REVIEW: Ecstasy Unveiled by Larissa Ione

Demonica Series, Book 4
Published 2010

TBR Challenge March 2012

I did it again! For the third month in a row, I met the deadline for the TBR Challenge and chose a book for this month's theme, which is 'series catch up.' I even took it one step further and read two books from my TBR pile in order to catch up in a series in which I've fallen behind. The series is the paranormal romance Demonica series by Larissa Ione of which I was a huge fan a couple of years ago with the release of the first three books in the series. So much so that I posted about the series numerous times on my blog including reviews of the first three books Pleasure Unbound [2008], Desire Unchained [2009] and Passion Unleashed [2009]. After having finally read the fourth and fifth books of the series this month, I'm happy to know I am still a huge fan of this series. It's dark, edgy, intense, action packed, at times very amusing and of course, sexy and romantic. Ecstasy Unveiled and Sin Undone are indeed very thrilling reads and should not be missed by fans of the series or readers who love fast paced, complex paranormal worlds.

Ecstasy Unveiled is the story of Lore and Idess. Lore is a Seminus-human half-breed demon who has spent many long decades in a slave-bond as an assassin for a dark master named Detharu in order to protect his twin sister, Sin from becoming enslaved yet again. Finally, Lore is given his 100th assassination that would free him and Sin. Deth is furious with Lore for not having carried out his last assassination and in order to force Lore into carrying out this very crucial kill, he makes sure there's no way out for Lore. Lore cannot refuse this assignment and has only 96 hours to complete it. If he refuses to carry out the kill or fails to do so within the time frame, Sin will be killed. Lore will not let that happen. He will do anything to protect Sin and give her the freedom she deserves after having lived a long, lonely and torturous life. Except things get really complicated when Lore finds out who his target is. Unfortunately things get even more complicated when an angel is charged with protecting Lore's target.

Enter Idess, an earthbound angel who has been waiting her whole long and lonely life for the chance to earn her wings and be reunited with her family in Heaven, including her brother with whom she was close while they were both earthbound angels before he got his wings . Idess is on what she hopes is her last assignment, to protect a human on Earth at all costs--a human whose life has been deemed by the powers above as someone who must be kept alive since his fate on Earth is entwined with the fate of the world. This human is the very target of Lore's 100th assassination, so inevitably Lore and Idess clash as one battles to kill and the other to protect. Neither one of them can find it in them to eliminate the other and as the upper hand gets flipped back and forth between them, they soon find themselves intrigued by and attracted to each other. The more time they spend together in this complicated situation, the more they find out what makes the other one tick and the more they fall in love. 

This story is one complication piled on top of another, with several crucial subplots involving the Seminus demon brothers, their cantankerous sister Sin and new violent tendencies erupting at Underground General Hospital that are inevitably tightly intertwined with the major conflict of Lore and Idess' story. The tension builds to remarkable levels with lots of heart stopping action and personal struggles among the characters until a way out for all of them seems utterly impossible. Eventually it does, though, and Lore and Idess get the happy ending they deserve. You're just going to have to read it for yourself to find out how it all unravels.

Readers who love stories that are action packed with fight scenes, dramatic situations and intense characters will love this thrilling, sexy paranormal romance. Must not be missed by fans of the Demonica series.

GRADE: B+


Look for my review of the next book in this series, Sin Undone coming up next! And I thought I loved Ecstasy Unveiled...