Type of read: Commuter Read.

What made me pick it up: I stumbled across the Black Dagger Brotherhood in early 2024 with Darius (Book 0), and I got sucked into this crazy, cracked-out, sexy, throwback-feeling world of vampires fighting something more evil than themselves.

Overall rating: Holy bananas...just when I thought Ward couldn't pack more into one single book in the series, they did it again! 'Lover Mine' takes you on the crazy love story of Xhex and John Matthew, but tangled throughout we learn more about Lash, Tor, Darius, Payne, Layla, Quinn, Blalock and Murhder. I feel like I say it each time I review one of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books but Ward has created an amazing world and I absolutely love learning more and diving deeper into the characters. It's been an extremely long time since I was so invested in such a long series, but I'm happy I stumbled across this crazy vampire universe. If you're cautious of trigger warnings, I do think that 'Lover Mine' is one of the heavier books in the series so far. There's a lot in both John Matthew and Xhex's past that make it a minefield to share and put on the page.

I know I've said it before in previous reviews for this series, but I feel like I just have to say it with each book, this is just a good escape read. You don't have to think too much about it, you don't have to try and keep things straight (Ward does a great job dropping little reminders at the beginning of each book and throughout so you keep the characters and their traits straight), and you can just dive into a (slightly dated) world of sexy vampire warriors. I'm here for it.

Reader's Note: 'Lover Mine' includes themes of death, dying, consensual sexual activity, death of a parent, medical content, violence, kidnapping, torture, murder, sexual assault, mental illness, rape, and character recollections of physical and sexual abuse.