The Chosen by J.R. Ward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Xcor, leader of the Band of Bastards, convicted of treason against the Blind King, is facing a brutal interrogation and torturous death at the hands of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Yet after a life marked by cruelty and evil deeds, he accepts his soldier’s fate, his sole regret the loss of a sacred female who was never his: the Chosen Layla.
Layla alone knows the truth that will save Xcor’s life. But revealing his sacrifice and his hidden heritage will expose them both and destroy everything Layla holds dear—even her role of mother to her precious young. Torn between love and loyalty, she must summon the courage to stand up against the only family she has for the only man she will ever love. Yet even if Xcor is somehow granted a reprieve, he and Layla would have to confront a graver challenge: bridging the chasm that divides their worlds without paving the way for a future of even greater war, desolation, and death.
As a dangerous old enemy returns to Caldwell, and the identity of a new deity is revealed, nothing is certain or safe in the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, not even true love . . . or destinies that have long seemed set in stone.
The Chosen
The BDB and the BOB!
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧
Romance: 💋💋💋💋
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📙📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌏
Character development: 👨🏻👱🏻♀️🧔🏻👩🏻👱🏼♂️
Favorite Quote: Vishous “No sheep though. #standards”
Favorite new word: bizarredrobe – Lassiter’s bizarre wardrobe
The heroine: Layla – fearing she would be forever alone, she begged Qhuinn to help her while she was in her needing. She became pregnant with Qhuinn’s twins and recently gave birth to the two. Now Layla, Qhuinn and his mate Blaylock are raising the kids together.
The Hero(es): Xcor – he is the leader of the “Band of Bastards” and had shot Wrath in a previous book. He, along with members of the Glymera had tried to work against the Black Dagger Brotherhood and overthrow the King. However, after meeting Layla, his focus has changed to his love of her.
The Story: At the start of this story, Xcor is a captive of the Black Dagger Brotherhood and is in a coma. Layla is distraught at the thought of losing him because as soon as he wakes up he will be put to death for treason against the King.
The narration on this was fine, though I would have liked it better with a female and a male narrator. The story was great, not only because of the story of Xcor and Layla, but the way that these books include all of our favorite characters. I am not big on MM books, but I absolutely love the love story between Qhuinn and Blaylock. Those two couldn’t be hotter! They are in this book quite a bit.
One thing I didn’t like about this one was due to the fact that Xcor and his band are enemies of the BDB. So even though we (as readers) see that Xcor is now good, many of the Brotherhood want to kill him. As much as I like Qhuinn, he behaves horribly in part of this book and I hated seeing him like that. Some of the other brothers behaved similarly and made me pretty angry at them.
There was also a storyline about the shadows. Trez recently lost his mate, Serena and was drowning in sorrow and missing her when a girl who looks exactly like Serena shows up at iAm’s restaurant for a job, both of the shadow’s are thrown for a loop.
Throe, who formerly ran with the “Band of Bastards”, is now out on his own. He was a member of the Glymera prior to being thrown out and placed with the bloodletter, and is now crashing with some Glymera woman who has an old Hellren (husband); He is still making plans to overthrow the King.
Overall, I really liked this book though it wasn’t one of my Favorites from the BDB series and Xcor and Layla aren’t one of my favorite couples, so I will give this one a 4 star rating, since in comparison to some of the other books, this is really good, but not as good as my faves.
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