Lover Awakened is the third book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. This books features the couple of Zsadist and Bella. Zsadist is the twin brother of Phury. Zsadist is the starkly different from his brother. He was taken by a chambermaid and sold as an infant to a glymerian mistress that realized that he is a born brotherhood member once he transitioned. She took him as a blood slave – a member of the race kept for the soul purpose of being bled to keep a glymerian member alive. He was kept isolated and was sexually assaulted repeatedly. He was discovered by his brother and got his revenge on the mistress. This past trauma has resulted in Zsadist not wanting to feed from females of the race. He feeds from humans. Now, Ward explained that vampires can feed from human but described it as drinking watered down coke. It gives little nourishment and they process it quicker. Lack of proper nourishment will mess with the mind. This lack of full nourishment makes him weak but that doesn’t stop him from being ruthless. He is strong and unstable.

He meets Bella after she helped John Matthew and Mary in the previous book. She is also sister of the drug dealer and club owner, Rhevenge. She goes to the Brotherhood’s compound where they have their first interaction. Let’s just say that this meeting doesn’t go well. In fact it sends Bella packing. When she does she is kidnapped by a lesser who is under the delusion that she is some human he loved before. She is traumatized and abused by the lesser.

Zsadist rescues her and she tries to get him to take care of her. However, he sends his twin in because he deserves Phury is the one deserves her. Admirable but it’s not effective. One of the things that I don’t like is that while Zsadist was pushing her towards Phury she actually leads Phury on then drops him like a bad habit when Zsadist discovers he actually wants her. I hate how their relationship of brother’s is weakened by this. I actually really don’t care for Bella. To me she was nothing original and I felt zero empathy for her during the angsty moments after she is healed up from being kidnapped. I can gladly say that Zsadist carried this book.

I loved seeing more about John Matthew and the others. Their sections leading to the other book is good. I can’t wait to read the next one. I recommend this book and I give this a rating of 4 out of five stars. There was good character development, world building, and plot flow. Let me know down below  if you’ve read it, will be reading it, or why you won’t be.