Are you a fan of vampire romance? If so, you’ll definitely be familiar with J.R. Ward’s excellent Black Dagger Brotherhood books, which chronicle the lives of a group of vampires who live in Caldwell, New York. Ward has been releasing (on average) a book a year in the series, and earlier this week, announced the latest book in the series.
If you’ve been following the series, you’ll be more than familiar with the three youngest vampires in the group. John Matthew, Qhuinn, and Blay, started out in the series as pre-transition males – young boys who hadn’t yet turned into fully-fledged vampires. They looked until any other human male – and could tolerate sunlight – until they transitioned. As the vampire romance series progressed, we saw the three young men mature and become formidable soldiers in the battle between vampires and lessers, and suffer the slings and arrows of Fate. John Matthew’s story was told in Lover Mine, when he finally won Xhex, but Qhuinn and Blay have yet to have their happy ever after.
The whole Qhuay (Qhuinn + Blay!) saga is complicated, but extremely sweet. The two young vampires have been best friends since they were children. Blay is gay, and has been in love with Qhuinn forever, loving him and always hoping for more, despite Qhuinn’s promiscuity. Qhuinn loves Blay too, but he’s always wanted to be accepted by his very proper family – and a relationship with his best male bud would never do. After he tells Blay there can never be anything between them, the two friends hardly speak, and Blay takes Qhuinn’s cousin Saxton as a lover, while Qhuinn and the Chosen Layla begin a relationship. Would the two never get together?
Luckily for fans, it’s finally Blay and Qhuinn’s turn in 2013! J.R. Ward announced today that the eleventh and next book in the BDB series will be Qhuinn and Blay’s story. It is aptly named Lover At Last. Ward herself acknowledged that the romance between the two young vampires had been a long time coming. “To me, it’s a love story … I was not expecting to be writing them as a full-blown book…. (but) I think we both got to this point where [we realized], ‘This is a story that needs to be told.’”
So it sounds like Lover at Last is going to be an M/M vampire romance! It’s a bit different from her usual fare, since she hasn’t previously written same sex romances. I, for one, love M/M stories, and can’t wait to see how Ward gets the two boys together – at last! Ward said that she already has a scene in mind for one of the most intense moments between Blay and Qhuinn – and I already anticipate that I’ll be sobbing through this book. “The best vision I’ve ever gotten is of Layla turning her newborn child over to Blay. Qhuinn is standing in the door because he doesn’t feel welcome and she reaches out to him.”
Lover at Last will be released in March 2013.