One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: The MoonBound Clan Vampires, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 400 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Pocket Books publisher Simon & Schuster via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Nicole Martin has feared and hated vampires for every one of the twenty years that have passed since the vampire slave revolt that slaughtered her parents and almost cost her her life. Now CEO of Daedalus, her parents' multinational corporation, and a respected researcher specializing in vampire physiology, Nicole has returned to her childhood home in Seattle to deal with some corporate issues, issues that have the Vampire Humane Society and their ilk up in arms. Before she can even meet with the board, however, her home is broken into and Nicole comes face to fangs with her worst nightmare.

The vampire she witnessed kill his own mate and unborn child when Nicole was a child.

Riker's clan MoonBound is facing a brutal war they cannot win. If they don't return a gifted visiting female to her clan, they will exact revenge. The larger and more unscrupulous clan will wipe MoonBound off the planet. Problem is, the female has been captured by Daedalus, a company that has made billions enslaving his kind, torturing them, or treating them like disposable lab rats. A company run by the family responsible for the death of his mate and unborn child.

Riker's plan is simple: break into the Martin home and get Dr. Nicole Martin to give him the missing female...by whatever means necessary. Unfortunately for both Nicole and Riker, things don't go even close to according to plan, and soon the two mortal enemies are going to have to put their animosity aside just to survive.


Larissa Ione proves yet again she's at the top of her game with this dark, edgy series debut. I've long been a fan of Ione's complex world building, damaged characters, and sexy-as-sin romance, and was delighted to see her kicking off a new series outside the world of her Demonica and Lords of Deliverance series. She definitely delivered on this one.

This book has everything I need in a series debut and then some. The world building and mythos were complex and layered, providing a rock-solid foundation for the plot, one that tantalized and teased, revealing itself gradually as the story progresses. Nicole and Riker were great lead characters, each with their own demons and damage, and their chemistry burned up the pages, even when they hated each other. Maybe especially when they hated each other. The sexual and emotional tension they generated from the start set a perfect tone for the slow-boil of their relationship arc.

Another Ione standard, a diverse cast of likable secondary characters, was also in evidence. They provided a perfect blend of friction, support, and even humor as they were introduced, acquitting themselves well in the story. I'm dying to find out about Myne's past, see what Hunter got himself into at the end, spend more time with the weird but brilliant Grant. And Bastian. And Lucy. And...well, I could definitely go on. Ione doesn't skimp on her secondary characters, and they all feel deliciously three-dimensional and real.

The book has a lot going on for it story-wise, too. There's quite a journey between Nicole and Riker's initial introduction and the story's conclusion. A lot of conflict. A lot of danger and deadly consequence. A lot of blood and pain. Between Nicole and Riker, between the vamps and the humans, between the different vampire clans...the story is overflowing with conflict. They are many and varied, providing action, danger, and deadly threat, often laying waste to the characters' lives. It was a very meaty and full-flavored plot in that regard.

Maybe there was even a little too much going on against Nicole and Riker. It didn't leave quite enough room for me to really believe the relative speed with which they went from bitter enemies to lusty co-conspirators. There were a lot of cards stacked against them, especially in the beginning, and I'm not sure I bought how quickly their attitudes changed. It wasn't a deal breaker for me - frankly, I was enjoying the hell out of the world so much that I was able to mostly forgive it - but I did notice it.

I think my favorite elements were the world and the mythos. It's a dark, often ugly, very dangerous world where the slavery, rape, and torture of vampires are de rigueur and even the "good" guys are unapologetic - if justified - killers. Including the main and secondary characters. But the humans are so very much worse. As twisted as it makes me, I liked that aspect in particular very much.

This book just worked for me. For its originality of premise, (relative) plausibility, great characters, wealth of story, and future story potential it left me hungry for more. The smoking hot sex wasn't exactly a turn-off, either; Ione's no slouch in that department. I can't wait to find out what happens next.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Lords of Deliverance, Book 3
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: 464 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Forever publisher Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
——Revelations 6:8 (KJV)

So. Five thousand years of celibacy, convinced that his virginity was all that stood between life as he knew it and the apocalypse. Thinking one good shag - hell, even a fairly average shag - would turn him into a psychopathic killer on a global scale, Death incarnate, and kick start the end the world. Turns out, he was wrong. Sort of a blessing and a curse, that.

Blessing, because hey, bring on the girls! He's got some serious time to make up for. Curse, because the truth came in the form of traitorous...and, okay, sexy...Aegis Guardian Regan Matthews. The female wormed her way into his home, then forced herself into his bed. She drugged him, then took him. Against his will.

Him! Thanatos! The fourth bloody Horseman of the bloody apocalypse and a nightmare feared by all with a soul and a good many things without!

To add enraging insult to heinous injury, his siblings Ares and Limos, also known as War and Famine, took him down and took him down hard. For eight and a half months they've kept him immobile, feeling every moment of the curse that plagues him, aware but unable to fulfill his obligations. He's got daytime television, which is torture enough on it own. Occasionally someone reads to him. And he's got a lot of time to think.

A lot of time to rage, actually. A lot of time to plan down to merciless detail exactly what he's going to do to Regan when he's free. Kill her, of course, use her body as she did his, definitely. Though...uh...not in that order, obviously. Maybe then he can banish the woman from his head and get back to stopping Pestilence, the Horsemen who used to be his beloved brother Reseph, end the world as they knew it. But first...freedom.

Nearly nine months pregnant with Thanatos' child, Regan has no doubt that she will die at the hand of Death. She will do everything in her power, though, to make sure the child is safe. Regret and shame over what she did to Thanatos still make thoughts of him dangerous ground, but she's comforted by the knowledge that he's being kept out of commission until the child is born.

Imagine her surprise and terror, then, when he shows up in the middle of one of the most secretly guarded locations in the world, Aegis headquarters. Awake. Aware. And seriously, mightily, unimaginably pissed off.

Telling the male you betrayed that he's going to be a father and it is his child, not his virginity that is his agimortus isn't exactly a conversation she's in a hurry to have. Especially as neither Regan nor anyone else seems to know if what she did to Thanatos...and the child she carries because of it, will be the thing that saves the world...or guarantees its destruction.


Hands down, this third installment of the Lords of Deliverance series is by far my favorite of the series to date. In fact, though I'm loathe to admit it, I didn't completely enjoy the first two books. Certainly not like I did every installment of Ione's Demonica series. I didn't dislike them by any means, but they didn't quite click for me in the same way as Ione's other books have. That is so totally not the case here. I loved this book.

I loved Thanatos and Regan. I loved their relationship. I loved their story. I even loved what went on around the arc of their romance and thought both the relationship conflicts and the external conflicts blended together nicely to form a cohesive, complex, action-packed and emotion-packed read.

The world of this series (the same as Demonica but with a wider scope) has never been an easy place to live, nor a particularly kind one. Thanks to Pestilence, it's now in the process of completely disintegrating, and the damage he's caused is really starting to make everything fall apart at the seams. It's hard to wedge a romance into that sort of world-ending horror and keep it believable, but Ione did a hell of a balancing act in this book, and the devastation that is Pestilence didn't overwhelm me as a reader as it has in the previous stories.

I also thought Thanatos and Regan were simply better conceived and developed main characters than others in the series, with more significant story impact. I not only got a true sense of both of them as individuals, but I liked them both - very much, actually. I rooted for them more than I have others in this series. They were great characters and I enjoyed them both on their own merits.

As soon as they were together, this book shot into overdrive and never let up. The chemistry between them was awesome. Sexy, hot, and deliciously adult chemistry. Yum. And it wasn't just sexual, either, though by all means - major plus there. The banter between the two of them, though, as they matched wits and jockeyed with one another, trading barbs here and there, was phenomenal. Regan definitely had a dry, sardonic wit I appreciated immensely, and for all that Than could be a true nightmare, he was an intriguing mix of snarky bad boy and old, old, old school gentleman that held mighty appeal for me, and the few moments of uncertainty and sensitivity we see kept him very sympathetic.

Their relationship was fraught with several serious, world-threatening issues, and both characters had quite a wealth of personal foibles and peccadilloes they brought to the table, and still the evolution of the relationship between them infused a lot of fun into the story. Their romance felt wonderfully complete and satisfying. I loved everything about them.

Finally, too, we see some of the development among the factions fighting Pestilence that I had been hoping to see, with truths being revealed, agendas being disclosed, and betrayals being discovered. There is always a lot going on in an Ione book, it's never just about the main characters, but I have to admit, this is the first time in this series that all those story elements seemed to genuinely compliment instead of obfuscate the threads of romance. It was all very well done.

There was only one point in this whole book that bothered me. I was very disappointed in how Regan's actions eight months ago were referred to and dealt with, especially in the beginning of this book. I don't care how pretty a coat of paint you slap on it, or how Than chooses to deal with her after the fact, Regan raped Thanatos in the previous book. Raped him.

Not only was the attack not called rape, but the sexual assault seemed an ancillary concern compared to the eight and a half months Thanatos was kept incapacitated. I know Regan was drugged, too, but that doesn't mitigate the fact that Thanatos was forced to have sex against his will. It may lessen Regan's culpability in the rape (that's still a big maybe to me, given her intent), but it doesn't alter the fact that he was raped. I wish the whole matter had been better addressed and handled differently.

Given everything else that goes on in the book, though, my issues with that - which, admittedly, are entirely personal and subjective - weren't so unsettling that I wasn't able to set it aside and focus on the rest of the tale. And not once did it diminish my overall appreciation for this read as my favorite of the series. This was a fun, fantastic, furiously paced adventure all the way through and I thought it was great.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Lords of Deliverance, Book 2
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 414 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Forever book publisher Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.



For five thousand years she's ridden. She is Famine, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Raised in hell, betrothed to Satan, she is a warrior unparalleled, both feared and respected for her skill, revered for her beauty. Cloaked in shadows and mystery, she lives a life of responsibility and struggle...when she's not tripping off to her swank beach home for random and frequent parties and revelry.

And please, call her Limos, party girl extraordinaire. That whole Famine thing is such a downer. After all, who the hell wants to be shackled to the most heinous force of evil that exists? Or sit around waiting for her agimortus to break and turn her into a world-destroying psychopathic monster like her beloved brother Reseph, now known only as much-less-beloved Pestilence.

A party is just where Aegis warrior Arik Wagner is sitting, watching the delectable Limos as she and her brothers, as well as several other demonic and human factions, party down in celebration of both big brother bad-ass Ares' engagement and the latest triumph over Pestilence. Just watching Limos gets Arik's juices pumping and makes his body tight with need. That is one fine looking Horseman. A total HILF.

When he slips away from the crowd to get some much-needed space to regain his equilibrium, he isn't expecting her to follow and offer to spar with him to work off his tension. Given that the tension he's feeling is centered in his pants, he doesn't mind at all taking her up on it. The move he makes, locking lips with the beauty, turns out to be the single biggest mistake of his life. And as he's dragged down to hell to suffer unending torture for daring to kiss the fiancé of the world's most jealous überdemon, he realizes a brutal truth. That mistake may very well be his last.


The dark, violent, disturbing world that Ione has created for both this series and her earlier Demonica series is not for the faint of heart. Nor is Ione, for that matter. She is brutal on her characters and seems to relish making them earn their Happily Ever Afters through much blood, torment, and crippling injury. And she's damn good at it.

There's a lot of story in this book. The plot is complex and layered...and a little chaotic (in a good way)...with several secondary and ancillary plot threads woven together with the arc of the relationship between Arik and Limos. Sometimes, if I'm completely honest, I felt all that story overshadowed the main characters' relationship to varying degrees.

Pestilence, the Horseman I love to hate, has some awesome page time that I really enjoyed. From the early stages of the first book in the series, I've assumed we're eventually going to see him get some sort of redemption - though I can't currently imagine how that would happen given everything he's done. Still, the glimmers we see of Reseph through the unmitigated horror that is Pestilence is so damn powerful. It's heart-breaking and painful and absolutely perfect in a gut-clenching way.

This isn't a book I'd want to be my first experience with the series. It probably could be done, there's enough explanation and exposition provided to bring readers up to speed on the big points, but I think the book would have much less emotional impact and much of the nuance in the writing would be lost. I'm even glad I've read the Demonica series before this one, for that matter. Knowing the characters and experiences from that series provides a solid foundation in this one, especially when those characters cross over.

With all that, though, and as well written and imaginative the book and the series are, I ended up feeling very conflicted about the overall story here. It's such a maelstrom of agony, lies, and manipulations, including the relationship between Arik and Limos, that I can't actually say I enjoyed it. There was an awful lot of hopelessness and pain, and some of the story elements were more depressing than the HEA between Limos and Arik were able to balance.

Still good story, though. Intense. Powerful. Full of action, witty dialogue, and hot sex. And the story elements that serve as an introduction to Thanatos' upcoming book are far too compelling for me to even consider not continuing the series. I just hope that Ione will go slightly easier on the poor guy than she did on Arik. I don't expect her to, of course, but I can hope.

Quotables:

"Helloooo. I'm a Horseman of the Apocalypse, and I'm betrothed to the most infamous, most powerful demon in existence. I couldn't draw more attention to myself if I wore Lady Gaga's meat dress to a PETA convention."

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Lord of Deliverance, Book 1
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 400 Pages, 6120 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


He has spent five thousand years as the greatest warrior the earth has ever seen, worshiped by some as a god, feared by most, his very presence stirring humans into vicious bloodshed. He is Ares, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He is War.

But don't call him that. It irritates him. And no one wants a cranky War.

Technically he isn't War...yet...and won't be until his agimortus is triggered and his seal breaks. That would be a very bad thing, because when War rides, Armageddon will be in his wake.

There is nothing that Pestilence wants more than to break Ares' seal as his was broken (Sin Undone (Demonica, Book 5)) and have his brother take a walk on the evil side with him, wreaking war, spreading disease, and being all around bad chaps as demons are released from Sheoul and humanity gasps its last, brimstone-laden breath. To do so he's got to track down Ares' agimortus and the Unfallen who bears it and kill her. Easier said then done, really, but Pestilence is nothing if not very, very evil and very, very motivated. And when his plans didn't go quite as planned they still worked in his favor, the agimortus getting forced into the body of a mortal woman. Pestilence figured his job just got exponentially easier.

Cara Thornhart would disagree with him if she could, but in the past few days her life has taken a serious turn towards the weird and mythical and now she is bonded to a hellhound, protected by the sexiest but most infuriating Horsemen she never knew existed, the target of nearly every single beasty that goes bump in the night, and has some sort of mystical agi-mortified thingie that's slowly but oh-so-certainly draining her life. Really, by that point, finding out she's the trigger in an unholy Armageddon wasn't all that traumatizing. Not to mention being with the sinfully delicious Ares is almost worth the approaching reckoning, no matter how desperately he tries to remain emotionally closed off to her. Pity about that whole dying thing, though.

Kicking off a new series, Larissa Ione expands the familiar world she created in Demonica, starting off with a slightly overlapping timeline but a different focus. It was a nice way to frame the series, because it was easy for me, as a huge fan of the Demonica series, to sink back into a world that I grew quite fond of with some characters - mostly secondary and ancillary - who had been previously introduced. For readers unfamiliar with that series, it may be a little harder to really embrace this one. There are so many things, groups, and people with backstory firmly planted in previous books, that new readers may feel like they're getting dropped down in the middle of an existing series instead of starting a new one.

Though I didn't have that particular problem, I did have some issues with the first third of the book. I felt the extended prologue was a little heavy with infodump and a little overwhelming, and a couple of the subsequent chapters seemed a little muddy and cluttered as the plot was laid out and characters were introduced. The scenes that introduced Cara and gave her and Ares their first meeting felt particularly awkward and abrupt to me. I wasn't quite able to sustain a willing suspension of disbelief at a few key points and as a result, much of Cara's introduction to the story and to Ares felt contrived and forced. I was also disturbed by the portrayal of the Guardians who broke into her house, jumped to all sorts of conclusions, and came off as brutish, abusive thugs, though honestly, that didn't surprise me. I had always gotten mixed signals about the Aegis in the Demonica series; militant fanatics on one hand, a repository of useful information and a force for good on the other. It seems that dichotomy is destined to continue here.

I struggled with Ares' character at the start of this book. I didn't find him all that appealing or sympathetic at first, but he did eventually grow on me as the book progressed. My biggest problem with him never went away, though. For having five thousand years of experience, Ares didn't show any evidence of being a master strategist when the action really started to ramp up. Pestilence seemed to out-think, out-plan, and out-maneuver him at every turn. Some of that may be explained away by Cara's effect on him, but he's War for goodness sake - I would have liked to see at least some glimpses of brilliant strategy. Cara, on the other hand, I enjoyed from the start, and thought she had a pleasing blend of strength and compassion, sharp wit, bravery and vulnerability. Her abilities were a nice touch, though I wish there had been more focus on and explanation of them.

As is the case in almost every Ione book I've read, there is a well-rounded and three dimensional group of secondary and ancillary characters that I quickly grew fond of (or frustrated with as intended), and Pestilence was a disturbingly well drawn villain who was given enough page time to develop into a very three dimensional - if disgustingly sadistic - bad guy. Ione's style, too, one of slickly sardonic, high octane narratives and sarcastic characters who not only tread the line between good and not-so-good but dance the rumba as they limbo under it, slither over it, and gallop around it, was firmly in evidence and very appealing from about a third of the way in through, when the book started to really gel, to the end.

As a general rule, the first book of a series is rarely the strongest installment, and I imagine that will be the case with the Lords of Deliverance. Ione's writing style favors the layered, slightly overlapping episodic romantic plots seamlessly blended with the more linear series arc plot, so subsequent books unburdened by the extensive set up tend to start faster, transition smoother, and have more focus on both aspects of plot progression. All good points for an Ione junky like myself. I look forward to seeing the next Horsemen ride.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Demonica, Book 5
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: 432 Pages, 6158 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


She is responsible for an epidemic that is scouring the earth of his kind, but the sparks between them are incendiary. Sin is the only female Seminus demon to have ever been born, not that she's particularly fond of that fact. She's strong and independent, and has chiseled herself into a deadly weapon after surviving a past chained to her succubus needs and owned by one cruel master after another. She long ago gave up any such niceties as tenderness and affection, and emotions are for saps.

He's lived for a thousand years, which is young for the half-warg (werewolf), half-vampire dhampire species, but Con has spent his time as a mostly irrepressible rogue, flitting from one thing to the next to stave off boredom and court excitement. He found a place as a paramedic at UG, the demon hospital, and has thrived there, but a chance meeting with his boss's sister Sin rocked his body and stirred his blood. Finding out she's the one responsible for the warg epidemic horrifies him, though, and his desire for her is tinged with loathing.

When politics and warg agendas take precedence over survival, Con steps in and with the help of Sin's brothers, manages to save her from imprisonment. But being incarcerated by torturous demons is the least of Sin's problems when her assassins start coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of the fact she's not in her den. Soon Sin and Con are forced to keep fleeing for their lives even as they struggle to help in the effort to stop SF from wiping out every warg on the planet.

I loved this book. I've been a fan of the Demonica series since the beginning, and I think Sin Undone is the best of the bunch. It's a fabulous swan song for a strong, original series bursting with excellent characters, sizzling sensuality, and layered, intricate plots full of danger and sacrifice.

Sin and Con are the best parts of this book, their individual development and the way their relationship evolves captivates as the world surrounding them gets grimmer and the future more grave the longer the epidemic spreads. They have complicated metaphorical demons riding them, and paired with the external crisis, these characters are imbued with a rich history and enough emotional baggage to bury lesser mortals. 

One of Ione's gifts is creating characters who not only fit together perfectly, but who provide each other exactly what they need to heal from their past traumas, no matter how oblivious they are to those needs. Con brings out the best in Sin, allows her to get in touch with emotions long since denied. In Sin, Con finds the one person he can care about beyond his own self interest, a woman who accepts the darker aspects of his nature and doesn't judge or shy away from it.

They start out with a sexual chemistry that burns but they are steeped in mutual dislike. Their banter and aggression drive them hard. When they start to look past those prickly surface personae and get to the core of each other and themselves, their relationship becomes truly powerful and intense and ultimately pleasurable to experience. The additional threats of Sin's assassins trying to kill her and the warg civil war add a lot of depth and layers to their journey.

Though paranormal romances are at the top of my list of favorite genres, I've been disappointed for much of this year by many books I've read, even those in some of the long-standing series that I've been a fan of for years. There's been a gem here or there, but overall, PNRs just haven't been working for me. Sin Undone worked for me. It's more than just one of those gems, it's one of the best of them. Ione had me thoroughly emotionally invested in the characters and their relationship (the fun parts, the sexy parts, and the gut wrenching parts), and practically entranced by their story.

I loved Sin Undone, and was extremely satisfied by the overall plot arc and how all the pieces came together. I did have a few minor issues with the story, though, one or two things that seemed a little convenient or a little emotionally manipulative, like Con having time to convince Luc to do something unspeakable, but not cluing him in on the outcome. It's not like the outcome wouldn't be apparent, so not telling him made no sense. I also wasn't totally enamored with the ancillary plot thread of the Feast warg. Beyond that, though, this book was totally stellar in almost every way.

I don't want to say goodbye to these characters, but I appreciate Ione for drawing the series to a conclusion that stays true to the body of work instead of dragging on and on until the fire is gone. For a final book in a series, I thought it was exceptionally well done and tied up a lot of loose ends even as it was setting up events for Ione's Lords of Deliverance series, which is set in the Demonica world and will include familiar and beloved characters from the Demonica series.

And if I'm looking forward to Eternal Rider (Lords of Deliverance) with a fevered intensity that borders mindless obsession...well...just ignore the drool.

Demonica Series (Complete):

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Demonica, Book 4
Rating: 4 Stars
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


With each book of the Demonica series I become more and more impressed with Larissa Ione. She's created an original world with complex and unique mythologies blending nearly seamlessly into a cohesive whole, ripe with dark humor, honest and erotic sexuality, and at its core, the steely strength of love - familial and mated both. What began four books ago as a paranormal romance series has developed into a smorgasbord of trials, tribulations, dangers, and true consequences, and as a reader, I'm intensely appreciative of the pleasure each book has provided. Ecstasy Unveiled was absolutely no disappointment.

Lore, the Sem demon assassin, is one kill away from freedom from his master, but it's not freedom for himself he cares about, it's his sister Sin's life - which hangs in the balance of this particular kill. Unfortunately, the target is none other than Kynan, the human whose life he restored in the previous book, and the guy who got the girl that Lore himself was interested in. Not to mention that Kynan is real tight with the three brothers Lore recently discovered and he's protected by the almost-angel, Idess, whose job it is to keep Kynan alive - at all costs - to save humanity. What's a demon assassin to do?

One of the things I like most about the Demonica Series is it really is a study in the adage "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." Truly, none of the good guys (and the not-so-good-but-mostly-well-intentioned guys) can catch a break here. Lore has to kill someone he sorta hates, sure, but he doesn't want to kill him, really, especially as he craves a family bond and connection to his brothers Eidolon, Shade, and Wraith (and they'll kill him for taking out Kynan), not to mention he's totally hot on Idess, who really wants to get into heaven and leave the earthly plane, but to do so she's got to make sure neither Kynan nor Lore get dead. And if that's not enough, the forces manipulating all this death and destruction are viciously evil and bent on the destruction of the brothers, their mates and children, and Idess...basically everyone.

Oh yeah, you definitely can't say that Ecstasy Unveiled is thin on plot. My only complaint, actually, is that in this particular book there's almost too much going on as Lore's world spins out of control and the evil undermining his brothers starts ripping everything apart. I can understand - and really liked - the initiation of the story thread for Sin's (the smurfette...*giggle*) book (due out in September 2010, so look for it!), but a werewolf epidemic on top of everything else that was going down in Ecstasy Unveiled made it just a little too chaotic for my personal tastes. I would've liked more time with Lore and Idess, seeing their relationship develop a bit more in non-life threatening or captured situations. It's a minor issue, really, but it did keep me from truly loving this book. I really really liked it though.

I do not recommend this book if you haven't read the three previous novels. This is not the sort of series where you can just pick it up here and go, or read out of order, because far too much of what goes on in these books, and the characters in them, are motivated by the relationships and events of the past novels, and there's not enough exposition to satisfactorily define the world for a neophyte. Too much impact would be lost. Also, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone not comfortable or fond of sexual situations written with explicit language and without the use of flowery euphemisms. The brothers are sex demons, after all, and there's not a whole lot held back.

Really enjoyed Ecstasy Unveiled and am very pleased that the next in the series, Sin Undone (Demonica, Book 5), will be out in September. Until then!