Lover Mine (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #8) by J.R. Ward

Lover Mine (J.R. Ward)

SUMMARY

John Matthew has come a long way since he was found living among humans, his vampire nature unknown to himself and to those around him. After he was taken in by the Brotherhood, no one could guess what his true history was- or his true identity. Indeed, the fallen Brother Darius has returned, but with a different face and a very different destiny. As a vicious personal vendetta takes John into the heart of the war, he will need to call up on both who he is now and who he once was in order to face off against evil incarnate.

Xhex, a symphath assassin, has long steeled herself against the attraction between her and John Matthew. Having already lost one lover to madness, she will not allow the male of worth to fall prey to the darkness of her twisted life. When fate intervenes, however, the two discover that love, like destiny, is inevitable between soul mates.

MY REVIEW

John Matthew and Xhex

"I'm glad you and Xhex have found each other. It makes cosmic sense, it truly does."
John shoved the keys in his pocket to free up his hand. We're not together.
The smile that briefly showed on the guy's face seemed ancient.
"Yeah, you are. You two are meant to be together."

John Matthew has the most complicated storyline in BDB. By far. The truth is that nobody really knows who is John Matthew – not even John himself.

Let’s start from the beginning:
DARIUS
Darius is definitely the most fundamental character in the series. He was killed in the first book, but he has never left the series. He is basically the one who brought the Brothers together, the one who fathered Beth and introduced her to Wrath and the one who had the largest fortune (houses, money, cars, doggens etc) and most of it the Brothers and their mates enjoy now that Darius is dead and gone but not forgotten. He has also played a huge part during the birth of Xhex (as the best friend of Tohr), but this will be exploited more in book Lover Reborn when we learn the story of Autumn(aka No'One).

Anyway, I have started talking about John Matthew in the beginning. The orphan John who grew up among humans; who never knew who his real father is; who is mute and could not cry for help when he was sixteen and he was raped at the stairs of his horrible, cheap apartment.
That John always wanted to be someone strong and fierce so that nobody would ever harm him again or the people that he wanted to protect.
And one day he learned that he is truly a vampire and that pretty soon he will be taller, stronger, more good-looking and nobody would give him a hard time ever again.

So at some point, he matured and he changed.
And he got his first rejection by Xhex.
And then his second rejection by Xhex.
Although she was the only one who made him forget his brutal rape and who made him feel a man.

And then Xhex was taken away from him and she was tortured.
And he could not find her and protect her like he had vowed that he would do when he would become stronger.

But let’s not forget that they were destined to be together.Thus, not even disgusting Lash or the whole Omega tribe could separate them.

He just had to break some treadmills to calm down first.

She shook her head. "I'm not leaving him. And I'm out here waiting only because I was making him crazy. The sight of me . . . isn't good for his mental health at the moment. I'm hoping that's no longer true after he breaks this second treadmill."
"Second?"
"I'm pretty damn sure the flapping and the smell of smoke about fifteen minutes ago meant he ran one of them into the ground."

Anyway … what was I talking about? Oh yes…. About John. And about Darius.
Well, John is Darius. And this is the biggest mystery in the series so far.