Delighted Reader

Reaver by Larissa Ione 
Series: Lords of Deliverance, book #5 
Genres: Angels, Demons, Harpy, Paranormal Romance, Shifters, Vampires 
Published by Grand Central Publishing 
Published on December 17, 2013 
Pages: 401 
Format: eARC 
Amazon | B&N 

Oh, where to begin now that I have crashed the adrenaline rush I got from this book. Well, lets start with a few spoilers from book four, Rogue Rider, which set up the set of circumstances for the book Reaver:

• Reaver is the father of the four Horsemen, who made a horrible mistake and had his memories wiped.
• Harvester, a fallen angel, really has been working for the side of good. But don’t make the mistake that she didn’t do anything evil. She is a bad ass woman after all.
• Harvester’s dear old evil dad is Satan. Well, before he was bad he had a child and that child is Harvester.
• Not all angels are good. Well, that wasn’t totally revealed or even a secret, just wanted to point that out.

So back to the story as it starts…dear old Reaver, well he doesn’t look or act that old, is feeling a little bad about Harvester and how the powers that be want to let her rot in Hell even after she helped avert the Apocalypse and fed information to the good side. Heck, she deliberately fell from Heaven so she could be made the Horsemen’s watcher for team evil.

Reaver is still an angel after everything he has done in flaunting the rules, so why should rescuing Harvester be any different? Well, she did torture him, addict him to a drug and made him promise to have sex with her at a later date. But Reaver feels the need to do something right when good has turned their back. Slowly he is regaining his memories of a life before becoming Reaver, memories that include the woman Harvester was before she fell. On direct orders not to enter Sheoul to rescue her, Reaver does what he does best and risks all to rescue her. But this mission will cost him his wings and possibly his life…if Satan doesn’t get him first.

The one thing Harvester holds dear is her memories of a man she loved who betrayed her. She has no details of what he looks like, but she remembers the scenes that played forth. He love of him has not waned in the many years he has been gone. He just disappears and with him all of everyone’s but her memories. Resigned to a fate of torture for betraying Satan, she can’t quite grasp that Reaver has come to save her after everything she has done to him. Yeah, she was an angel once with a sweet personality, but falling and having to do evil has brought out the worst in her.

When Reaver rescues Harvester the rollercoaster is ride is on, baby! I mean I don’t think I could sit still as I read about the demons hunting them or even the two not trusting each other enough to do much more than trade venom barbs in words. The story is frantically paced, and while you hope for a happy ending, you just don’t see how that is going to happen. Ione keeps the several steps ahead of you as she throws one problem after another at these two, but in the end gives them a happily ever after…if you can get one an angel/demon world.

Let’s face it, Reaver isn’t always the most likable guy. He is full of anger and betrayal, but also full of love for his children, redemption for a past he only finds out about in this book, compassion for someone who brutalized him, but did it for all the right reasons and forgiveness. He is a very complex character who doesn’t always do the right thing, but he does the wrong things right.

Violence…this isn’t a sweet lovable, cuddly story. Violence is an every act deal in this book. Demons are a dime a dozen in Sheoul so it is nothing to just tear off their heads. The torture Harvester went through had me cringing at the brutality, but also the reality of the situation. Battles are fought dirty, angels aren’t always angelic, and war is never pretty. But while the violence is graphic, Ione spins some humor to it to lighten the impact. Nothing like cringing in pain then belly laughing at something a character said.

Harvester is not as complex as I expected. Imagine a sweet young angel who makes a promise to herself. A promise she is willing to fall from heaven to Sheoul to keep. The sweetness was beaten out of her for hundreds of years. Her ultimate goal was to care for the Horsemen and prevent an apocalypse. But to get there she had to do unspeakable acts to prove her evil. She doesn’t come out of this unscathed, nor going back to a sweet angel. Heck, even heaven won’t rescue her. So while she remembers the good, she can never go back to being totally good. She will always have an edge and that edge is what makes her such a wonderful character in this book. Hating her for four books only to turn around and love her, was a revelation.

The story cumulate into a wam bam of an ending that leaves you scratching your head wondering just how she managed to fit it all together and make sense from the madness. This isn’t for the faint of heart, but heck it was a sweet ride of adrenaline to the end.

Have you read Larissa Ione's Demonica or Lords of Deliverance series?

How do you like the blending of angel, demons and Seoul?

Is the violence over the top?

Are the love stories believable?

Tell me what you think!

Want this book? Get it!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Bookish