{"id":9408,"date":"2013-05-08T11:08:21","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T15:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=9408"},"modified":"2017-10-30T06:00:40","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T10:00:40","slug":"review-eternal-rider-lords-of-deliverance-1-demonica-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=9408","title":{"rendered":"Review: Eternal Rider (Lords of Deliverance, #1; Demonica, #6) by Larissa Ione"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy: Kindle Ebook <\/a>| Paperback<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This book is the first of the Lords of Deliverance<\/i> series, a follow on from Ione\u2019s Demonica<\/i> series, which I absolutely adored! So of course I was very eager to dive right in. I would strongly recommend you read Demonica<\/i> before you attempt this, so that you understand the world, and know the characters and all of the events that lead up to this book.<\/p>\n

I must say though, that even having read the Demonica<\/i> books first, this is still a bit of a complex read. In that series, Larissa Ione created one of the most intriguing, hard-core paranormal worlds that I have read, and it is absolutely sensational! And it all gets stepped up a bit in this book, with prophecies, supernatural bonds, good guys, bad guys, the most evil of bad guys, fallen angels, hell hounds, and links between everybody and everything that took a bit of effort to get straight. But it didn\u2019t take me too long to get my head around it all, and then I was completely swept up in the story.<\/p>\n

The series is about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Truthfully, I don\u2019t know much about the mythology around the Horsemen, but the general idea is that the Horseman (actually three men and one woman) are siblings. Each of them have a Seal, and once that Seal is broken, they turn into their evil alter-egos (Pestilence, War, Death and Famine). Once two of the Seals are broken, the others will follow and this will bring about the final battle of Armageddon.<\/p>\n

Yep, the subject matter is intense, but Ione brings her trademark snarky humour to the story, and it is sensational!<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked and there before me was a pale horse,\u201d Arik murmured. \u201cIt\u2019s rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.\u201d He stared in awe at the huge male described in Revelation. \u201cYou\u2019re Death\u201d.
\nThe dude rolled his yellow eyes. \u201cThanatos. I don\u2019t become Death unless my Seal breaks.\u201d He wheeled the horse around and muttered, \u201cFucking humans always fucking up prophecies.\u201d
\nWhat a douche. Arik was totally over his awe. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the last of the Demonica<\/i> books Sin Undone<\/a>, the first Seal was broken, and this book begins with the first Horseman, Reseph \u2013 a fun loving playboy – becoming evil and turning into Pestilence. He then goes on to terrorise mankind, and his siblings, in order to break one of their seals and start the chain reaction of doom.<\/p>\n

This book concentrates on the second Horseman, Ares (War), who is on the hunt for his Agimortus, which is the trigger to breaking his seal. It is essentially a symbol which is carried by a fallen angel. Once the carrier is killed, Ares\u2019 seal will break, so he needs to get to it before Pestilence does. But just as he tracks it down, he discovers that his Agimortus has been transferred over to a human female, Cara. Problem \u2013 the Agimortus is not meant to be carried by a human, and she will die within days if they can\u2019t find another fallen angel for her to transfer it to.<\/p>\n

So Ares, his brother Thanatos, and sister Limos, are on a mission to find a fallen angel to take on Ares\u2019 Agimortus, at the same time trying track down their evil brother who has turned into a hellish psychopath who is spreading death and disease and generally wreaking havoc in the human world, and springing attacks on them in the supernatural world. And while all this is going on, they have to protect Cara\u2019s life in order to protect Ares\u2019 Agimortus and prevent the seal from breaking.<\/p>\n

Whew! Complicated, huh? Don\u2019t let it put you off though. Although it\u2019s a lot to take in, it\u2019s fantastically written, and action packed with heaps of humour, and of course there is romance and some steamy sexy time!<\/p>\n

I loved Ares! The epitome of all warriors, he is exceedingly Alpha – tough, strong and confident, and, having suffered a horrific trauma in his past, has no time for emotion. But of course all of that changes when he takes Cara into his protection.<\/p>\n

Cara is human, but she has a supernatural ability to heal animals, as well as a special \u2018power\u2019 which runs through her body. These powers are ramped up after she has a run in with a hellhound, and becomes bonded to it, therefore dragging her right into the supernatural world that she had no idea existed. She is all alone, and seemingly very innocent, but she has a quiet strength that surprises and impresses Ares. And as the book goes on and she comes to learn about her new world, and her place in it, her confidence grows, and she becomes quite the tenacious little heroine! And of course, this appeals to our big, strong warrior who finds himself falling for her. He battles hard against it, and my heart broke for him as he tried to do what he thought was best, but in the end he can\u2019t fight the inevitable.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d fought against his feelings, but every general worth his salt knew when it was time to lay down arms and surrender. It was time. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The romance and the bond between Cara and Ares is strong, and I loved every minute of it. But the main focus of the book, for me at least, is the setting up of the overarching storyline, and the battle to prevent the breaking of the Seal and the impending Apocalypse.<\/p>\n

With a strong tie-in to Demonica<\/i>, the R-XR and the Aegis come on board to help, and Kynan, Arik and Reaver play a huge part of the story. There are also a couple of visits to Underground General and cameos from Eidolon, Shade, Wraith, Gem and Tayla, and the banter and relationships between all of the characters is awesome as always.<\/p>\n

And then it gets extra awesome when characters new and old all come together for the big, epic fight scene at the end, which had me on the edge of my seat, but still laughing at all of the banter going on (Wraith, how I love you!).<\/p>\n

\u201cHey there, Horsemen!\u201d \u2026
\nThanatos\u2019s splie lips stretched into a big grin. \u201cHades. It\u2019s about fucking time.\u201d
\nHades? <\/i>The Hades?
\n\u201cFuck off \u2026 Try negotiating with Azagoth to stop the flood of souls into Sheoul-gra so you can take a break, and see how long it takes <\/i>you\u201d.
\nWraith bent over and whispered in her ear, \u201cAzagoth is the Grim Reaper. I\u2019m kind of related to him. How cool is that?\u201d
\nKynan shoved his stang into a holster. \u201cYou\u2019re such a name-dropper.\u201d <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While all ends well, there are threads of storyline left undone to be carried over to the next book, but there is no cliffhanger, and Ares and Cara eventually get their HEA.<\/p>\n

\u201cCara, you maneuvered your way into my life . My heart. I always believed that love crippled a warrior, but I fought harder for you than I\u2019ve fought for anything else. You made me stronger. You conquered me, and now I want it all with you.<\/i>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I really loved this book! As always, it is action packed, with lots of humour. Yes, the world and all of the mythology is complex, but it is explained well, and the story unfolds beautifully. I was completely sucked back into Ione\u2019s paranormal world, and can\u2019t wait to continue on with this series.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more information about the Lords of Deliverance series – including series reading order – please check out our Demonica \/ Lords of Deliverance Series<\/a> page.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy: Kindle Ebook | Paperback Review This book is the first of the Lords of Deliverance series, a follow on from Ione\u2019s Demonica series, which I absolutely adored! So of course I was very eager […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,454,10,9,29],"tags":[87,42,395,48],"class_list":["post-9408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action","category-audio-recommendation","category-paranormal","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-demonica","tag-larissa-ione","tag-lords-of-deliverance","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Eternal-Rider.jpg?fit=150%2C240&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-2rK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}