378 reviews for:

Der Verstossene

J.R. Ward

4.07 AVERAGE

purplicious99vb's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is my favorite brotherhood book since the first three! We're back to action, drama, character development and less redundant romance. Plus, none of those pesky lesser chapters. 

Love this one!

fabi_g's review against another edition

4.0

I can't give it five stars because it has typos. Can you believe it? A big publishing firm working on a long standing series can't be bothered to make sure it's released without typos. *shakes head sadly* How insulting is that?

Was it well written? Yes, of course it was. After 15 books in this series J.R. Ward has it down to a science. She skips from story line to story line. In this book, it was even choppier than usual, changing the focus almost at every chapter. If you like/watch soap operas, then this will feel familiar to you. It's how the entire series is laid out. I'm not a fan of soap operas, but if the BDB ever came to TV, I'd be a rapt audience.

So, about this book - #15. *blunt is me*

I didn't like it. I didn't like how the characters acted and reacted. I can't forgive what Qhuinn did. I don't think the resolution was nearly good enough. I didn't like Tohr walking down memory lane nor did I appreciate him going behind the King's back. The new storyline with Trez just sucks. I don't like it at all. Throe's new friend? *eye-roll* I didn't care for V's new dilemma, although at least his I can almost understand. I did love Layla but she had her hands tied behind her back for most of the story. Poor Xcor was like a leaf in the wind, being blown whichever way at random. It was frustrating.

Why am I giving the book 4 stars? Truth is, it would have been five if not for the typos. There's nothing wrong with the book. Just because I don't agree with where Ward took her characters doesn't mean this isn't still a great book. If you're a fan of the BDB like I am, then please read this one too. It features all of our favorites and reveals hints of what's coming up.

geo_ix's review against another edition

4.0

I loved it more than Blood Vow, and even though it had the now usual, twenty billion partners stories going on along side, with all their POV's and issues going on too, I did enjoy it. The ending however, felt a little too easy.

There was something SPOILED for me which I was angry about. I got spoiled on the 10th, I was about 30%-50% in and I'm so angry. Book hadn't been out even a week and someone was commenting on someone's review with no spoilers for something PRETTY dramatic that happens and I just don't even understand why you would. I don't usually care, because usually it's been a year and most big fans have read it. But 6 days? That's just ridiculous.

Anyway, the spoiler was

Spoiler

V 'cheating'

and I'd just like to point out, that at no point do we SEE it happen,

Spoiler

only that it was stated the person had THOUGHT about it. He DOES say to say sorry to Jane, but that could also be for thinking he wanted to cheat, for signing onto his old bdsm account and going through perspectives, for maybe meeting someone even if he didn't go forth, for not trying harder, for not FEELING anything anymore. Many many things factor into that, so right now I just can't say, oh my god he cheated what a dog because I need to hear it from him first.

I HATED Quinn. I stood up for him in his book because he had trauma etc, but his actions and words were inexcusable. He made me feel ILL. This is one of the things wrong with this book. Not that he was a dick etc, but the fact he never owns up to the shit he said, I wanted Layla to tell Xcor and for him to run in and beat Quinn's ass for being a raging asshole. Blay could have beaten him too. Someone needed to hit that kid. It was washed over in the end with a sorry

Spoiler

and everyone was happy families. Legit, WHY were the BoB's moving in? Put them in another house, why the mansion? Y'all hated each other two days ago. Don't even with me right now.

Lassiter? Breaking my heart. Trez? Felt it was a little bit too soon, but also breaking my heart. Assail? DYING for him and he was mentioned in one scene or so but that pain was killing me. Tohr was being a mighty dick too, sort of understand but still not good enough.

Lastly I REALLY want a book for that Syn guy. He was the Hannibal one right? I love a crazy one, and I really hope he's all kinds of crazy. Even if the idea of a Mate makes each BoB cringe lol

marciamarciamarcia's review against another edition

3.0

I think this is my least favorite book of this series. I can't really pinpoint why, but the constant brand name dropping became very annoying. It made me question if this author received endorsement benefits for mentioning so many name brands. And while I am ranting, what is with the shadow blob?!? Makes me wonder if I have outgrown this series.

Quotes:

Getting angry about the truth was just stupid

Believe what you will. It never changes reality, does it

adultbooksrmyjam's review against another edition

5.0

You know, I don't care how many books this woman writes in this series. I'm going to read every single one of them. This is like one big gigantic soap opera. But with hot vampires, and a Fritz. I've been a huge fan for over 11 years and I'll still be one 50+ years from now. Sure, there are some things in pretty much every single book that drives me a wee bit batty. Sure, I would love for her to focus more on the main characters the book is based on rather than have eleventy-four other plot lines. Sure, I feel sometimes some parts are waaaayyyyy to descriptive and I just don't care about certain trivial things. But you know what, G-dang can she write one helluva a story! This whole world just captivates me, I can't get enough. So at the end of the book, I don't care about all of those things. I just want the next one to come out!

There were quite a bit of things in this book where I was all "What the french toast is going on?"

One Brother was being a HUGE "c u next Tuesday" like, huge. Totally wanted to junk punk him. Multiple times.
Another Brother is going against the Kings orders. WTF?!
One needs to get his head outta his ass and get his relationship back on track. I'm lookin' at you V!
Really, I could go on and one. But I won't! You gotta read it to see all the craziness that is going down. There's just a lot of things still going on and leave you with a ton of questions. But, I don't care. This girl is still going to tune in every year.

talia_redhotink's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 Not Enough Romance stars.

I've been wanting to read this book for quite a while and alas, although Ward's style is as usual spotless and witty, the story was simply not romantic enough in my opinion. Unlike many other readers, I'd had a good hunch regarding Xcor and Layla. Sure, she has never been Miss Likable, but I loved the Romeo and Juliet vibe she had going on with Xcor.

I was seriously hoping for their romance to be more along the lines of Ward's first works (the first amazing 6, so to speak). Instead, a great deal of pages was spent creating the context, igniting frictions and fuelling doubts and uncertainties. Their love was a given, without much development. It was pure and all-encompassing, and it did warm my heart, I'll give you that. But it was not enough.

Also, the whole situation with Qhuinn for me was... I didn't buy it. Simple as that.

Spoiler

The fact that Qhuinn would even try to kill Layla just because he thinks she slept with Xcor, no questions asked, no discussions, no nothing, was preposterous. It was like a bad soap opera.

.

Another thing: we all know that Ward likes to play with subplots and sometimes her books can stand more on those than on the main one. In this case, she unlikely picked some characters I didn't particularly care about. I mean, I wouldn't have minded reading more about Qhuinn and Blay and I was happy that they were secondary characters, but c'mon, we got a lot of Qhuinn and almost nothing of Blay. And in general, almost no scenes of them together.

And believe me, you don't want to get me started on Vishous. You. Do. Not. I actually liked his character in his own book a lot more than the average reader. I like Jane and I think these two are perfect together. So the bullcrap that's been happening in this book regarding them... I'm so not a happy camper. He had a couple of funny scenes, especially with the kids, but I wanted to strangle him half the time.

"V, can you give me a hand?" [Qhuinn is asking V to help him put the kids in the bassinet.]
Okay, why couldn't he just be drinking right now? Still, bassinet jockeying one of these pooping machines had to be better than dodging bullets.
Right?
V glanced at the matched set of milk addicts. Fine, maybe the goo-goo gaga/Glock
assessment was more of a fifty-fifty.
"V?" Qhuinn prompted.
"Yeah. Sure." I'd fucking loooooooove to manhandle you DNA. And maybe afterwards we can take turns doing each other's hair. "What do I do?"

Then let's talk about Trez... I think his situation was maybe the most interesting. It was way more romantic in my opinion, than the main romance and it just read way more like the first books. I'm curious about knowing more about what's going on with him and I'm sure his story will give us readers' hearts something to pitter patter about.

"And on that note, I'm paying for this meal and you're going to let me, graciously." As he opened his mouth, she feigned putting a hand over her heart. "Oh, you're welcome. Really, it's my pleasure and a great way to pay back your kindness. And you know, may I just say, I love a secure male who can let a female be his equal. It's really sexy."

But let's go back to the main characters:
Layla. I didn't hate her, but I didn't love her. Most of the first part of the book was spent with her wallowing about her situation, how she's in love with Xcor, how everybody hates her for that, and how she feels like a bad mahem for her kids. All in all, she was quite annoying.

Love is a matter between souls," she said as she put her hand on the center of his chest. "our love is between my soul and yours. Nothing is going to change that, nt your past, our present... or whatever futures we may find apart. At least no on my side."

Xcor. I didn't enjoy his flashbacks. They were depressing and, yes, they did help me understand his character better, but all in all, he could have just told as much to Layla during one of their conversations and I would have appreciated it more. Also because, these two have very little communication. They're in love, but almost in a magical way, so that you cannot actually understand why exactly. I mean, it was sweet, and it also got pretty hot, but still, it didn't hold the emotional punch of some other characters here. There were no confrontations really between the two and Xcor accepted his fate with too much resignation. I would have wanted to see him fight more for a future together his Layla.

As a bonded male, his female's safety was his ultimate source of purpose, her trust in him his biggest point of pride, her well-being that which was put before anything and everything else.

The ending was a saving grace, in a very guilty pleasure kind of way. The way everything got resolved with Qhuinn, (Tohr I could even understand), the whole brotherhood etc., it was almost too perfect. Doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it. It opens so many possibilities for the future and I'm thrilled to know what Ward will make of it all. Still, after all those hundreds of pages of slow ruminations and not much going on, the ending felt especially rushed. And not just action-wise. Also relationship-wise. Qhuinn and Blay, Layla and Xcor... usually, in her previous books, Ward took a little time after fucking the couple up, to stitch all the wounds back together, right? We all know what her pattern is: the mates are feeling emotional distance from one other, there is some trigger event, one of the mates moves out of the mansion, they're both miserable, then a Brother talks sense to one of the two and they reunite, usually after something scary too. Well, it was pretty much what happened here with some of the characters, but we didn't get one of the most important parts, which is a scene completely dedicated to the couple in which they are together, happy, and moved over. This is why the ending was rushed in my opinion.

"My Lord" the doggen exclaimed. "Sire! Oh, it is good that you have arrived home before the storm! May I get you a libation?" Fritz's smile was like that of a basset hound's, all wrinkles and enthusiasm, and the butler had a dog's lack of time conception, his joy as if the pair of them had been gone for five years, not an hour.
"How 'bout a couple bulletproof vests," V said under his breath.
"But of course! Would you care for the Point Blank Alpha Elites, or is this more of a bomb-detonation occasion requiring the Paraclete tactical vests?"

Anyway, this book wasn't bad. If you're a fan, you'll still enjoy it. It just resembled a lot more her latest crazy-multiple POV books rather than our favorite first 6 or so, in which you could feel the love between the pages.

"I don't know when Wrath turned into a fucking Millennial." Tohr started pacing around. "But maybe he should get off the throne and start sharing Snapchats about how everyone needs to forgive and get along. Throw a fucking bunny face on himself and do a guided meditation on unity. This is insane."

One last thing: Throe. Beside the yawn worthy voo-doo thing which wasn't truly original, I seriously couldn't stand reading about this guy. It's the way he thinks and acts that almost immediately has me disconnecting my brain. Although I loved how Ward managed to finally connect the two enemies of the BDB, so to speak.

"You know, it turns out destiny is a lot of work for someone like me." He shrugged. "Who knew it took this much effort to give people a chance to exercise free will. It's like the world is a chessboard and each and every person I'm in charge of. So I'm, like, playing a hundred thousand different games all at once."
"Wowwww."
"I know, right? Thank God for ADHD."

All in all, I think this book was a great step forward in the general narration of the overarching story (BDB and BOB, Throe's situation, even Lassiter). It just wasn't much of a romance.

caraddishreads's review against another edition

4.0

I'd say this is my most anticipated in this series from the buildup of the forbidden relationship with Xcor and Layla. Omg the truth argument with Quinn and Layla was so sad. Here I was also debating if I still want to continue, but I'm def. going to stick to the audiobooks, from now on, I liked Jim's narration. Also, the ending was so cute.

#LibraryLoveChallenge

nellesnightstand's review against another edition

5.0

Absolutely F@#&ing AWESOME!!! WARDen you Smashed it!! I want to read it now.. I got it on Audible:) 17 hours of listening... over 2 days at work ;)

"Abruptly, Blay became aware of a growl rising up behind him, and the horrible sound of it reminded him of what he’d heard about the female of the species being more deadly than the male. Glancing over his shoulder, he thought …yup, Layla was clearly prepared to protect her young to the death in this fucked-up parallel universe they’d somehow gotten sucked into."

.Don't mess with Mahman and her young.

Layla came in to her own in this one! She stood up for herself VERY Well!!

Spoiler

She didn't back down from Qhuinn's irrational attitude. She didn't' take Torh's crap! .

SO many good things came out in this one... I can't wait to read more of the BOB's.

V-sigh, love ya bud, but DAYAM!! You need to be a father!! -not to "FIX" it but he just does.

The next one is...... Assail and Sola!!!!

lauraelizabeth1969's review against another edition

5.0

Wow. Nice recovery from previous craptastic books! Despite the fact I hated how half the brotherhood behaved in this book....looking at you Qhuinn and Tohr...... And the author thought she could right her Selena wrong by throwing a look alike our way......hated that too. And there was way way too many storylines going on. And everything in the end turns into an old Waltons episode, only with far too many parents in the picture. And everything tied in a neat little bow.....this book was really great. Loved it. Please don't screw up the next one Warden. Please.

kwells9925's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Less steamy than the others, but still very good.