Review: Lover At Last

Lover At Last by J.R. Ward

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I finally finished listening to this in audiobook format and can say that it was definitely a highlight of the series. No, it really wasn’t because of Blay and Qhuinn, although that was part of it. For me, the relationships I was more interested in seeing more of were those of the side characters. We got an update on Layla’s “romance”, Assail and Sola’s romance (my personal favorite), a check in with the king and queen’s romance, and Trey’s budding romance. Yes, I picked this book up thinking that I’d be completely happy to just hear about Blay and Qhuinn finally getting together. Unfortunately, this book was so filled with misunderstandings and arguments between them that I found their storyline the most frustrating.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that there was no easy path for Blay and Qhuinn to come together. All the years of previous misunderstandings and lies really culminated in this book. That led to chapters and chapters worth of “near misses” between the two of them. They really needed a friend to sit them down and sort them out about 10 chapters into the book. Instead, it really took entirely too long for them both to figure out the truth. I had zero problems with the guy/guy romance or love scenes, except that they usually just ended in more frustration and misunderstandings.

Sigh. I guess that pretty much explains why I found Assail and Sola’s romance to be so much more enjoyable. Even though they are not even from the same race, and they are both criminals, they were significantly more up front and honest with one another than Blay and Qhuinn. Even Layla and Score’s horribly doomed romance was more refreshing to watch play out in the little bit that it did. Maybe I’m just getting burnt out on the forced turmoil that always exists in these books.

The overall storyline was not really significantly moved forward, but there was an interesting development that I’m eager to see progress in the next book. I’m not sure how long the author can sustain the brotherhood/band of bastards conflict if they never actually fight one another.




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