Review: The Thief by J.R. Ward

Title: The Thief

Author: J.R. Ward

Series: Black Dagger Brotherhood #16

3 stars – I liked it

I have mixed feelings about this book. Like The Chosen, this book made me feel a lot of things and not all of them good.

I am going to break this down by couples/people like I did in my review of The Chosen because I think that is probably the best way for me to get my feelings about this book across.

Assail and Sola:

So when Sola was first introduced I really liked her. But that changed as time went on. I respect that she wanted to get away from the criminal life after her kidnapping. My problem comes from her actions when the twins asked her to come back. They tell her Assail is dying and she is just like nope sorry I can’t. This really made me not like her right then. She does go back though, after her grandmother makes her, and helps bring Assail back, and I started to like her again. Then she freaks out about him being a vampire. I think I am just going to have to say that I don’t really like Sola. I like that she is a strong independent woman who can take care of anything but I don’t like how she acted.

Assail on the other hand was great. I loved how happy and emotional he was to come back from the brink of death. I love his cousins and really hope they get their own books, as well as Markus. Now Assail and Sola relationship was just ok to me. It didn’t have the emotional impact that previous couples had and it felt more one sided (Assail’s) because of Sola’s constant wishy washy feelings.

I loved Sola’s Vovo (grandmother) though. She is a beautiful soul. I just want to meet her and have her make me food. It all sounds so delicious.

V and Jane:

So in The Chosen we see V contemplating cheating on Jane. Well he almost does in this book and it makes me so angry. I hate cheating in any form so when I see Ward doing it it makes me angry. V is a mated male so this shouldn’t be happening and I don’t know why Ward is writing it! That said I am glad that he and Jane worked out their issues and became a stronger couple. I still don’t like it though.

“At the end of the day, absolute trust was the working definition of true love.” – V

Also I would just love it if we could have less martial issues between the couples. It is getting to be a little much since every book is featuring it now. Please reign in it some Ward.

Vitoria Benlois:

So I thought Vitoria ended up being a waste of a character. She was smart, determined, and strong enough to take over her brother’s drug empire but at the same time was kinda boring. I really thought she was going to be a background character that just randomly popped up but that doesn’t happen. Her whole arc was just very anticlimactic and felt like a waste of time almost.

Now onto everything else. I loved, loved, loved Lassiter, as usual. He is the best! I am curious about how the whole Murder situation is going to play out and hope it doesn’t do anything to JM and Xhex’s relationship. Throe’s new evil army was fascinating. His obsession (love?) with the book is creepy and disturbing as well.

Overall, this was not my favorite book but it did move the storyline and clear up some plot points. I hope if Assail and Sola appear in future books I will like them better,

Goodreads / Amazon

Previous books in the Black Dagger World: