In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there’s a deadly war raging between vampires and their slayers. And there exists a secret band of brothers like no other—six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. And now, a dutiful twin must choose between two lives…Fiercely loyal to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Phury has sacrificed himself for the good of the race, becoming the male … the male responsible for keeping the Brotherhood’s bloodlines alive. As Primale of the Chosen, he is to father the sons and daughters who will ensure that the traditions of the race survive and that there are warriors to fight those who want all vampires extinguished.
As his first mate, the Chosen Cormia wants to win not only his body but his heart for herself- she sees the emotionally scarred male behind all his noble responsibility. But while the war with the Lessening Society grows more grim, and tragedy looms over the Brotherhood’s mansion, Phury must decide between duty and love.
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Hmm… where to start…Mixed feelings is the best way I have to describe my reaction-reactions- to this book! I can honestly say I enjoyed this story but the love story between Phury and Cormia was my least favorite part-although I really do like them together mainly because I don’t think anyone but Cormia could stand Phury’s…ways of which there are MANY!
Ward does a stunning job of building exploring her subplots. The storyline between John Matthew, Qhuinn and Blay really made this book for me!
Pure love!!!
The last of the original Brotherhood books. I really enjoyed re-reading these books. The thing I like about this book is not only the romance between Phury and Cormia, but how the story also deals with the tension between him and Zhadist. Worth reading and a must for fans of the series.
So we know Phury likes the red smoke a bit too much and at one point was almost going to move up to Heroine, but John Matthew knocking on his door right at that second changed his mind and he flushed it and spent time with John and Zsadist in the training room instead.
Now that Phury has agreed to be the Primale, I was hoping he would step up, but he starts talking more and more to this voice in his head that he calls The Wizard. The Wizaard likes to remind him of all of his failures and why he shouldn’t do anything but sit around and get high, because he is no good for anything or anyone. This is a recurring theme throughout the book.
Though he does fall in love with the Chosen First Mate Cormia, and she him. There are obstacles in the way of them being together. Especially the fact that he is supposed to be with 39 of her sisters.
John’s storyline is also forwarded in this book. Huge changes occur for John and his two friends and they are now in the war with the Lessers, not just trainees. Lash finds out who he really is and becomes more evil than ever. Also a suprising friend brings Tohr back and John has a reunion with his one time father.
I really liked the book, I just thought Phury’s depressing storyline dragged on too long and I wanted happy times for him to finally come on. I mean him and Z have both suffered enough already.
One of the very best series out there!! Highly recommend these well written stories and characters!! JR Ward’s is outstanding at building and blending this incredibly sexy, paranormal world!
Presenting the whole existence of some kind of bully living inside Phury’s subconscious at this point in the series (after we’ve read plenty from his POV without the wizard ever making an appearance) was BS. If it didn’t exist before, then it shouldn’t pop into existence now just because. No.
The Omega having a son was actually surprising. And I kinda appreciated the red herring of it maybe-possibly-not really being Qhuinn (is that how you write it?). Didn’t like having the Lessers points of view back, though. I especially hated the Mr. D ones. I just can’t even with written accents. And let me tell you, country-red-neck accent and speech patterns are specially painful to get through.
Lash effortlessly and unquestioningly sliding into the role of evil a-hole Jr. was not really that surprising or shocking.
What was surprising was that I didn’t really dislike Cormia all that much. She was ok. Maybe even better than Phury. He got on my nerves, like, majorly. Couldn’t even muster that much sympathy for him since I found him so annoying. I was like, grow some balls and just take some responsibility, dammit!
The first 30% of the book was unbearably boring, the last 20% interesting, and everything in between just meh.
But, I’m not really all that compelled to start the next book. First, because, who even cares about Bella’s brother? He’s not even a member of the Brotherhood! Honestly, Qhuinn is far more interesting being bi, being John’s new bodyguard and having, like, a terrible relationship with his family (even though they’re mostly dead at this point). But he has some serious potential for a forbidden love story with someone of the aristocracy! That could be juicy as a romance side-plot.
Second, I find the whole sympath whatever really boring. He’s simply not an interesting character.
Third, I’m gonna end up throwing my kindle at the wall if I’m forced to have to read more from Mr. D’s POV.
So… yeah. Guess this is were I get off the Black Dagger Brotherhood train.
Soooooo good
I absolutely love the black dagger brotherhood books , love the story lines, love the characters…
Great series
Loved this whole series J R Ward is great at capturing emotions and building this hidden world
At the time, it seemed like the end of the series. Only it wasn’t. Not the best of the original six
This was my least favorite of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books. Phury’s internal dialogue is crazy, and there is not much about him that makes him an interesting romantic lead.
BDB always 5 stars
I love the Black Dagger Brother Hood. This was not my favorite. I did however enjoy the story bringing in a lot of the characters to give you a break from Phury. It left strings to tie together in another book. I will say that. Phury was very repetitive. Going over and over his addiction way to many times. Read it , you will enjoy most of it
I love this series I didn’t like this book as much as I liked the previous once. Phury has sacrificed himself for the good of the race, becoming the male responsible for keeping the Brotherhood’s bloodlines alive. Problem was Phury sacrificed his self for everyone he cutoff his own foot to safe his Twin Zsadist from the mistress who enslaved him he agreed to be the Primale of the Chosen, because V fell in love with Jane and didn’t want to do it. What I dislike the most about this book was the self loathing that Phury went never seeing the good in him self never believing that he was good enough it got old and tiring to the point that I had to stop listening to it at times. I liked Cormia who was the Chosen first mate she was willing to do what she had to do for the good of her race, but she didn’t have her own mind and she wanted to be her own person. I liked the fact that she learned to speak up for herself and I liked her friendship with John. I did like the fact that this book had a lot of things going on Blay told Qhinn how he felt, Qhinn cut Lashes throat when he attacked John in the shower although John stood up for him self. Phury OD on heroin from the wait of all the things on his shoulders, which was a good thing because it made him see things different. For me this book would have been a lot better if the author would have pulled back on some of the self loathing. I was also glad that Torh was found. I look forward to reading or listening to the rest of this series. I gave this book 4 stars because of the other story lines going on in it.
Not my favorite in the series.
In the sixth Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Cormia has lived her entire life obeying the rules, never thinking for herself, and always putting the needs of others before her own. She doesn’t see herself as an individual, but part of a whole. As a Chosen and the First Mate, she’s honor-bound to mate with the Primale and bear his children. Though she’s attracted to Phury, she does her best to avoid him.
Phury has a lot of responsibilities. He’s in love with his brother’s shellan (wife), he’s a drug addict, and he’s lost his sense of right and wrong when he kills his enemies, the lessers. He’s also a virgin, but he doesn’t want Cormia or any of the women at his command.
The Scribe Virgin, the vampires’ deity, has declared a Brotherhood warrior must mate with her followers, a group of women known as the Chosen. Phury is that warrior. It’s his duty to impregnate his First Mate and to impregnate her sisters, as well, the other 39 members of the Chosen.
There was very little romance between Phury and Cormia, especially since he was so hung up on Bella. They barely spent any time together, and I couldn’t see how they fell in love. There’s only one sex scene between them, and it was fast and unromantic.
The side plots about John were, as usual, the best part of the book. His fascination with Xhex is growing, and he finally mans up enough to let her know. All their sexy interactions brought a smile to my face. In fact, I’m happy whenever John is on the page.
Qhuinn and Blaylock’s friendship has forever changed. I love these guys! Since his transition, Qhuinn has been an arrogant, sex-addicted kid but one split-second decision and a resulting family betrayal forced him to grow up.
We learn more about Rehv and what makes him tick. His story is set up in this one. Though we haven’t met his love interest, we met the Princess, the woman who’s blackmailing him and forcing him to sleep with her.
Tohr finally returns, but he’s not the same man as before.
Maybe I missed something, but the timeline from the first book to this one seems off. It’s either been 13 months or three years. I’m not sure which.
Ms. Ward’s writing style has changed. The stories are becoming wordy, which slows the pacing. In this book and the last one, many questions are ending with periods, not question marks.
I enjoyed the story for John, Qhuinn, Blay, Rehv, and even Lash (the vampire-turned-lesser villain), but I couldn’t get into Phury and Cormia.
3 Stars
Audiobook review: Lover Enshrined is an interesting story of the Brother Phury. As always, this story has back story and set-up for future books. Times are even more turbulent for the Brothers. Will Lash’s (spelling? Audiobooks have their downfall) new development continue it’s current course? What will happen with Torh (?spelling)? Interesting times. The narrator did a fantastic job!
Phury and Cormia are not my favorite JR Ward couple, and this book is still a 4 for me! The world that JR Ward has created draws me in every time and makes me want more. And I was rooting for Cormia way before this book hit the shelves, so very glad she got her HEA.
So this book focuses on Phury who is not my favorite. The majority of this book is Phury buying, using, and thinking about drugs while he fucks up his life. The whole Wizard part with him quickly got annoying and I was glad when it would move to other characters. Phury and Cormia also don’t come into play as a couple until the last part of the book. There wasn’t much to their relationship and I don’t really know how Cormia could fall in love with him, especially since he ignores her for months and treats her terribly. I did like Cormia even though she wasn’t a very deep character.
The parts that I really enjoyed of this book were the John, Quinn, and Blay sections and the Z and Bella parts. I was more interested in what was going on with the boys and watching them grow. The fight with the lessers is also getting interesting and I can’t wait to see how that will play out. I am also glad the Chosen are finally free from their beautiful cage and hope they all find happiness, especially V’s sister. Also Lassiter finally appears in this one, and I am so happy for it. His sass is just perfect and he really knows how to liven up the place.
Overall, not my favorite book and the only reason I am rating it a 3 is because of the overall story and side characters,