*This review contains mild spoilers, read with caution*

Book #21 in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

Fallen angel Lassiter finally gets his turn at a happily ever after but things in Caldwell are headed down a dangerous path as old and new enemies join together. Can Lassiter save the vampires he loves so much and convince Raven that what he feels for her is real, or will the entire vampire race be destroyed?

We’ve waited 15 years to hear Lassiter’s love story and I have to admit that it was well worth the wait. What happens in this story can’t be described in any way that will give it the credit it deserves, as so much goes on, so you’ll have to read it for yourself. While there were a few minor things that bugged me, 95% of the tale was well done and I appreciated that Ward took the atmosphere back to the series’ origins. This one read like an original Black Dagger Brotherhood story and it felt genuine.

While this is Lassiter’s story, it’s interwoven with several other arcs in true Ward fashion. We get Lassiter & Raven, but also Nate & his friends in the aftermath of his miraculous immortality. Lash & Devina are a large portion of the story, but not directly related to the vampires until almost the very end. I’d even argue that this is one of the most important books in Wrath & Beth’s storyline as well, with what happens to them (and George) being the biggest thing to occur in this whole book, maybe even their whole storyline over the entire series.

I’ll admit that I’ve grown out of hard-core smut romances, but BBD series has a soft spot for me and these books read like nostalgia every time a new one comes out. This addition to the series is no different than the previous: it has strong sexual scenes but thankfully they were heavily outweighed by the actual storyline. While Lash & Devina have a twisted relationship going on, it’s mostly contained to the first 1/3 of the book and everything later between Lassiter & Raven is much better (aka not toxic). And as for the storyline itself… it was a total winner. I recognize that fans may be upset at the reemergence of the Lash storyline, but I’ll argue that Ward seems to be doing something new with it and that it will not be the same old repeat of the original Lesser stuff. Already in this book, she’s introduced that Devina is to be a sort of partner who immediately began creating female Lessers. That’s a huge change. We’ll just have to see what happens in future books, which we don’t have any idea about because the ending of this book was something Ward has never done before: she time-jumped 33 years. What comes after Lassiter may continue on from that 33 year point, or she may decide to fill in with books that occur during the missing time. Either way, 33 years after the ending to Lassiter’s book, the Lessening Society is present and it seems that Lash & Devina have made a solid stake in Caldwell. We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m personally excited about it – there’s so much potential and I hope she writes another 21 books in this series.

I highly recommend this story, even if you stopped reading the Black Dagger Brotherhood over the years. If you liked Lassiter at all in the beginning, this one is well worth your time. This might even be my favorite book in the whole series and I will absolutely listen to it again on Audible very soon.

Overall, I give it a 5 out of 5.

If you’d like to read more about Lassiter by JR Ward, check it out on Goodreads.

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