Lover Unleashed

"Reread 2.75 star. Ugh groan. I apparently disliked this much more the second go around. But I felt like I have already read this story with Butch and Marissa. Literally the same background and even personality of the two. The only exception in my case is I didn't enjoy Manny and Payne as much. A lot of parts became eye rollingly annoying and blindly obvious.<br/><br/>Payne character took a big nose dive as did with Xhex's in the last story. I loved Payne as she was fighting with the King it made me laugh and my heart sing to see her keeping up with Wrath. I mean we got one fierce female character now two it seemed to much to be true and it kind of was. You didn't get to see her in action she rarely became violent. I'm starting to see a pattern here. <br/><br/>It probably didn't help that a lot of the story revolved around V and Jane too and they so happen to be one of my least favorite couples. What surprised me though is I started liking Qhuinn and Blahs endless not looking at each other lol. So really looking forward to their book.<br/><br/>This story has just been over told. The untouched girl, the guy who doesn't think he is good enough. I know now why I quit reading the series with Lover Unleashed but I would like to continue because you never know Ward might switch it up a bit. The back and forth banter was far over played and definitely the music reference too. I found myself putting this book at 1.40x speed on audible so I could get through it faster."

"J.R Ward writes relatable characters, but this story seemed like it was trying too hard to avoid comparisons to Butch and Marissa's story, even though the stories are very similar. Stakes are artificially high for Payne and Manny, because anyone else in the house could have told them that Butch's backstory and made it moot. The climax of the book also fell flat. I find it hard to believe that 150 years of hatred can be instantly resolved in one conversation, but maybe that's just me."

"I was feeling like this series was needing to unwind soon, I enjoyed the last three books fairly well, but they didn't really seem to advance the story much. After reading this one, it feels like a fresh start. The story was great, we got to see more of our favorite characters in better detail and the new added storyline with Xcor was great. I think this will keep readers entertained until the series is wrapped up.<br/><br/>I liked Payne and Manny. But after reading the previous books with Payne I was expecting a more kickass chick. While she wasn't a docile chosen, she wasn't the badass I thought her to be when sparring with Wrath either. The romance for Payne and Manny seemed very mild compared to others in the series. While it wasn't completely disappointing, it didn't get me worked up either.<br/><br/>There seems to be a few loose ends from the previous books that I would have liked to see something happen with, one being Lash.<br/><br/>There was one bit grievance with this book that had me cringing and grinding my teeth everytime I came upon it. Elongated words (Annnnnnnnd, for example). All over the place. I don't recall this in any of the other books, but it was overused and down right annoying by the time I finished the book. I'm hoping that these are fewer and farther between in the next book."

"This one dragged a lot. I didn't really get into it until about halfway through the book. I was also more interested in the side stories than I was the main one between Payne and Manny."