I used to think that Phury was the most “normal” of all of the brothers. After reading Lover Enshrined I realized that he is one messed up m….brother. With Lover Enshrined we learn about Phury’s “curse”, that poor boy is really messed up. This book follows the same format of the previous books from the series, it is the love story of how the brother, in this case, Phury, overcomes his “curse”. Although the format is the same, the story of how it happens is unique and filled with tension and frustration. It’s about how he gets beyond the curse.
I really sense a change / difference with the approach taken by J.R. Ward in Lover Enshrined. The previous books were love stories for the featured brother with a bit of action going on that tied into the lover story. The author does a lot of what she does best, develop characters for future books. She is constantly adding new characters and developing ones that we had briefly met before.
I used to think that Bon Temps L.A. had the highest “supe” (supernatural being) to human ratio, but Caldwell N.Y. is certainly giving it a run for its money with all of the vampires, lessers, sympaths, ghosts, and some new ones from Lover Enshrined. Ward is giving herself plenty of fodder for her next books.
This book has so much more going on than just the love story. The war with the lessers has taken a huge turn, I liked the development of the Omega and the Lesser Society. It should build the “villains” for the upcoming books. I found that Lover Enshrined was, as I call it, a transition book in the series (one that gets us from the last to the next). Often these books are weaker, but not this one. With the character development and all of the action (fighting), Lover Enshrined kept me glued to the pages through the entire book.
Looking forward to Lover Avenged. Let’s see what happens to Rehvenge.
4.5 Stars
Lover Enshrined - By J.R. Ward