A review by redhairedashreads
The Beloved by J.R. Ward

4.0

 

4 stars - It was really good

After reading Lassiter’s book, I will admit I was hesitant to read this because I had a lot of issues with bringing back the Lessening Society and Wrath’s 30 year disappearance. But since this is how the story has played out, I decided to see what will happen next and see what the brotherhood’s children are now like since they are all grown up. While I am still not happy with how this has played out, I did enjoy this story because it was reminiscent of the early BDB books, which are my favorite. 

Nalla is struggling to live her life under the cage of being Zsadist daughter. We see her push back at both her father and mother about how she felt and basically leave to live at Safe Place for a while. Nalla may be sheltered but we quickly realize she is her fathers daughter. I love seeing her come out of her shell and embrace fighting for what she wants, both physically and verbally. It doesn’t surprise me that Nalla can kickass and doesn’t back down from a fight with who her parents are. 

I will be honest, I didn’t remember who Nate was when I started this book. Nate is Sarah and Murhder’s adopted son that they rescued from a human research lab and who was later resurrected by Rahvyn and now cannot die. Nate is now a dangerous and reckless adult who has been outed from the BDB because they can’t rely on him. He struggles under the weight of his childhood and the reality of never being able to die. Nate was a great character who I loved getting to know and he reminded me so much of Zsadist, especially in how he felt alone until he found the right person to love him. 

One of the best parts of this book is the character growth from both Nalla and Nate. Nalla starts as a woman who still views her parents through a child's lens and struggles to understand why she was left out sometimes and by the end realizes they are humans who were dealing with a traumatic past and trying to raise a child. Nate goes from unfeeling and just wanting to die, to finding his mate and realizing life is precious and he is grateful he can’t die on her while fighting. 

While I still don’t love the progression of this series, I did really enjoy Nate and Nalla’s story, but like I said in the beginning I still have issues that the Lessers were brought back.  The war against the Lessening Society is basically back where we were with book one and I am disappointed in that but hopefully we don’t have to go through 20 more books before it ends again. I did enjoy seeing all the reunions with the brothers and Wrath, especially Wrath and Fitz’s reunion. I am still waiting to see more bonding between Wrath and his son though. 

Basically, while I am conflicted about this series, I still enjoyed this one a lot more than I expected and will be reading the next one now, especially to see what is going on between Bitty and L.W.  

TW: discussions of experimentation, imprisonment, self-harm, suicide, slavery, and death of a parent; PTSD and nightmares; car accident; gun and knife violence and injuries; 

*ARC provided by Gallery Books and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*