As compared to Zsadist and Bella's story Butch and Marissa's story is good but not great. Their relationship has been building since the first book although Marissa was only mentioned in passing in the second book and in Lover Awakened she's only seen for a couple brief snippets. 
 This book suffers from what the others do that keep irritating me. JR Ward could probably cut out a good 100 pages if she would take out so much of the back and forth and miscommunications in regards to the relationships. I think Butch and Marissa went through about five or six make-ups and break-ups throughout the entirety of the book. It would be nice to see the couple actually together throughout the length of the book and working on the relationship that way instead of continually deciding that it coudn't possibly work out so they can't be together and then change their minds again and again. This only worked really well in Zsadist and Bella's cases because Zsadist really had a lot of trauma to work through in order to feel ok with himself. I don't feel that any of the other brothers (at this point in the series) have that. 
 I also like Butch and Viscious's friendship, but things were a little strange / strained between them in this book (at least on Viscious's end) and I didn't feel like it was truly resolved by the end. I know that his book is next in the series and I hope they can get back to that easy friendship they started in the first book. 
 There are things that I'm getting used to that were bothering be about previous books. I think maybe these are also devices that JR Ward has toned down a little. The slang that I felt was so prevalent in the first two books is very toned down as well as the cheesy lines that the Brothers like to profess to their females. I think maybe everything is just coming across a little more real. 
 I will continue the series, but I think that this is a series that you need to read with the obvious understanding that you are indeed reading a romance novel and all the romance novel rules do apply. If you are trying to make this series into something else you will be disappointed. It also is a series that needs to be read in order. There's a stream of events that happen throughout that might not be important right away but will be down the road therefore it's important to see where it all started.