Title: Eternal Rider
Author: Larissa Ione
Series: Lords of Deliverance, #1
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (Imprint of Hachette)
Date Published: March 29th, 2011
Edition: Paperback
Rating:
His name is Ares, and the fate of mankind rests on his powerful shoulders. If he falls to the forces of evil, the world falls too. As one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he is far stronger than any mortal, but even he cannot fight his destiny forever. Not when his own brother plots against him.
Yet there is one last hope. Gifted in a way other humans can’t-or won’t-understand, Cara Thornhart is the key to both this Horseman’s safety and his doom. But involving Cara will prove treacherous, even beyond the maddening, dangerous desire that seizes them the moment they meet. For staving off eternal darkness could have a staggering cost: Cara’s life.
My Review:
After mourning the loss of the Demonica series, I was really excited to hear about its upcoming spinoff series, Lords of Deliverance. Demonica is one of my favorite series so I was happy that I could dive back into the world, even if it was from a different group’s perspective.
In this series we get to meet the four horsemen (well three horsemen and one horsewoman) of the apocalypse. In the last book of Demonica, Sin Undone, we got a glimpse of one of them. I don’t remember which one though. But anyways, in this book, Ares (a.k.a. War) is struggling to keep his Seal from breaking. When all four Seals from each horsemen breaks, then Armageddon is fully under way. One of the Seals have broken (due to Sin spreading the werewolf plague) so now the other three Seals are more susceptible. Each of the horsemen have what is called an agimortus, which is a trigger for their Seal to break. In each case it’s something different. But for Ares, it’s a person.
Now I won’t get into too much of the story to prevent spoilers but after fate thrusts Ares and Cara together, their attraction and relationship grows. But, in the pattern that Larissa Ione loves most, there is something that is seemingly fatal and unavoidable that is bound to keep them apart. This can keep you on the edge of your seat wondering how they’re going to overcome the obstacles they are presented with.
Even though I liked both the hero and heroine in this novel, and even though I normally love Larissa Ione’s books, this one fell a little flat for me. I feel like I read a different book than everyone else, because it seems like I’m one of the few who wasn’t wowed by this. I think perhaps I had my hopes set too high. My main problem with the book is that it seemed to be extremely bogged down with names of characters and even objects. We would get two names for each horsemen (i.e. Ares was also War), which they were sometimes referred to as one or the other. We would also get names for items, unique places, friends/servants, enemies, etc. Each time I’d hear a name, I’d have to think about who (or what) they were talking about. It just seemed too heavy on that and made for a confusing read at times. The beginning also started off a bit slow, but it did pick up near the end for me.
What I did like though was getting a few glimpses at our old Demonica characters. That was a real treat because it’s been so long since I’ve read about them! We even get a little bit of a story about Kynan and Gem. I also liked the new characters, but I didn’t feel they were as well developed as the Demonica characters were. I find myself not really attached to any of them (even Ares and Cara) at this point. I hope that will change as the books push forward though.
Overall, I just wasn’t impressed by this series starter. I was expecting much more, and perhaps therein lies the problem. I could have just had my expectations set too high. But, I am still happy to be back in the Demonica world and I hope that the upcoming books will prove more entertaining.
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