Reviews

L'Amant des ombres by J.R. Ward

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becs_l's review against another edition

4.0

4.5 Stars

I knocked down half a star because one of the romances was too rushed for my liking. Other than that awesome as always!

shelfaddiction's review against another edition

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4.0

Originally posted on Shelf Addiction! Read the full The Shadows review and more at Shelf Addiction

In true Ward fashion she delivers a fun yet complex story of loss, war, and love...or lust in the beginning anyways. I thought it was great that we got to focus on the Shadows of the group, aka the honorary Brothers, Trez and iAm. If you've been reading along, we know that Wrath and the Brothers love to bring in good men and women, and their mates and make them apart of the family. I enjoyed learning more about the Shadows and watching them find their other halves. They both have always been so dysfunctional in the relationship arena, and it was good to find out more about the whys behind it.

The villain situation in this installment isn't as cut and dry as it once was. Lots of changes in motives and allegiance. Zcor may not be as evil as we all thought and his 2nd Throe...well maybe he's more bad that I previously gave him credit for. This is a turning point for the villains story and we shall see what happens next!

There was a lot going on in this installment. We visit with so many characters same as before in the more recent books. It's truly a skill to be able to weave so many story lines and characters without creating confusion. Ward nails it. Not only do we deal with Trez and Selena, iAm and his mystery lady who prefers to be called maichen - which means maid, we explore more into the whole Xcor and Layla situation, Rhage's open wounds left from what he went through with Mary, and a few other situations. Seriously, there was no character missing from this story. Every single one made an appearance, and that a ton of characters....

...Continue reading the rest of the review on my blog Shelf Addiction

tampatha's review against another edition

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4.0

I loved this one! I was excited to read the back story of Trez and iAm and their history with the s'Hisbe. The last couple of chapters surprised me as well as made me cry..not a lot of books can do that!

kimberly_b's review against another edition

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3.0

I'm not sure what to make of this latest BDB installment. Selena was a bit of a snoozefest for me. Ward freely admits that she sucks at writing women, and I certainly won't disagree with that self-assessment. Ward does write a great female character every now and then, but Selena certainly wasn't one of them. Now, a lot of fans are up in arms about the less than ideal HEA in The Shadows, but I could see it shaping up the way it did from the very beginning and didn't find it that upsetting. Out of the probably dozen POV's in The Shadows (seriously--there are a lot), iAm and Paradise were probably my favorites.

This wasn't the best BDB novel for me, but it also wasn't my least favorite either. The last book, The King, was SO good that I wonder if Ward just put so much into that one that The Shadows suffered a bit. I'm torn between rating this a 3 and a 3.5...for now I'm going to stick with a 3.

I saw that #14 is going to be about Rhage, which is a bit strange since #2 was all about him. Interesting...