"Lover at Last," by J.R. Ward

Finally, J.R. Ward’s eleventh installment to the Black Dagger Brotherhood has arrived! “Lover at Last” was everything I had hoped for and more.

If you’ve read J.R. Ward’s previous books in this series, you will have seen the friendship, dedication, and love between Qhuinn and Blay develop. For me, the angst between the two was frustrating to watch. The on-again-off-again friendship made me want to slap either or both of these males. I really didn’t care which direction their relationship went, as long as both were happy. But to have Blay express is frustrated, matter-of-fact, straight talk to Qhuinn really gripped my heart. Then to watch Qhuinn wrap his head around what he truly and deeply wanted. To see him finally realize that he was living by someone else’s standard. Qhuinn brought me to tears. Being rejected by everybody in his family only to find himself accepted just as he is in a new family!

Although this book was expected to be all about Qhuinn and Blay, it was much more than that. There are so many different paths built into this book. If I didn’t already know what J.R.Ward’s next book is to be about, I would be hard pressed to know the next path we’re to travel next.

So many different facets open up in this book. There are exciting twists to Layla’s life. Remember, she is pregnant with Qhuinn’s baby. The Brotherhood make a decision that’ll blow you away and the Band of Bastards consider a new approach to winning the throne! We learn a little more of the shadow brothers, Trez and iAm. It looks like they will become more involved with the Brotherhood, but to what degree? Do you remember meeting Assail from “Lover Reborn”? He’s back and with more to his story as well! I think we will see more of Assail and maybe the new female that he meets in this book. I believe he may be an important factor with the battle between the Brotherhood and the Band of Bastards, even though he claims he wants nothing to do with any of it.

As you can see, there is a lot to this book. It will keep your head spinning and your heart pounding! This book has the makings of several stories to come. It gave me the feeling that it is has some kind of pivotal importance in the fight between the Brotherhood, Band of Bastards and the glymera. I have to give these book 5 stars. I was going to rate it with 4 stars just because there were SO MANY facets here to wrap my head around... There were some areas where it got a tiny bit confusing. However, by the time I reached the end, I realized that we're going to see much more to come.

I can’t wait for the next book, which J.R. Ward has announced will be, The King, and will come back to more of Wrath and Beth, who are trying to have a baby!

Awesome job, J.R. Ward!

"Spirit Bound" by Richelle Mead

“Spirit Bound” is the fifth installment to Richelle Mead’s “Vampire Academy” series, of which I have been a dedicated reader since the beginning. It is not my top rated series, but it holds its own luster. After reading this book, it may have lost some of its shine with me.

I will not say that “Spirit Bound” was a bad book; on the contrary, it carried on the saga, if you will, of Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir. If you have read Ms Mead’s other books in this series, then you must read this one. Perhaps your feelings on this will differ to mine. I hope so.

Many things happened in this book. Rose and Lissa graduated from St Vladimir’s Academy. They both broke into a high profile, well-protected prison and broke out a high profile prisoner. Through information gathered by Rose, Lissa saves, or heals, Dimitri from being Strigoi. Lissa’s courage and gift continue to grow. Relationships develop. However, with all that happens in this book, I felt like there was something missing.

As I read this book, I felt as if I was reading a report, something that Rose may have had to write for the guardians. The story held a fluidity of facts, which allowed you to follow the lives of each character. However, it did not draw me in by my emotions. The only thing keeping me turning the pages were the facts. I wanted to stay connected as best I could, to the characters in this story.

As I said, this read like a report or a retelling of a story. It lacked emotion in parts. There lacked any build up of tension or angst that we are so used to experiencing in this series. Some of the fight scenes seemed to lack description or follow through. There was no strong emotion relayed in the love triangle created with Rose, Adrian, and Dimitri. I kept wondering what kind of a pansy ass Adrian was to take a back seat with Rose. I also wondered why Rose and Dimitri did not either break down into a knock down, drag out fight between each other or a forgiving passionate love affair. Their passion seemed lost. All you really experience is a teen who must deal with rejection. Boohoo. Yes, I did cry when Dimitri spoke out some harsh words to Rose, leaving her to feel his rejection. And. yes, I really hoped that Rose and Adrian would just get it on and have sex. Instead, she did the one thing we have heard her say repeatedly that she would not do … “She would not become a blood whore.” So, instead of sex, she lets him drink her blood.

Finally, about the last few chapters, I felt some emotion, some angst. The ending did leave me wanting more.

I hope that in Ms. Mead’s next installment, “Last Sacrifice”, due out December 7, 2010, that she brings back more of the tense emotion and angst that the whole series holds.

Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead

I finished book #4, "Blood Promise," in the Richelle Mead, Vampire Academy series. Yay!

I started this series only a few months ago after reading through other Vampire series books. It was difficult at first to delve into this series only because it is a Young Adult series. If you read anything on this blog, you will know that I don't really get into the teen angst crap. However, this had it's place.

In this series, the world as we know it has Moroi Vampires (living vampires who wield powers from air, earth, water, fire, and spirit, who still require blood in their diets, and for the most part are peaceful), Dhampirs (offspring of one Vampire and one human or Dhampir parent), and Strigoi (dead Vampires, created by either a Moroi who killed or by another Strigoi and can no longer wield their earthly powers). Of course there are humans that have no clue of any of these others.

The Moroi and Dhampirs are sent to academies for they school lives. The Moroi are trained in their earthly power whereas the Dhampirs are trained to protect and defend the Moroi. They are so strong that they are trained to be bodyguards to the Moroi, against the Strigoi. They are both trained in the same academies together. But they are trained on two different tracks.

This whole series centers around Rose Hathaway, a Dhampir, and her very close friend Moroi Princess Vasilisa (Lissa) Dragomir, the last of her line of royalty. Rose is this feisty, teenager who always gets into trouble and tends to draw Lissa into that trouble. Actually, trouble follows her everywhere.

We find out that Lissa's has a special gift or power. It is not the same as other Moroi. In fact, there are very few Moroi that have this gift of Spirit. With this gift, Lissa was able to bring Rose back from death in a very tragic traffic accident. However, if this has it's interesting effects between them. Now, Rose and Lissa are bonded together and Rose can feel all of Lissa's emotions and can slip into her thoughts without wanting to. This can be a problem when Lissa falls in love a with fellow student and royal, Christian.

During the first 3 books, Rose becomes entangled in a forbidden romance with her instructor & fellow bodyguard, Dimitri. Of course, she doesn't want to tell her best friend of this romance because she fears it will cause Lissa problems. So, she keeps it all a secret until one day, St Vladamir Academy is attacked by Strigoi where Rose is the first to sense the attack. She informs Dimitri, this godlike bodyguard, of the attack. During this battle, Dimitri is captured by Strigoi and then turned. Rose hopes that Lissa can save him, but Lissa refuses for several reasons... 1. He's now Strigoi, and 2. Rose never confided in her about her romance. Her feelings were hurt (teenage angst)... So now there's a riff between the two girls and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa – the one she has sworn to protect no matter what – and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make.

In "Blood Promise," Rose sets out to find Dimitri and kill him... again.

You have to understand that for Rose to take on this feat, she must not only find, but kill Dimitri. Dimitri has always been stronger than her and now he's Strigoi, which means, now he's even stronger. Rose is so friggin in love with Dimitri that she is uncertain of herself.

The setting of "Blood Promise" is in Dimitri's home country, Siberia. Rose goes to his home town, meets his family and inadvertently ends up telling his family that he was overtaken by Strigoi. Rose is accepted by his family as family, but Rose realizes this is not the place for her. She recaptures her goal to find Dimitri and put him at peace. In her journey she does find other Strigoi, which she quickly kills... she also finds other Dhampirs like herself who are not blood promised and whose goal is only to kill Strigoi... Finally she finds Dimitri....

Now, I have a tendency to prattle on and on about books I read...thus giving away too much. I am not going to do that here. You'll have to read this series yourself.

I will say this...I found these books exciting to read and got myself hooked enough to want to keep going. However, if I were to rate this series against all the others I've read, I would rate this 3 1/2 stars out of 5.