Give me the Black Dagger Brotherhood and back away slowly.

Lover at Last is a BIG Ol’ book. So much was going on. Did I like it? Hell yeah!! Now while I have been waiting on Blay and Qhuinn’s story for a long time, much like many other BDB fans, what made me love this book the most wasn’t their love story. I love the heroics of Qhuinn, the tear jerkin’ moments, the more insight on new and older characters (Lovin me some Shadows!!!), and OMG….. I loved Xcor before but now I’m falling even more in love with this one.

Now while we were promised a full length book and not a novella with Qhuay, with all that is going on at this point with the side stories, it felt like Blay and Qhuinn were given a novella and the rest was just filled in. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the book. I just felt that Blay and Qhuinn were gypped on the transition of their love story. There was a lot of sex going on, hawt sex, but not enough of the emotional transition. Yes, they were best friends. Yes, Blay was in love with Qhuinn before he was and during his time with Saxton. Yes, Qhuinn regretted not saying or acting upon the feelings he had for Blay. But I guess I was just hoping for more of an emotional rollercoaster ride. *pouts*

I did love the side stories going on. So much so that I am left ticked and wondering how long before they are going to play out. HELLO?? How many books did Qhuay go on for before their "HEA"? For those who don’t know yet The King is the next book. Yes it’s a back step toward Wrath. (Many of you know my stance on how authors sometimes leave their first characters in the shadows as they move on through their series. I am looking forward to this.) But now I have to wait a year for that, and then who knows who’s book will be next? (And yes I know the WARDen can’t crank out great books superfast nor would I want her to, but every time I finish a good book I whine that I have to wait a year for the next. *laughs*)

The many side stories got me to thinking about word counts. So I went digging, and bear with me this is all that I could find.

Dark Lover: 118,833

Lover Eternal: 125,574

Lover Awakened: 136,807

Lover Unbound: 159,404

Lover Enshrined: 162,403

Lover Reborn: 199,157

Lover at Last: 199,807

Notice a pattern here? While I get super excited about most of the new character and more insight on the older ones who have yet to get their own story, by the looks of it each book’s word count is getting bigger and bigger. The books not only have a side story or two, there are several going on. So while I was excited that Lover at Last was such a large book, after reading it I realized it was a lot more side stories than Qhuinn and Blay’s story.

With all that being said, I still loved this book. It’s the Black Dagger Brother. It’s hot, tall, muscular, you just wanna lick them, vampires. It’s J.R. Ward. I was drawn into this world with Dark Lover and there is no escaping for me. I’ll continue to read this series until the WARDen decides to end it.