BookReview: Lover Revealed by JR Ward

Hey guys,
It's time for the review of next book in the next book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.
This is the fourth one and it tells the story about Marissa and Butch, which started in the previous ones.

Summary

Butch O'Neal is a fighter by nature. A hard-living ex-homicide cop, he's the only human ever to be allowed in the inner circle of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And he wants to go even deeper into the vampire world—to engage in the turf war with the lessers. He's got nothing to lose. His heart belongs to a female vampire, an aristocratic beauty who's way out of his league. If he can't have Marissa, then at least he can fight side by side with the Brothers...

Fate curses him with the very thing he wants. When Butch sacrifices himself to save a civilian vampire from the slayers, he falls prey to the darkest force in the war. Left for dead, he's found by a miracle, and the Brotherhood calls on Marissa to bring him back. But even her love may not be enough to save him..


My opinion

Major Spoilers

Honestly apart from the first three books and some fragments here and there I didn't really remember anything about it (the same applies for the next 5). The only thing I could recollect was that I thought it one of the weaker ones and that I wasn't impressed with it. With this second reading it redeemed a bit in my eyes.

Personally I think that the relationship between Butch and Marissa was a bit more realistic than the previous ones. They had more time to get to know each other although they had fallen in love in a matter of two meetings. The only reason that they didn't start dating right away was the misunderstanding which stemmed from a lack of communication  which of course of is the backbone of the whole series. Being an outsider is something I think anyone can relate to, so perhaps this is the reason why they, as characters, also seem more normal. With all that being said I don't want to left you with the impression that this is some masterpiece, it's  far from it.

Firstly, the model that Ward follows is getting repetitive: she takes two people with some twisted and tortured past, who have never truly lived and suddenly they meet. They fall madly in love with each other, but because the other person should be a mind reader they don't talk about the important things, despite that they have mind blowing sex and in the end something dramatic happens which makes them to profess their undying love to each other.

This time I liked Marissa more, because the first time she seemed a tad bland to me. This time I could see her qualities but honestly as the book progressed the plot and the love story seemed more and more forced and as if Ward was running out of ideas.

My biggest problem was and always will be the timeline in which everything happens. The whole book in which there are a ton of dramatic turns left and right is in about two weeks. I'll try to summuryie them as best as I could.
1. Butch gets abducted and the Omega does some freaky thing to him
2. He is in a hospital quarantined and he and Marissa spend a couple of days together
3. Marissa gets thrown out by her brother
4. During all of these time Marissa and Butch have moments of "I want you", "I'm dangerous", "Stay away" you get the picture
5. Butch finds out he can inhale lessers
6. Butch and Marissa have sex (it's not very good because she's a virgin)
7. They feel terrible and both think it's their fault - they break up
8. Marissa almost dies in a fire
9. They get back together
10. Marissa needs to feed but Butch is only human so she goes to someone else, Butch finds out who it is and he goes mad with jealousy
11. Turns out Butch has some vampire blood in him
12. He turns into a vampire
13. He starts fighting, because as it turns out he is the powerful weapon which was prophesied
14. Marissa get's scared that he's fighting and breaks up with him
15. There's a lesser attack she sees how Butch fights
16. Somehow she sets up a safe house for victims of abuse
17. She realizes that she loves him and she could overcome her fear of him dying on the field
18. They get married

And all of this happens in about two weeks. When I just wrote that it sounds even more ridiculous. Honestly the second half of the book is a big mess. And the very end when Marissa is waiting for him in a white dress with all the other warriors and their shellans and this big gesture is just over the top: it sounded just like one of these stories which ends with "And then everybody clapped". Utterly ridiculous and unnecessary.

If you like the series, or you're big romantic, give this book a chance. I personally would have skipped it because of my past experience with it, but at the same time I' glad I read it since there were a lot of things which I didn't remember.