Lover Unbound

Vishous and Jane in their original form! With his six-chamber heart! I have to say I like them here, and also, being a big-time Phury/Cormia fangirl, love all the Phury and Cormia in this one as the stage is set for their book. Vishous and his visions is one of my favorite forms of Vishous, and the Phury who saves Cormia and brings her down to the mansion is a great scene.

Reread 2020: I’m really enjoying this book the second time around even more for lots of reasons. I felt like I could get so many more details with a better understanding of the series as a whole.

1) The world building with Vishous/The Scribe Virgin/The Bloodletter and the Primale obligation. So much detail and so well thought out. I really love finding out so much about Vishous’s life and what makes him tick. I’ll admit I pretty much skimmed over all the BDSM parts. But the story parts were really fascinating to me. I love V and Jane together when they are doing their nerdy doctor thing. That’s when I feel like they have chemistry and things click for them as a couple. Their struggle to find a way to be together combined with Jane’s erased memories and what happened at the end was heart-wrenching to read. Admittedly, I skimmed the gruesome flashbacks to the Bloodletter camp. With everything going on in the world at the moment, this wasn’t really a headspace I needed to linger in.

2) The Phury and Cormia set up. Phury had lots to do in this one, from the mind-wiping at the hospital, to his scenes with Cormia. He’s hands down my favorite character, so this was a delight. The added layer of Phury pining for Bella while Butch and V are pining for each other, and Z and Bella are worried for their baby, Phury kind of a satellite that’s completely shut out was just really well done--everyone wanting someone they can’t have made things extra painful.

3) John Matthew—Another of my favorite characters, and I had forgotten all of those great scenes with Zsadist, the nervousness over his transition, the fact that he was the last one to change into an adult vampire and the storyline continuing to deal with the aftermath of his sexual assault. Plus there was him going to the club downtown, the memories of being Darius coming up, and meeting Xhex for the first time! Such great stuff.

Trigger Warnings: rape ( )

SO good ( )

hb ( )

Favourite one so far, was so invested in this darn story I got teary! Can't wait for the next, oh the trickery laid before us throughout this book.......whew ( )

Okay, yes, what happens with Jane is frustrating in the extreme. She is, by far, the strongest female character to come into the series to this point. That said, getting to learn the backstory of Vishous as a character, including some shocking revelations, definitely makes this in some ways my favorite book of the series so far, at least up until the end. Overall, I feel like this is the first installment in the series not to run totally formulaic as well, so there is that. Not that there's anything wrong with the series standard formula, mind you, but it's worth noting there is much more here as well. In any case, I will definitely be needing to know where the characters go from here. ( )