Happy Release Day JR Ward Lover Mine

JR Ward on Borders all this week Win one of 3 signed copies of Lover Mine..

From Borders True Romance..
JR Ward
Thoughts on LOVER MINE

In some ways, writing John Matthew’s story, LOVER MINE, was something I wasn’t looking forward to.

Scratch that. I dreaded the idea of writing this book.

For no reason I could think of at the time, staring down the barrel of his outline depressed the hell out of me- and it took me a couple of days to figure out why. The thing was, I loved who he ends up with: Xhex, the symphath assassin with the kickass attitude, always struck me as a perfect foil for him. And I knew his story was going to be heart-wrenching, but totally satisfying when it came to his enemy. And the romance was hot. Plus I was aware of how it was going to set up the next book- and I can’t wait to write about Vishous’s twin sister, Payne.

So what was my problem?

Then it dawned on me… it was kind of a goodbye, in a way.

When I thought about it, I realized that of all the people in the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s universe, John Matthew, the orphan with the shadowy past, was the one I had the most in common with when I started the series: he didn’t know what he was or how the vampire world worked in the beginning, either, and that made two of us. Throughout the early books like LOVER ETERNAL, LOVER AWAKENED and LOVER REVEALED, it was through John’s eyes that the reader (and myself) learned about the Brotherhood and the way vampire society was set up and how the whole transition stuff worked… and so many other things.
For me, John’s book was a full circle back to the very beginning, when in DARK LOVER, his “father” Darius got into a BMW and was blown to smithereens by the Brothers’s enemies, the Lessening Society. In the succeeding books, we’ve been through it all with John- his transition, the mystery of his “parentage,” the shattering losses of his adoptive mother and father, his friendships, his enemy. His one true love.

That’s a lot of history to do justice to in a book- and maybe that was also part of my I-don’t-wanna’s. Yet as I drafted the manuscript, I laughed and I cried and gasped all the way through and that’s usually a really good sign! And what did I like best about the story? Well, to me, John Matthew has always had strong, silent hero written all over him, and with Xhex abducted by his nemesis, Lash, I knew he was going to come out swinging (this was more than true enough as it turned out *wince*.) However, Xhex, being who she is, is not a shrinking violet to sit around and wait around for her knight-in-shining- so naturally she has her own plans for escape. How the two of them are reunited was more than I’d bargained for, but my favorite part of the story- and they are not the only people whose lives change in LOVER MINE.

In the end, although I was sad to start him, I was happy to end John’s book. Because as it turned out, I realized it wasn’t a goodbye or even a see-you-later. If anything, John’s even more involved in the world and we’re going to be seeing a lot more of him and Xhex. After all, one of the things that I love about the series is the way we revisit folks- and John and Xhex’s joint story is so not over. They have a lot of good years and great adventures ahead of them!

I truly hope you enjoy him as much as I did!

Dude I can not wait to get my grubby little hands on LM!