Thoughts on Lover Unbound

Note to Mrs Ward: The "Mine" device works well on a Brother who is single. It can even work very well on a single Brother who has lots of issues if the Brother fights against it long enough and convincingly enough. What it does NOT work on is a Brother who is already in love with someone else AND has enough issues to fill several Costco caddies, especially if you don't even give him the time to deal with those feelings first.

This is, I believe, my third or fouth re-read of Lover Unbound. After the crushing disappointment of the first read, I kept hoping it would come to grow on me. Now over 3 years later, I am forced to admit that il will never happen. Jane is an intruder in every single Butch and V moment, and everything between her and V feels unnatural and forced.

It's so funny in a sad way, because I remember how until I read that book, I thought Ward could do no wrong. Before Lover Unbound's release I adored Butch and V to pieces and yes, I loved to imagine they might have ended up together in another universe, but I was perfectly OK with the knowledge they wouldn't in the books. I had enjoyed Marissa and I was convinced that V's book would make me love V's heroine just as fiercely.

But nope, never did. Never could warm up to Jane, never understood her feelings for V (who kidnapped her, let's remember it) because the reasoning was pretty much reduced to "MINE" again, never got her unexplicable, out-of-the-blue interest in BDSM (as the dom!? 0_o !?!), and yes, the way she just appeared and immediately seemed to kick Butch right out of V's heart infuriated me. That bit was handled very badly, in that it wasn't handled at all. The author took the cheap, easy way out by not dealing with V's feelings, which were such a huge part of the previous book. It just went "Butch switch off, Jane switch on". It cheapens V's feelings and his intense connection with Butch as well as the journey he was supposed to have undergone to learn to open up, feel and love. To make it realistic or believable, considering the intensity of his feelings in the previous book (and the beginning of this one too, actually!) there should at least have been a period of confusion, where yes, V started feeling the "mine" pull towards Jane (since JR wanted to go that route), but he was still feeling something towards Butch. And then after getting to know Jane and seeing how they completed each other (which they didn't in the actual book, but I'm talking about how it should have been), and maybe after talking with Butch and trying to sort things out (that is in my ideal, fan-pleasing version :)), he would realize that the one he truly loves now is Jane.

Sigh. And you know what bugs me the most? In all of JR's explanations, and in many from fans, they say V realized in this book that he was never truly in love with Butch. EXCEPT this very book contradicts that, because at some point, when V's talking with Butch about Jane and such, he mentions to Butch "When I was in love with you. Or some shit". At that point, let's be clear, he is already in love with Jane (who he's known for like 48hrs but eh whatever). So he knows now what love is. YET HE STILL REFERS TO THE TIME HE HAD FEELINGS FOR BUTCH AS "WHEN I WAS IN LOVE WITH YOU". Alright, he tempers that with "or some shit", but still, this is a male who has stayed away from love for centuries. He is a true genius, a master at languages and semantics. He doesn't use any word lightly. Yet he doesn't say "when I thought I was in love with you". No. He says "When I was in love with you". I repeat, he knows by then what romantic love for a mate is, but he still says he was IN LOVE with Butch. So yes, it still pisses me off that it was never addressed with respect and concern and a tiny bit of time,

End rant. (For now)