31 Total Reads in 2013

WOAH! What a year. My number might be low, but this year packed one hell of a punch with some awesome reads.

Next year, my plans are to switch things up a bit. Can you believe I've never read a book before it was made into a movie before? Nope, not even the Harry Potter series. So the banner for the Divergent looked good, so yes, that'll be the one. And it's a YA, so it's a one-bird/two-stones kind of thing.

I'm also going to, wait for it, ...give a go at some reads that fall nowhere near the Romance genre. Gasp, right?

The New Goal: 10 Books from my TBR pile... that have been collecting dust for years.

So those be the plans. And these be the numbers:

24 Paranormal | 4 Contemporary | 2 SciFi | 1 Fantasy

Reads of 2013

Cold Sight: Extrasensory Agents #1

Available at Amazon.com

Cold Sight
Leslie Parrish
Extrasensory Agents, book one
ebook, 359 pages
Published July 6th 2010 by Signet Eclipse

After being made a scapegoat in a botched investigation that led to a child's death, Aidan McConnell became a recluse. Still, as a favor to an old friend, Aidan will help on the occasional XI case. But under his handsome, rugged facade, he keeps his emotions in check--for fear of being burned again.

Reporter Lexie Nolan has a nose for news--and she believes a serial killer has been targeting teen girls around Savannah. But no one believes her. So she turns to the new paranormal detective agency and the sexy, mysterious Aidan for help.

But just as the two begin forging a relationship, the case turns eerily personal for Lexie--and Aidan discovers that maybe he hasn't lost the ability to feel after all.

Despite all of his success using his psychic abilities to find lost persons, one wrong move, resulting in a young boy's lost life, has cost Aidan everything. Oh, he'll help out every now and then. Anonymously. But even his friends can't manage to pull him back, until reporter Lexie Nolan gets a second chance at salvaging her reputation, and seeks out Aidan in a desperate attempt to find the missing girls only a select few even believe are actually missing.

I tried to finish this book in one sweep, but then it happened- Reaver arrived- and Cold Sight was put on the back burner. It's quite telling when one could actually walk away from a book without looking back. But it's not all CS's fault. Reaver is awesomeness!

I was, to an extent, enthralled by Aidan and Lexie's chemistry. However, getting sidetracked into the mind of the killer put a big damper on things. Strange, because I usually like that little detail, but in this case, the killer was way too boring.

3 out of 5 stars.

Reaver: Lords of Deliverance #5

"We’re the most fucked-up, star-crossed lovers in history."

Available at Amazon.com

Reaver
Larissa Ione
Lords of Deliverance, book five
ebook, 416 pages
Published December 17th 2013 by Grand Central Publishing
ISBN 781455526963

WARRIOR OF HEAVEN

Reaver is an angel with a past, a record, and a less-than-heavenly attitude. Powerful enough to fight alongside the fiercest battle angels-and crazy enough to risk his wings on a one-way mission to hell-he's agreed to go where no angel has ever gone before...to steal the most seductive and dangerous prize of Satan himself.

ANGEL OF HELL

Harvester is one of the Fallen, a once-heroic angel who sacrificed her wings to work as an undercover agent in hell. But now her cover has been blown, and she's been doomed to an eternity of agonizing torture. Even if Reaver can snatch her away from Satan's lair, even if they can fight their way out of the underworld's darkest depths, there is one thing Harvester can never escape-her newfound thirst for an angel's blood.

:: This post contains SPOILERS ::

As we mindblowingly established in the last book, Reaver was once Yenrieth, the angel who fathered the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Here, we find that Harvester was once Virienne, the angel daughter of Satan (conceived before he fell) who once loved Yenrieth to the point of devastation.

Harvester chose to fall from Heaven and become a spy knowing full well that should she ever be discovered, no one would save her. But when Reaver learns the truth of her actions, and of the protection she's spent centuries bestowing upon his children, he risks his wings and very life to go after her. It should be noted that Reaver has no memory of ever being Yenrieth, and Harvester has no idea that they are one in the same, having his image completely wiped from her memory.

 "I remember me. And you. I remember us."

As the two flee Hell, the pasts of Yenrieth and Virienne come flowing. Yenrieth was an ass. Virienne was a weak, besotted fool. And they were the best of friends, until they ultimately betrayed one another. Now, Harvester and Reaver are left to answer for the actions of their former selves and fight for the chance to actually be together in the face of Lucifer's upcoming rebirth and Raphael's twisted sense of right.

• “Why did you kiss me back at the cavern?”
  Too flustered to form a clever response, she said simply, “To annoy you.”
  He laughed, a hearty, soul-deep sound. “You do that a lot. You always have.”
  Always have? He made it sound like they’d known each other for centuries.
  “Did it work?”
  “Oh, yeah.” He shifted, lifting his hips, and the motion put his erection fully against her sex as she straddled him. “It annoyed me. It would annoy me if you did it again.”

Once free, Harvester is rewarded back her wings, just as Reaver's are cut from him and he is once more an Unfallen. Until, that is, it's revealed that Reaver is a Radiant, the strongest of all angels. His wings are returned, now golden and Harvester is once again assigned as the Four Horsemen's Watcher, albeit for the side of Heaven now. And Revenant, the hero of the next installment, is placed as the Watcher for Hell. And, btw, Revenant is Reaver's twin brother.

He loved that her shiny new halo hadn’t crushed her horns.

5 out of 5 stars.

Previously in the series:

Riding the Storm: Acro #1

"I care, because if Dev has you, no one else has a shot."

Available at Amazon.com

Riding the Storm
Sydney Croft (aka: Larissa Ione and Stephanie Tyler)  
ACRO, book one
ebook, 281 pages  
Published August 28th 2007 by Delta (first published January 1st 2007) ISBN 9780385340809

A storm’s rage. A woman’s desire.

A man with the power to set them both free.

He can summon lightning at will. Emerge unscathed from the center of a tornado. Strip a woman down to her barest defenses through the sheer force of his sexuality. He’s gorgeous, dangerous, and the target of parameteorologist Haley Holmes’s latest mission.

Haley has been dispatched to the Louisiana bayous to investigate the phenomenon known as Remy Begnaud–a man with a gift he never wanted: the ability to control a storm’s fury. But even a woman trained in bizarre weather phenomena has no defense against the electrifying power of the ex-Navy SEAL...a power his enemies would kill to control. With her agency monitoring their every move, Haley’s job is to seduce Remy, gain his trust–and help him harness his extraordinary gift.

But who will protect her from this voracious lover who’s introducing her to a new world of erotic thrills—a man who grows increasingly insatiable with each new weather event? Haley knows a big storm is approaching—and with it will come unexpected delights. But so, too, will the storm unleash her greatest fears: an enemy bent on destroying Remy. And her worst fear of all—falling in love with this magnificent man, then having to betray him.

Read just ten percent of this book and you'll never see storms in the same light again.

Remy, or T-Remy as they call him in his neck of the woods, needs a woman who can handle him in bed.

And just like Remy needs a certain type of woman... their story needs a certain type of reader. Waaaayyy too much smut going on, as ironic as that may sound. I think I filled my quota for the next year.

Honestly, the main story was nothing but a fuck-ton of sex scenes and I found myself more drawn to the back story, if it can even be called that, of Annika and Creed. The two ACRO agents have been sent by Dev to do some investigating in his childhood home where a pissed off ghost still abides. The two can't stand eachother because, basically, they tempt one another far too much. But while Creed is ready and eager to go one on one with Annika's heart and body, Annika still hides behind the guise of being Dev's woman. Until--she discovers Creed is the one man with an immunity to her powers.

3 out of 5 stars. And wtf? Creed and Annika don't even get their own installment? Just a novella in the The Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance. Grr.

Pieces of You

Available on Amazon.com

Pieces of You
Mary Campisi
Kindle Edition, 163 pages
Published June 22, 2011
ISBN 2940012804112

Quinn Burnes's mother disappeared when he was only fifteen leaving him with a despondent father, a little sister who suffers panic attacks, and eight notebooks containing the truth about his mother. He guards this secret for eighteen years, until on an otherwise normal day, his mother re-enters his life, pleading for his help. She's in danger and the only thing that can save her is reclaiming the identity she shunned years ago.

Quinn is a master of emotional detachment, from his successful career as a personal injury attorney to his strings of meaningless relationships with beautiful women who possess uneasy temperaments; a sure formula to keep his heart safe and insure he's the first to walk away. Until he meets the mysterious 'Danielle' a woman with too many secrets who's on the run from the abusive, estranged husband she shot and may have killed. Danielle isn't like any woman he's ever met, but can he risk his heart for someone who's doing exactly what his mother did eighteen years ago? Someone who may ultimately leave him, just like his mother?

Quinn Burnes is all kinds of screwed up.

When Quinn was 15 years old his mother disappeared, leaving himself, his sister, and their father behind. Many feared foul play had taken her away but Quinn came to learn the truth when he discovered his mother's diaries. She hated her life.

Now, a success of an attorney and a cynical jerk, Quinn surrounds himself with people he doesn't stand a chance of getting attached to. Meanwhile, his little sister, Annie, has issues of her own-suffering panic attacks whenever Quinn or her fiance, Michael, are ever late or miss a call. But Annie doesn't know the truth of her mother's departure from her life and Quinn will do whatever it takes to spare her the pain of it.

Enter Danielle. Or, that's what she's calling herself now that she's on the run from an abusive husband--whom she murdered. Maybe.

So yes- twists, lies, cliches, and stereotypes construct this story well. I honestly think Campisi was aiming to spark a bit of hatred for each and every character involved. Obviously, the mother. But it was Quinn who kept my right hand itching to whack him upside the head with a blender. The guy could be such an ass.

3 out of 5 stars.

Chained: Brides of the Kindred #9

"And you... you're in my dreams."

Available on Amazon.com

Chained
Evangeline Anderson
Brides of the Kindred, book nine
ebook
Published November 29th 2013 by Evangeline Anderson
ISBN 9781310975165

Maggie Jordan is not supposed to be having adventures. Her mission is to go to Gaia, a new, unpopulated world, and study the native life forms there. So how come she finds herself in on the female dominated Yonnie Six instead, rescuing a huge, muscular prisoner? The same prisoner she keeps seeing over and over again in her dreams…

Korexiroth—or Kor, as Maggie dubs him, is a slave who spent his life fighting in the savage arenas of the Blood Circuit. He’s got plenty of kills under his belt and more than enough reasons to run as soon as he gets free. But somehow he can’t make himself part from the girl who was brave enough to save him from certain death.

Now Maggie and Kor are on the run together, trying desperately to find someone to remove the alien device that was implanted in Maggie as punishment for her thievery of an expensive slave. The device, or “slut button” as it is called, forces Maggie to sexual excesses the shy scientist has never known before—and Kor is the only one who can help her control her new urges.

Kor is more than willing to help Maggie satisfy her new sexual hunger but his own appetites are not so easily satiated. For there is a dark secret, a shadow from his past that stalks him and whispers of power beyond belief if only he will give himself over to darkness.

Will they find a way to return Maggie to normal? Will Kor admit how he really feels for her? Or with the shadow from his past succeed is tearing them apart?

It happened AGAIN. These darn Kindred books keep sneaking up on me. I had this one on the 2014 release shelf, but no... here it is, released November 29, 2013. Warning: This post contains major spoilers!

Kor, whose rightful name is Therron, has lived most of his life as a slave in the Blood Market, fighting, and fucking, according to his master's pleasure and greed. When he ends up sold to Lady Pope'nose, the sadistic male-hating, slave abuser from book seven, his sole focus is to survive without submitting.

And there, he begins to Dreamshare.

Maggie is an accident prone, science-loving, all-screwed-up-when-it-comes-to-men kind of female. She's been engaged for years to a man who's work obsessed, dislikes kissing, and whose manhood Maggie has come to see as a limp, little worm afraid to come out of his whole. When her paths cross with Kor as he's being paraded in his cell as a prize by Pope'nose, she risks her mission to collect the Kindred scrolls and sets him free.

And suddenly, Kor finds the single most beautiful, gentle thing his world has ever known. Her innocence and compassion, coupled with the dreams of her, leave Kor vowing to never let Maggie go.

They escape, as the situation presents itself, to a spa off world that is owned by beings who feed off of strong emotion-mostly pleasure. In playing the part of Pope'nose, Maggie is forced from her inhibitions and strangled by guilt from her disloyalty to her fiance. To save her, and to spare her, Kor mutilates himself and when an attack leaves Maggie disoriented and afraid, it's not Kor she cries out for, but Donald, and a bitter dose of reality hits Kor hard.

They part and Kor goes off on a quest for answers as to who is and why his eyes glow red and fire laser beams. Meanwhile, Maggie is captured by a vengeful Pope'nose, put into stasis for six months, and implanted with a living creature that forces sexual needs upon Maggie that she cannot escape.

Once more, the dreams set them free. Kor finds her, buys her, and goes on to fulfill her needs as they rise.  Much to Maggie's shame and embarrassment. Their relationship is rather reminiscent of book seven wherein the man is forced to constantly comfort and reason out everything in order to do that. Where everything is not about want, but necessity.

Meanwhile, there is a supporting back story between a woman and Twin Kindred that leaves me fearful I will once again have to skip, or quickly skim, through the next book. *pout* I'm just not into threesomes.

4 out of 5 stars.

Book ten, Divided, is due out in 2014 (likely February). Two more are expected to follow.

Previously in the series:

Bound by Night: MoonBound Clan Vampires #1

Available on Amazon.com

Bound by Night
Larissa Ione
MoonBound Clan Vampires, book one
ebook, 400 pages
Published September 24th 2013 by Pocket Books
ISBN 9781476700199

A WOMAN OUT FOR BLOOD

Nicole Martin was only eight years old when the vampire slaves rose up in rebellion and killed her family. Now she devotes her life to finding a vaccine against vampirism, hoping to wipe out her memories—along with every bloodsucker on the planet. But there’s one thing she cannot destroy: her searing, undeniable attraction for the one man she should hate and fear the most...

A VAMPIRE OUT FOR REVENGE

A member of the renegade vampire MoonBound Clan, Riker is haunted by demons of his own. When he recognizes Nicole and remembers how her family enslaved his loved ones, his heart burns for vengeance. But when he kidnaps Nicole and holds her in a secret lair, his mortal enemy becomes his soul obsession, his greatest temptation, and, perhaps, his only salvation—a hot-blooded lover who could heal him with her touch... or bury him forever.

Eighty years ago, the existence of vampires was revealed.

Sixty years ago, the enslavement of the vampire race began.

Twenty years ago, the rebellion started.

When the midwife of the ShadowSpawn clan gets herself captured by humans while returning from the MoonBound clan's land, the ShadowSpawn hold MoonBound responsible, promising all out war if she is not returned to them. Riker, second in command to Hunter, knows they haven't the numbers to win. He offers up a plan: Capture and force Nicole Martin, CEO of Daedalus (the very company responsible for the continued enslavement of vampires) to release her.

But Nicole and Riker have a shared past of their own. One obscured by illusions and lies. Twenty years ago, Nicole watched as Riker held a knife to the throat of his mate, Terese, who served as a nanny to Nicole's family. Watched as Terese's life ended and everything Riker had was torn away from him. Riker blames Nicole and her entire family for the enslavement of his people and the death of his mate and their unborn son while Nicole lives in hatred towards Riker for taking away the only person that ever truly loved her.

It is only when the two become one another's sole chance of survival that the truth of that night is revealed and both begin to realize that neither of them are the monsters they once believed each other to be. Nicole sets out to make things right, confronted by the horrible actions of the company she is responsible for, and earns the trust of many of the MoonBound clan members. Such includes Grant, their clan scientist and necessary doctor who's not all there in the head; Lucy, a childlike female vampire with a love of chocolate; and Myne, Riker's closest friend save for Hunter, the clan's fearless, video game addicted leader. (Fuck you, Spyro!)

Hunter and Myne are all that's left of the true born vampires.

Riker was turned by his own military as an experiment to produce the perfect soldier. He was mated to Terese, a mild mannered, fragile female vamp as a strategic move among the clans by Hunter. He grew to love her and blames himself terribly for failing her. Since her death, he has never taken another female to his bed.

Cat-like vampires do nothing for me. Thankfully, these sexy bitches are nothing but wolf! There's no bat references. No hissing like crack addicted cats. They don't fly. They don't leap buildings. But what they do... is kick some serious ass, rip out fuck tons of throats, and spill enemy blood like nobody's business.

They also don't feed like newborn babes.

They can mate without feeding. That alone has some serious anti-stereotype factor. And I ate up every single bit of it! I can't remember the last time I had to have my husband physically take a book out of my hand to enable me to stop reading but at two a.m. it had to happen with this one. Oh yes, Ione's worlds have a gravitational pull all their own.

::SPOILERS BELOW::

When failure once more falls upon Riker, he surrenders himself to the -- clan, leaving behind his newly discovered, very much alive son (though not his by blood) and also Nicole, who is finally succumbing to the vampire virus.

Nicole survived a vampire attack when the slave's rebelled, and although she was injected with what should have been a vaccine to vampirism, she was forced to let Riker attempt to turn her when her half-brother, Chuck, held them both hostage and demanded Riker turn her as what amounted to a science experiment.

During Riker's imprisonment, he is shown mercy only by Ailyn, the youngest of the twin daughters of the ShadowSpawn's chief, Kars. She's been deemed unfit for mating, and fighting, while her vicious elder sister, Rasha, is considered a prize of a female.  In the end, to save Nicole, Riker, and their unborn child, Hunter vows to give Kars what he's wanted for years-Hunter agrees to mate his daughter. Obviously, Rasha. 

But Hunter is cursed. And so, he summons the demon whom his grandfather bargained with to be released from the curse of having to give over the firstborn child of he and his mate. The Demon, Sam -yes, Sam- gives him an out although warns him that he'll die in the end. Hunter must take one of the twins with him on a quest. Obviously, he should, and will, choose Ailyn. 

Loved it! Loved every damn minute of it... even though I have to wait nine freaking months to continue it!! 5 out of 5 stars.

Chained by Night, book two, is due out August 2014.

First Sentence Friday

This excerpt comes from Bound by Night by Larissa Ione.


"Go fuck yourself."
    Hunter, MoonBound clan's leader, leaned back in his chair and gave Riker an expectant look. "Go fuck yourself..." He made a come on gesture with his fingers. "Finish the sentence."
    Riker rolled his eyes. "Go fuck yourself... sir."

A WOMAN OUT FOR BLOOD...
A VAMPIRE OUT FOR REVENGE...

Nicole Martin was only eight years old when the vampire slaves rose up in rebellion and killed her family. Now she devotes her life to finding a vaccine against vampirism, hoping to wipe out her memories—along with every bloodsucker on the planet. But there’s one thing she cannot destroy: her searing, undeniable attraction for the one man she should hate and fear the most . . .

A member of the renegade vampire MoonBound Clan, Riker is haunted by demons of his own. When he recognizes Nicole and remembers how her family enslaved his loved ones, his heart burns for vengeance. But when he kidnaps Nicole and holds her in a secret lair, his mortal enemy becomes his soul obsession, his greatest temptation, and, perhaps, his only salvation—a hot-blooded lover who could heal him with her touch . . . or bury him forever.

Ablaze

Ablaze
Dahlia Rose
ebook, 50 pages
Published April 9th 2012 by Sugar And Spice Press

Hailey knew the consequences of her actions. Heaven would cry for what she was about to do, but her charge was to be kept safe at all cost. Her glory, her immortality, was no question. She was an angel, and the boy she protected was to be a leader of men, a peacemaker like no other. While heaven would protect him, hell wanted him dead. They sent their best, Pennemuel, a demon enforcer, and what he wanted more than anything was her. Hailey gave herself to him, willing to stop a war between heaven and hell, to protect the boy she now loved more than anything. She carried a secret, one that only few knew. In the taking of her body, Penn would become hers as well, tethered by love. He would be her strongest ally in the fight that was to come.

She looked like she was made of bronze, and her glow actually made his eyes hurt. Pennemuel thought he would be the toast of all his peers by taking an angel and could see himself climbing to the highest level in the demon realm. He didn't know by sleeping with her, love would be the punishment. When the fist affects of it punched his heart like a fist, he regretted his actions. He was not meant for love or redemption, yet when Hailey looked at him, he was lost and would do anything to protect her. With hell nipping at their heels, they fought side by side to protect the boy she loved. All the while, he tried to decipher his new feelings and actually try his hand at romance.

Together they were united in a common good, yet for the first time in his existence, he couldn't see his future. She kissed him, and in her arms he felt alive, almost whole. Could a demon in love find his place in the world, in the embrace of an angel, or would his sins damn them both?

After Rogue Rider, I went hunting. Because, seriously, who could get enough of Larissa Ione? And did I ever find! She has a new vampire book out, the first of a new series. She *also* co-wrote an entire series, ACRO, with Stephanie Tyler (author of the Shadow Force series, which I loved!) under the name Sydney Croft. They date back to 2007, and yes, I so snatched up book one: Riding the Storm.

But those will wait.

I also have Boone Brux's third book of the Bringer and The Bane series on hold. Right now, I need some more demons and angels.

To protect her charge, Hailey offers up her body to the demon, Pennemuel, in trade for his aid in keeping the boy safe. Penn has no trouble at all accepting her offer. He delights in the thought of not only screwing her of her innocence, but bringing about her fall from heaven. What he doesn't expect is losing his own soul in the process, and that of his heart. 

Now a traitor to Hell, Penn takes Hailey and Sam on the run. Allthewhile, Hailey shuts him off. Won't look at him. Except to scowl. Won't touch him. Unless absolutely necessary. Her only care is for the boy she believes has the power to change the world. And Penn can't bear to leave her. 

This definitely satisfied my craving. A tad over the top but pleasant nonetheless and easily comes together with a happily ever after ending. 3 out of 5 stars. 

Shadow Dreams

Shadow Dreams
Evangeline Anderson
Kindle Edition, 95 pages
Published September 30th 2013 by Evangeline Anderson (first published 2004)

A lonely divorced girl gets a new pet to keep her company. But is Shadow more than he seems?

Once there was a boy of the Bitterwater Clan of the Din'e, the Navajo People. He lived with his ma'sani, his grandmother, in the Four Corners in the Navajo Nation on a reservation...

So begins the story of James Redtree, a Navajo man who is transformed into a dog by his grandmother's curse.


Doomed too wander the world as a dog until he finds a woman to love and belive in him, James ends up as Shadow, a huge, mixed breed mutt that looks like a wolf crossed with a pony. From there it's a short trip to the local Animal Shelter where he's scheduled to be euthanized.

Enter Angelina Dean, Jelly to her two best friends, who convince her that getting a dog for protection and companionship is the best thing to do. She's alone in the big old house her grandmother left her since her husband of three years ran off with his personal trainer, Justin.

Having never been a "dog person," Angelina is reluctant to take on such a big animal but Shadow's sweet disposition wins her over. She takes him home and weird things start happening.

Angelina can't figure out what's going on. Who ever heard of a dog that prefers salad to gourmet dog food? Or one who changes the station from Animal Planet to ESPN when she's out of the room?

But what really disturbs her is the strange, recurring dream she keeps having. Who is the muscular Native American man who keeps appearing in her bed and why are the dreams so vivid? She is plagued by the idea that her dreams are somehow tied to her new pet, Shadow, but that isn't possible...is it?

Then, on the last night of the full moon, her dream man says something that haunts Angelina. "This is my last chance," he tells her. "I need you to believe in me." But can the practical Angelina do as he asks before it's too late?

I do love stories involving writers...

This is an oldie of Anderson's, recently re-released due to demand. I can't say the premise did much for me, or how James went about his goal to get Angelina to believe in him but the smut, as always, made up for what I felt was lacking. FYI: Angelina, on her own, is a disaster.

3 out of 5 stars.

Rogue Rider: Lords of Deliverance #4

"I'm five thousand years old... 

But the day you found me in the woods, that's when my life started."

Rogue Rider
Larissa Ione
Lords of Deliverance, book four
ebook, 380 pages
Published November 20th 2012 by Piatkus
ISBN 9780749955571

They're here.

They ride.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Born of a match between good and evil, four siblings stand between hell's minions and everything they want to destroy. They are the Lords of Deliverance, and they have the power to ward off Doomsday... or let it ride...

The prophecies were there but no one listened. Until now.

Jillian Cardiff came to this remote mountain town to forget the demon attack that almost killed her. Instead, she rescues - and falls for - a gorgeous stranger who has no memory of anything other than his name. Handsome, charming and protective, Reseph seems like the kind of man that Jillian can trust. But with hints of a troubling history of his own, he's also the kind of man that can be very dangerous...

Reseph may not know his background, or why he mysteriously appeared in Jillian's life, but he knows he wants to stay. Yet when Jillian's neighbours are killed and demon hunters arrive on the scene, Reseph fears that he's putting Jillian in danger. And once it's revealed that Reseph is also Pestilence, the Horseman responsible for ravaging the world with death and destruction, he and Jillian must face the greatest challenge of all: can they forget the horrors of a chilling past to save the future they both desire?

I knew this book was going to be good (despite the amnesia that the story opens upon) but my level of focus, or lack thereof, being what it is lately I chose to put it off lest I fail to savor the epic goodness inside. 

Then my last read happened, and I desperately needed something to put the fire back in my fantasies. Enter the Lords of Deliverance. 

Oh Reseph. The best of them. Now, alone, naked in a snow laden forest with no memory of ever being Pestilence, the Horsemen whose seal had broken. Saved by his siblings in the last book, Reseph knows only his name now. And that he doesn't like being alone. 

When Jillian, survivor of a demon attack, finds him face down in the middle of the forest with an impending blizzard on the rise, she loads him up on her horse's sled and drags him home. And kudos to Jillian. This girl's a keeper.

Despite the loss of Reseph's memory, the core of him remains. His instincts, and the familiar, are all at the forefront of his consciousness. Computers are familiar. Condoms, not so much. Love? First time falling for this warrior.

So many good things happen in this book. Limos gets pregnant. Yays for Arik! And Reaver finds out he's a father. Oh yeah! And not just *any* father, no- he's the father of the Four fucking Horsemen! Reaver *is* Yenrieth.

And Reseph murders their mother. yeah...

Reaver and Harvester go beyond the definition of fascinating for me. Betrayed by Harvester, a Fallen Angel and co-Watcher of the Horsemen, Reaver has been tortured violently, his wings cut from him, and has been left for months to be slowly digested over and over again in the belly of one of Hell's creatures. But Harvester, despite her many many sins to the contrary, is not all bad. Unfortunately (Or fortunately?), she plays by her own rules. For very good reasons. She loves the Horsemen. Has been watching over them since their births. And even saved Than's life when he was a child.

Anway-- She cons Reaver, offering his freedom, for the location of Reseph to which he refuses to trade. So she offers up another bargain: Reaver goes free if, at a time of her choosing, he must submit to her for the sole purpose of sexual pleasure for a full 24 hours. Original? No. Deviously wonderful? Yes! Although appalled (and I honestly couldn't fathom why) Reaver agrees and the deal is sealed with a kiss. One that Reaver is flabbergasted at having enjoyed.

I am so stoked that these two get their own book--due out December 17th! Reaver being the daddy was just the icing on the molten chocolate cake. Finding out Harvester has been a spy for Heaven ALL ALONG, oh yeah!

I could have easily gone without the smut in this book if only to stay right there in the heat of Reaver and Harvester's spats. By the end of this installment both R&H have been removed as the Horsemen's Watchers. Harvester is being tortured by Satan, --her father!--, and Reaver has said fuck it all and is on his way to save their Fallen ally.

Reseph's battle against Pestilence is over in a blink. Which didn't affect me at all. I was turning pages for Reaver alone.

5 out of 5 glorious stars!

Previously in the series: