#2 in The Lair of the Wolven series

In another spin off from the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, we’re dealing with Wolven, aka wolf shape-shifters. This story is about Lydia and Daniel while they manage dealing with Daniel’s terminal cancer at a facility where he can get top of the line treatment. Making an appearance in the story from the BDB main series are Xhex, John Matthew, Rhevenge, and Xhex’s brother Blade. The story also has the beginnings of a storyline for characters named C.P. and Gus, who I’m guessing will headline the last book in the trilogy.

I really love JR Ward’s work when she’s writing within the core BDB group, and I also really enjoyed the Blood Legacy books, but most everything else she’s done hasn’t been completely up to standard. I don’t like saying it, because I respect Ward as an author, but this trilogy is weak and leans too heavily on traumatic experience to try and elicit emotions out of the reader. Yes, Daniel was dealing with cancer throughout the book and writing about people suffering through cancer treatments brings about a sense of reality in a fantasy world, which I think is important. However, the cancer theme was heavy and prevalent throughout. It permeated into every facet of the storyline. What the characters were doing, how they were acting around each other, the thoughts they had about everything, it all linked back to the big C word. Heck, it was even present while they were engaging in sexual intimacy like some uninvited third wheel. It was too much and took away from the reason people read these books.

This story wasn’t fun to listen to and the only things that made it worth the time was the Xhex storyline that wove through the other crap and James Marsters using his voice of gold to make it palatable. I’m tired of feeling like I must read every book Ward pushes out in order to keep up to date with what’s happening with the core group. It’s exhausting because unless it’s a book about our long-time favorites, the story is weak, the plot is repetitive, and characters are either boring or just plain annoying.

Recent JR Ward releases that were actually good:
Lassiter
Darius

I recommend The Lair of the Wolven series if you want to follow the BDB core storyline. Otherwise, I can’t recommend this trilogy at all.

Overall, I give it a 2 out of 5.

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

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