally capable of it. Their scenes together are all too brief and infrequent throughout the story.
The John Matthews subplot was interesting until it was run into the ground. It reaches a resolution fairly early but it keep going and going until John and his buddies almost overwhelm the novel.
Other stuff that is wonky:
Did you think the inclusion of ghosts was out there? Well now angels have descended in Caldwell. And it's about as well explained as the ghost thing.
More retconning. Apparently, Phury's detour into pot-smoking, suicidal misery is not new like we were led to believe. He's been like this all along but no one noticed.
The series has become completely humorless. That's a shame because I loved the camp of the first book. That book was almost like it wanted to be like Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunters but with more rap music and hilariously cheesy names, and seemed to embrace all the cheese and corn of the general silliness of the premise. There is not even an amusing aside like the potato gun from the previous novels to give the book any levity.
I really loved the first half and really really hated the second. When I first started reading, I thought this would be Ward's best. Talk about snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. I guess two extremes even out to a neutral 3-stars.
 One Person's View June 4, 2008
41 out of 49 found this review helpful
I finished reading "Lover Enshrined" last evening and I have to say - huge disappointment. For those of you who have read the series, J. R. Ward did well to expand Rehvenge's and John Matthew's characters in this book. However Phury's story (the warrior the book was supposed to be about) was lost in all the secondary plots and storylines. The best way I would describe this book, is "scattered", and the romance plot between Phury and Cormia is lost in the mess. Turning Phury's character into a degenerate addict who wasn't even a member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood for almost the entire book was awful. The editing was poor as well, we have "Brother" speak, "Texas Lesser" speak, oh and "15th century translated bard" speak, much of which doesn't make any sense.
Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed the Black Dagger Brotherhood series for the most part, especially, Dark Lover, Lover Eternal and Lover Awakened (the first 3 books). Ward wrote the heros to be larger than life with their own internal demons. Their "shellans" helped them to cope with their issues, and the strength of their bond created a good erotic romance story. The war, the fear of losing their mates as casualities and the intrigues developed within and outside the Brotherhood itself made for a great read.
One strong bit of advice; if you haven't read this series start with "Dark Lover", and read the books in order. I wouldn't advise starting with "Lover Enshrined" because it will be very difficult to follow. Better still, pick "Lover Enshrined" up at a used book store. I won't say anything more because I pre-ordered and paid full price for this book and am still licking my wounds.
Throw me a life preserver! I am so off this boat.... June 4, 2008
39 out of 48 found this review helpful
I have been a faithful reader of J.R. Ward's BDB since day one...this series has been like a drug for me...I have been totally addicted...UNTIL NOW. I, like many others, was so disappointed with the last book but I thought hey, no one is perfect & J.R. Ward has put out 4 other books that are fantastic...she's just in a slump. This line of thought was reinforced further when it was announced that the release date for LEn was being pushed back...I thought perhaps she or her publisher had taken a look at what a lot of her die hard fans were saying & decided to make sure that LEn was back on track with the first four books. Boy, was I ever wrong!
If I was even remotely interested in reading urban fiction (which I am not), then I would probably really like this book and where this series is heading. Fact is, I started reading this series because it was advertised as ROMANCE and the first four books delivered just that. These last two books have been a stunning 180 degree turn from the first group & I don't think the author or those that have her ear have any intentions of turning things back around anytime soon, if ever. As much as it pains me to say, this is the last $8 that I will be forking over for this series...at this point I feel like asking for a refund as well as some extra compensation to help me kick this "habit". BDB Anonymous anyone?
 Same as V's book June 4, 2008
32 out of 39 found this review helpful
Well, what can I say? After reading V's book and hearing a few rumors about Phury's book - I am not as disappointed as I was after V's story. I was better prepared for the lack of romance. I must admit that after LU, I did not like Cormia, but she truly shined in LEn. I wish that I could have read MORE about her instead of JM, Blay, Quinn, Lash, Xhex, Rehv, the lesser society...oh the list could go on and on. JRW should have devoted more of the book to Phury and Cormia. I wanted to SEE Phury gradually fall in love with Cormia instead of JR simply telling me that he loved and wanted her. The two or three love scenes mentioned were rushed and somehow void of the passion that were in the former books. I did not see much interaction between Phury and Cormia. Any romantic potential that existed was lost in the chaos of the other characters' drama. LEN IS NOT A ROMANCE NOVEL! This book is NOT about Phury and Cormia.
I did not have a favorite moment in this book. There was just TOO MUCH going on, and not enough of Phury and Cormia. I was not even excited about the new characters and returning characters - they felt like an interruption to the story.
JR Ward's writing is wonderful, but I am an avid romance reader (not sci-fi), so this is my last BDB book. I will re-visit the first four books from time to time, but I am not going any further into this series.
What a waste!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! June 4, 2008
32 out of 44 found this review helpful
Well a thousand thoughts running around in my little brain- I was a die hard fan without a doubt but I'm getting off this boat. I do not like the direction she is going with this series!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I'm done and disappointed. P.s. Also the 48 members of our little monthly book club want off the boat as well.
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