Lover Eternal by J.R. Ward

Wow.

Just, wow.

I'm on the speechless side.

I loved this book. I loved it.

I enjoyed it more than Dark Lover and Butch was in DL more!

So, let's do a Cindy summary:

Rhage is gorgeous with a capital G and probably the most dangerous of the Brotherhood because when he gets really out of control he turns into a dragon of some sort.

Super cool.

The beast is always within and needs to be released and the only way is through the change (extremely painful and scary) or through sex. Let's just say, Rhage takes the sex because the beast not only scares the crap out of him but also the big tough Brothers. Whenever the beast comes out these big tough men hot tail it out there like girly boys.

I loved the response of Butch (a human) the first time he sees Rhage's beast. He gets thrown in an Escalade by one of the brothers and they have to sit there watching the dragon kill and eat lessers (evil guys). Thing is, the dragon can't distinguish between the good and the bad so it starts heading for the car.

"Can it get in the car?" Butch asked.

"If it really wants to. Fortunately, it can't be very hungry."

"Yeah, well ... what if it's got room for Jello-o," Butch muttered.

The beast shook its head, black mane tossing in the moonlight. Then it howled and charged at them, running on two legs. The pounding of its stride called thunder and tremors out of the earth.

Butch checked the door lock one more time. Then thought about being a pansy and maybe hitting the floor.

Pg 41. Lover Eternal

Loved the thought of big, bad Butch considing being a pansy.

Ho-kay, then we have Mary who has been through hell and back with her mother dying of *dang bad memory* cancer and Mary herself then falling ill to luekemia two years later. At the beginning of the story Mary discovers her remission is over.

So Mary and Rhage meet, Rhage can't really see because he is recovering but, her voice soothes him so much that he just keeps begging her to talk to him while he has her pressed up against a wall. Her memory is erased (vamps can do that) but Rhage can't leave her be and defies orders to be with her. Sweet.

There is no way I can do this book justice. There are so many elements and plots going on that there is no way to summarize this story. This is very much Rhage and Mary's story even though we do get to know the Brothers, especially Zsadist, much better. I was grateful that the book was close to 450 pages because with everything going on, Ward needed room to tell the story.

There are plot points in here that may turn another reader off. I want to put spoiler space up but, I'm afraid if I put in one of the things, readers will choose to not even bother. I would normally have had a bad reaction to what happened but since it was all off stage AND I knew the reason behind it, I understood why.

The few things that niggled at me was that Rhage and Mary, even though they become very close, have a hard time trusting each other with the truth. I would have preferred that Rhage explained the beast to Mary instead of trying to hide it from her. There is a point at the end that normally would have me throwing a book across the room but, it worked. I also didn't get why the Scribe Virgin had to know about the fact that Rhage defied an order.

Still, I'm hoping as this story continues that certain things become clear. Zsadist's book can't come soon enough and you all know how much I love summer so I'm not wishing it was September but, I'm kinda wishing it was next March because then I would have Zsadist's and Butch's stories.

I can probably already call Best Parnormal Romance for 2006 although I can only hope that I will find many more books of this calibre over the year! I have heard people compare these to ... damn, is it Kinley (?), whatever, I think I read one of those books and to me, they aren't even in the same realm.

Oh, and you know how connected books drive me mad? This one, not so much. Maybe because I am intrigued by the Brothers and they are not all carbon copies of each other.

Sweet.