Lover Awakened Review – UPDATED 2019 – Zsadist Book

Lover Awakened is a mystical fictional novel written by J.R. Ward. It is the third book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. This novel explores the world of romance in the vampire realm.

For those who have not read the first two books, you may feel a bit lost at first, but eventually you’re sure to figure out who’s who. A handy glossary at the beginning of the book helps. You can see all of them here.

This review has been written by a third party writer and not by Virginia Hodgson. The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of Virginia. Also, some of the links here may be affiliate links and if you purchase products through them, we may receive a small commission from Amazon as a result.

Lover Awakened Summary

The novel revolves around Zsadist, a member of a group of vampires called the Brotherhood, and Bella, a beautiful female vampire and a member of the aristocracy. It’s a beautiful story of two wounded souls finding solace with each other and falling in love. I highly recommend you check it out here.

Zsadist and his twin brother Phury were born to the warrior Ahgony and his wife Naseen. When he was very young, Zsadist was kidnapped and sold to Catriona, a member of the glymera (the vampire aristocracy) where he served her household as a kitchen boy. Catriona abused him sexually for several years before his twin brother found and rescued him. Afterwards, Zsadist was scarred and was covered with tattoos that indicated he had been a blood slave.

In the preceding book, Lover Eternal, Zsadist met the beautiful glymera vampire Bella. At the end of that book, Bella was kidnapped by a lesser, the desouled humans who hunt and kill ordinary vampires. As Lover Awakened opens, it’s been six weeks since Bella’s abduction and she is still missing. The lesser who holds her captive, a Mr. O, thinks of her as his wife and is obsessed with her. However, upon finding out her whereabouts, Zsadist rescued her and took her back to the Brotherhood.

Bella wakes up in the Brotherhood’s mansion to the realization that Mr. O has carved his first name into her belly. She feels safe only when she sleeps in Zsadist’s room, but Zsadist has suffered even worse trauma when he was imprisoned for decades as a blood slave to another vampire and sexually abused by his mistress. Zsadist hates himself and most things sexual, so he keeps pushing Bella away. At first Bella believes that the thinks less of her because of her abduction, but she comes to realize just how low Zsadist’s self-esteem is relatively quickly. That still doesn’t make it easy to overcome Zsadist’s conviction that Bella would be better off with someone else.

Along with Zsadist and Bella’s story, the author introduces several other characters and storylines that we’ll most certainly see developed in future books, beginning with John, a mute street kid vampire who may turn out to be the most powerful one of all. Butch, the human cop who lives with the brothers, meets a beautiful vampire and falls for her in a major way. We also meet Bella’s brother, Rehvenge and Tohrment.

Lover Awakened Review – UPDATED 2019

Lover Awakened is an amazing story that takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster ride from start to finish. I loved the way that the author took a character who was described by his own twin brother as not merely broken, but ruined, and carefully put him back together piece by piece. This was a powerful story of redemption and unselfish love at its finest. The plot was tight and the characterizations were multi-layered and complex.

I found Zsadist to be a very sympathetic character who exhibited a touching vulnerability even when he was just a secondary character in the earlier novels. He showed a tremendous strength of will to have survived all that he did, and yet the abuse had left him as little more than a shell, emotionally dead and harbouring many fears and dysfunctions. I felt that all of his reactions to Bella and his feelings for her were very believably written. I loved the way the author took Zsadist through a recovery process step by step, building on each breakthrough one at a time. After going through a tremendous struggle, there is nothing left but beauty.

I thought Bella was a wonderful heroine. She, like Zsadist, also showed great strength and intelligence in surviving her captivity at the hands of the lesser. She later displayed tremendous courage, as well as how a female can be as protective of her mate as a male can be. I thought that Bella proved that she could be nearly as tough as the Brotherhood, while still being kind and caring. She was gentle with Zsadist, helping him to overcome the pain of the past while freely giving him her love and passion. I also found her boldness to be admirable. She never seemed to be afraid to say the things that needed to be said or do the things that needed to be done, yet this boldness carried a stark honesty and humility about it. She didn’t come through as being ill-tempered or superior, but simply as one who was telling the truth in a straightforward way, often saying things that Zsadist really needed to hear even though he didn’t initially believe them. That’s not to say that Bella was perfect. At times she became angry and frustrated, and I have to say that I was a bit surprised by a plot twist decision that she made near the end of the book. However, that decision opened the door for Zsadist to make even more positive changes in his life.

As with the previous novels in the series, the author did a wonderful job of creating an intriguing world full of secondary characters that make the reader want to continue the series to find out what happens next. I was particularly impressed with Zsadist’s twin brother Phury.

His unwavering devotion to Zsadist, while perhaps emotionally unhealthy at times, was incredibly touching, nonetheless. Phury would literally do anything for Zsadist, and over the years, despite episodes of doubt, was really the only one who believed that there was still something good left inside of him.

If you’re looking for something a little different to read, you can check out our Girls of Paper & Fire Review – UPDATED 2019 – Sequel Release Date here – it’s quite the book.

Lover Awakened Read Online

Lover Awakened is the third book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. It is preceded by Dark Lover and Lover Eternal, and is followed by Lover Revealed, Lover Unbound, and Lover Enshrined with Lover Avenged. There is also a companion book to the series, The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider’s Guide, which contains a new novella featuring Zsadist and Bella

The book was published on the 27th of August, 2006 and is available on Amazon here.