Lover Enshrined by J.R. Ward

Lover Enshrined:
Fiercely loyal to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Phury has sacrificed himself for the good of the race, becoming the male responsible for keeping the Brotherhood's bloodlines alive. As Primale of the Chosen, he is obligated to father the sons and daughters who will ensure that the traditions of the race survive, and that there are warriors to fight those who want all vampires extinguished.

As his first mate, the Chosen Cormia wants to win not only his body, but his heart for herself. She is drawn to the noble responsibility behind the emotionally scarred male. But Phury has never allowed himself to know pleasure or joy. As the war with the Lessening Society grows grim, tragedy looms over the Brotherhood's mansion, and Phury must decide between duty and love....

Like the rest of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books by J.R. Ward, Lover Enshrined is about more than just the main characters. The only real action in the book occurred with anyone other than Phury, and although this book was rife with sexual tension, I can say that this was not a favorite for me. In all honesty, I was more absorbed with the secondary characters and their plot lines rather than Phury and Cormia’s story. I really didn’t feel their relationship, it felt like they barely spent any time together on the pages…and yet, they were “fiercely” in love. Phury was a drug addict but that didn’t change the fact that he was a person of worth—someone willing to give up his freedom for the good of the race—but I felt that he was rather washed out of his own book. Phury spent countless hours wasted on drugs, managed to get himself kicked out of the Brotherhood and nearly lost Cormia because he can’t look past his own history. The only time he managed to endear himself to me was in the end when he finally took control for himself—as the Primale he has the ability to make new rules—and he chooses to obliterate the idea of a Primale and free the Chosen women who are to bear his children, giving them the CHOICE of remaining a Chosen. He also makes great progress in cleaning himself up, he has the chance to go back to what he knows and remain a drug addict, but in the end he chooses a clean life with Cormia by his side.  As a whole I enjoyed the book, but if it was based on Phury and Cormia alone, then no, this is not something I could recommend to others outside of the BDB fandom.